Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As coronavirus hotspots erupted at major U.S. meatpacking plants, experts criticized extremely tight working conditions that made the factories natural high risk contagion locations. But some Midwestern politicians have pointed the finger at the workers’ living conditions, suggesting crowded homes bear some blame.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence chose not to wear a face mask Tuesday during a tour of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, an apparent violation of the world-renowned medical center’s policy requiring them.

Video feeds show that Pence did not wear a mask when he met with a Mayo employee who has recovered from COVID-19 and is now donating plasma, even though everyone else in the room appeared to be wearing one. He was also maskless when he visited a lab where Mayo conducts coronavirus tests.

(Reuters) - Big banks in the United States should raise $200 billion in capital right now amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari wrote in an op-ed for the Financial Times newspaper on.ft.com/34JV0qq.

“In 2008, U.S. taxpayers injected about $200 billion of capital to strengthen banks”, Kashkari wrote on Thursday.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — New York City was hit by the nation’s largest coronavirus jail outbreak to date this week, with at least 38 people testing positive at the notorious Rikers Island complex and nearby facilities — more than half of them incarcerated men, the board that oversees the city’s jail system said Saturday.

Another inmate, meanwhile, became the first in the country to test positive in a federal jail.

In a letter to New York’s criminal justice leaders, Board of Correction interim chairwoman Jacqueline Sherman described a jail system in crisis.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — US Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked a top Minnesota prosecutor Thursday to initiate an independent investigation into the case of Myon Burrell, a black teen sentenced to life after an 11-year-old black girl was killed by a stray bullet.

“As you are aware, significant concerns about the evidence and police investigation have been raised by a press investigation, by members of the Hennepin County community, and by Myon’s family,” she wrote in a letter to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman.

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar canceled a rally in her home state Sunday after protesters took over the stage shouting for her to drop out of the presidential race over the case of a black teen sentenced to life in prison while Klobuchar was the county’s top prosecutor.

14 Feb 2020; MEMO: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, better known as AIPAC, has been condemned as a “hate group” by US Congresswoman Betty McCollum. The Democratic representative for Minnesota denounced the pro-Israeli group in a scathing response to an advert which she described was “weaponizing anti-Semitism” to “incite followers” of the lobby group to attack her and other Democratic colleagues.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Civil rights activists and legal experts challenged Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s claims that she was unaware of questionable evidence and police tactics used to send a young black teen to prison for life when she was a top Minneapolis prosecutor.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Klobuchar denied that she had knowledge of any evidence that would call the conviction into question. But much of what The Associated Press found while investigating the case of Myon Burrell, now 33, would have been available to her office at the time.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday that she was not aware of questionable evidence and police tactics used to send a young black teen to prison for life when she was a top Minneapolis prosecutor.

But much of what The Associated Press found while investigating the case of Myon Burrell, now 33, would have been available to her office at the time.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — It was a prime-time moment for Amy Klobuchar.

Standing in the glare of television lights at a Democratic presidential debate last fall, she was asked about her years as a top Minnesota prosecutor and allegations she was not committed to racial justice.

“That’s not my record,” she said, staring into the camera.

Yes, she was tough on crime, Klobuchar said, but the African American community was angry about losing kids to gun violence. And she responded.