Noor decision isn’t expected to change case against former officers charged in George Floyd’s death

Says Amy Forliti of the AP, “The Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the third-degree murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor likely won’t change the cases against the three former officers charged in George Floyd’s death. Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter. Legal experts say last week’s ruling makes it highly unlikely that a charge of aiding and abetting third-degree murder would be added.”

At MPR, Elizabeth Shockman writes, “White Minnesotans think very differently about the opportunities that the state’s K-12 public schools provide to all students than Minnesotans of color, according to a newly released survey from the APM Research Lab. Black Minnesotans were the least likely to say Black children have the same opportunities as their white peers. Only 15 percent of Black Minnesotans, as compared to 48 percent of white Minnesotans, believed all children have the same opportunities, regardless of racial and ethnic background.”

Josh Verges writes in the Pioneer Press: “A St. Paul charter school’s authorizer has placed the school on probation and recommended the board fire its superintendent after she lost $4.3 million of the school’s money investing in a hedge fund. The authorizer, Bethel University, said Hmong College Prep Academy’s failed investment ‘illustrates areas of great concern related to managing finance, governance and legal compliance.’ Christianna Hang, superintendent and chief financial officer, founded the school in 2004. It’s now the state’s largest single-site charter school, with around 2,400 students in the Como neighborhood, and is building a $43 million middle school with financing facilitated by the city of St. Paul.”

Brooks Johnson writes in the Star Tribune: “Crews have finished surgery on the ‘spine’ of the western Duluth trail system, transforming a 6-mile stretch of abandoned rail line into a scenic gravel trail. The all-weather, multiuse DWP Trail runs from Spirit Mountain to the Mission Creek trail system and includes a tunnel through Ely’s Peak. Though widely used as an informal trail in the past, the $2.5 million improvement project replaced bridges and followed a number of standards to create what the city calls a ‘universally accessible multiuse pathway.’”

A KSTP-TV story says, “A 29-year-old Fridley woman has been found guilty for her involvement in the New Year’s Eve 2019 killing of Monique Baugh, a Minneapolis mother and real estate agent. On Monday, a jury found Elsa Segura guilty on all counts in connection to the murder. She’d been charged with aiding and abetting first-degree murder, aiding and abetting attempted first-degree murder, aiding and abetting kidnapping, and aiding and abetting first-degree murder while committing kidnapping. Her conviction carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release. Her sentencing is set for Nov. 9.”

Dan Kraker writes for MPR: “A 10-day window [opened] Monday for applications for a new state program that offers grants to Minnesotan-owned small businesses that suffered economic hardship because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ‘Minnesota Main Street COVID relief grants’ range from $10,000 to $25,000, depending on the size of the business. Companies with up to 200 employees are eligible to apply for the program, administered by the state Department of Employment and Economic Development.”

For KFGO radio Paul Jurgens reports, “MNDOT traffic cameras captured a strange sight this weekend. A woman was driving an electric shopping cart on a state highway. The video shows the woman steering erratically before jumping on and off the cart while dodging traffic. The woman was eventually stopped by state troopers. … At one point, she had a plastic grocery bag over her head.”

WCCO and the AP report: “A man with a history of pretending to be a law enforcement officer was arrested in Minnesota after a TikTok user alerted a woman he was dating that he was faking it again. Authorities said in a complaint filed Friday that Reyel Devon Simmons, 52, of Dodge Center, Minnesota, used the name ‘Rey Reeves’ and regularly held himself out as a federal agent on social media. He is charged in federal court in Minneapolis with impersonating a federal officer.”

Also from the AP: “The retired conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice leading a Republican-ordered investigation into the 2020 presidential election released a video Monday threatening to subpoena election officials who don’t comply and saying the intent was not to overturn President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the battleground state. The unusual six-minute video from Michael Gableman comes after election clerks were confused by an email his office sent last week that was flagged in at multiple counties as junk, a possible security risk and not forwarded to municipal clerks as he wanted.”