Daily Digest: Responses to sexual assault investigation
Just another summer Tuesday on the campaign trail. Here's a recap:
1. Jeff Johnson wants more regulatory and individual freedoms -- but not more pot. As governor, Republican-endorsed governor candidate Jeff Johnson said he would try to end a state refugee resettlement program and tamp down on government intrusion in business and individual lives, but he wouldn't support a move to make recreational marijuana legal in Minnesota. Johnson, who is serving his last term on the Hennepin County Board, is in the final sprint of a heated, Aug. 14 primary race for governor against former Gov. Tim Pawlenty. He participated in a wide-ranging interview with MPR's Kerri Miller on Monday. See where he stands on some of the big issues in the race. (MPR News)
2. Erin Murphy vows to change the process for investigating sexual assault. The DFL candidate for Minnesota governor is calling for sweeping changes in the way law enforcement agencies investigate sexual assault. She outlined her plan Monday in response to a Star Tribune report that sexual assaults statewide are being investigated poorly or not at all. Murphy is proposing uniform training requirements for police and a mandate that an investigator is assigned to every rape case. (MPR News)
3. And more public officials call sexual assault stories "horrific." Legislators and law enforcement leaders from across the political spectrum expressed outrage on Monday and said Minnesota must do better, one day after the Star Tribune report documenting chronic breakdowns in the way sexual assaults are investigated across the state. State Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, a member of the Public Safety Committee, said she was “shocked and outraged’’ by the newspaper’s findings and said she expects her committee to address the issue in the next legislative session. (Star Tribune)
4. The number of majority-minority school districts in Minnesota has doubled in the last five years. There are now 27 majority-minority school districts in Minnesota — double the number there was just five years ago. Today, nearly a quarter of students in public school districts in Minnesota are in majority-minority districts.Perhaps the most striking thing about the state’s increasingly diverse districts, however, isn’t just the number but how spread out they are. Twenty years ago, the state’s majority-minority districts were exactly where you might expect them to be: In Minneapolis, St. Paul and near American Indian reservations. Now, though, they’re also located in Twin Cities suburbs, and in places like St. Cloud, Willmar and Faribault — cities in corners of the state that have growing populations of immigrants and refugees from Latin America, Africa and Asia. (MinnPost)
5. What’s it like inside Minnesota’s most secure computer room? The “Tier 3 Data Center” contains a warehouse full of servers with stuff like Social Security numbers, bank routing numbers, credit card numbers, tax forms, driver’s license data, addresses and phone numbers for untold numbers of residents, employees and others doing business with the state. So is it a concrete bunker? Armed guards? Military-style? In exchange for getting inside the building to see what the standard-bearer for cybersecurity looks and feels like, the Pioneer Press agreed to divulge only limited information, and take photographs vetted by MNIT, the state’s information technology agency. Here's what they say. (Pioneer Press)
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