Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis Settles Suit Alleging Journalists Were Harassed, Hurt Covering Floyd Protests

Published

1 year ago

February 14, 2024

Minneapolis Settles Suit Alleging Journalists Were Harassed, Hurt Covering Floyd Protests

The city of Minneapolis agreed last week to pay $950,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that journalists were subjected to police harassment and even hurt while covering protests over the police killings of George Floyd.

The suit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and pro bono attorneys, was one of several filed against law enforcement for alleged constitutional violations involving the use of force in 2020. Several journalists reported being struck by less-lethal munitions and being herded and detained while covering protests.

The lead plaintiff, Jared Goyette, said he was “shot in the face with less-lethal ballistic ammunition” by Minneapolis police while covering the protests as a freelancer for the Washington Post and the Guardian.

More protests erupted after Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by an officer in Brooklyn Center in April 2021. During the demonstrations, some officers could be seen spraying a chemical on protesters. And the ACLU added the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office to the suit then.

Now reporting in Ukraine and Croatia, Goyette said in a statement that he had hope that the case and other efforts would “lead to a future where Minneapolis law enforcement is less likely to recklessly infringe upon First Amendment rights and assault and intimidate journalists.”

The ACLU said in a news release that the award, which the city council approved on a 13-0 vote, will be divided among Goyette, seven other journalists and the media and communications labor union Communications Workers of America.

It’s just the latest settlement in the lawsuit. The former head of the Minneapolis police union, Bob Kroll, will not be allowed to serve as a police officer in three Minnesota counties for the next decade as part of a settlement last year. The lawsuit alleged Kroll was an “unofficial policymaker” for the police department. Kroll retired in January 2021. He did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.

And the state of Minnesota agreed in 2022 to pay $825,000 and change several policies to settle its part in the lawsuit. That deal also prohibits the Minnesota State Patrol from attacking journalists, arresting or threatening to arrest them, ordering them to disperse, seizing their equipment and more.

But the ACLU said the city and its police department did not agree to make any reforms as part of the latest settlement.

“If it’s not clear to police yet, let’s say it again: Law enforcement cannot target, arrest, and attack journalists who are just doing their jobs, holding government accountable,” said ACLU-MN Legal Director Teresa Nelson, in a statement.

The lawsuit continues against the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and its former sheriff, Dave Hutchinson.

City spokesperson Casper Hill said the city had no comment on the litigation or settlement. The sheriff’s office, did not immediately respond to requests Thursday afternoon for comment from The Associated Press.

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Minneapolis, MN

Delta flight bound for MSP almost hits military jet

Published

1 hour ago

March 29, 2025

Press Room

Delta flight bound for MSP almost hits military jet

A Delta Air Lines plane bound for Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport nearly hit a military jet on Friday above the Ronald Reagan National Airport on Friday. This is close to where 67 people were killed in a mid-air collision with a military helicopter in January.

Posted March 29, 2025 9:27am CDT

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Minneapolis, MN

George Foreman's daughter in Minneapolis remembers her dad

Published

13 hours ago

March 28, 2025

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George Foreman's daughter in Minneapolis remembers her dad

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A Minnesota woman is grieving the death of her father – legendary boxer and heavyweight champ George Foreman – after he died in Texas last week.

Daughter remembers Joe Foreman

What we know:

Most of us knew him from moments like The Rumble in the Jungle.

But Michi Foreman who knew him as simply as “dad.”

“He was a big kid, he played with us like he was one of the kids and all of a sudden try to be serious,” Michi Foreman tells FOX 9.

Final moments with her father

What they’re saying:

Now Michi is mourning the loss of her father, who she says lived an extraordinary life.

“The last time I saw my father, the life was sort of just not there,” said Foreman.

She tells FOX 9 her father was more than just someone who took on Muhammad Ali.

He was a pillar in her life, a preacher, and someone who often gave her wisdom. She believes his cause of death was from all those years in the ring.
“I told my brothers and sister, I said he’s tired. And they were like, yeah, but he’s still fighting. I said, sit back and let God do his work. And two hours later, he was gone,” said Foreman.

Foreman fighting as dad

A daddy’s girl:

Michi says she has known her father to be a fighter since she was little. She went to see her father fight during his comeback, but it wasn’t easy.

“You can’t see someone you love like that get hit,” said Foreman.

She remembers when he became the champ once again.

“Everybody was cheering for him, and he won the second time the championship of the world. Went straight down to his knees after the fight, and prayed and thanked God,” said Foreman.

Michi also talked about how her father was sensitive and cared about people.

Whenever a celebrity was going through adversity, he’d give them a call to check on them.

Naming of the sons

Dig deeper:

Foreman has seven daughters and five sons. All of the sons are named after him.

“He was like, well, I don’t want any of my sons to feel like they’re less than the other one,” said Foreman.

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Minneapolis, MN

Did Twin Cities residents really once burn their own trash in the driveway?

Published

1 day ago

March 28, 2025

Press Room

Did Twin Cities residents really once burn their own trash in the driveway?

In 1971, both Minneapolis and St. Paul began enforcing the rule in earnest.

A cruise along 36 miles of alleys in St. Paul in 1971 turned up only one smoking trash burner on the first day of enforcement of the burning ban. (Powell Krueger)

The practice faded away in city and suburban neighborhoods. In the 1980s, state lawmakers passed a statute that gave some farmers an exemption to burn or bury their trash as long as their county didn’t have an ordinance banning it.

A later statute, however, banned the burning of “plastics, chemically treated materials, or other materials which produce excessive or noxious smoke.”

Since that definition applies to most household garbage today, burning it is “illegal in nearly all cases, even if a county has not passed a resolution to ban it,” according to MPCA spokesperson Michael Rafferty. People can get permits to burn plant material or untreated wood, though.

Waste is trucked in before being going into a boiler and being converted into energy at the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center, or HERC, in 2023. (David Joles/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency research, burn barrels are the nation’s top source of a carcinogen called dioxin, and can also produce carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and a host of poisonous chemicals.

In Hennepin County today, a sizable percentage of residents’ trash is still being burned. Not in driveway barrels, but in a municipal trash incinerator called the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. For years, environmental activists have been pushing for the center to be closed.

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