At Senator Westrom’s St. Paul office, visitors are greeted by the classic Minnesota state flag, which the DFL leaders should not have taken away from Minnesotans.

However, local communities have the authority to keep flying it, like many have done, and Senator Westrom encourages communities interested in keeping it to do so.

News-Tribune, June 22, 1926

More Duluthians cast votes in yesterday’s primary election than in any primary in the city’s history. Statewide, the “wets” had their day, with M.J. Maas of St. Paul, a “light wine and beer” candidate, appearing victorious in the 4th Congressional District, and W.A. Pittenger of Duluth, similarly regarded as a “wet,” taking a commanding lead in the 8th.

News-Tribune, June 22, 1956

Following the deaths of a pilot and eight civilians in a crash in a residential area near Wold Chamberlain Field in Minneapolis, Duluth Mayor Eugene Lambert filed a request with the U.S. Air Force and Navy that jet training operations be transferred to Duluth, where congestion is less of a problem.

News-Tribune, June 22, 1976

Ralph Nader named Duluth environmentalist Arlene Lehto one of America’s five “unsung heroines” for her contributions to pollution abatement. Lehto in 1969 organized the Save Lake Superior Association to fight pollution in the lake.

News Tribune, June 22, 2006

Duluth City Councilor Russ Stewart will present an ordinance to the council that extends the city’s existing standards for adult bookstores to adult entertainment. The move would allow the 62-year-old Club Saratoga to continue operation in the face of a state law prohibiting strip clubs within 500 feet of a residence or within 2,800 feet of churches and schools.

Barrett Chase has been web editor for the News Tribune since 2015. You can email him at bchase@duluthnews.com or call him at 218-723-5310.

Federal prosecutors are continuing to dismiss charges initially brought against people in Minnesota for allegedly assaulting federal officers during the winter. 

WCCO dug through court filings and identified at least 18 people whose cases are now dropped. A federal judge officially dismissed the charges for 15 of them; three are pending a judge’s approval after prosecutors filed motions to dismiss the charges. At least 17 cases are still pending, with judges denying defense dismissal motions in several of them. 

Richard Painter, a legal expert with the University of Minnesota and former chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said that it’s clear to him that federal prosecutors brought several cases forward without sufficient evidence. 

“It appears that the United States Attorney’s Office in Minnesota is bringing some weak cases against protestors,” Painter said, adding that he believes that there was pressure from the Trump administration to charge people. 

According to court records, defense and government attorneys alike asked for case dismissals for a variety of reasons. 

Juan Carlos Rodriguez Romero was accused in December of ramming into ICE vehicles in St. Paul, prompting an ICE agent to fire his weapon, hitting no one. On June 8, United States Attorney Daniel Rosen signed off on a dismissal motion based in part because prosecutors “thoroughly reassessed the evidence” and concluded that they were not confident that they could obtain and sustain a conviction against Rodriguez Romero. 

In January, ICE leadership acknowledged that ICE agent Christian Castro may have lied under oath about what happened the night he shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in north Minneapolis. This led to the assault charges against Sosa-Celis and another man being dropped; Castro is now facing charges in Hennepin County for the shooting and for falsely reporting a crime.

Just a week after that incident, federal officers said Paul Johnson violently resisted arrest in north Minneapolis. On Thursday, Rosen signed a motion to dismiss the charges against Johnson. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota acknowledged issues raised by Johnson and his legal team, including allegations that agents shackled him to a bed at HCMC without access to his phone for days. 

“Based on newly received discovery, the government intends to pursue an investigation into allegations raised in Mr. Johnson’s filings; therefore the interests of justice support dismissal of this case,” Rosen’s motion reads in Johnson’s case. 

In the more than 30 cases WCCO reviewed, one name appeared across a variety of different cases. HSI Special Agent Richard Berger submitted sworn affidavits prompting probable cause for the arrest of Johnson and nine others, whose charges were ultimately dismissed. Berger submitted affidavits in at least 12 cases that are still ongoing. 

In a hearing in Gillian Etherington’s case in April, which is still ongoing, U.S. District Court Magistrate David Schultz said that he became “concerned with the veracity” of multiple affidavits related to federal officer assault cases that came from Berger. Schultz said that in multiple instances, Berger “did not have any personal knowledge of the events described in the affidavits that he has submitted to this court as sworn affidavits.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security ignored questions from WCCO about whether there has been an internal review of incident reports or legal filings. The spokesperson instead provided a statement describing Johnson, who prosecutors are dropping the federal case against, as an “anti-ICE rioter.” 

U.S. prosecutors in Minnesota on Tuesday announced charges against 15 people they say conspired to “violently oppose immigration law enforcement,” though Rosen failed to describe a single example of injuries to federal agents when repeatedly questioned.

When asked what makes the latest slate of indictments different than other cases that have been dropped, Rosen said he doesn’t think any cases have “failed in any way.”

“Read the indictment and you’ll understand the magnitude of this case,” Rosen said. “You watch how this case plays out, you watch how the evidence plays out and the evidence will prove it all out.”