Crime, Law and Justice

Judge Kevin Ross wrote in a Dec. 10 opinion that a person driving with a windshield crack violates the law only when "its size, severity, or shape, limits or obstructs the driver's vision."
Protesters question Sherburne Co.'s role in holding immigration detainees
Residents of Sherburne County have long accepted the county's contracts to house federal inmates in their local jail. But a couple Elk River churches have started questioning the county's role in housing ICE detainees and holding vigils to oppose a jail expansion.
St. Paul police Chief Todd Axtell called the movie trailer among the first intended specifically to tell women that they have a place in a field that has been traditionally considered male-dominated and unwelcoming.
Minnesota officials consider how to reduce prison populations
A bipartisan bill aimed at reducing prison populations appears likely to become law and could affect some of the roughly 2,400 federal inmates housed in Minnesota. But a larger number of prisoners go through state courts and are housed in state facilities.
Federal prosecutors say they'll ask an appeals court to reinstate genital mutilation charges thrown out by a Detroit federal judge. The girls were from Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. There still are some other charges in the case.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services has surprised people in the criminal justice system with an abrupt termination of efforts to restore competency in defendants ruled incompetent to stand trial.