Minneapolis / St. Paul News Blog

Photo by arturo ponciarelli

​When the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled last October that bong-water qualified a controlled substance, the rest of the country had a good laugh. Did the justices really think people were recreationally drinking and injecting pipe-sludge? What was next? Would the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms start regulating spittoon juice?

​Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Brainerd-area mother of four accused of illegally downloading 24 pop songs on her laptop, has once again rejected a settlement from plaintiff the Recording Industry Association of America.

A jury during the initial trial in 2007 hit Thomas-Rasset with a $212,000 fine for downloading songs from Green Day, Godsmack, Richard Marx, among others. The ruling was nullified because of botched jury instructions. The second trial resulted in a much steeper penalty--$1.92 million--but a judge last week ruled that that figure was "simply shocking," and knocked it down to $54,000.

​Removing a so-stupid-few-even-try-to-defend-it-anymore state law that bans the sales of liquor on Sundays would generate between $7.6 and $10.6 million in yearly taxes for the state, according to an analysis Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

"We've supported this in states across the country," Ben Jenkins, DISCUS's communications director, tells Politics in Minnesota. "And the facts speak for themselves."

Hilariously, the driving force behind the Sunday ban is not a mob of teetolalers or moral reformers or any other cloying busybodies, but the Distilled Spirits Council's own state-level counterparts in Minnesota.

Photo by nicotinestain

​Hennepin County District Judge Stephen Aldrich is in the crosshairs for making a joke. Near the completion of reviewing a domestic violence order for protection, he tried to cut through the tension with a self-deprecating quip.

​Months back, a peeved Illinois sheriff mounted a crusade to dismantle Craigslist's "erotic services" section. Calling the site "the single largest source of prostitution in the nation," Sheriff Tom Dart filed a suit against the single largest source of online classified ads in the world.

Image courtesy of eyeliam on Flickr

​ A Minnesota woman spent $80K to adopt three babies from Guatemala -- but the girls never came.

Suann Hibbs, a flight attendant with Northwest Airlines, fell in love with three little girls from Guatemala and wanted to adopt them. But unethical behavior by a local adoption agency -- A Family Journey -- swindled her out of nearly $80K. Hillstrom's Edina home is still packed with toys and clothes for the girls. The girls are believed to be living in Guatemala with their grandmother.

The story is told in the Strib's Sunday special and is well worth the read. It's one of the Strib's special pieces -- in the Sunday paper only -- so pick up a copy from yesterday and settle in.

So THAT'S the road...

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This may come as a bit of a shock to those of us who see gratuitous texters on the road every quarter mile, but The Strib reports that traffic deaths are down by 7 percent.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported Friday that 16,626 people died in traffic crashes between January and the end of June, a 7 percent decline from the same period last year.

Safety experts said the decline in roadway deaths followed similar patterns formed during the early 1980s and early 1990s, when sluggish economic factors led many motorists to cut back on discretionary travel. Highway deaths have dropped steadily since 2005.

Fear not, Little Stacy, Target's toy aisles are safe once again -- but it's going to cost the big-box behemoth $600,000 in what will be the 39th civil penalty handed down by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission this year.

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The Minneapolis City Attorney issued a statement this afternoon about a suit it lost to developer Brad Hoyt today. The city is not too happy with the judge's ruling.

Hoyt's attorney, William Skolnick, considers the decision by Judge Stephen Aldrich a victory because Aldrich agreed that Hoyt's rights to due process were violated in regards to a development he proposed for Loring Park. Aldrich's decision positions Skolnick to argue that Hoyt should be awarded $23.6 million in damages. Click to the earlier blog for more details on the case.

Susan Segal, Minneapolis City Attorney, focused her statement on the two claims that Hoyt lost: 1. violation of his rights under the Equal Protection clause and 2. violation of his rights to substantive due process. In dismissing these claims, the judge agreed that the city had factual reasons to deny the development application. Here's the statement Segal issued:

A judge ruled today in favor of a developer who sued the Minneapolis City Council -- targeting his claims at Councilmember Lisa Goodman -- over a Loring Park development project that was denied. Brad Hoyt is seeking $23.6 million in damages.

Hennepin County District Court Judge Stephen Aldrich found that Hoyt's right to procedural due process was violated by Goodman. The focus of Aldrich's ruling is Goodman e-mails and comments about the proposed development, known as Parc Centrale, before the project went before the Zoning and Planning Committee and the City Council.

