Minnesota senators and University of Minnesota researchers attacked President Donald Trump’s plans to significantly cut university healthcare funding at a press conference Wednesday.

The press conference came after the Trump administration announced it would cut $4 billion in federal funding for research at universities nationwide on Saturday. According to NPR, a $4 billion cut in funding would cap funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) that goes to overhead costs at 15% — far below the 54% the University currently gets. 

These overhead costs, often referred to as indirect costs, are responsible for funding research building facilities, training undergraduate students, tech support, worker salaries and more. 

Gregg Goldman, the University executive vice president for finance and operations, said the proposed cuts could lead to a $100-130 million impact annually at a Board of Regents meeting Thursday.

Even though a federal judge blocked Trump’s order on Monday, senators at the press conference urged people to call and pressure their elected officials to prevent it.

University administrators are preparing to adjust the budget to account for the funding loss while state legislators look at how to financially support the University going forward. 

Sen. Doron Clark (DFL-Minneapolis) said the NIH cap could lead to significant job loss at the University.

“This will harm us, this will undermine Minnesota’s nationwide, worldwide leading research that we do, and Trump is causing uncertainty, Trump is eliminating jobs and Trump is harming Minnesota,” Clark said. 

Sen. Alice Mann (DFL-Edina) said the decrease in this indirect funding endangers the research dealing with life-saving medicine. 

“It means that people are going to lose their jobs,” Mann said. “Researchers, lab technicians, scientists, people who have dedicated their lives for the advancement of healthcare, like medical technologies and life-changing medicines like insulin, those people in this country are being discarded and left behind.” 

Associate professor Rebecca Shlafer is in the fourth year of a five-year NIH-funded study analyzing pregnancy and postpartum support for incarcerated women in eight state prisons. Shlafer said she uses indirect funding to pay staff wages and losing funding in the fifth year of the study could cause the entire program to shut down. 

“To me, it’s like we’ve trained for a marathon, but at mile 20 they’re telling us the race is over, the course is closed and just go home,” Shlafer said. “All of the work we’ve put into date will stop and the plans that we have made for this last year of the project will be upended.” 

Graduate student and researcher Rachel Dick, who is researching genetic risk factors for schizophrenia, said she received a $15 million grant from the NIH.

“Those costs won’t go away simply because NIH is refusing to cover them. Universities like the U are now on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars that go towards maintaining every aspect of our research environment,” Dick said. “Indirect costs pay for an essential, if unglamorous, part of science.”

University President Rebecca Cunningham said University leaders are partnering with higher education associations to adjust to the changing situation. 

“I recognize that news of this notice creates a significant level of fear, uncertainty and concern. Please know that I am committed to ensuring our University’s primary missions of teaching, research and outreach thrive,” Cunningham said in a statement. “I will continue to advocate on your behalf, as the University explores every avenue to aggressively address the challenges posed by this notice.”

Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) said he is talking with Minnesota legislators about covering the funding gap if the administration mandate returns. 

“This is a moment for us to recognize that our obligation to serve the needs of Minnesotans comes before our obligation to serve a political party,” Fateh said. “I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to call for these cuts to be reversed and work with us on ways to mitigate their impact this legislative session.” 

Dick said scientists and researchers need to stand united during this time of immense uncertainty.

“I think one of the most important things that we can do is stand unified as a scientific community,” Dick said. “What we do is important. Our community needs to be supported and reaching out to legislators and elected officials is important, but I think really the most important thing to do is just to find community in times like this.”

Minneapolis City Council gave $100,000 to the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center to support their emergency warming site and other homeless advocacy efforts. 

According to the resolution passed on Jan. 30, the $100,000 will help the organization operate its emergency warming center, including staffing, security and meals. 

The Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, a nonprofit supporting Indigenous women and children, helps people find housing, receive traditional healing services and give meals to homeless people. 

The emergency warming center opened after the homeless encampment fires this winter in south Minneapolis on Jan. 6 and has remained open since, center President Ruth Buffalo said. 

“We have the space available, and we can’t sit idly by,” Buffalo said. “So, if we have a community room or a community gym that is open and vacant, we thought it was a good idea to assist the unsheltered relatives the best we could.”

