Daily Digest: First account of police shooting
Good morning, and happy Wednesday. Here's the Digest.
1. In the first account of what happened leading up to Saturday's police shooting the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Tuesday night that Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor shot from a squad car's passenger seat, through the open driver's side window after his partner was surprised by a loud noise. The shot killed 40-year-old Justine Ruszczyk. The agency also gave the first public confirmation that Matthew Harrity was the other officer in the squad car. Noor has been with Minneapolis police for 21 months, Harrity for a year. The BCA account of the events is based on an interview with Harrity. Noor still hasn't given a statement. (MPR News)
2. Minneapolis and St. Paul have adopted paid sick leave ordinances, and Duluth may be next. A City Council-appointed task force in Duluth has been collecting public views and researching paid sick time laws around the country. Seven states now require it, in addition to dozens of cities and counties. Like the Twin Cities, Duluth business owners are divided on the issue. Task force members insist they will not cut and paste the Minneapolis or St. Paul ordinances into Duluth. But they are paying close attention to the debates there, including ongoing litigation over the Minneapolis law. (MPR News)
3. For the first time, 3M Co. is refusing to pay cleanup costs of polluting chemicals it manufactured. The company announced on Monday that it will not pay $377,000 for filters, bottled water and other costs of dealing with chemicals found in drinking water. The state Pollution Control Agency billed 3M for those costs — the kind of expenses that 3M has paid in the past. But this time, 3M says that the parts-per-trillion amounts in water could have come from fire extinguishers or other sources, and not necessarily the dumpsites where it placed the chemicals. The company has already spent more than $100 million on cleanup efforts. Now it is saying, in effect, enough is enough. (Pioneer Press)
4. St. Louis Park on Monday became the second city in Minnesota to approve raising the age at which people can buy tobacco from 18 to 21. The City Council passed the measure on a 5-0 vote as part of its consent agenda. The ordinance will go into effect October 1. It increases the fines for tobacco vendors who sell to underage buyers from $250 to $500 for an initial violation and from $500 to $1,000 for a second. On a third violation within a three-year period, the city would revoke a vendor’s license for 30 days. (Star Tribune)
5. The Minnesota Vikings will move their training camp to Eagan in 2018, after a final preseason in Mankato next month. It's a 52-year run the Vikings say isn't practical anymore. But the camp helped make the team a state institution, and put Mankato on the map. And the city is determined to stay on the map, with or without the team.(MPR News)
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