Hundreds of migrants are staying at “shelter sites” across the Twin Cities metro. Having been sheltered in Minnesota for months, these migrants are largely families who are staying at various Minneapolis area hotels.
Alpha News traveled to multiple shelter sites and talked with migrants and hotel staff on the ground.
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On a Twin Cities radio show earlier this week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz dismissed Republican efforts to keep Minnesota’s current state flag.
“Minnesota is a diverse state, it continues to grow. This flag was crafted in the 1890s,” said Gov. Walz regarding Minnesota’s current flag. “It’s highly offensive to a large number of people, and there’s very little debate about that.”
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New court documents expose the “extreme pressure” prosecutors faced in Hennepin County to charge Derek Chauvin and three other former Minneapolis police officers in the death of George Floyd.
Several attorneys opposed charging the “other three” officers and withdrew from the case due to “professional and ethical rules.”
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Hennepin County holds an annual “Celebrating Diversity Month” for employees, which features “learning opportunities” on “dismantling whiteness” and “respecting pronouns.”
Some of the training sessions are hosted by explicitly left-wing organizations, such as OutFront Minnesota, whose training manager Hannah Edwards will be leading two sessions called “2SLGBTQIA+ 101.” Employees will learn “general terms relating to gender and sexuality, respecting pronouns, and how to be an ally to gender non-conforming people.”
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Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt announced a new “Focus on Fentanyl” initiative Thursday aimed at increasing the public’s awareness of the dangers of fentanyl and connecting them with resources.
Witt, who said her own family has been impacted by the fentanyl crisis, plans to release a series of videos profiling Minnesotans who were killed by the highly potent synthetic opioid. The first video chronicles the life of Seth Carlson, a 17-year-old athlete from Bloomington who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2022.
Read MoreHennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty is facing criticism after she dropped a rape charge involving a 14-year-old victim during her first week in office.
Moriarty was sworn in Jan. 3, replacing longtime county attorney Mike Freeman. She ran on a progressive platform of “restorative justice programs” and “alternatives to incarceration.”
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The number of families dealing with homelessness in Hennepin County has more than tripled in just one year.
Hennepin County recently released a report showing that 217 families were sleeping in shelters last month — a whopping 268% increase from mid-November 2021, KSTP reported.
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With midterm elections a month away, an election integrity watchdog has filed multiple lawsuits in Minnesota over duplicate registered voters while also finding millions of voter registrations in New York missing personal identifying information.
Public Interest Legal Foundation, a conservative election law nonprofit, filed six lawsuits in Minnesota counties over 515 duplicate registrants. The lawsuits were filed in Nicollet, Dakota, Hennepin, Olmsted, Todd and Ramsey counties.
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The first three of several legal complaints have been filed against Minnesota county auditors who failed to remove duplicate voter registrations from the state system.
With the assistance of the Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC), the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a nationwide election integrity nonprofit, filed complaints against Nicollet County, Hennepin County, and Dakota County this week for failing to comply with the law in removing duplicate names from the Minnesota Statewide Voter Registration Service (SVRS).
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The Columbus, OH-based Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday defending Minnesota widow Geraldine Tyler’s right to the profit from the forced sale of her home.
Tyler’s one-bedroom Minneapolis condominium was taken and sold by Hennepin County after the elderly resident could no longer afford her real-estate taxes. She quickly moved out of the condo in 2010, determining she could not safely stay in light of rising violent crime. For five years she incurred tax debt on the original residence while paying rent on a new apartment.
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A St. Paul man bailed out by the controversial Minnesota Freedom Fund after he was charged in two felony cases, including one involving a series of shootouts, has been sent to prison after being charged in new cases and failing to show up for sentencing after being bailed out by the fund.
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A Hennepin County sheriff’s detective who retired early because of the politicization of the COVID-19 vaccine is “furious” that the county has now dropped its vaccine mandate just five months later.
In an email to select employees last Tuesday, the county’s Human Resources COVID Response Team officially announced an end to weekly testing requirements for unvaccinated employees.
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A Democratic candidate for Hennepin County sheriff said she thinks it’s a “good idea” to give inmates more money for their labor in prison.
Dawanna Witt, who currently serves as a major in the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, appeared on an episode of “Address It” earlier this month.
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Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson won’t seek reelection in November, multiple sources told Alpha News.
This was confirmed Wednesday morning when Hutchinson told his staff that he has “made the difficult decision not to seek reelection in the 2022 election.”
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Seven restaurants in Minneapolis have joined a lawsuit against Mayor Jacob Frey (D) over COVID-19 restrictions that they say are hurting their businesses.
The plaintiffs include Smack Shack, Sneaky Pete’s, Jimmy John’s, Bunkers Music Bar & Grill, The Gay 90’s, Wild Greg’s Saloon and Urban Forage, according to WCCO.
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Citizens have begun a recall effort for Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson following his refusal to resign over his recent DUI conviction. Details surrounding the petition are circulating online and it will need 132,451 signatures in order to succeed.