This legislation comes as Minneapolis saw homelessness increase by around 16% from 2023 to 2024, according to a federal 2024 homelessness report. However, Indigenous people make up a disproportionate amount locally. In 2023, the Wilder Research Foundation reported that 77% of Native American, Black people and Hispanic people represent the homeless population, while white people represent one third of the state’s homeless population. 

“We are thankful for the city’s support of funding efforts that are community-led to address the unsheltered crisis that the city faces, I think quite honestly the whole country faces,” Buffalo said. “It’s really heartbreaking to see that the original inhabitants of these lands, the American Indian population, are overrepresented in the unsheltered population.”

In the city council meeting on Jan. 28, city council members stressed the importance of the warming center during the winter. 

City Council Member Jamal Osman (Ward 6) said the Minnesota Indian Women’s Center is something Minneapolis needs right now to help homeless people. 

“This place is what we need in the city of Minneapolis when the temperature is this freezing,”  Osman said. “This was a no-brainer to do this. I want the city to step up and work with the Minnesota Indian Women’s Center.”

City Council President Elliott Payne (Ward 1) said in a statement that the warming center needs to stay open to combat Minnesota’s cold winters and the overflow in other warming centers. 

“This is even more crucial because it’s been widely reported that shelters are at capacity and many are facing funding cliffs and struggling to maintain current service levels,” Payne said in the statement. 

Payne also forwarded another legislative directive to provide public information on warming centers and the city’s plans to assist homeless people during extreme weather conditions. 

Buffalo said she expects the next three weeks to be cold, so the Minnesota Indian Women’s Emergency Warming Center will be open overnight. 

While thankful for the money, Buffalo said she hopes the Minnesota government can find a long-term solution to homelessness in Minnesota. 

“We do hope that every level of government continues to realize the sense of urgency by finding long-term solutions,” Buffalo said. “There’s a lot of good-hearted people who deserve to be treated like human beings with dignity and respect who are unsheltered.”

Correction: A previous version of this article said the Wilder Research Foundation reported that Indigenous people represented around 77% of the homeless population in the Twin Cities metro area. The report shows 77% of Native American, Black people and Hispanic people represent the homeless population, not only Indigenous people.

As President Donald Trump’s administration makes immigration changes, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and the Minneapolis City Council voiced their support for limiting the president’s authority to deport immigrants.

The City Council and Omar called on Congress to move forward with the Neighbors Not Enemies Act which Omar introduced with Sen Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). The Neighbors Not Enemies Act would repeal the current Enemies Act of 1798 which allows the president to deport immigrants based on their nationality during times of war or invasion without a hearing. 

At a press conference meeting on Jan. 28, Omar said the act is unconstitutional and harmful to the immigrants who come to the U.S.  

“We need to be clear about what this will mean for human beings in this country,” Omar said in the press conference. “Thousands of families will have their lives upended because of Donald Trump’s actions. It is important to recognize that this will not happen because of anything they have done but where they were born.”

City Council members and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey echoed her sentiments at the press conference. 

“This alien enemy’s act is archaic, it’s wrong-headed, it allows for people to be detained and deported,” Frey said in the press conference. “It runs against our values in Minnesota. It is an act that should have long been repealed.”

According to Eric Schwartz, a University of Minnesota professor in Global Policy, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was used during the World Wars to deport citizens from nations the U.S. was at war with.

While the president can not declare war without the approval of Congress, law centers like the Brennan Law Society argue that “invasion” and “predatory incursion” can be left up to interpretation which would allow the president to use the authority whenever. 

“The President could interpret these terms very, very broadly to argue,” Schwartz said. “Perhaps the passage of fentanyl into the United States could constitute that kind of incursion or if there were non-state actors in other countries, they could be seen as effectively the equivalent.”

In Trump’s first two weeks in office, he has changed several policies around deportations, visas, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

ICE officers are now allowed to enter “sensitive” areas like churches and schools. 

“We are seeing several community members who are very concerned about raids at their school or at their employer,” Colleen Riley, an immigration paralegal at the Minnesota Immigrants Rights Committee said. 

Council Member Aurin Chowdhury (Ward 12), the daughter of Bengali immigrants, said Trump’s new immigration policies are personal to her. 

“This is just one action we are taking as a council and we are exploring what else can be done to strengthen the local legislation we currently have in place and how we as a council can support and amplify the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs which is providing a local level touch point for immigrants to connect with the City,” Chowdhury said in a statement.