Photo by b r e n t

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Minnesota will start enforcing some new laws Saturday. It's time to make sure you're up to date so you don't get busted doing something stupid. We've picked out some of the most notable to keep all of our readers law-abiding citizens. You might even get a good life boost from some of these laws meant to protect Minnesota residents.

Photo by Thunderchild tm

It's July 1 and that means Minnesota has new laws you might want to know about so you don't get busted breaking them.

We probably should have told you about all of these things yesterday so you could fully appreciate life before the new laws, but reminiscing about the "old days" is so much more fun. Remember when you didn't have to move over for emergency boats while out on the water? Those were the days.

We've collected a list of things you could have done yesterday, but today you would be breaking the law.

Just in time for Christmas stocking stuffers, 'fire safe' cigarettes are now available in Minnesota. The cigarettes comply with a new state law going into effect Dec. 1 that requires all cigarettes to be fire safe, according to KSTP.

Last July, CP wrote about one of our favorite local MMA fighters, Nick "The Goat" Thompson, and how he had to regroup from a loss to battle the Minnesota bar, the mother of all exams. This weekend, CP received awesome news from his wife, Molly. Her comments after the jump...

When I started working on this story, I interviewed several folks who were instrumental in the conceal carry argument back in 2003. Those interviews ended up being very helpful background, but because of limited space and the focus of the article, much from those interviews didn't end up getting used directly. Nonetheless, these folks said some interesting things about conceal carry, gun rights, and public safety in Minnesota.

Wes Skoglund, former state senator

Though Minnesota seems to have gotten tired of arguing over conceal carry, Wes Skoglund has lost none of his passion on the issue, and he still thinks the law is a terrible thing for Minnesota.

"I've spent my career trying to make Minnesota safer," he says. "I don't think there's anyone who drives down the freeway who thinks they're safer thinking the guy next to them has a pistol on the seat. I don't. If the legislature put the energy into kids that it does to guns, we'd have a much better state."

According to abovethelaw.com, two female summer associates at Minneapolis firm Lindquist & Vennum were fired last week after drunkenly kissing each other at a post-work function.

The legal gossip blog says it has a half dozen sources confirming the incident and subsequent firing.

We have little to add to this story at present, other than to say we've confirmed that while there used to be 10 summer associates at the firm, there are now eight. Once we have comment from folks at the firm, assuming they return our calls, we will let you know what we know.

UPDATE after the jump:

Last year, Aitkin-based wholesaler Lake States Lumber bought and sold 530,000 feet of ponderosa pine paneling slathered in a coat of Sherwin-Williams' Sher-Wood Tiecoat primer.

According to a lawsuit filed by the lumber company in federal court in June, not long after the paneling was installed in hundreds of dens, studies, and cabins around Minnesota and beyond, it turned an "undesirable shade of yellow," triggering more than 80 angry complaints from people unprepared for their homey new walls to morph into grand homages to Big Bird. It gets worse:

Being hounded by a debt collector? Learn your rights. You can read about them here, at the Federal Trade Commission, or get in touch with these people, the National Consumer Law Center. Have a question you want to ask ACA International? You can find them here. Pete Barry, for his part, can be located here.

In case you missed it, you can find our story about Pete Barry and the debt collection industry here, as well as a slideshow chronicling his method of going after debt collectors here.

Lastly, be sure to click through past the jump for a couple of amazing vintage debt collection postcards, an early example of debt collectors using shame as a tactic to collect payment.

You've probably seen this story about the man who sneak-attacked and beat up his public defender in court. But did you read it until the end?

Yesterday’s Strib contained an interesting little diddy via the AP pertaining to smoking bans in bars and restaurant. The story’s crux—a recently Massachussettes study suggests the smoking ban disuades teens from becoming smokers—bolsters the idea that smoking bans have largely succeeded in promoting health.

Both supporters and opponents of the ban point to various studies backing their respective positions. (Anti-ban contrarians embrace this one linking bans to an increase in drunk driving deaths.) No matter your position vis-à-vis The Ban, it seems the greatest-good/utilitarian argument is the only rhetorical tool on the proverbial toolbelt.

That in mind, we decided to examine the philosophical underpinnings of The Ban... and pick them apart. Why? Because apparently we are contrarians.