Star Tribune
Interim University of Minnesota President Jeff Ettinger meets with protesters
University of Minnesota Interim President Jeff Ettinger met Wednesday with members of groups organizing pro-Palestinian protests on the U’s Twin Cities campus.
This is the second straight week of protests on the campus and others nationwide, and the third day that a tent encampment — the second of its kind — has been set up on the grass near the U’s Northrop auditorium.
Protests at the U have been led by a coalition of student groups that are calling on the school to, among other things, divest from companies with ties to Israel, ban some recruiters from campus and release a statement in support of Palestinian students.
The meeting, which had initially been scheduled for about a half-hour, lasted for nearly two hours and ended around noon. The university didn’t immediately release specific details of the meeting but said Ettinger “relayed that it was a constructive meeting and that both groups involved have some things to bring back to their colleagues.”
Ettinger is also working to schedule a meeting with Jewish student organizations on campus, though representatives for both the U and some of the groups said the time is still being worked out.
About a dozen buildings along Northrop Mall remained closed Wednesday, while others on the U’s East Bank campus are accessible only to people with a university ID. Some faculty sent Ettinger a letter urging him to reconsider the closures, saying they feared they would have a chilling effect on free speech and upended the final days of the spring semester. Wednesday is listed as a study day for students, and final exams are set to begin Thursday.
The protests come at the end of the school year while the U is hosting several graduation ceremonies this week and next. The university has not announced any changes to those events.
Star Tribune
What a federal government shutdown would mean for Minnesota
Minnesota National Guard personnel in active duty status still have to report to work to maintain military operations, but part-time members and their units will not conduct previously scheduled training, drills or exercises during the shutdown.
More than 300 corrections officers at four federal prisons across Minnesota will be working without pay. Minnesota’s four federal district court offices would also operate as usual.
While most government benefits will continue, things like benefit verification letters, updates to earnings records and replacement of Medicare cards will have to wait until the government reopens.
The state’s one national park — Voyageurs in northern Minnesota — along with several national monuments and other sites could temporarily lose staff, but closures are decided on a case-by-case basis. The same applies to national forests, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, as well as other federal lands, including national wildlife refuges.
About a year ago, Congress narrowly averted a shutdown during a spending standoff in the House. The last time government spending lapsed and there was a partial shutdown was in December 2018 over disagreements about funding Trump’s wall on the border with Mexico.
That partial shutdown last 34 days, the longest on record, but it didn’t affect the entire government because Congress had already passed some spending bills.
Star Tribune
Trump’s words of opposition stop a bipartisan budget deal in its tracks with Musk’s help
“Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” he wrote. He also called it ‘’one of the worst bills ever written.‘’
Sometimes Musk amplified false claims, such as the idea that the legislation included $3 billion for a new football stadium in Washington. In reality, the legislation would transfer ownership of the land from the federal government to the city, paving the way for eventual development.
Musk appeared emboldened by the experience.
‘‘The voice of the people was heard,‘’ Musk wrote. ‘’This was a good day for America.”
Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries said the fallout would be Republicans’ fault.
‘‘You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow,” he wrote on X.
Star Tribune
Man at Twin Cities jail suffers medical emergency and dies days later
A man arrested in Dakota County who exhibited “seizure-like symptoms” during jail intake died days later, according to court records and the Sheriff’s Office.
Kingsley Fifi Bimpong, 50, of Cottage Grove, was taken to the jail in Hastings on Nov. 19 on suspicision of drunken driving in Eagan, a search warrant affidavit made public Wednesday disclosed.
Sheriff Joe Leko said Thursday that Bimpong “was incoherent, and his condition deteriorated. … We rushed him to the hospital as soon as we could see that it wasn’t good.”
Leko suggested that Bimpong might have actually been affected more by whatever medical difficulty he was having at the time, rather than being intoxicated.
The sheriff said Bimpong died a few days later, and “we’re waiting on the medical examiner’s report” for a determination of what led to the death.
An affidavit was filed by Washington County Sheriff’s Office seeking permission to collect Bimpong’s medical records that might shed light on his death. The neighboring Sheriff’s Office is heading the investigation in order to avoid a conflict of interest, Leko said.
According to the affidavit:
At the jail, Bimpong was unable to complete the booking process and “was eventually noticed by correction officers as having seizure-like symptoms while in the intake waiting area.”