Minnesota News Highlights: Omar, Officers on Trial, Budget Surplus

MINNESOTA (trfnews.i234.me) Your Minnesota news roundup on Tuesday morning.
in state news u.s representative elon omar has announced her intention to seek a third term representing minnesota’s fifth district omar was first elected to the house in 2019 was the first somali american in congress she said in a news release monday that she chose to run to help build a better world by addressing a host of issues including economic and incoming inequality and climate change her first term generated widespread attention when she launched her 2020 re-election campaign with the slogan send her back to congress a riff on comments made by then president donald trump that omar and three other congresswomen of color should go back to their countries the chief medical examiner who ruled george floyd’s death a homicide will return to the stand tuesday at the trial of three former minneapolis police officers charged with violating floyd civil rights prosecutors say thomas lane j alexander kung and tu tau deprived floyd of his rights when they failed to give him medical eye as officer derek shovin knelt on floyd’s neck kung and tao are also accused of failing to intervene defense attorneys are trying to make the case that the officer’s training was inadequate and that the police department has a culture that teaches new officers to not question their superiors they’ve said that chauvin the most senior officer in the scene took charge the day floyd was killed prosecutors say former suburban minneapolis police officer was convicted of manslaughter and the killing of dante wright should face a sentence above the state’s guidelines but defense attorneys for kim potter say she should get a lower sentence or even probation potter is the former white brooklyn center officer who said she confused her handgun with her taser when she killed wright who was black last april guidelines call for a sentence ranging from just more than six years to about eight and a half years but prosecutors say she should get more than that because she endangered others and abused her authority as an officer her attorney says wright’s actions set the incident in motion and she could not be penalized for that her sentencing is february 18th minnesota lawmakers returned to the capitol for the 2022 legislative session on monday with a 7.7 billion dollar surplus to wrestle over as they take up policy issues including frontline worker bonuses and which party has a better vision to rein in crime priorities like rising crime rates boost to education funding and reducing taxes were among the agendas of democratic governor tim walls and the divided legislatures lawmakers reconvened gop senate majority leader jeremy miller of winona said his caucus is also going to push for ongoing tax relief