January 6, 2005 - St. Paul civil rights leaders are demanding an officer who allegedly maced an 85-year-old man be fired. They also want the federal Department of Justice to investigate possible civil rights violations. The demands stem from the arrest last week of Leon Nins as he was taking food to his wife in a nursing home. Officer Michael Lee pulled Nins over for a traffic violation. Nins then says Lee handcuffed him, used a chemical irritant and beat him on the legs and arms with his baton. Friends of Nins' from his church and his family stood by him at a press conference today. His son, Thomas Nins, a Baptist pastor from Connecticut, says he can't understand how his father posed any threat that warranted the officer's reaction.
January 6, 2005 - An 85-year-old man arrested for assaulting a St. Paul police officer says he did nothing to warrant being beaten and sprayed with a chemical irritant. Leon Nins was taking lunch to his wife in a nursing home when he was stopped by Officer Michael Lee. Nins says he couldn't understand why Lee got out of his unmarked squad car yelling at him. Nins claims Lee sprayed and beat him with a baton after he was handcuffed.
January 7, 2005 - Mainstreet Radio's Tom Robertson reports that Governor Tim Pawlenty and leaders of three northern Minnesota Indian tribes say they were pleased with an historic meeting on the White Earth Reservation. Much of the discussion centered on the governor's push to change the landscape of casino gambling in the state.
January 7, 2005 - St.Paul's police chief rejects a call from civil rights leaders to fire an officer involved in a scuffle last week with an 85-year-old man. Chief John Harrington says Officer Mike Lee acted appropriately when the man, Leon Nins, refused to cooperate during a traffic stop and began kicking the officer. Lee ended up using pepper spray to subdue Nins. Harrington says officials plan to charge Nins with assaulting an officer.
January 10, 2005 - The St. Paul officer at the center of a police brutality complaint against an 85-year-old man will face a federal civil rights trail in an earlier case. The US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled officer Michael Lee and the St. Paul Police Department are not immune from a civil rights complaint in the 2001 shooting of Charles Craighead. Lee mistook Craighead for a car jacker and fatally shot him. Craighead was wrestling over a gun with the suspected carjacker. Frederick Goetz is the attorney for Craighead's family. He says the ruling provides an opportunity to air the facts of the case.
January 10, 2005 - A federal court ruled today that St. Paul officer Michael Lee will go to trial for alleged civil rights violations related to a 2001 shooting. Lee made news last week in a separate incident when he got into a scuffle with an 85-year-old man.
January 11, 2005 - Mainstreet Radio's Annie Baxter reports that the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is holding firm on its stand not to share casino revenues with the state. Mille Lacs' tribal chair Melanie Benjamin gave her "State of the Band" address and praised the band for protecting its 'economic livelihood' from Governor Pawlenty and the Legislature…but Benjamin made another announcement that still keeps the Band involved in the casino profit sharing debate.
January 11, 2005 - The St. Paul officer at the center of a police brutality complaint against an 85-year-old man will face a federal civil rights trail in an earlier case. The U-S Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled officer Michael Lee and the St. Paul Police Department are not immune from a civil rights complaint in the 2001 shooting of Charles Craighead. Lee mistook Craighead for a car jacker and fatally shot him. Craighead was wrestling over a gun with the suspected carjacker. Frederick Goetz is the attorney for Craighead's family. He says the ruling provides an opportunity to air the facts of the case.
January 11, 2005 - A federal court ruled today that St. Paul officer Michael Lee will go to trial for alleged civil rights violations related to a 2001 shooting. Lee made news last week in a separate incident when he got into a scuffle with an 85-year-old man.
January 14, 2005 - It is the stuff of legend among Bob Dylan devotees - an early recording of Dylan singing folk songs with friends in a Dinkytown apartment. But apparently only a few diehards have ever heard the so-called "Minnesota Party Tape." Until now. The tape has surfaced and is available for public listening. The Minnesota Historical Society has acquired the tape from Minnesotan Cleve Pettersen, who in 1960, thought it would be a good idea to record some local music acts in the Dinkytown area of Minneapolis on his new tape recorder.