Screenshot via YouTube

Beant Singh Gill cut a swath of chaos through Wisconsin

​Sleepy Sikh trucker Beant Singh Gill pleaded not guilty today to a raft of charges stemming from a crazy cop chase a few weeks ago through rural Wisconsin in which authorities thought for a while that be-turbaned Canadian was hauling explosives.

His big rig was finally brought to a halt with spike strips near Sparta. When the back of his truck was opened, all there was to see were palettes of Monster energy drink.

It's not as if the whole crazy episode didn't happen, since it was recorded on video, but Gill is claiming he's not guilty of reckless endangerment, hit-and-run and other violations, by reason of mental disease or defect.

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​The Minneapolis City Council approved the settlement in its morning meeting. Jenkins gets $150,000; his lawyer gets $85,000, the Strib is reporting.

Jenkins made headlines last year when a squad car video of Minneapolis police officers beating him became public. In February, Jenkins sued the city and several police officers for violating his civil rights and using excessive force. It didn't take long for the city to settle the case.

Here's the video that shows the beating:

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Via William Mitchell College of Law

No question, the man is lightning rod

​William Mitchell constitutional law professor Peter Erlinder is no stranger to controversial causes in the United States, but his latest gambit leaves him on the hook far from home: He's been arrested in Rwanda for denying the 1994 genocide.

"He's someone who denies the genocide in his writings and his speeches. Worse than that he has become an organizer of genocide deniers," Rwanda's Public Prosecutor Martin Ngoga told AFP. "If negating (the Tutsi genocide) is not punished in his country, it is punished in Rwanda. And when he came here he knew that."

Whether or not that's what Erlinder has actually done remains to be seen. But he's defending former Rwandan army commander, and accused genocide leader, Aloys Ntabakuze at the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda. He's also defending Victoire Ingabire, who is accused of denying the genocide, collaborating with a terrorist organization and inciting ethnic hatred -- and trying to start a political party that opposes ruling forces in Rwanda. No question, the man is lightning rod.

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​There's no denying it: Boys have some weird fascination with hitting other dudes in the testicles for fun. Watching others fall over in pain is apparently extremely hilarious. Until someone loses a testicle.

David Gibbons, a 14-year-old Minnesota teen, was so injured after being part of a game of "sack tapping" that doctors had to remove one of his testicles. Doctors say he should still be able to have children some day, but we're assuming that's really the least of his worries right now.

"I don't know how to stop it," said David in a KARE 11 report. He says he's been sack tapped before and is now moving to another school district.

Dr. Scott Wheeler, a Brainerd urologist, told KARE11 he performs three to four surgeries a year on boys who end up with ruptured testicles or other problems after getting punched or kicked in the groin. Dozens of others come in with less serious injuries. More >>

Image via Keith Allison

Mauer's .338 average provides reason to smile. But is a mere 2 bombs becoming a concern?

​Joe Mauer's celebrated career is synonymous with pursuits and achievements of the record-setting variety. But said records aren't normally (if ever) of the inauspicious ilk.

To wit: Jason Kubel's dual bombs in the Twins' 8-2 stomping of the Yanks yesterday may have ended the club's nine day power-outage, but while Mauer collected a single in the needed win his own homer drought continues.

Can a guy be knocked for hitting .338 and charting sixth in the A.L. in batting while also owning a stellar .406 On Base percentage?

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Coping with the old-boy's club

​She's already peeved at the sexism in the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, and the current debate over Elena Kagan for a similar appointment, so maybe this isn't too surprising: According to a new book by Terrence Samuel, "The Upper House: A Journey Behind the Closed Doors of the U.S. Senate," Klobuchar was presiding over the heavy-on-testosterone Senate one day when a page handed her a note signed 'Anonymous' that read, 'Pull up your shirt.'"

Classy. And it gets worse:

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Mee Moua retirement announcement was a surprise

​John Harrington, who's hanging up his handcuffs as the St. Paul Chief of Police on June 30, has ended the speculation and confirmed he's going to run for the Minnesota Senate seat being vacated by Mee Moua. A DFLer in good standing, he's already won the endorsement of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association.

Moua surprised local politicos with her announcement at the end of the legislative session that she was retiring. Part of a refugee family, she was first elected in 2002, and was the highest-ranking elected official of Hmong background in the United States. In St. Paul, she's part of one of the largest concentrations of Hmong Americans in the country.

Harrington was recently considered, and passed over, for the top cop slot in New Orleans. St. Paul Assistant Police Chief Thomas Smith will replace Harrington when he retires. The Pioneer Press reports he'll face Avi Viswanathan, Jim McGowan, Vang Lor and Tom Hilber on the Aug. 10 DFL primary.

Troy Clay and Jacquelyn Williams

​What could a 6-year-old boy possibly have done to warrant being bound to a pole in the basement of his north Minneapolis home by his father and thrashed with an extension cord?

He misbehaved in school.

"There wasn't one square inch on the child's back that did not have a mark on it," from Troy Clay's abuse, Lt. Greg Reinhart told KSTP. "Mom was right there. She sat down, watched it happen and did not lift a finger to stop it, nor did she lift a hand to give this kid first aid, didn't bring him to the hospital, didn't treat him."

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Honoring the war dead shouldn't include check forgery

​One suspects that when American troops die in battle to protect truth, justice and the American way, they don't include check fraud as a value worth fighting for.

Not that that bothered three Wisconsin parolees caught trying to cash checks while passing themselves off as soldiers killed in Iraq.

Then again, this is Wisconsin, where Army Spc. Jordan Olson recently tried to pass himself off as a war hero in a parade with medals he never actually received.

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​The theocrats never quit. One pet project: Turning the U.S. military into God's army. God's on our side, you see. And Rep. Michele Bachmann has just been skunked out in an attempt to further that project.

The CD6 congresswoman tried to insert language -- without debate -- into a military spending bill for the, "Protection of the religious freedom of military chaplains."

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