Star Tribune
CD2 GOP candidate Teirab’s ties to crisis pregnancy center scrutinized
Craig has criticized Teirab’s opposition to abortion, including answers he gave on a survey from Minnesotans Concerned for Life that he would not support legislation to weaken existing abortion restrictions.
Teirab said he believes abortion regulations are best decided at the state level. He accused Craig of distorting his position and using abortion as a political wedge issue.
The organization in question, New Life Adoptions, is affiliated with the crisis pregnancy center New Life Family Services, of which Teirab is a member of the board of directors.
On its website, the adoption organization says prospective parents who want to work with the group must have been married for at least two years. The group holds a “Biblical sexual ethic: Marriage is between one man and one woman.”
It’s unclear if that restriction violates the Minnesota Human Rights Act ban on discrimination in public accommodations. The law says it is illegal to deny services to someone because of their marital status and sexual orientation.
Christy Hall, an attorney with Gender Justice, an equity advocacy group, said the restriction “clearly violates the Minnesota Human Rights Act.” Hall noted the organization’s policy likely has not been challenged. “There is not any kind of religious exemption to the public accommodations statute.”
A woman was fatally shot in an apartment in St. Paul’s North End Saturday, police said.
St. Paul Police responded to calls of shots fired and a person shot on the 100 block of Sycamore Street East after 9 p.m. Saturday, according to a St. Paul Police news release. There, they aided a woman with gunshot wounds until medics arrived and pronounced her dead.
During that call, a police sergeant was waved down nearby to respond to a carjacking and related gunshot, the news release said.
A carjacking victim had been shot and the suspect took off in the victim’s vehicle. The carjacking victim had non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Regions Hospital.
The incidents are under investigation. Police believe they are connected but said they need more information to confirm it. The name of the deceased victim has not been released.
The fatal shooting was the fourth St. Paul homicide in 10 days.
On Tuesday, St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry held a press conference denouncing the violence after three homicides and a non-fatal shooting of a man by his co-worker at a post office on Seventh Street West in four days.
“It appears that we have a new generation of folks that think the right way to solve problems is by shooting people, even coworkers, and it’s reprehensible and it has to stop,” Henry said.
A 24-year-old Edina man died after crashing his motorcycle into a bridge abutment in Brooklyn Center Saturday night, according to the State Patrol.
The man was going north on Highway 252 shortly before midnight when he left the road and struck the abutment near Interstate 694, the State Patrol said in a crash report. The victim has not been identified.
On Friday, Gordon Wayne Zieman, 61, of New Brighton, died after his motorcycle hit a car whose driver was attempting to merge from the shoulder to Interstate 35W near downtown Minneapolis, according to the State Patrol.
Charles McMillian delivered some of the most poignant testimony during former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s 2021 murder trial, breaking down into sobs as he relived watching George Floyd die on the street in his south Minneapolis neighborhood.
McMillian, 64, of Minneapolis filed a legal claim against the city for emotional distress, and on Monday, a Minneapolis City Council committee will consider paying him $30,000 in a settlement out of the city’s self-insurance fund.
Messages left with McMillian and the law firm representing him weren’t returned on Friday.
Earlier this year, the City Council approved a $150,000 settlement with Donald Williams, another eyewitness who alleged that he was assaulted by police while trying to intervene in Floyd’s arrest. The city has also shelled out nearly $50 million in police brutality claims in the aftermath of Floyd’s killing.
McMillian testified during Chauvin’s trial that he was driving near Cup Foods at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue when he saw Minneapolis police officers standing by Floyd’s SUV and stopped to see what was going on.
When the officers handcuffed Floyd, walked him across the street and pinned him to the ground after a struggle in the squad car, McMillian begged Floyd not to resist arrest, yelling “you can’t win!” and “get up and get in the car!” Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t.
As video of the interaction played for jurors during the trial, with Floyd repeatedly saying he couldn’t breathe and calling out “mama,” McMillian broke down sobbing, dropping his head on the witness stand. He said he felt helpless and understood Floyd’s calls for “mama” because he lost his mother, too, four years prior.
The judge stopped the trial so McMillian could take a break and gather his composure in a hallway.
