Jensen repeats baseless story of ‘furries’ urinating in

At MPR News, Sam Stroozas reports, “At a campaign event last week Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen was filmed saying that some school districts have litter boxes for students to urinate in, as first reported by CNN. ‘Why are we telling elementary kids that they get to choose their gender this week? Why do we have litter boxes in some of the school districts so kids can pee in them because they identify as a furry? We’ve lost our minds,’ he said. … The unfounded rumor of litter boxes in classrooms isn’t new to the nation, or Minnesota. In April the Minnesota Reformer reported that Reps. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, and Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, shared the rumor on the House floor during debate on an education budget bill. The rumor has also been reported in Michigan, Iowa, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and Nebraska.”

For the Pioneer Press, Mara Gottfried writes four internal candidates and one external candidate from the Philadelphia police are the finalists St. Paul’s next chief. “The finalists will take part in public forums on Oct. 11 and 12, and interviews with Mayor Melvin Carter. He expects to make an appointment by early November at the latest, according to his spokesman.”

A Strib story by Liz Navratil says, “A two-year battle over Minneapolis police staffing levels came to an end Monday after a judge dismissed the case at the request of the city and eight North Side residents who sued. ‘We consider this a victory,’ said Doug Seaton, president of the Upper Midwest Law Center, which represented the group that sued Mayor Jacob Frey and the City Council in the summer of 2020, alleging they allowed police staffing rates to fall too low. Seaton said the residents asked for the dismissal in part because they were buoyed by recent court rulings that swung in their favor and in part because they were encouraged by a budget proposal Frey unveiled this summer.”

In The Guardian, Coral Murphy Marcus writes, “The defamation lawsuit that voting machine company Dominion is pursuing against the MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell can proceed after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the prominent Donald Trump supporter’s appeal aiming to block the case. … (federal court judge Carl) Nichols wrote in the ruling that Dominion ‘has adequately alleged that Lindell made his claims knowing that they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth’ and therefore had grounds to file a defamation lawsuit. Dominion also alleges that Lindell participated in a defamatory marketing campaign against the company in efforts to sell more pillows by telling audiences to purchase MyPillow products after making his claims of election fraud and providing promotional codes related to those theories.”

Another Strib story, this by Patrick Kennedy, says, “The S&P 500 index was down 25% through the third quarter, soured by the worst inflation in decades. This and other broad market trends played out through Minnesota’s publicly traded companies as well. Only eight Minnesota-based public companies finished the third quarter, which ended Friday, with a positive total return for the year. The Piper Sandler Minnesota Index was down 17.6% in the first three quarters. Among Minnesota’s public companies, including members of the S&P 500 index and smaller companies, 68 finished down over the first three quarters of 2022, including 60 down double digits and 14 of them down by more than 50%.”

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Jon Collins at MPR News says, “Facing a shrinking police force, a committee of the Minneapolis City Council voted Monday to move forward a proposal to expand the number of employees eligible for $7,000 retention bonuses in the department. … The proposal that moved ahead from the Policy and Government Oversight Committee Monday includes funding to add retention bonuses for 25 sworn employees who aren’t part of the union, including police chiefs, commanders and inspectors. The fiscal cost would be about $150,000, according to the city.”

At Axios, Mike Allen reports, “Eric Herschmann, a top White House lawyer to President Trump, confirms to Axios he is now lead counsel to NFL legend Brett Favre, who is embroiled in a welfare-funds scandal in his home state of Mississippi. … The lawyer concluded Favre shouldn’t be indicted, and has convincing defenses if he were. … Herschmann said, ‘Brett enthusiastically tried to help his alma mater, a public university, that needed and wanted his help.’”

For The Atlantic Dante Stewart writes, “I played Division I football as a cornerback at Clemson University. … As a former athlete whose competitiveness never goes away, I know how hard it is to recognize that a win for myself sometimes means a loss for others. (Brett) Favre knew what his power could do, but winning seems to have been the only thing on his mind. And that’s the problem with many athletes. Chasing success is so ingrained in our psyche that no win is ever enough. Favre appears to have been willing to go to the highest level of state government to finish his project at the cost of neglecting the humanity of those who exist in one of the nation’s most underprivileged regions. I bet this scandal is surprising for people who believe that the government is giving handouts only to Black and poor people. Instead it was a white millionaire football star who got the handout.”

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