Klobuchar on Mueller Report: ‘To me, it looks like obstruction’

NBC News reports: “Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., argued Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia interference could implicate President Trump in obstruction of justice, even as she remains hesitant to call for Trump’s impeachment. ‘When you read that report in detail and you start out with what happened with Russia, to me, it looks like obstruction,’ she told ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday. ‘Maybe Russia didn’t use tanks, maybe they didn’t use missiles, but the invaded our democracy all the same.’ Unlike some of her Democratic presidential primary opponents, Klobuchar hasn’t outright called for impeachment.

For Politico, Maya Parthasarathy also writes about Klobuchar: “Anita Hill’s testimony during the Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation hearings motivated presidential hopeful Amy Klobuchar to become involved in politics, the senator said Sunday. ‘I was a young lawyer when this happened, and I remember being captivated by [Hill], watching every moment of that hearing, never thinking I’d end up on the Senate Judiciary Committee,’ the Minnesota Democrat said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’”

At MPR Cody Nelson tells us, “Gene Thill cleans his old classrooms inside Saint Mark’s Catholic School. He returned to work as a custodian at the century-old grade school in St. Paul’s Merriam Park neighborhood a couple years ago. He loves the place. ‘This was my sixth-grade classroom,’ Thill said while giving a tour of the school. … But starting next year, most of that learning will stop at Saint Mark’s. Declining enrollment forced the school to close kindergarten through eighth grade, leaving only the preschool. Seventeen staff and faculty members will lose their jobs.”

Matt Delong of the Star Tribune reports, “A 19-year-old Chaska man has been recalled from basic training as the Minnesota National Guard investigates his ties to a nationwide white supremacist organization. He is the latest in a string of current servicemen whose affiliations with the supremacist group were uncovered following the leak of internet chat logs in March. … Nearly one in four troops have encountered white nationalism in the service, a 2017 Military Times poll found. ‘We generally mirror society, good and bad,’ said Maj. Ross Niebur, executive officer of the Minnesota National Guard’s Recruitment and Retention Battalion. He added that he doesn’t believe extremism is more prevalent in the military than in other communities.”

An AP story says, “The Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple is suing a Minnesota city for withdrawing permission for a satanic monument two years ago, when local government officials got tangled in a debate over religious symbols in public places. … The predicament the city of Belle Plaine finds itself in began in 2017 when officials decided to allow a steel silhouette of a soldier praying over a grave marked with a cross at a veterans’ memorial park. The Satanic Temple wanted its own monument in the park in an area the city designated as a ‘public forum’ after complaints that the soldiers’ monument violated the separation of church and state. Officials shut down the public forum area altogether when complaints followed over the proposed satanic monument.”

Says Adam Uren for Bring Me the News: “You might struggle to hail an Uber on May 8, as Minneapolis is one of seven U.S. cities where drivers are taking part in a strike against the ride-sharing service. The BBC reports that driver protesting low pay and poor working conditions will turn off their apps for 12 hours on May 8. The strike has been timed to coincide with Uber launching on the stock market. Fortune notes that there will likely still be drivers operating on the strike day, but it will mean increased prices and waiting times for customers on May 8.”

In the Star Tribune, Tim Harlow says: Drivers fed up with being cut off while making turns at the intersection of Excelsior Boulevard and Hwy. 100 in St. Louis Park want the Minnesota Department of Transportation to put up signs that make it clearer which lane to use. … It’s confusing and dangerous, Drive reader Jeff from St. Louis Park said. The layout features double turn lanes with one dedicated to drivers accessing northbound Hwy. 100 and the other for drivers continuing on Park Center Boulevard, a frontage road that runs parallel to Hwy. 100. Too often drivers get in the wrong turn lane, and that’s when the conflict occurs, he said.”

Says Scott Bauer of the AP, “Wisconsin Republicans open to a possible compromise with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Medicaid expansion are looking at ways to accept the federal funding while not appearing to cave in on the issue, even as GOP leaders remain steadfastly opposed. Evers is also publicly refusing to bend from his full expansion proposal, despite its near-certain demise in the Republican-controlled Legislature.”