Says Star Tribune reporter Liz Sawyer: “ A suicidal Chanhassen teenager shot and killed last week by Carver County sheriff’s deputies was armed with a BB gun, according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The report released Tuesday also names the deputies involved. Archer Amorosi, 16, had a handgun-style BB gun and hatchet when he was shot multiple times Friday after a brief standoff outside his family home, according to the preliminary report. … Two of the officers fired their weapons, and Amorosi was pronounced dead at the scene. BCA investigators recovered a hatchet and a handgun-style BB gun from near his body, the report said.”
At The Wall Street Journal, Kris Maher writes: “Weeks after Minnesota regulators approved the replacement of an oil pipeline that crosses the state, Native American and environmental groups are starting to oppose the project with a similar playbook to a failed effort to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. Winona LaDuke, who lives 30 miles from the pipeline’s route on the White Earth reservation of the Ojibwe tribe, said three small protest camps have sprung up. To draw more protesters, she is planning a public campaign that includes a concert with the Indigo Girls in Duluth later this month, followed by a ride on horseback along the pipeline’s route.”
Speaking of toxins. Elizabeth Dunbar of MPR reports, “The first in a series of hearings about new state regulations on fertilizer use went on for two hours in a mostly empty auditorium at Robert Boeckman Middle School in Farmington, Minn., Monday. Minnesota farmers rely heavily on nitrogen fertilizer to grow the crops that help make agriculture a $75 billion industry. But the state has struggled to find the right balance between food and fuel production and clean water.” Maybe if they got a TV personality to MC the things.
Who said taxes? Brian Bakst of MPR says, “Minnesota’s tax agency will provide answers next week about how and when online retailers will be required to collect sales taxes. Officials at the Department of Revenue have been analyzing a June decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling allowed states to require sales taxes on transactions even if the seller has no physical presence in the state. … One federal estimate showed that Minnesota stood to gain at least $130 million and as much as $200 million in additional sales tax revenue per year under the ruling.”
Waiting. Esme Murphy at WCCO-TV tries to get GOP members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation to react to President Trump’s effort to walk back his statements on Russian interference in the election. “The Minnesota Republican Party, however, issued a statement supporting the president and so did Republican State Rep. Jim Newberger, who is running against Sen. Amy Klobuchar. ‘To me, it looks like a D.C.-centered media feeding frenzy,’ he said, adding: ‘I think, overall, he is doing a great job and he has my support’. … WCCO reached out to the two major Republicans in the gubernatorial race: former Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson. We did not hear back. There is also silence from two other Minnesota Republican members of Congress, Tom Emmer and Jason Lewis, both strong Trump supporters.”
How many guys like this are crawling around the woods? Stephen Montemayor of the Strib reports, “A northern Minnesota man wrote of taking to the woods to usher in an armed rebellion against the government before he was linked to a cache of homemade bombs, prosecutors alleged ahead of a federal explosives trial in Fergus Falls this week. Eric James Reinbold, 41, was arrested last fall in Kansas, where a state trooper stopped his car days after law enforcement raided Reinbold’s Oklee, Minn., home. … The federal case against Reinbold has narrowly focused on the explosives charge, but his online footprint includes purported activity in popular white supremacist and survivalist web forums.”
Not her day. Rochester’s KIMT-TV reports, “A traffic stop led to a slew of charges against a 48-year-old Elgin woman. Police say Jennifer Tucker was driving and attempted to turn across all lanes of traffic at 16th St. before stopping on a green light just before 11 p.m. Monday night. Tucker allegedly had her methamphetamine pipe hidden in her bra, and a search of the vehicle indicated sales of meth. She was found with a scale, baggies and 17.26 grams of meth.”
