City of Minneapolis Officer Mohamed Noor

Don Davis of the Forum News Service reports on Gov. Mark Dayton’s reaction to the latest police shooting in the state: “Minnesota law enforcement officers are not trigger happy, Gov. Mark Dayton says, but money lawmakers approved for police training earlier this year could help them react appropriately to instances like have resulted in civilian deaths in recent years. ‘I think most Minnesota law enforcement is very well trained and conducts itself very responsibly,’ the governor told reporters Wednesday, after he was asked about the death of Justine Damond when a Minneapolis police officer shot her late Saturday.” Duly noted. What about taking a closer look at hiring and training?

Conspicuous by its silence. Libor Jany of the Strib says, “In the days since the shooting on the city’s southwest side, Minneapolis Police Federation President Lt. Bob Kroll has repeatedly declined requests for comment on the shooting of the 40-year-old woman by officer Mohamed Noor. … When pressed on the union’s silence, Kroll said this week that he was vilified after he publicly defended the two officers involved in the November 2015 shooting of Jamar Clark.”

Australian radio host Richard Glover explains why Australians are so confused by the death of Damond, in a commentary published in The Washington Post: “Australians are astounded and baffled by U.S. police shootings and by the level of gun crime generally. We also cannot understand how the officer concerned has — so far at least — refused to give evidence about what happened. … In Australia, as a serving police officer, Noor would have instantly been required to answer the questions of his superiors. … Damond’s death has prompted examinations of how Australian police approach the use of force. Unlike the British police force, our uniformed officers carry guns — but they rarely use them. One recent study from the Australian Institute of Criminology concluded there are about five deaths each year at the hands of a police officer, nationwide, in a country of 24 million.”

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A toolkit too far? The Strib’s Beatrice Dupuy reports: “A Minnesota Department of Education advisory council voted to approve a new toolkit for ‘Safe and Supportive Schools for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students’ in front of a room of more than 200 opponents and advocates of LGBTQ issues Wednesday. … The toolkit, approved by the School Safety Technical Assistance Council, is a nonbinding guide with information about providing welcoming environments for all students and guidelines for school officials to support transgender and gender-nonconforming students. … Opponents said it goes too far.”

Too soon. Frederick Melo writes in the PiPress: “The St. Paul City Council will spend the next week mulling over the latest proposal for organized residential trash collection, which has received mixed reaction from residents and haulers. Following a heavily attended public hearing, the council chose Wednesday to hold off on voting on whether to enter into final negotiations for a five-year or seven-year contract with the city’s 15 private haulers, a proposal hammered out across nearly 11 months of difficult negotiations.”

But you just got here! ESPN’s Marly Rivera tells us, “Minnesota Twins pitcher Bartolo Colon is considering retirement, and he said his next start against the Los Angeles Dodgers could be a determining factor in making a decision. The veteran pitcher revealed to ESPN that while he is grateful for the opportunity to be part of the Twins’ rotation, the poor results he’s having this year are making him think about retiring. The only thing keeping Colon, 44, on a major league mound is a promise he made to his mother, who died in August 2014 while he was with the New York Mets.”

If you like it … it’s okay, I guess. The Strib’s Sharyn Jackson gives a plug to a local novelty shop, saying, “Minnesotans’ renowned passive-aggressiveness is practically an art form. So why not stamp it on a T-shirt? Joel and Lauren Gryniewski, the husband-and-wife team behind sassy greeting card company Old Tom Foolery, are celebrating locals’ penchant for not really saying what they mean with a T-shirt that’s as Minnesota Nice as it gets. It says: ‘Keep Minnesota Passive-Aggressive. (Or not. Whatever you think is best.)’”

Owners win. Says Eric Roper for the Strib, “Rental licensing rules in cities across Minnesota survived a legal challenge Tuesday, when the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that routine inspections do not infringe on tenant privacy rights. The case had attracted the interest of prominent libertarian, and privacy- and tenant-rights groups, testing the foundations of how cities regulate rental properties. It was filed on behalf of two Golden Valley landlords and their tenants, who refused an inspection of their duplex apartment.”