🦄 Corporations, Investigative

How Target Funded a ‘Tough On Crime’ Prosecutor’s Office, Driving Black Youth Incarceration in Minneapolis 

Minneapolis, MN — Target Corp. pioneered the Community Prosecution Program in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) more than two decades ago during the era of mass incarceration. As part of a broad anti-crime campaign that employed new advanced technology and reshaped the criminal justice…

🦄 Police

Murder Charges Filed on Trooper Who Fatally Shot Ricky Cobb II

Minneapolis, MN — Less than six months after Ricky Cobb II, 33, was fatally shot by Minnesota State Patrol troopers, Ryan Londregan has been formally charged with three felonies, including murder. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced on January 24, 2024, that her office filed…

🦄 Eco

Protests Against Smith Foundry, Ex-EPA Scientist Calls Pollution Regulations a ‘Smokescreen’

Minneapolis, MN -- On January 11, 2024, community members gathered to discuss the future of the Smith Foundry in Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood. The iron-casting facility has been found to violate health regulations, thereby likely threatening the well-being of people living nearby. In November, residents had called for the closure of the foundry after discovering records from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicating that the company had been exceeding Minnesota emission limits of particulate matter since 2018 — without notifying the state.

🦄 Land & Housing, Protest & Direct Action

Camp Nenookaasi, a Beacon of Hope to the Unhoused, Faces Eviction

Camp Nenookaasi is throwing the subject of Minneapolis’ encampment policies into the spotlight again as it faces eviction on December 19. The camp’s supporters are waging the latest skirmish in a longer fight between the city’s prohibition of encampments and those who claim that allowing encampments to remain intact is the most humane approach to the issue, as well as a crucial first step toward getting people into stable housing and recovery programs. 

🦄 Community, Police

Film: An Infamous Precinct in Ruins and a Community Organizing Itself

Minneapolis, MN — Minneapolis has decided on a new site for housing its police department’s 3rd Precinct. Three and a half years after thousands of community members ransacked and torched the precinct at 3000 Minnehaha Avenue during the George Floyd Uprising, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey…