Daily Digest: Officer’s trial nears end
Good morning, and welcome to Monday. I hope you came through the heat and the hail in good shape and are ready to face a new work week. Here's the Digest.
1. Closing arguments are expected to begin Monday in the trial of St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez at the Ramsey County Courthouse in St. Paul. Yanez took the stand in his own defense Friday, saying he had no other choice but to shoot Philando Castile during a traffic stop in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights last July.
"I didn't want to shoot Mr. Castile at all," said Yanez, saying he was forced to shoot Castile because he was not complying with the officer's commands and was reaching for a gun. "I thought I was going to die," he said, adding that images of his family rushed into his mind. "I had no other choice." Yanez faces second-degree manslaughter and felony dangerous discharge of a firearm charges in the shooting. His trial began May 30, and jury deliberations are expected to begin Monday after both sides make their closing arguments. (MPR News)
2. Long-standing plans to clean up the headwaters of Lake Superior have been thrown into doubt by budget policies of President Trump's administration. Federal officials have been working for years to address a century's worth of industrial pollution in more than 40 areas around the Great Lakes. The St. Louis River estuary -- which flows past Duluth into Lake Superior -- is the second largest of those projects. But the money has been zeroed out in the president's budget plan. (MPR News)
3. The year Gov. Mark Dayton took office, the state budget was $15.3 billion. The year he leaves, it is projected to be $23 billion — a 50 percent increase. After inheriting deficits and a nearly depleted rainy-day fund, Dayton is now in charge of a state that’s running surpluses and carrying $2 billion in its reserves. Republican critics say spending has grown too quickly under Dayton. The governor's supporters note that his Republican predecessor Tim Pawlenty borrowed money from school districts, which was paid back during the Dayton years, and used federal stimulus dollars to help balance the state budget. After accounting for those factors, spending was up by 3.1 percent per year during the Pawlenty years, and 3.4 percent in the Dayton years. (Star Tribune)
4. The U.S. Supreme Court could say today whether it will uphold or reconsider a lower court's decision that Wisconsin's 2011 redistricting effort is unconstitutional. In the 2012 election Republicans got just 48.6 percent of the statewide vote, but they still captured a 60-to-39 seat advantage in the State Assembly. The Supreme Court has regularly tossed out state electoral maps because they have been gerrymandered to reduce the influence of racial minorities by depressing the impact of their votes. But the justices have never found a plan unconstitutional because of partisan gerrymandering — when a majority party draws the state’s electoral districts to give such an advantage to its candidates that it dilutes the votes of those supporting the other party. (Washington Post)
5. Seven people were arrested following a “March Against Sharia” rally and a counterprotest Saturday at the State Capitol in St. Paul. They face charges ranging from disorderly conduct to obstructing the legal process. Two of the seven arrested also face assault charges. ACT for America, a Washington-based organization staged 'March against Sharia Law' rallies throughout the country Saturday. In the Capitol rotunda in St. Paul, speakers told more than 100 people about the dangers of lax immigration, the potential influence of Sharia law and the need to protect the U.S. Constitution. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists ACT for America as an extremist group. Meanwhile 300 counterprotesters gathered in outside the Capitol, and the arrests came when the two groups clashed. (MPR News)
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