Attorney General Keith Ellison is taking over the prosecution of former Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter for the April 11 shooting death of Daunte Wright. The prior prosecutor, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput, charged Potter with second-degree manslaughter in the death. Some activists and Wright family members are hoping Ellison will add a murder charge. [Read more]
But: Despite Ellison's success in securing a conviction of Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, legal experts say it could be more difficult to make a murder charge stick in the Potter case. [Read more from KSTP's Alex Jokich]
A federal judge is investigating leaks from the grand jury that ultimately filed civil rights charges against Chauvin and three other former police officers over Floyd's death. The Star Tribune and New York Times both reported that these charges were pending before they were actually filed — with an apparent plan to arrest Chauvin on the charges at the courthouse, had he been acquitted. Grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret. Right now the judge is leaning on the U.S. Attorney's office as suspected leakers, rather than on the journalists who reported the proceedings based on anonymous sources. [ Read more from the Star Tribune's Rochelle Olson]
U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough returned to his home state of Minnesota this week, touting the VA's efforts to vaccinate veterans against COVID-19, and new initiatives to care for female veterans. [Read more from Kirsti Marohn]
Rep. Pete Stauber recently sent his supporters an email appeal, asking, "Wouldn't it be amazing if President Trump returned to Minnesota for one of his very first rallies?" That's a reference to the ex-president planning a new spate of rallies this summer. The only complicating factor? Trump's promise last year, "I lose Minnesota, I’m never coming back, I don’t care. I’m never coming back!" (Of course, this is the kind of "promise" that no one seriously expects a politician to hold to.)
President Joe Biden, who resisted calls from many progressives to condemn Israel's campaign in Gaza, is crediting "quiet diplomacy" for securing a cease fire after 11 days of fighting. [Read more from NPR's Scott Detrow]
Republicans lost control of the U.S. House in 2018, the presidency in 2020, and the Senate in 2021. But there's no big efforts to change up GOP's direction. Perry Bacon Jr. breaks down the reasons why, of which the first is the most important: the party's core activists don't want to. [Read more from FiveThirtyEight's Perry Bacon Jr.]
Another Biden initiative, an attempt to secure international agreement for a 15 percent minimum corporate tax rate, got some support Friday when France and Germany expressed support. But countries that have used low corporate taxes to attract businesses, like Ireland, are resistant. [Read more from the Wall Street Journal's Paul Hannon and Richard Rubin]
Is the COVID-19 unemployment subsidy contributing to the current staffing crisis many industries are experiencing? A new study from the San Francisco Federal Reserve estimates that the current $300 weekly supplement is having a real but small effect at keeping some people from accepting jobs they'd otherwise take. "One straightforward way to think about [it] is that each month in early 2021, about seven out of 28 unemployed individuals receive job offers that they would normally accept, but one of the seven decides to decline the offer due to the availability of the extra $300 per week in UI payments." [ Read more from Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau and Robert G. Valletta]
Something completely different: We all take grocery stores for granted, but propping them up is a dizzying amount of logistics required to keep thousands upon thousands of items in stock (but not overstocked). YouTuber Sam Denby breaks down how it all works. [Watch]
Listen: Animator Hiyao Miyazaki's masterpieces are often enhanced through his close partnership with composer Joe Hisaishi, as tight and productive a partnership as John Williams' with Steven Spielberg. And my favorite track of Hisaishi's may be this sparse, contemplative piano interlude from Miyazaki's "Spirited Away." [Listen]
