Daily Digest: Here come the ads

Good morning, and welcome to Thursday. Here's the Digest.

1. TV ad wars begin on Minnesota. U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen, a suburban Republican fighting an electoral headwind, is making a public break with President Donald Trump in his first television spot.  The ad, which was released Wednesday, focuses on an issue far from his Twin Cities district. In the 30-second spot, Paulsen highlights a personal admiration for the outdoors and efforts to resist accelerated mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in far northern Minnesota. Trump’s administration has worked to authorize two mining projects that have caused strains in the area. “I camp and canoe with my family in Minnesota’s Yellowstone, the Boundary Waters,” Paulsen says. “So when President Trump tried to take away important environmental protections for the Boundary Waters, I said, ‘No way.'” Amid serene images of Paulsen standing in front of a lake and his family paddling in a canoe, newspaper clips flash across the screen reinforcing his theme of breaking with his party on the issue. “I’m for mining, just not there,” he says. “I’ll stand up to my party or President Trump to protect Minnesota,” he concludes. Paulsen’s DFL-endorsed opponent Dean Phillips noted Paulsen’s low ranking from environmental groups including Clean Water Action and the League of Conservation Voters and called the ad "another misrepresentation of truth from Rep. Paulsen." (MPR News)

2. Suspected false 911 call results in officer pointing gun at teens. Minneapolis parks officials are asking for help piecing together what happened Tuesday when a 911 caller's unfounded claims of violence at Minnehaha Regional Park led to four black teens being handcuffed, with one officer pointing a gun at them. The teens — two 13-year-olds, a 14-year-old and 16-year-old — were detained but were found to have no weapons and released. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board said an investigation is underway about the 911 call and caller, suggesting that a false report led to what could have been a tragic incident. "We intend to make sure our young people are safe in our parks." Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Superintendent Mary Merrill told reporters Wednesday. (MPR News)

3. Man sues claiming police sedated him. Police came to North Memorial Medical Center looking for an armed man in a car. They found John Powell, a 48-year-old Minneapolis man, and arrested him at gunpoint on a rainy summer night. But Powell was black — not the white or light-skinned Hispanic person the caller had described. And he was holding a set of car keys, not a revolver. The 911 caller, a nurse at North Memorial, confirmed it on the scene: They had the wrong guy. Instead of releasing Powell, police asked for assistance from nearby paramedics, according to police reports, and the paramedics gave Powell a shot of a powerful sedative called ketamine. Powell struggled to breathe, and needed to be taken into emergency care and intubated, according to a federal lawsuit Powell filed against North Memorial and two police departments he said were involved in the 2015 encounter. (Star Tribune)

4. No problem with sheriff's residency. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension closed its investigation into where the Ramsey County sheriff was living after prosecutors told them residency requirements don’t appear to apply int he case of an appointed sheriff. In May, Vadnais Heights Mayor and former sheriff Bob Fletcher requested a criminal investigation into Jack Serier’s residency at the time he was appointed Ramsey County sheriff.  But the Minneapolis city attorney’s office, reviewing the case for the BCA, wrote in a memo that while there is a residency requirement to run for election for Ramsey County sheriff, “there is no existing law that specifically requires a person to be a Ramsey County resident upon appointment to the position of Ramsey County sheriff.” Serier said Wednesday that he has met with local media in the past “and openly and honestly answered residency questions. There is nothing additional to add. I was a resident of Ramsey County prior to my appointment to sheriff, and I continue to live in the city of St. Paul.” (Pioneer Press)

5. City council candidate also banned from Target Field. A day after being banned from the St. Paul Public Library system, St. Paul city council candidate David Martinez was ejected from Target Field and banned from the ballpark for a year following a physical confrontation with security. Martinez posted a seven-minute video of the July 6 incident at the Minneapolis baseball stadium to YouTube and, in a written feedback form to the team, has threatened to sue the Minnesota Twins. In the video, Martinez can be seen and heard telling a Target Field security guard, “You’re an (expletive) moron. You’re an (expletive) idiot. … Don’t touch me. You’re about to get smacked.” He refuses to leave the baseball stadium despite repeated requests. (Pioneer Press)

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