Even with that, Schwartz said with the Republican majority in the U.S. House and Senate, the bill is unlikely to go through. Schwartz said that Minnesota will still play an important role in immigration discussion as the Trump presidency continues. 

“I think Minnesota officials will have to ensure that they’re in compliance with federal law, but having said that, they have considerable avenues to continue to promote the values and the objectives that animate our public life in Minnesota, support for inclusion, support for immigrants and refugees,” Schwartz said. 

Chowdhury said anyone with concerns or questions about immigration should reach out to Minneapolis Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

The Black Europe Film Festival‘s final day focused on lesser-known Black history in The Art of Remembering: Black Lives in Painting film showcase Sunday. 

The Art of Remembering: Black Lives in Painting film showcase presented two films: “Vanus Labor” by Salad Hilowle, a Stockholm-based artist, and “We Were Here” by director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu. Both told the stories of the underrepresented Black population in Europe. 

“Vanus Labor” follows the story of Coschi, a slave in 18th-century Sweden, through the use of opera and the Swedish Art Museum in Minneapolis. 

According to the Sweden World Culture Museum, Coschi, later named Gustav Badin, was a slave born on the Caribbean Island of Saint Croix and worked for the Sweden Royal family in 1760. 

According to Hilowle, the inspiration for the film came from his childhood in Sweden and reading Coschi’s diary. 

“He was adopted or taken from his homeland to Sweden just to be an experiment. I was like, who is he and what is his story?” Hilowle said. “And from that on I thought about artistry and I want to make some Opera because Opera is beautiful.”

The film “We Were Here” is a documentary-style movie as Kuwornu narrates the history of Black Africans in Europe during the Renaissance. 

Kuwornu produced the movie with the founder of the Black European Film Festival, Lorenzo Fabbri, who is also a University of Minnesota professor in the French and Italian department.

According to Fabbri, Kuwornu originally came to him with the idea three years ago when they co-taught at the University.  

“We were chatting and he let me know about his new project of his that was really an intervention in history because he wanted to do a film that would tell the history of the Black presence in Europe in the Renaissance period,” Fabbri said.

The film took almost three years to produce due to the amount of scholars used for the movie, Kuwornu said at a panel at the film festival Sunday. 

Kuwornu said he was motivated to make the film to dispel the stereotypes about Black people only going from Africa to North America. 

“The idea was to create, to give a tool also for museums and universities,” Kuwornu said. “To say ‘No, look at the Black history in Europe is more rich, it’s not only in history about slavery and it’s not only in history that is from Europe.’ We address the United States or South America. It’s also something that actually started in Europe.”

Severine Bates, who lives in Minnesota and was born on the French Caribbean island, said the films really connected with her due to her European, American and Black background.

“People here in the U.S., especially when I go to Afro-Americans, they always think there’s one way of thinking about Blackness,” Bates said. “But you know, I know today we just opened a bigger conversation.”

Both Kuwornu and Hilowle are moving on to bigger projects. On June 21, Hilowle will have an art exhibition at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. 

Kuwornu said he wants to do more projects exploring the Black diaspora across the globe, with one including his father and his roots in Ghana.

The DFL boycott in the Minnesota House is causing capitol event organizers, like the hosts of Black Entrepreneurs Day, to look for a workaround. 

As Minnesota House Democrats boycott the start of the legislative session over leadership disputes with Republicans, Black Entrepreneurs Day, an event where Black business owners meet with representatives from their districts, is finding alternative options for Black businesses to connect with their representatives. 

Sheletta Brundidge, the event organizer, hoped the boycott would end before the event’s initial start date on Monday, Feb. 3.

“I’ve been working like for a week up at the Capitol, making calls, sending out emails, trying to make sure that when they come, if their representative is not available, I have somebody for them to talk to,” Brundidge said. 

For Black entrepreneurs living in areas represented by State House Democrats, it is unknown if their representatives will show up in person, according to Brundidge’s website. 

This event comes in the middle of a dispute between House Democrats and Republicans. According to Associated Press News, House Democrats and Republicans were discussing a power-sharing agreement until a judge ruled DFL representatives did not live in Roseville. 

