Daily Digest: Noor testifies, GOP chair, gas tax

Good Monday morning. Time to catch up on a weekend's worth of political news.

1. Noor takes stand in his defense. Ex-Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor testified Friday that 911 caller Justine Ruszczyk said nothing as she approached his police squad, contradicting testimony by his former partner about what happened in the alley the night Noor shot Ruszczyk. Officer Matthew Harrity, who sat in the driver's seat as Ruszczyk approached the squad from the back, testified earlier that he'd heard the woman "murmur" or make some kind of sound as she came up on the squad. Noor's remarks came on a day when his defense attorney described a reconstruction they'd staged months earlier — complete with a replica gun and an actress in a pink shirt marked with an X — to demonstrate how Noor turned and shot Ruszczyk that night. The defense also put a use-of-force expert on the stand who called Noor's decision to fire reasonable. Closing arguments in the trial are set to begin on Monday. Jurors are expected to be sequestered afterward until they reach a verdict. (MPR News)

2. Carnahan re-elected to head state GOP. Republican activists on Saturday elected Jennifer Carnahan to serve a second term as chair of the state party and lead them into the 2020 election. Carnahan faced two challengers from within the party ranks, Monti Moreno and Becky Hall, but she decisively won with 69 percent of the vote on the first ballot. The chair needed a simple majority to win the race. As chair, Carnahan said she’s helped chip away at state party debt and led a “massive” ground game that turned out more Republican voters in the last midterm election than ever before. But she also looked ahead to the 2020 election, when the entire Minnesota Legislature is on the ballot. “We are at a pivotal point in our nation’s history, up against a dangerous, socialist agenda that threatens the very fabric of our nation and the heartbeat of the American dream,” she told the meeting. (MPR News)

3. Gas tax headed for a House vote. Minnesota House Democrats began confronting one of their deepest divisions with Republicans when they took up a $7.2 billion transportation funding package Friday that includes Gov. Tim Walz’s proposal to raise the state gasoline tax by 20 cents per gallon to pay for road and bridge improvements, a 70 percent hike that GOP lawmakers have said from the start of the session that they would reject. The bill is expected to pass the Democratic-controlled House by a wide margin next week, but the GOP minority filed a long list of proposed amendments, setting up what could be a long debate. There’s no gas tax increase in the Senate GOP majority’s transportation plan, and it’s unclear whether even a scaled-back hike can survive negotiations over the final package. (Associated Press)

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

4. U of M regents reject renaming buildings. University of Minnesota leaders on Friday declined to change the names of four campus buildings named for former administrators, despite a task force recommendation to change the names. University regents spent more than two hours discussing whether to rename the buildings after the report found a pattern of racism and anti-Semitism by the namesakes. Ultimately, the board opted not to change anything. In a 10-1 vote, regents agreed to a resolution to keep current names for Coffman Memorial Union and Nicholson, Middlebrook and Coffey halls, contradicting the recommendations of U President Eric Kaler and the university task force charged with studying the former administrators' history. (MPR News)

5. Diversity grows on state ballots. Terri Thao always said no when people asked her to run for the Sixth Ward City Council seat on St. Paul’s East Side. This year, after 2018 elections that saw women and minority candidates make history across the U.S., she finally said yes. “We need some really great leadership — and that might be me,” she said. The daughter of Hmong immigrants, Thao, 40, believes there’s no better time for her to help shape economic development, affordable housing and support for small businesses. “I want to start where I can shine,” she said. Voters who set turnout records last year elected people who broke age, race, gender and sexual-orientation barriers across the U.S. The results are inspiring a new crop of Minnesota candidates like Thao. The early roster of prospective candidates for state and local elections this fall and in 2020 suggests that some longstanding obstacles are fading. “People are realizing that you don’t have to have a particular pathway to represent people,” said Samantha Pree-Stinson, a Green Party candidate for the Third Ward seat on the Minneapolis City Council. “There is no magical qualification list, so why not me?” (Star Tribune)