Guilty plea in Coon Rapids Applebee’s beer-mug assault

by MinnPost staff 10/17/201610/17/2016

Anoka County

Jodie Burchard-Risch

Sentencing hearing coming in December. The Star Tribune’s Hannah Covington reports: “Jodie Burchard-Risch pleaded guilty Monday to third-degree assault for smashing a glass beer mug into the face of a fellow diner for speaking Swahili at a Coon Rapids Applebee’s last year. … Asma Jama was eating at the restaurant and chatting with friends last October when Burchard-Risch and her husband confronted the group with verbal jabs like, ‘In America, we speak English,’ and ‘Go home!’ … Jama attended the plea hearing Monday in Anoka County District Court with three close friends and said she was happy with its outcome.”

Great records-driven reporting here. The Star Tribune’s Joe Carlson and Jim Spencer write: “Makers of medical devices, from heart valves to drug pumps, are required to tell the U.S. Food and Drug Administration whenever they learn that a product may have injured someone. Those reports are usually available to patients and their doctors. … But a Star Tribune analysis of recently obtained data shows that the FDA has accepted late reports that cover hundreds of thousands of incidents, sometimes years after the fact, and has created a program that lets device makers keep the details out of view.”

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A few pounds of brats could really sweeten that Strib subscription offer. MPR’s Mark Steil report: “Consumer suspicion about where and how our food is produced is widespread, and it’s roiling the food production industry. Big companies like General Mills, Cargill and others are trying to navigate this changing landscape. … The changes in consumer tastes and spending have been dramatic and rapid. Fortune magazine called it ‘The War on Big Food’. … Now Glen Taylor, the billionaire owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, sees the trends as a business opportunity. … Taylor and a group of investors are spending millions of dollars to convert a former beef plant into a hog processing facility, Prime Pork. They plan to open by January.”

Things getting ugly in the east metro. The Pioneer Press’ Bob Shaw reports: “Public interest in an Indian tribe’s plans for 112 acres in West Lakeland Township is spiking. … About 500 people crammed into the Oak-Land Junior High School auditorium Thursday for a standing-room-only meeting with tribal leaders. The residents were drawn, in part, by a leaflet charging that the tribe would build a casino on the land. … The Indian leaders called the leaflet ‘racist’ — but did not say a casino would never be built on the site.”