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Hennepin County Jail is reportedly refusing to book suspects with warrants from other counties. In audio from the local police scanner, obtained by Crime Watch Minneapolis, the dispatcher can be heard announcing that “for the next two weeks, Hennepin Jail is not taking anyone with just warrants from outside Hennepin County.”
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Timothy Chmielewski, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Deputies Association Union President, announced a COVID vaccine mandate for his union’s employees on an internal email with a subject line that read, “You will be terminated.”
John Gilmore posted a screenshot of the email on Twitter, which was from Chmielewski. It is unclear if the mandate applies only to those within the sheriff’s office or if it is a county-wide requirement.
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Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced the launch of a program ‘MN HEALS 2.0’ on Tuesday morning following several letters asking him to address the crime surge. “The crime rates experienced in our communities in 2021 have raised important questions and concerns about approaches to prevention, law enforcement and prosecutions,” Freeman said.
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The Hennepin County Chiefs of Police Association as well as a group of mayors within the county wrote letters to the Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman asking for accountability and more prosecution of criminals.
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The Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association wrote a letter to the Hennepin and Ramsey County attorneys addressing their failure to prosecute some felony crimes. They wrote that they are “especially concerned” that “prosecutorial policies are failing to hold criminals accountable for their actions.”
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The Republican Party of Minnesota has called on Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson to resign after he drunkenly crashed his county-owned vehicle outside of Alexandria earlier this month.
“As Hennepin County faces serious challenges with violent crime, residents need a sheriff who is laser-focused on public safety. Sheriff Hutchinson should step down and focus on his health so residents can have a top law enforcement officer better able to focus on fighting crime,” the party said in a statement.
Hutchinson rolled his vehicle off the road while traveling home to Minneapolis from a sheriffs’ conference. After the accident, his urine revealed a blood alcohol content of .13 — nearly twice the legal limit of .08.
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Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson pled guilty to misdemeanor following a Driving Under Influence (DUI) crash in Alexandria. The crash only involved his vehicle, which rolled off the highway. Hutchinson was on his way home from a sheriff convention.
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An independent from Minneapolis has announced his run for Hennepin County Sheriff. Jai Hanson, a police officer, is hoping to make positive changes in Hennepin County and specifically in Minneapolis. Hanson is not seeking an endorsement from any political parties because he wants to be a true independent. He said he wants to be “part of the solution” and make policing about people rather than politics.
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Hennepin County spent $3.7 million on the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, according to documents obtained by The Center Square via the Freedom of Information Act.
Securing the Hennepin County courthouse was the second-largest expense – $773,412 paying for barbed wire, razor fencing, barricades, and boarding up windows. The most significant expense was employee overtime costing $1.1 million.
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Several Hennepin County police chiefs are speaking out after Minneapolis’ suburbs have seen an unprecedented uptick in violent crime.
“I’ve never seen the gun violence like it is,” Brooklyn Park Police Chief Craig Enevoldsen told Fox 9.
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by Rose Williams Hennepin County is giving out $50 Visa gift cards as an incentive to get the COVID-19 vaccine. According to a press release, the county is offering $50 per dose between July 1 and August 15. Anyone who receives both doses in that time frame at county-sponsored vaccine…
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Residents of Hennepin County should not expect to renew their licenses, get a Real ID, or transfer a vehicle title anytime soon, as DMV branches across the county are experiencing long wait times for appointment bookings.
A calendar of available times for each branch and appointment type reveals that some branches don’t have open appointments until August.
For residents who go to the Ridgedale DMV branch, the earliest opening is currently August 2 for all services, including Real ID, enhanced license, state ID, vehicle title transfer, and license plate tab appointments.
On April 26, a source close to Alpha News scheduled an appointment at the Ridgedale DMV intending to update a home address on his driver’s license, and the earliest availability at the time was July 12.
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A 92-year-old is fighting in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals for $25,000 of lost equity in her former Minneapolis condo after Hennepin County seized and sold it to settle a $15,000 tax debt and kept the difference.
Geraldine Tyler moved out of her Minneapolis condo in 2010 because of rising crime but couldn’t pay both her condo’s property taxes and rent on her new apartment.
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At least one Republican is irked at how Gov. Tim Walz will spend a majority of the state’s disaster relief fund on what she contends isn’t a natural emergency.
Sen. Julie Rosen, R- Fairmont, disagreed with the decision to spend $11.7 million to rebuild Hennepin County after May riots and noted Republicans have blamed Walz for the $500 million damage done in the Twin Cities for not activating the National Guard sooner in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
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At least one Republican is irked at how Gov. Tim Walz will spend a majority of the state’s disaster relief fund on what she contends isn’t a natural emergency.
Sen. Julie Rosen, R- Fairmont, disagreed with the decision to spend $11.7 million to rebuild Hennepin County after May riots and noted Republicans have blamed Walz for the $500 million damage done in the Twin Cities for not activating the National Guard sooner in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
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It was not enough to allow the city to burn. Then it wasn’t enough to emasculate city law enforcement. Now the Minneapolis City Council is corrupting the absentee ballot count by stacking ballot boards with handpicked staff rather than following state law that requires regular ballot boards to include people from the major political parties. Hennepin County, the most populous in the state, is doing it, too.
