MPR News AM Update: St. Paul sees 7th killing this month

A man in a police uniform looks off camera left and speaks into a mic.
St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell speaks at a press conference Tuesday.
Evan Frost | MPR News

Good morning! Welcome to Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

St. Paul police are investigating the seventh gun death in the city this month. It’s the 21st homicide this year and it happened in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood last night. Police haven’t said much so far, but family members say the victim was a 36-year-old man.

Al Franken is back … as a satellite radio host. He’ll return to the public eye hosting a weekly show on SiriusXM. Franken says he hasn’t had any potential guest on the show turn him down due to the sexual misconduct allegations that pushed him to resign his Senate seat in 2017.

Jim Hagedorn under fire for linking Elizabeth Warren to Nazis. The Republican congressman from southern Minnesota received sharp criticism for calling the Democratic presidential contender a “national socialist” on his Facebook page.

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A fourth U.S. president will face impeachment proceedings. First it was Andrew Johnson. Then Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Now, President Trump faces an impeachment probe of his own over reports he pressured the Ukranian leader to investigate Joe Biden, a contender to take Trump’s office in the 2020 election, and his son. Here’s how Ukraine, Trump and the Bidens are all connected.

St. Paul leaders release fatal police shooting footage, but that doesn’t stop the questions. The video made public Tuesday shows Roland Davis approach officer Steven Mattson with a knife in his hand. Mattson shoots Davis dead when he doesn’t obey a command to drop the knife. Police chief Todd Axtell defended his officer as activists continued to question the killing. Mayor Melvin Carter backed Mattson, too: “I can’t see anything else we would have expected him to do.”

How do you help people sleeping along a bike trail? Hennepin County officials are trying to figure it out as a growing number of people take nightly shelter in thick brush and beneath bridges along Minneapolis’ Midtown Greenway, as MinnPost’s Jessica Lee reports.

A record pot bust in the suburbs. Police seized over 76,000 marijuana vaping cartridges in Champlin, the same products linked to a rash of lung injuries and deaths.

A Crosby, Minn., woman shares her tragic assault story to help others. Kaitlyn Chase thought it was going to be a first date with a man she’d been talking to for months through the dating app MeetMe. But the meetup quickly turned violent. Two years later, her rapist is in jail and Chase wants to help others. She shared her story and tips for safer dating with the Brainerd Dispatch’s Jennifer Kraus.

Duluth may bag bags. The city council heard nearly an hour of testimony supporting a plan that would force businesses to charge 5 cents for most single-use plastic and paper bags. They wouldn’t be the first city to crack down on bags: Minneapolis and others have tried. Questions on bag bans? Let us know.

A break after the storms. It’ll be mostly sunny and a bit cooler with statewide highs in the 60s and 70s. There’s a chance of rain later in north and central Minnesota. See damage reports from last night’s storm on Updraft.

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