It did so after responding to protests following the police killing of George Floyd.
Welcome to Wednesday, Sept. 7. Pleasant weather again today — mostly clear with the exception of some isolated showers and storms in the Arrowhead region. Lows will be in the mid-50s.
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| State Patrol coming to guard the 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis march in front of burning buildings on May 29, 2020. | Liam James Doyle for MPR News 2020 |
| State Patrol says it deleted emails and texts |
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By Mark Zdechlik
In a recent court proceeding, the Minnesota State Patrol acknowledged that it deleted emails and texts after it responded to demonstrations following the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020.
Journalists contend law enforcement injured them as officers and troopers responded with rubber bullets and other nonlethal attempts at crowd control.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota says its effort to get a court order barring the Minnesota State Patrol from targeting journalists should be strengthened by this development. It currently has a temporary restraining order.
“The court will often — when evidence is destroyed, destroyed in this matter — they will often impute a negative inference saying that it’s likely that there was harmful evidence in the things that were destroyed. And so we’re asking the court to do that here,” said Teresa Nelson, the legal director at ACLU of Minnesota.
“It really is deeply disturbing to us that the State Patrol would do this and purge records that are going to give us a fuller picture of what happened during the George Floyd protests,” Nelson said.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety issued a statement saying the State Patrol follows all data retention requirements.
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| The U of M has been developing a perennial grain called Kernza for years. The seed is now available and farmers are growing it commercially. | Courtesy Carmen Fernholz |
Perennial crops can help reduce the environmental impact of agriculture, and they fit well with the regenerative agriculture movement that focuses on soil health. Kernza is one such crop — the first of 16 perennial crops being developed at the U of M as part of the effort to make Minnesota farms more environmentally friendly.
The largest crop yet of Kernza was recently harvested. Research shows Kernza improves water quality by reducing fertilizer pollution of water, and it can efficiently store carbon in the soil, helping reduce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. It also requires less fertilizer and pesticide than many traditional crops.
Dan Gunderson has the story.
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Ballot battles: After a judge struck down ballot language Tuesday aiming to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new agency, the City Council passed new language for the proposed charter amendment on a 12-1 vote . The revised ballot language — with a four-sentence long explanatory note — was submitted to Hennepin County and the Secretary of State’s Office minutes before the 3 p.m. deadline.
Gazelka 2022: Former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka will announce he’s running for governor Wednesday morning in St. Paul.
Bus help wanted: Across the state, school districts are struggling to find bus drivers. In Minneapolis, officials are offering $3,000 hiring bonuses but are still short on drivers. The Stillwater district is suing its transportation company. And St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Joe Gothard said a bus contractor dropped 40 routes in the last week, prompting the district to scramble for transportation.
A quieter fair : The Minnesota State Fair wrapped up its 12-day run with total attendance of about 1.3 million, well below usual numbers as the delta variant kept many fairgoers away. Final attendance was about 60 percent of 2019's record attendance of 2.1 million.
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