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ELECTION 2022-MINNESOTA GOVERNOR

Qualls joins packed GOP field in race for Minnesota governor

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A U.S. Army veteran and former healthcare executive says he’s running for governor in Minnesota, joining a handful of other Republicans who have announced for the job. Kendall Qualls lives in Medina with his wife and five children. He says he is the first and only member of his family to go to college and has earned two masters degrees. Qualls says he is running for governor because “the radical left has morphed the culture of the country where it is not recognizable.” Qualls made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2020. DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin says Qualls has endorsed failed policies by former President Donald Trump and is trying to divide Minnesota residents.

SLAIN STUDENT-APPEAL

Judge: Rodriquez can’t use intellectual disability as factor

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge says defense attorneys cannot use intellectual disability as a factor in the second death penalty debate for a man convicted in the 2003 kidnapping and killing of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin. Judge Ralph Erickson last year ordered a new sentencing phase for Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., after ruling that misleading testimony from the coroner and other factors had violated Rodriguez’s constitutional rights. Defense attorneys then asked Erickson to reconsider intellectual disability as a defense. The judge said in an order last week that it cannot be used to consider Rodriguez’s eligibility for capital punishment. Rodriguez, a convicted sex offender from Crookston, Minnesota, is being held in a federal jail.

MINNEAPOLIS HOMICIDE

Shooting death marks 1st homicide of year in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis police say a man was shot and killed in the city’s first homicide of the year. Officers responded at 9:40 p.m. Saturday to a report of shots fired in the area and a vehicle that had crashed into parked cars. The victim was found lying in a street and later died at a local hospital. Police said in a release there is “limited information related to who else was involved and what transpired.” The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting an autopsy. Minneapolis recorded 97 homicides in 2021, tying the all-time record set in 1995.

BABY TAKEN

Baby taken from mother in stolen car found safe

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A missing 1-year-old boy has been found and reunited with his family, hours after a man stole his mother’s vehicle with the baby in the back seat. Police were notified around 3:30 p.m. Friday. Police believe the mother momentarily left her car running with the baby inside. A man wearing a black sweater took the vehicle. At about 6:30 p.m. Brooklyn Park Police say officers responded to a 911 hang-up call. When they arrived they found the child was anonymously returned to his family uninjured. Officers later found the stolen vehicle unoccupied.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-MINNESOTA

Minnesota virus positivity rate reaches 15.6% in new record

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota’s COVID-19 positivity rate over the past seven days reached 15.6% on Friday, in an indication of the rapid spread of the omicron variant across the state. State health officials said the figure demonstrates the increasing spread of the omicron variant and expect a new surge of case growth for at least the next month. Minnesota’s previous positivity rate record come early in the pandemic in April 2020, when testing capacity was much more limited. The Minnesota Hospital Association is urging people to look for tests in settings other than hospital emergency rooms due to a high number of patients statewide.

GEORGE FLOYD-OTHER OFFICERS

Both sides seek to delay state trial for cops in Floyd death

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Prosecutors and defense attorneys for three former Minneapolis officers who are charged in the death of George Floyd are asking a judge to postpone their state trial while a federal civil rights trial goes forward. Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao are scheduled to go to trial on state charges of aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter on March 7. The three also face a federal trial on Jan. 20 on charges alleging they violated Floyd’s civil rights. Prosecutors and defense attorneys filed a request Friday to have the state trial postponed, saying it’s not known how long the federal trial will last. They’re asking for an informal conference to set a new trial date.

ASSAULT DEATH

St. Paul man charged with murder in assault

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A St. Paul man has been charged with murder after he allegedly hit a man so hard the man died a week later. The Pioneer Press reported 39-year-old Phillip Charles Jones was charged Friday with unintentional second-degree murder in connection with the death of 51-year-old Carlos Venceslado Rocha. Police went to Rocha’s apartment Dec. 20 and found his face was bloody and swollen. Medics cleared him but when officers returned to his apartment Dec. 27 to check on him they found him dead. According to a criminal complaint, others living in Rocha’s apartment said Jones hit Rocha after Rocha asked him to move his things, which were blocking a hallway.

BURNED BODY

Investigators trying to ID human remains in burned vehicle

CALEDONIA, Minn. (AP) — Investigators in southeastern Minnesota are working to identify human remains discovered in a burned vehicle. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the Houston County Sheriff’s Office received a report Wednesday morning of a burned vehicle in Beaver Creek Valley State Park outside Caledonia. Deputies discovered human remains in the vehicle. The sheriff’s office is working with the state fire marshal and the Southeastern Minnesota Medical Examiner’s Office to identify the remains.