Star Tribune
MN DOC orders Hennepin County jail to reduce inmate population
The state of Minnesota has given the Hennepin County jail eight days to reduce its inmate population by 239 people, saying the jail doesn’t have enough staff on duty and isn’t checking on inmates as often as it should.
Since the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center’s last biennial inspection in September 2022, seven inmates have died either in the jail or after being transported from the jail for treatment. A state inspection found jail staffers weren’t checking on inmates as often as required during each of those deaths, and also had inadequate staffing during the two most recent deaths in August.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections put the jail’s license on conditional status on Oct. 31 for failing to meet minimum legal standards, putting inmates at risk.
The jail was ordered to reduce its jail population to 600 by Thursday, with a maximum of 150 inmates on each floor of City Hall. The detention center consists of two buildings, with over 500 beds on the fourth and fifth floors of Minneapolis City Hall and 330 beds in the nearby Hennepin County Public Safety Facility.
The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, asked for an extension of that deadline to Dec. 5, because of the large number of other counties that it will need to ship inmates to.
Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt released a statement Friday saying: “We were surprised and disappointed to receive this order” after working with the DOC for the past several months to address the concerns.
Witt said the county intends to appeal the order administratively and take it to court if necessary, but will work to comply with it in the meantime. Witt said the county has been working to send about 180 people to other jails, and that the average jail count this year has been 761. The county now has 851 people in custody, with 139 in other jails.
The DOC Inspection and Enforcement unit, which inspects and licenses adult correctional facilities and reviews inmates’ deaths, found that during the past two years, Hennepin County jail staff did not conduct well-being checks every 30 minutes; falsely logged checks; did inadequate checks; and failed to check on inmates with special needs more frequently.
UnitedHealthcare and Essentia Health announced an agreement Friday for the Duluth-based health system to keep participating in the insurance company’s Medicare Advantage network next year, affecting about 10,000 patients.
Similar to HealthPartners, Essentia Health announced earlier this year the health system would go out-of-network for UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage patients due to what it described as high rates of denied claims and payment delays, as well as the insurer’s prior authorization requirements.
“We realize that the uncertainty of this situation was difficult for many of the patients we’re honored to serve,” Dr. Cathy Cantor, Essentia’s chief medical officer for population health, said Friday in a statement. “We felt strongly that it was important to advocate for our patients, and we were able to reach an agreement for 2025 that addresses many of our issues and concerns by improving timely and reliable access to the high-quality care they depend on from Essentia.”
Essentia Health said Friday it still plans to go out-of-network next year with Medicare Advantage plans from Kentucky-based Humana.
With 14 hospitals and 78 clinics, Essentia Health has operations in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. UnitedHealthcare is the nation’s largest health insurer.
This fall’s Medicare open enrollment period has been unusual in Minnesota for the number of contract impasses that have complicated health plan choices for seniors. Beyond Essentia, three other health systems with operations in the state have announced they’ll go out of network next year with Humana, as well.
UnitedHealthcare said the contract agreement with Essentia announced Friday applies to Medicare Advantage plans for individuals as was as retiree groups.
Scott County is rescanning some Shakopee ballots voters cast in Tuesday’s election due to a ballot distribution error and scanning machine malfunction, officials announced Friday.
The rescanning, which began at 4 p.m., could have the most bearing on the contest between DFL Rep. Brad Tabke and Republican challenger Aaron Paul for a seat in the Minnesota House, Scott County Property and Customer Service Manager Julie Hanson said.
Tuesday’s results showed an exceedingly tight race for the 54A seat, which includes the city of Shakopee. As the rescanning began, the competition was headed to an automatic recount.
Tabke earned 13 more votes than Paul overall, Tuesday’s returns show. Paul won several precincts with small margins, while Tabke had a nearly 11-point margin in northeast Shakopee and a 14-point margin in one precinct north of Shakopee High School.
In one precinct near Canterbury Park, the two candidates were separated by a single vote.
For legislative races, taxpayer-funded recounts occur when the results are within 0.5 percentage points of the total votes cast.
Hanson said the rescanning will likely take “a couple hours” and results will be updated on the Secretary of State’s website once the process is complete.
The 54A contest isn’t the only one where the need for a recount is in question.
Star Tribune
Judge doesn’t wait until Trump’s in office, sentences Minnesotan for role in Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol
Buttressing their argument before sentencing, prosecutors also raised Nicholas Fuller’s criminal history, which includes convictions for theft, auto theft, first-degree property damage, disorderly conduct and drunken driving.
The defense countered with its request for Nicholas Fuller to be spared prison, serve three years’ probation and pay the the $2,000 in restitution.
Nicholas Fuller “has from the beginning acknowledged the wrongfulness of his conduct and has expressed a desire to plead guilty,” the defense wrote to the court.
The defense explained that Nicholas Fuller went to the rally “because he believed there were irregularities in the election, which is what he had been hearing on the news and in his community. He wanted to support Trump by showing up to the rally.”
Addressing the prosecution pointing out that Nicholas Fuller pushed on an officer’s riot shield, the defense wrote, “Mr. Fuller was chatting with and smiling at [the officer] when he put his hands on the shield. [The officer] gently pushed the shield a few inches forward, and [Nicholas] Fuller gently pushed it back. The two did a little back and forth like this and that was the end of it. This interaction was nonaggressive and non-threatening, albeit a stupid thing to do.”
According to federal records, Nicholas Fuller is the 14th Minnesotan charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Overall, In the 44 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,504 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 560 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony.
