Hennepin County Board candidate Marisa Simonetti was arraigned in District Court on Thursday morning on a misdemeanor charge of 5th-degree assault after a dispute with a tenant of her Edina home.

Simonetti, who was arrested and jailed in June on allegations that she assaulted the tenant by throwing a live tarantula and other objects at the woman, stayed in the court hallway Thursday while her attorney John Daly handled the routine appearance. Simonetti was given a Jan. 9 pre-trial date and plans to plead not guilty.

Wearing a campaign T-shirt, Simonetti said after the court proceeding that she’s done nothing wrong and plans to fight the charge “to the death.”

Simonetti said her campaign for the District 6 seat is going well and that she sent out “a ton of texts” last week. “We’re getting feedback, positive feedback. It’s going to be very exciting to see what happens on Nov. 5,” she said.

An email to Simonetti’s opponent, Commissioner Heather Edelson, was not immediately returned Thursday.

In April, Simonetti came in second in a six-candidate special primary for an open seat on the board and then lost the special election Edelson, a DFLer and former state representative. Simonetti has campaigned as a Republican, although some local Republicans have since pulled their support for her.

The board oversees the county’s $2.7 billion budget and 10,000 employees. Commissioners earn $122,225 annually.

District 6, which covers cities including Edina, Hopkins, Mound, Minnetonka, Wayzata, Long Lake, Shorewood and the northern portion of Eden Prairie.

“I wanted to be just like him, to love every part of the competition, to be the first to show up and the last to leave, to love the grind, to be your best when you don’t feel your best and make other people around you the best version of themselves,” Ionescu said. “And to wake up and do it again the next day.”

In her final season with the Ducks, Ionescu became the first NCAA Division I basketball player to record more then 2,000 career points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds. She dedicated the performance that put her over the edge to Bryant. “That was for him,” she told ESPN.

“I can’t really put it into words,” Ionescu said. “He’s looking down and really proud of me and just really happy for this moment with my team.”

Ionescu has made more three-pointers during the regular season than any other WNBA player in history.

Ionescu’s clutch three might give Minnesota basketball fans deja vu. It was reminiscent of the three-pointer Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks sank in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals to win that game 109-108 and put the Timberwolves on their heels. The Mavs ended up winning the series 4-1.

Earlier this week, South Washington County Schools banned a substitute teacher from its classrooms after he allegedly re-enacted George Floyd’s murder during classes at Woodbury High School.

The teacher — identified as Steven Dwight Williams by city officials in Prescott, Wis., where he’d served on the police force — had been hired by the district through a substitute staffing service called Teachers on Call. A spokeswoman for Teachers on Call said Williams is no longer an employee and had cleared a “rigorous screening process” that goes beyond standards set by the Minnesota Department of Education.

So what are the state requirements to be a substitute teacher in Minnesota?

Most substitutes qualify with a three-year, short-call substitute teaching license (the type of license Williams has) that requires a bachelor’s degree in any area. Applicants are not required to have completed a teaching degree.

Amid widespread substitute shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s teacher licensing board suggested schools preemptively license every staff member with a bachelor’s degree, including janitors and nurses, to increase the pool of possible substitutes.

Individuals apply for a substitute license online through the state’s Professional Education Licensing Board (PELSB) and must mail in a completed fingerprint card. The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension uses that fingerprint to run a criminal background checks. If a background check is flagged, it will be forwarded to PELSB’s Ethics Department for further review. According to PELSB’s website, the board “strongly urges all applicants to be completely forthcoming on their application and to submit any supporting documentation for any items which will be flagged by the BCA.”

PELSB is “unable to share background check results with applicants or school districts,” according to its website.

If the applicant clears the background check and provides proof of a bachelor’s degree, a substitute license is issued and emailed. The whole process can take up to 30 days, according to PELSB.