Good morning, and congratulations for making it to Friday.

Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender filed an ethics complaint Thursday  against Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo over the chief’s press conference Wednesday in opposition to the public safety ballot question. In a statement Bender said a full and accurate ethics investigation of the event, including Frey’s role in directing or planning it, is required because Arradondo appears to have used city resources, including staff support, city logos and the MPD uniform, at a press event explicitly focused on taking a position on a ballot question. She said she believes that violated an internal police department rule about campaigning in uniform, and that “Arradondo seriously mischaracterized the years of work that have gone into developing a plan for better, more effective public safety.”

A man acquitted of attempted murder after shooting at police during last year's rioting in Minneapolis filed a civil rights lawsuit Thursday against the city and 19 officers. Matt Sepic has the story:  Jaleel Stallings, 29,  was in a Lake Street parking lot after curfew on May 30, 2020 when officers in an unmarked van shot him with a foam marking round without warning. Not knowing they were police, Stallings fired back with his handgun, but surrendered as soon as he realized whom he'd shot at. Body camera and security video show police kicking and punching Stallings as he lies face down on the ground with his gun out of reach. In a federal lawsuit, Stallings says police used excessive force, then lied in their reports that he'd been resisting arrest. In June, a Hennepin County jury acquitted Stallings of attempted murder, assault and other charges.  The MPD has said it can't comment on the matter because of an internal investigation.

COVID-19 relief money for the states was supposed to make up for lost revenue during the pandemic, but as Peter Callaghan from MinnPost reports, it turns out Minnesota didn’t actually lose money . And Minnesota isn’t alone. From the piece: Most states were overly pessimistic in forecasting the economic and revenue impacts of COVID. And most have recovered more quickly than expected. A recent analysis by Pew found that a majority of states are back to pre-pandemic levels of tax collections and most are adding to their rainy day funds, something that is usually a sign of flush times, not a recession.  

From the 19th:Sen. Amy Klobuchar introduced legislation with bipartisan support Thursday that would encourage Americans to get preventive care  by awarding grants to states, localities and tribal organizations to address health care disparities; creating a task force to make recommendations about preventive care during public health emergencies; and directing the Department of Health and Human Services to launch a cross-agency public education campaign Studies have shown that 1 in 3 adults reported delaying or skipping health care during the pandemic. Health screenings for children decreased by 40 percent. The odds that a woman was screened for breast cancer in 2020 were 20 percent lower than in 2019, Klobuchar said. “Thousands of women are walking around with undetected breast cancer,” she said. Klobuchar is using her own experience as an example. 

A newly released search warrant of Minnesota Republican megadonor Anton Lazzaro's apartment offers more detail about alleged sexual exploitation of teen-aged girls.  Brian Bakst had the story: The warrant alleges the amount of cash and gifts Lazzaro gave at least six girls rose the more acts they did with him. The document is included as an exhibit in a Lazzaro defense filing that seeks to have property seized by federal investigators returned to him. His Minneapolis luxury apartment was raided in December; cash, precious metals, electronics and a sports car were seized. Lazzaro's lawyers argue that even if he paid the girls -- which he doesn't admit to -- prosecutors have yet to offer proof he produced child pornography or made money off the acts. The warrant details investigator interviews with alleged victims. It alleges that a co-defendant in the case, Gisela Castro Medina, was 18 years old when she first recruited other girls for Lazzaro. He remains jailed while his criminal case proceeds. Medina is out of jail but subject to monitoring and other conditions while the case is open.