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MINNESOTA-PUBLIC DEFENDERS

Minnesota public defenders may strike over workloads and pay

Associated Press (AP) — Public defenders are poised to go on strike as early as Tuesday across Minnesota over workloads and pay. Unionized attorneys say they’ve been pushed to the brink by routinely high caseloads that have become unmanageable amid the coronavirus pandemic. A strike could bring much of Minnesota’s state court system to a standstill if it persists. Legal system observers say the same pressures are being felt across the country – and it’s the poorest defendants who get hurt, mostly people of color. Negotiators are scheduled to sit down with a state mediator starting Friday in hopes of averting a strike.

MINNESOTA-BUDGET

New Walz plan for surplus includes bigger tax rebate checks

NEW HOPE, Minn. (AP) — Gov. Tim Walz has released an updated plan for how to spend the state’s enormous budget surplus, including a proposal for income tax rebate checks of $1,000 per couple. His revised supplemental budget proposal, released Thursday, follows last month’s announcement that the state’s budget surplus has grown to $9.25 billion. It formalizes an idea he floated then for tax rebate checks of $500 for single filers and $1,000 for married couples. Senate Republicans are pushing to use most of the surplus for permanent income tax cuts, while House Democrats want to target the money toward lower-income Minnesotans and social programs.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR-US CITIZEN KILLED

American among civilians killed in Russian attack in Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — An American man was killed in a Russian attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, where he was seeking medical treatment for his partner. The death of Jim Hill, of Diggs, Idaho, was reported Thursday by his sister. In a post on Facebook, she said he was waiting in a bread line with several other people when they were gunned down by Russian military snipers. Ukrainian officials reported that 10 people were killed Wednesday in Chernihiv while standing in the bread line. Chernihiv police and the U.S. State Department confirmed the death of an American but did not identify him. Hill was at least the second U.S. citizen to be killed in the conflict

LEGISLATURE-BAKK

Bakk to depart Legislature after nearly 30 years

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Sen. Tom Bakk will retire at the end of the year, drawing a curtain on a political career that saw him become one of Democrats’ most powerful lawmakers before he eventually left the party. Bakk announced Thursday he wouldn’t seek re-election, calling his time representing northern Minnesota at the Capitol “one of the greatest rewards of my life.” Bakk, 67, of Cook, has been in the Legislature nearly 30 years, beginning with his election to the House in 1994. He led the House Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus for nearly a decade and ran for governor as a Democrat in 2010. But Bakk left the party in 2020, joining fellow DFL Sen. David Tomassoni of Chisholm in becoming independents who caucused with the Republicans in the majority.

GEORGE FLOYD-PROTESTS-SETTLEMENT

$2.4M to be paid to man shot in eye during Floyd protests

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minneapolis man who lost an eye when he was hit by a projectile fired by police during protests that followed George Floyd’s killing will get a $2.4 million settlement. Soren Stevenson was in a large group of people standing in a grassy area near an interstate on-ramp when he was hit by a 40 mm projectile on May 31, 2020. Stevenson told reporters Wednesday in an interview at his attorneys’ offices that he believed a SWAT officer fired directly at his face. He said he was not rioting or disobeying police at the time.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-MINNESOTA

Minnesota parents: Son taken by Russian military in Ukraine

WINONA, Minn. (AP) — Some Minnesota parents fear for the safety of their adult son in Ukraine who they say was taken by the Russian military. Tina Hauser, of Winona, tells KAAL-TV the last time she spoke with her son, Tyler Jacob, was Saturday when he told her he was being forced by the Russian military to board a bus out of Kherson and leave his Ukrainian wife and daughter behind. Hauser says she has called the U.S. Embassy but has not heard back. She has also reached out to Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s office for help. Klobuchar’s press secretary Jane Meyer said Wednesday that there is no update on the case.

WOMAN SET ON FIRE

Ex-boyfriend of woman set on fire arrested in her death

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Police say they have arrested the former boyfriend of a woman who died after she was set on fire at a St. Paul shipping warehouse. Authorities say 44-year-old Kelli Ranning Goodermont was killed at her workplace Tuesday. Her former boyfriend was arrested near his Bloomington home that had been set on fire. In a protection petition filed last June by Goodermont, she stated the 47-year-old man had held a loaded gun to her head. Court records also show the man was civilly committed and hospitalized for psychosis. Family members say Goodermont worked as a dispatcher at the warehouse business where the suspect was a truck driver and that they had known each other for years.

FATAL STABBING-DULULTH

Boy held in fatal stabbing of relative in Duluth

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — A 15-year-old relative is accused of fatally stabbing a 19-year-old woman in Duluth. Karimah Phuly was found unresponsive at a residence Friday just minutes after police had left the home following a previous call. Officers originally responded to a disturbance call at the house about 6:40 p.m. where here was an allegation that a different family member had been assaulted. Police left after speaking with the family member and determining there had been no assault. About 10 minutes later, officers were called back to the house where they found Phuly unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The boy is being held in the Arrowhead Juvenile Center on a charge of second-degree homicide.