This gave the Republicans a slim majority in the House of 67-66. House Democrats have been boycotting the sessions after power-sharing agreements fell through.

Brundidge has worked with Momentum Advocacy lobbyist Brian McDaniel to help find replacements for the DFL representatives. McDaniel said the absence of the DFL representatives will make it harder for the event. 

“A majority of Black and African American people living in districts that are represented by Democrats, it is a missed opportunity for the representatives to interact with their constituents and for the constituents who are taking time off of work or having to get childcare,” McDaniel said. “It’s going to make it a lot less productive for everybody involved.”

Brundidge called Minnesota state representatives and senators from both sides of the aisle, like Rep. Jim Nash (R-Waconia) and Sen. Judy Seeberger (DFL-Afton). 

Democratic Congressional Rep. Betty McCollum will meet with Black entrepreneurs, according to Brundidge’s website.

Both Nash and Seeberger will meet with Black entrepreneurs who do not live within their district for the event. Nash said the Democrats’ absence from the capitol is a negative reflection of the party. 

“They have made a decision to not come, and I think that says something to their constituents. It says that we’re holding out for an aggregation of power, and that’s all we want,” Nash said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re doing the right thing.” 

Seeberger said she wanted to help because it is a good way for Black-owned businesses to learn about important resources and aid. 

“Every year I meet with Black business owners who come to the Capitol, and it’s interesting to hear their stories, how they got their business off the ground, the ventures that they’re involved in and how I can help at the legislature to help them meet their needs,” Seeberger said. 

Michael Roberts, a realty consultant at Roberts Properties and Black Entrepreneurs Day participant, said the ongoing boycott should not cost Black entrepreneurs a chance to connect with their representatives. 

“I just want more Black entrepreneurs to get in the game and see everybody that is in the building,” Roberts said. “It seems like before, seeing a Black entrepreneur was like seeing a unicorn. And to see so many faces in the building and see how those faces are connected and intertwined because we’re all connected. It’s a very powerful thing.”

Roberts said he went to the event for the first time last year where he met with his representative to voice his concerns about the community and make new connections.

“I didn’t know what to expect because it was literally my first event,” Roberts said. “I then step into this building, and I’m like just lost. We had some prayer said over us, and the pastor spoke and blessed us. And at the end of the day, it was like speaker after speaker, the legislators and everybody that stood up on the podium, speaking about what they wanted to do for me and my business and my people, it was very empowering.”

This year, Roberts will be one of the hosts at the event. Even with the ongoing boycott, he said Black entrepreneurs should still attend to meet with their representatives and other Black business owners.

Radius Hall will no longer be student housing as University of Minnesota officials announced they ended their lease with the company overseeing the apartments.

Some students who lived at Radius are frustrated by the lack of communication as Radius will be considered off-campus housing starting fall 2025.

Interim Director of University Housing and Residential Life Susan Stubblefield said the University started its lease with Radius in August 2017 during the construction of Pioneer Hall. She said the housing department noticed vacancies in the Radius, leading to the decision to end the lease after construction in Pioneer Hall finished. 

Stubblefield said in an email that the University leasing out properties around the area is a common tactic to help deal with large student enrollment. 

“Since that time, Pioneer’s renovation has been completed and we’ve seen several years with significant vacancies at Radius leading to the decision that the University no longer has a need for these additional beds,” Stubblefield said in an email statement.

The property management company overseeing the Radius apartments, B.HOM Student Living, plans to renovate the building by adding a new study room, new gym equipment and a redesigned lounge area. 

Andrew Stark, asset manager of Radius and executive vice president of B.HOM, said while the University ended the lease, they still share a good relationship. 

“We’re continuing. We had a great relationship and continue to have a great relationship with the University of Minnesota,” Stark said. “We have a great relationship with a lot of the student-athletes who live at the property as well.”

University’s late notification leaves students frustrated

Students living in Radius were notified about the change in ownership in October. For some students, the lease ending is leading to more problems and stress. 

Third-year University student Rachel Secrist, who has lived at Radius for about a year, said the change in ownership worried her because of her spinal cord injury that has made walking long distances difficult.

Secrist, who relies on Paratransit to take her to school, said she had to call to make sure Paratransit would still pick her up for the rest of the school year. 

“I chose to live at Radius because I have a disability, and Radius allows Paratransit to come to the front door because I wanted the apartment style and the accessibility,” Secrist said. 

“So having it switched over was like a big concern for me because I still wanted to have access to that driver system.”

With University students needing to secure housing well in advance, second-year University student Regan Guirguis said this change has complicated an already difficult process.

“It’s definitely causing problems now. I’m studying abroad next year. And so, my friends and I all want to still live together, but a couple of us are studying abroad.” Guriguis said. “We are kind of just in this crappy situation where we don’t know whether or not we’re going to sign a lease somewhere else at a cheaper apartment building or wait until February to possibly get a shot at Keeler.”

Guriguis and Secrist agreed that the University did not give enough warning to students. 

“I think that their communication has been lackluster,” Guriguis said. “And I think with that communication, they really ought to give upperclassmen a better lottery ticket number.” 

Former Radius resident Rebecca Ranning, a second-year University student, said Radius has a unique feel compared to other student housing options.

While she plans to return to Radius next year, she said the University should have been more transparent about the future of Radius.

“Personally, I was very stressed that I wouldn’t get the place that I wanted due to the influx of people that are going to be moving into a spot,” Ranning said. “So if I knew about more options just in case that didn’t work out, I think I would have been less stressed.” 

According to a University spokesperson, anyone with questions about Radius should contact the University housing team.

A lower property tax levy and Latino Business Week funding passed Tuesday night by the Minneapolis City Council as they approved over 70 budget amendments and an approximate $1.9 billion budget.  

While council members approved the budget in a 10-3 vote, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey disavowed many budget changes the council made, and in a rare move, promised in a press release to veto the budget. 

Frey said in his press release that while he approved of council members decreasing property tax levy from 8.1% to 6.9%, he would veto the budget amendments. Frey’s promise to veto came following hours of public comment and council deliberation Tuesday night about budget amendments to the 2025 budget. 

In a statement, Frey said the budget amendments passed by the city council were fiscally irresponsible.

“The City Council’s 78 budget amendments reflect the largest number of changes in recent history — nearly double the number from last year,” Frey said in the press release. “These amendments represent an alarming trend of prioritizing new, unvetted initiatives over. The core functions that keep Minneapolis running smoothly, make our city safer, and maintain equity for all residents.” 

In response, City Council President Elliott Payne (Ward 1) called the veto reckless and said the veto shows the rift between the council and mayor. 

“The fact that the Mayor is willing to veto the entire 2025 City budget because his co-equal branch of government made amendments that accounted for less than 2% of the total $1.88 billion City budget is absurd,” Payne said in his statement. 

The Minneapolis City Council can override Frey’s veto in a vote Thursday. Ten council members approved the budget meaning they have the nine votes necessary to override Frey’s veto assuming no council members change their votes.

Frey’s back-and-forth arguments come as the two-term mayor prepares for his 2025 mayoral run. As of Wednesday, four challengers have announced their campaign to unseat Frey including state Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) and current Council Member Emily Koski (Ward 11).

During the meeting, the City Council butted heads over different government programs including the funding of police horses. 

City Council Member Jamal Osman (Ward 6) introduced the $7 million allocation for the Mni Sota Fund Indigenous Wealth Building Center Development Project, a program focused on economic development and cultural preservation for Indigenous people. 

Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw (Ward 4) and Council Member Linea Palmisano (Ward 13) spoke out against the amendment and said the amendment did not go through the correct process. 

“Indigenous wealth building is a very important thing for this city, but I don’t agree with the process, it’s picking winners and losers tonight, ” Palmisano said. 

In response, Osman said it is the council’s job to move money around. 

“It’s our job to move money around. It’s our job to allocate money around,” Osman said. “It’s not a bad thing. It’s not about picking winners and losers, it’s about helping our community.”

Public comments call for lower property tax levy

During public comments, Minneapolis residents asked for support for programs like the co-enforcement labor program, a program that helps workers learn about their rights. 

While many were grateful for the city council’s work on city-based programs, residents like Jeff Williams said they worried about how the property tax would impact their ability to live in the city long-term. 

“My wife and I are retired, we really want to make it a place where we can stay. But the city is giving us the message that they don’t want us here,” Williams said. 

Minneapolis resident Eric Nelson from Ward 13 said he approved of many of the government programs the council voted on but still wants the property taxes to stay low. 

“I don’t envy your jobs,” Nelson said.  “Finding an appropriate property tax and the government programs we just heard about. I would love to stay in Minneapolis, I enjoy the lakes and the bicycle trails. But that depends on the property tax.” 

Homeless shelters and warming centers are preparing to help the homeless ahead of a projected colder-than-average winter in Minnesota by the National Weather Services.

This abnormally cold winter comes as more people in Minnesota are dealing with homelessness. 

Minnesota’s homeless population has increased in the past decade with the state seeing over 10,000 homeless people in 2023, according to the Wilder Foundation.

With increased homelessness and a cold winter expected, organizations like Involve MN, a non-profit group that does homeless outreach, planned as early as June to stock up on coats and boots.

Ethan Snyder, who has been an Involve MN streetout program volunteer for about five years, said Minnesota winters present a unique challenge for homeless people like more severe health risks and an increased sense of desperation. 

“I’ve seen a lot of frostbite. I’ve seen people lose fingertips, lose the tips of their noses,” Snyder said. “I’ve also unfortunately come across a lot of people that have frozen to death because of the cold weather.”

While Minnesota has homeless shelters across the city, warming centers are another option for those experiencing the extreme cold of Minnesota. Warming centers are warm spaces available for homeless people during the winter months. Many of these spaces also have showers, internet service, food and hygiene products available.

There are 12 locations in Hennepin County that are considered warming centers including Hennepin County Library and the Catholic Charities Mary F. Frey Opportunity Center.

Co-director of the Minnesota Homeless Study Michelle Decker Gerrard said warming centers are temporary spaces where people can stay warm with no barrier for entry.  

“Everyone has their unique and individual needs,” Decker Gerrard said. “A warming center might work for somebody who works nights and needs a place to sleep during the day or has other things going on with them and they just need to warm up and have a low-barrier situation where they don’t have to jump through a hundred hoops.” 

Joshua Yetman, a Hennepin County spokesperson, said the library warming centers do not make any special changes during the winter and will be open to the public.

Catholic Charities Mary F. Frey Opportunity Center is a non-profit with four emergency shelters and two daytime homeless shelters, one in St. Paul and the other in Minneapolis.

Tatyana Finklea, director of the adult emergency services division for Catholic Charities Twin Cities, said last year the center served around 33,000 people. 

“We definitely notice an increase in demand when the weather turns colder,” Finklea said. “When the weather is colder, our shelters fill up more quickly — as do the other options for those in need across the Twin Cities.” 

To deal with an increase of people, Catholic Charities extends hours, gives out bus tickets and refers people to other warming centers in the area. 

While Gerrard and Snyder agree that Minnesota is moving in the right direction to deal with homelessness, both want to see more structural change. 

“Once we realize that we all need to be at the table, having these discussions about people are going to die and people are going to continue dying and losing their fingers and taking drastic actions of desperation to ensure that they don’t die in the middle of the night,” Snyder said. “We need to be having those conversations.”

Minnesota Black Lives Matter, Reinvestigation Work Group and the family of Marcus Golden are calling on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to provide updates on the Golden and Hardel Sherrell cases. 

At the St. Paul Public Library in Highland Park, families of police violence victims and activists called for Ellison to move up the cases of Golden and Sherrell.  

The case was initially referred to the Washington County Attorney, who then referred it to Ellison’s office in 2023. 

St. Paul police shot 24-year-old Golden in the back of the head, killing him on Jan. 14, 2015, as officers alleged Golden was driving toward officers at high speeds, although the Golden family disputes that claim. 

The St. Paul Police Department claimed Golden fired a gun, but an autopsy failed to find any gunpowder or any other evidence that Golden used a weapon.

A grand jury chose not to convict the officers involved in Golden’s shooting. While the officers were not charged, the City of St. Paul reached a $1.3 million settlement with the Golden family in 2023, according to reporting by the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. 

27-year-old Sherrell died of Guillain-Barré syndrome, where the body’s immune system attacks the nerves, in Beltrami County Jail in Aug. 2018 after prison staff ignored Sherrell’s symptoms, reported Fox 9 News.

The Sherrell family reached a settlement of about $2 million with Beltrami County and the MEnD Correctional Care in 2023, according to reporting by Fox 9 news. 

Emma Pederson, a volunteer investigator for Reinvestigation, said Ellison declined to comment on the cases when she spoke to him at the Minnesota Justice Research Center on Tuesday.

At the press conference, Monique Cullars-Doty, the aunt of Golden, said she was frustrated by Ellison’s lack of action. 

“As a family member, I shouldn’t have to have a press conference to address you not doing your job,” Cullars-Doty said. “If you believe Black lives matter, if you believe your Black life matters, you should be addressing this.”

Ellison declined to comment on an ongoing investigation. 

The Golden family is calling for Ellison to investigate the case. At the press conference, Cullars-Doty said she wants Ellison to pursue criminal charges against the police officers and an investigation into the St. Paul Police Department conducted during the case. 

At the press conference, Reinvestigation Work Group members, who investigate police killings, claimed that there were discrepancies in the case and said there was no evidence of threatening text messages from Golden that prompted police to pursue him before his death. 

For the Sherrell case, the Black Lives Matter Co-Founder and uncle of Sherrell Trahern Crews said he wants Ellison to look at the case to pursue criminal charges. 

“We’ve all seen the video, it’s been on TV, it’s been on KARE 11, it’s been on national news, it’s been in the newspaper but there still hasn’t been any charges,” Crews said. “We know like in this case there’s been a settlement but there hasn’t been the charges that need to come forth.”

Johnathon McClellan, the president of the Minnesota Justice for Coalition, said this press conference is a way to hold elected officials’ feet to the fire. 

“In one of many conversations with the governor, he said to keep the officials’ feet to the fire and that’s what we intend to do,” McClellan said.

Calls for change to the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) grew louder at Tuesday’s City Council meeting after public comment opened on the Davis Moturi case. 

The public comments come after increased scrutiny of the MPD following the shooting of Moturi. Moturi’s neighbor, John Herbert Sawchak, shot Moturi after months of Sawchak harassing Moturi and at least 19 calls to the police about Sawchak’s behavior. The police arrested Sawchak four days after he shot Moturi. 

After the shooting, the Minneapolis City Council called for the city auditor to investigate the incident on Saturday. 

At the meeting, activist groups like the Communities United Against Police Brutality and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for an independent investigation into the incident. 

“What we’re asking for is very clear. We want a transparent and independent investigation that looks at the entire system,” CAIR Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said. “I want to know what it will take for families in Minneapolis to get service from the police like they get service in uptown and other parts of the city.” 

Not everyone at the meeting was satisfied with just an investigation. Brenda Short, a Minneapolis resident, said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara should be fired. 

“The chief knew what was happening, and he stood on it,” Short said. “If the tables were turned and the people were Black, the door would have been kicked in.”

Given Sawchak’s long track record of threatening neighbors, Minneapolis resident Anna Newcombe said the MPD should have dealt with him before the shooting. 

“Our fear is that he will be released again into our community or another community,” Newcombe said at the meeting. 

This fear is shared by Marcia Howard, whose daughter lives near Sawchak and said he has been “terrorizing the neighborhood for years.” 

Howard does not blame O’Hara but said the MPD should make some reforms. 

“What I want to see is an attempt at systemic change, which means using their power to push the mayor to hold the MPD accountable,” Howard said.

As emotions ran high, the MPD announced it was collaborating with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), crime specialists and other experts to alleviate neighborhood disputes before they lead to violence. 

At the meeting, O’Hara said this partnership between the MPD and NAACP will help the MPD better resolve neighbor disputes. 

“There are people out there looking for help and we alone cannot help everyone,” O’Hara said. “Every situation is different, but many of them have the potential to escalate.”

NAACP President of the Minneapolis branch Cynthia Wilson said the collaboration is a small step in the police building a better relationship with the community.

“In addition to impacting the community, it will be us helping us,” Wilson said. “It won’t be the be-all and end-all of everything, but it will be a start of moving forward.” 

Even with the MPD working with the NAACP, Hussein wants the investigation to come first. 

“I think that anything that they’re doing to work with the community cannot in any way undermine or in any way distract from this particular conversation,” Hussein said. “And this conversation has to focus on what happened with Davis Moturi and what happened with those 19 calls and who dropped the ball.”