Minnesota News Network

**EXTRA CUT BELOW**

Michelle Fischbach resigning her state Senate seat and officially taking the oath as lieutenant governor sets up a high-stakes special election this fall in District 13, the Payneville area. If Democrats win that election they’d re-take the majority in the Minnesota Senate, but Carleton College analyst Steven Schier says, “Fischbach got 68 percent of the vote in the last election. That is one of the reddest districts in the state, and I think very unlikely that Democrats could take that seat from the GOP.”

Patty Wetterling is one of the names being tossed around to run for the seat. Carleton College analyst Steven Schier says about that:  “Patty Wetterling has run before and has not had great electoral success, so it’s not at all clear that she would be the Democratic solution in that district.”  Wetterling ran for U-S House in Minnesota’s 6th District in 2004 but lost to Mark Kennedy, and lost to Michele Bachmann two years later.

 

 

 

A Clay County jury Friday afternoon found a man guilty of second-degree murder for fatally beating a Moorhead woman and setting her house on fire in 2016. Justin Critt faces up to 40 years in prison for the second-degree murder and first-degree arson conviction in the death of 49-year-old Melissa Willcoxon. Prosecutors say an autopsy determined the victim was hit in the head with a hammer.

 

A Hennepin County jury has found a Hopkins man guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting a man in a north Minneapolis park after robbing him. Prosecutors say 27-year-old Chance Adams will be sentenced June 13th to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. According to testimony in court, 18-year-old George Pineda and a friend were walking through Webber Park in early morning in June 2017 when Adams approached them, ordered them to the ground, robbed them and shot Pineda twice in the back. Prosecutors say with his gun out of bullets, Adams ran away.

 

A school bus driver who struck and killed a bicyclist near Macalester College in Saint Paul earlier this month will not be charged. Prosecutors say they can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Leland Jacobs was operating the bus in a grossly negligent manner. Police say two witnesses told them Jacobs had the right-of-way and 75-year-old Alan Grahn did not stop.

 

Best Buy is closing its store in the Mall of America. The retailer says that location has been a great way to showcase its brand, but they have two other stores within seven miles in Richfield and Eagan.

 

As Essentia Health announces a 675-million-dollar upgrade of its downtown Duluth campus, state Senator Erik Simonson says he’s disappointed 164 million dollars to upgrade surrounding infrastructure was *not* included in a bonding bill the legislature passed in its closing minutes. The Duluth Democrat says it makes him suspicious that it’s more about politics than policy.  Simonson says, “Any time we have a private employer that wants to make that size of investment, if we could find ways to… facilitate that growth, we should take advantage of that — much like we did in Rochester.”

Rochester Republican Senator Dave Senjem responds it’s “absolutely, certainly not politics” — and adds the measure didn’t make it out of the Tax Committee.  “That bill is very extensive — I think it’s probably a very good bill,” Senjem says, “But it doesn’t belong in the bonding bill at the last minute.”

Simonson says an opportunity was missed to time infrastructure improvements with the project start, but that he’ll try again next legislative session.

 

More in this interview with Simonson:

And Senjem: