Lamborghini towed at University of St. Thomas [PHOTO]

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Attention: If you are the owner of this white Lamborghini, it has been towed.
Now here's something you don't see every day: A Lamborghini being towed away.

The white Lambo was the talk of the University of St. Thomas campus on Friday after it was towed away in front of the stunned eyes of dozens of students, many of whom likely ate Ramen for lunch.

"Apparently there were multiple squad cars and two tow trucks there at one point," says University of St. Thomas student Bianca Jones. "They were obviously afraid of doing ANY type of damage."
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Controversial bill easing "deadly force" requirements advancing through legislature

Categories: Law
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The Defense of Dwelling and Person Act would broaden the range of situation in which deadly force can be lawfully used.
A controversial piece of legislation that would broaden the rights of property owners to use deadly force was approved yesterday by a Senate committee, setting the stage for the bill to come before the entire Senate.

Under current law, deadly force is justified when there is good reason to believe you're under threat of great bodily harm or death, or to prevent a felony from occurring in your dwelling. But anyone who uses deadly force has a legal obligation to show that they were under threat of great bodily harm.

The Minnesota Defense of Dwelling and Person Act flips the obligation around. The bill would create the presumption that someone who uses deadly force believes they're under threat of great bodily harm, which would make it more difficult to prosecute people for shooting and perhaps killing intruders.

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Amanda Tatro, still upset about Facebook-post punishment, may appeal to U.S. Supreme Court

Categories: Law
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Amanda Tatro: Were her quasi-threatening Facebook posts protected speech?
Amanda Tatro is still upset the University of Minnesota disciplined her for tongue-perhaps-in-cheek Facebook posts threatening violence against an ex-boyfriend. So upset, in fact, that she may end up appealing her case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Minnesota Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Tatro's case this morning. Last summer, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that the U of M was justified in punishing Tatro for the ill-advised posts, but the state Supreme Court agreed to hear her appeal.

In November 2009, Tatro, then a 29-year-old mortuary science grad student at the U, posted Facebook status updates where she threatened to take sharp embalming tools to her ex.

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Shana Buchanan, extremely lazy Twin Cities lawyer, could be disbarred

Categories: Law
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Facebook
Shana Buchanan is allegedly the laziest attorney on God's green earth.
If the allegations made by the Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board are true, Shana Gail Buchanan had a pretty nice racket going for herself.

Over the past three years, Buchanan repeatedly agreed to take on a client's appeal, got paid -- then did absolutely no legal work and ignored her clients' efforts to communicate with her.

This couldn't go on forever, of course, and now the Responsibility Board is seeking public discipline against her -- meaning she could be disbarred from practicing law in Minnesota.

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City of Edina finally moving toward legalizing happy hour

Categories: Booze, Law
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Soon, you might actually be able to buy something cheap in Edina.
Twenty years after restaurants with on-sale liquor licenses were first allowed to open in the city, Edina is finally moving toward legalizing happy hours.

What sorts of wacky policy innovations will council members in the land of 50th & France and the Galleria think of next?

KSTP reports that the Minnesota Restaurant Association is working with the city on a solution to the no-happy hour problem, which it sees as a competitive disadvantages for restaurants there (Edina doesn't allow bars).

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Hennepin County Judge Lloyd Zimmerman: Gun violence a possibility at local courts

Categories: Law
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Judge Zimmerman: worried about being shot in Hennepin County courtrooms.
A Hennepin County judge is worried could be "carried out in a body bag" when hearing cases at Brookdale, so he's refusing to hear cases there anymore.

It appears Judge Lloyd Zimmerman's strategy has paid dividends, at least for him. His act of civil disobedience resulted in him being reassigned to hear cases in more secure courtrooms.

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Rickia Russell wins $1 million police brutality settlement after burns from flashbang grenade

Categories: Law, Police
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The flash-bang grenade caused third-degree burns to Rickia Russell's calf.
At around 8:30 p.m., two days after Valentine's last year, Rickia Russell was at her boyfriend's home. It was a week after her birthday, and they were settled in for the night with a friend. They drank vodka and dug into a steaming pot of jambalaya.

The apartment, at 5753 Sanders Drive in south Minneapolis, wasn't exactly a luxury building. Drug dealers used the lobby as their office. So when Russell heard footsteps pounding down the hallway, she didn't think much of it.

Suddenly, she heard a loud boom. The front door of the apartment swung open. Cops holding a battering ram stood in the gap. An officer in a helmet, goggles, and riot gear stood at the threshold. He looked right at her and, with an underhanded toss, lobbed a flash-bang grenade. More >>

Keith Dodson ordered to pay $65,000 for invading privacy of live-in nannies

Categories: Law

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Flickr, Eriwst.
The lawsuit alleged Keith Dodson masturbated with the nannies' underwear.
​In an unusual invasion of privacy case, a Prior Lake man was ordered to pay $65,000 last month for intruding on two women living in his house.

Keith Dodson entered the rooms of two live-in nannies hired to watch his kids without permission, rummaged through their drawers, and masturbated with their underwear garments, according to allegations in the civil lawsuit.

"It was very disgusting and disturbing," says one of the women, who was not named given the nature of the case. "It wasn't just a random stranger. It was someone that I lived with and watched his kids."

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Tony Webster alleges security flaw in Minnesota DVS

Categories: Blogs/Web, Law
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Tony Webster says the online crash database violates Minnesota data laws.
Last week the Minnesota Department of Public Safety disabled a database following an allegation that a security flaw left private information of Minnesota drivers "vulnerable" to public access.

Tony Webster, a web developer and online security researcher from Minneapolis, filed a complaint after discovering he only needed a driver's license number to unlock a wealth of data from a state crash report website, including a driver's insurance policy information, license plate number, home address, and other details related to past car accidents.

Webster says it would be easy for the wrong person to access this information, and he believes some of it violates state data privacy laws.

"If you're a victim of harassment, identity theft, domestic abuse, any of this information could be easily abused," says Webster. "And those are the people most likely to have your driver's license number."

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Frontier Communications sued for taxing internet access

Categories: How We Live, Law
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Frontier Communications allegedly collected taxes it shouldn't have.
A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that Frontier Communications illegally collected sales tax on Internet bills.

The suit also alleges that Frontier "improperly applied" a number of fees to its customers, including a "911 fee" and "universal service fees."

The lawsuit, filed by Nichols Kaster on behalf of three Minnesota customers and a New Yorker, claims that Frontier Communications violated the Internet Tax Freedom Act as well as the Federal Communications Act by including Internet charges on its sales tax charges.

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