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The Federal Transit Administration Monday awarded Minnesota’s Green Line Light Rail Extension, also called the Southwest LRT project, a Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) of nearly a billion dollars.
Southwest LRT is a 14.5-mile line with 16 stations serving Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, Edina, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie.
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The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday declaring racism a “public health crisis.”
Commissioners Angela Conley and Irene Fernando introduced the resolution, which passed in a vote of 6-1.
“Ultimately this resolution is about the health and well-being of Hennepin County residents who have borne the brunt of racial discrimination and racial inequity through various different systems,” Conley said in a press release after the resolution passed.
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The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Tuesday declaring racism a “public health crisis.”
Commissioners Angela Conley and Irene Fernando introduced the resolution, which passed in a vote of 6-1.
“Ultimately this resolution is about the health and well-being of Hennepin County residents who have borne the brunt of racial discrimination and racial inequity through various different systems,” Conley said in a press release after the resolution passed.
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A Minnesota judge on Monday warned that he’s likely to move the trials of four former police officers charged in George Floyd’s death out of Minneapolis if public officials, attorneys and family members don’t stop speaking out about the case.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill stopped short of issuing a gag order against attorneys on both sides, but he said he likely will if public statements continue that make it hard to find an impartial jury. Cahill said that would also make him likely to grant a change-of-venue motion if one is filed, as he anticipates.
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A Minnesota judge on Monday warned that he’s likely to move the trials of four former police officers charged in George Floyd’s death out of Minneapolis if public officials, attorneys and family members don’t stop speaking out about the case.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill stopped short of issuing a gag order against attorneys on both sides, but he said he likely will if public statements continue that make it hard to find an impartial jury. Cahill said that would also make him likely to grant a change-of-venue motion if one is filed, as he anticipates.
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Two Hennepin County commissioners plan to introduce a resolution this week that would declare racism a “public health crisis.”
Commissioner Angela Conley announced Friday that she will introduce the resolution with Commissioner Irene Fernando during Tuesday’s Board meeting.
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Two members of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday in favor of removing the county’s medical examiner because they didn’t like the results of his autopsy in the case of George Floyd.
Chief Medical Examiner Andrew Baker released a 20-page autopsy report last week with the permission of Floyd’s family and concluded that Floyd’s heart stopped while being restrained by officers. The report revealed that Floyd tested positive for the coronavirus, had fentanyl and meth in his blood, and had a number of underlying health conditions.
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A judge on Monday kept bail at $1 million for a former Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder in George Floyd’s death.
Derek Chauvin, 44, said almost nothing during an 11-minute hearing in which he appeared before Hennepin County Judge Denise Reilly on closed-circuit television from the state’s maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights.
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Prosecutors charged a Minneapolis police officer accused of pressing his knee against George Floyd’s neck with a new more serious charge of second-degree murder on Wednesday, and for the first time leveled charges against three other officers at the scene, according to criminal complaints.
The updated criminal complaint against Derek Chauvin says the officer’s actions were a “substantial causal factor” in Floyd’s death.
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As of Monday afternoon, the “majority” of those arrested in the Twin Cities for rioting, violating curfew, looting or other similar charges had Minnesota addresses.
“That would be accurate,” Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington confirmed during a Monday press conference. During a previous briefing, he said he didn’t “have any credible evidence of any specific group being here in Minnesota.”
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Two members of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners asked the county attorney Thursday to “immediately arrest and press charges against the officers involved in the murder of George Floyd.”
All four officers involved in the tragic Monday night incident have been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, including Derek Chauvin, the officer who was recorded pressing his knee into the neck of a handcuffed Floyd.
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A group of rural Minnesota lawmakers want the governor to reconsider his one-size-fits-all approach to addressing the coronavirus pandemic.
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State lawmakers said Wednesday that an employee of the Minnesota House of Representatives has tested positive for COVID-19.
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The Minnesota Legislature will be meeting on an “on-call” basis for the next 30 days, leaders announced Monday morning.
During that time, much of their legislative work will focus on responding to the coronavirus outbreak, which reached 54 confirmed cases in the state as of Monday afternoon.
“Over the next few weeks, the Minnesota Legislature will continue to work, but by alternative means. We expect to operate efficiently and safely to aid Minnesotans with COVID-19 preparedness and response, and to continue our work to address other pressing needs of the state,” leaders of both the House and Senate said in a joint statement.
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A bill introduced Monday in the Minnesota House would pull public funding from libraries that host “drag queen story hour” performances for children.
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The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said this week that the “evidence is quite strong” in the case of Myon Burrell, an African American man who was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 16 while Sen. Amy Klobuchar served as the county prosecutor.
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Both of Minnesota’s most populous counties will officially continue to accept refugees.
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A Minnesota police union has threatened “legal action” in response to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office’s (HCAO) new “investigative protocol” for officer-involved shootings (OIS).
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