by Deena Winter, Minnesota Reformer November 28, 2023 CHASKA — Pillow mogul Mike Lindell calls up former Michigan state senator Patrick Colbeck, who works for something Lindell made up called the Election Crime Bureau, to talk about press strategy. Lindell tells Colbeck a press release needs to mention his “offense fund,” to which people can give donations so Lindell can keep funding his election fraud battle now that he’s running out of money. Lindell says he has a tally of U.S. counties tha...

by Deena Winter, Minnesota Reformer December 15, 2022 This is part 2 of 2. Read part 1, about East Metro residents who wonder if 3M chemicals made them sick. 3M toxicologist Richard Purdy did a study in 1998 to see whether any of the company’s perfluorochemicals showed up in the blood of eagles and albatrosses. That seemed unlikely, given the birds’ diet consists mostly of fish. So Purdy was surprised and disturbed when he found levels in their blood similar to those found in human blood. It...

The council members stood shoulder-to-shoulder in a city park adorned with massive letters reading “Defund Police.” Days earlier, George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer a few blocks away, unleashing massive protests nationwide. Now hundreds of protesters had gathered in the park. They wanted justice. They wanted accountability. They wanted reform. “We should and can abolish our current Minneapolis police system,” Councilwoman Alondra Cano said at the time. On Tuesday, more

The wave of Minneapolis cops filing workers’ compensation claims and police brutality lawsuits are contributing to the city’s grim 2022 budget outlook, prompting the mayor to shift millions of dollars to shore up the city’s self-insurance fund. The city is self-insured, which means its departments pay premiums into a fund to cover things such as lawsuits and workers’ comp payments. Minneapolis taxpayers ultimately foot the bill.  The self-insurance fund’s net position decreased from $21 million...

Jaleel Stallings shot at the MPD; a jury acquitted him of wrongdoing Before the white, unmarked cargo van of the Minneapolis Police Department drove down Lake Street, an officer gave Sgt. Andrew Bittell his orders: “Drive down Lake Street. You see a group, call it out. OK great! F*** ’em up, gas ’em, f*** ’em up.” Bittell turned to his SWAT unit in the van and said, “Alright, we’re rolling down Lake Street. The first f***ers we see, we’re just hammering ’em with 40s,” according to body camera

MINNEAPOLIS—Witnesses struggled to maintain composure Tuesday as they described watching and in some cases taking video of the encounter between George Floyd and Derek Chauvin in an emotional second day of testimony in the murder trial of the former police officer. Prosecutors began their case with extensive use of the video showing Mr. Floyd under the knee of Mr. Chauvin as he begs for his life and eventually loses consciousness. Several of the first prosecution witnesses have served to amplif

City workers on Thursday began removing memorials and barricades from the intersection where the police killed George Floyd just over a year ago. The unannounced effort brought hundreds of people to the scene in protest. “I saw everything. And I just was like, ‘Andy,’ to my husband, I’m like, ‘I think you need to get up.’ And he went out there. And I called him. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ And he said, ‘They’re tearing it all down.’” Reporter: “Does that surprise you?” “Yeah, it — no one knew.”

The $1.3 billion lawsuit filed by the voting machine company Dominion against Minnesota pillow mogul Mike Lindell Monday is not the first time he’s faced a potentially ruinous lawsuit. By late 2003, after more than a decade owning his beloved Victoria bar called Schmitty’s Tavern, Lindell had $147,000 in debts, according to court records, and couldn’t keep up with the bar mortgage payments. Lindell sold the bar that year for $500,000, with part of the purchase financed through two promissory no

Muhammad Abdul-Ahad and his crew of about 20 Minneapolis “violence interrupters” were outside of Stop N Shop Tobacco at 17th and Lake Street in Minneapolis when a guy walked up to them looking intoxicated and agitated. A few minutes later, two cars pulled up and a couple of men got out. One had a gun. Then the store’s security guard came out with a gun on his hip saying, “Hey, hey, hey what’s goin’ on?” That’s when Abdul-Ahad’s team sprang into action, trying to separate the men. Trying to pr

At 8:15 a.m. at George Floyd Square, 16 people — mostly women — are perched on chairs, benches and couches in between the idled pumps at the Speedway, which is covered in graffiti and serves as a gathering space now. They have met twice a day, every day, since Floyd died on the street under a cop’s knee just steps away. Meet on the Street, they call it. Neighbors who’d never met before now work together to keep the square safe, autonomous and organized. Their motto: No justice, no streets. “

On May 29, Terrell Bryant had decided he was going to die, and take a cop with him. He’d gotten into a fight with his sister and left her home in Hopkins to go to a buddy’s, where they got into an argument about the Bible. He didn’t have a job or home, he was broke, and he had separated and wasn’t able to see his daughters. And so when George Floyd died on the streets of Minneapolis, beneath the knee of a cop, Bryant made a plan. He was going to confront police, kill one — and end up dead. “I