Good morning, Minnesota. It's Thursday. Today marks eight straight days of 90 degree heat in the Twin Cities. The area's heat advisory rages on through this evening. The state's one "cool" spot is near Lake Superior. And we're low on rain. Looking at the forecast, drought and fire danger are likely to get worse before they get better. Models suggest we won't get more than an inch of rain in the next 10 days. Winston Smith killing: MN BCA says law prohibits them from naming undercover officers
Last Thursday, deputies working on the U.S. Marshals Service's North Star Fugitive Task Force shot and killed 32-year-old Winston Smith in Uptown Minneapolis while attempting to arrest him on a firearms warrant.
The officers were not wearing body cameras, and now, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension refuses to name the officers responsible for the killing . They say Minnesota law prohibits them from doing so because the officers were "working in an undercover capacity."
Related: Anoka and Hennepin counties joined Ramsey County in suspending work by their deputies with the North Star Fugitive Task Force, citing policy that doesn't allow local officers to wear body cameras while working with task forces.
Smith's family and protesters across Minneapolis are demanding immediate release of any surrounding surveillance video.
More than 200 arrested at Line 3 protest
A total of 247 people were arrested in northern Minnesota while protesting construction of the Enbridge Line 3 oil pipeline. Some had locked themselves to construction equipment at a pipeline pump station or to a boat used to block an entrance road to the site.
This action was part of the four-day Treaty People Gathering, where more than 1,000 opponents of Line 3 gathered to resist the pipeline's threat to Minnesota's waters, the global climate and Indigenous treaty rights.
Law enforcement said 179 people were arrested and booked into detention centers and additional 68 were cited and released.
Line 3 is more than halfway complete, and protesters will continue to disrupt construction.
Education funding: A sticking point in state budget
Minnesota lawmakers are heading into a special session next week with very little settled on the budget they need to pass by month's end to avoid a government shutdown.
Senate Republicans are holding firm on their proposal to flow some public school money into private schools via "education savings accounts." They want to give parents the option of moving a child from public school to private school, with state money following the student.
Gov. Tim Walz and other democrats don't want public schools losing any money to private schools as they work to bounce back from the pandemic. Here's the full story.
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— Grace Birnstengel, MPR News | Find me on Twitter @grace__ | 
