Local officials tried to grow close to activist groups and collected information that was then shared with industry

Newly released emails show local government officials in Minneapolis have quietly surveilled environmental justice activists who are working to close a controversial waste incinerator that is emitting pollution into low-income neighborhoods around it, activist groups allege.

County officials sent an employee who is also an environmental justice activist to collect intelligence, among other tactics, emails show. The information was then used to help successfully kill state-level environmental legislation opposed by the incinerator’s leadership, and try to stay one step ahead of activist campaigns and protests. In another instance, a county employee presenting himself as an ally allegedly tried to obtain the identity of a whistleblower, a recording shows.

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© Photograph: Tony Webster

© Photograph: Tony Webster

© Photograph: Tony Webster

James O’Keefe and Cam Higby claim they were trying to show vulnerabilities in allowing a voter to vouch for others

Two rightwing influencers have been charged with felonies in Minneapolis over attempts in the state’s election primary to disguise themselves in what they called “Muslim garb” and claim they were local voters.

James O’Keefe and Cam Higby went to polling places in Minnesota during the state’s August primary in an attempt to show vulnerabilities in the practice of “vouching”, where a registered voter from the same precinct can vouch for another voter’s eligibility.

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© Composite: Getty Images, SOPA Images, LightRocket

© Composite: Getty Images, SOPA Images, LightRocket

© Composite: Getty Images, SOPA Images, LightRocket

New polls in Florida, South Carolina and Minnesota illuminate the head winds that Republicans are facing.

Together, they have pursued cases against the president’s enemies and protesters and amplified false claims of widespread election fraud, often citing thin evidence.

© Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images

Susan and Michael Pretti say they have been ‘ignored and misled’ in quest for justice over son’s killing by US agents

The parents of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis earlier this year, accused federal officials of stonewalling them and shielding their son’s killers.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Michael and Susan Pretti made their first public remarks since their son’s death in January, calling for the Department of Justice to hold those involved in their son’s death accountable. The federal government has not provided them with meaningful information about the case, they said.

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© Photograph: Steven Garcia/Reuters

© Photograph: Steven Garcia/Reuters

© Photograph: Steven Garcia/Reuters

Ebro Ahmed, who acted after driver’s medical emergency, said he hopes incident will show Eritreans ‘in a good way’

A man who hopped on to a school bus full of terrified children that was careering down a Minnesota street after its driver had a medical emergency and manually halted it says he was motivated to act by a Qu’ran verse about how saving one life is equivalent to saving all of humanity.

“I’m a numbers guy, and those numbers make sense to me,” Ebro Ahmed, 27, said on Friday during an interview about his actions four days earlier in front of his family’s convenience store in Saint Paul, Minnesota. “I didn’t do it for me. It was selflessness in the name of God.”

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Ebro Ahmed

© Photograph: Courtesy of Ebro Ahmed

© Photograph: Courtesy of Ebro Ahmed

State authorities investigating killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti said federal officials paused transfer of evidence

The federal government has stopped sharing evidence with Minnesota authorities who are investigating the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers during a violent anti-immigration, anti-protest crackdown in the state earlier this year, state officials said in recent court filings.

Minnesota officials sued the Trump administration in March for access to materials they said they needed to independently investigate the shootings.

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© Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters

© Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters

© Photograph: Seth Herald/Reuters

The Justice Department is reviewing whether Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, broke the law when she became a U.S. citizen decades ago. Here’s what we know.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

Frustration with a sprawling fraud scandal has cut Peggy Flanagan’s poll lead – could ex-NFL reporter Michele Tafoya win a first statewide election for Republicans in 20 years?

• Our reporters answer your questions about ICE, immigration and the midterms

As Democrats fight to regain control of the US Senate, hopes are rising in states – from Kansas to Texas – where they have not prevailed in decades. But in Minnesota, where Republicans have not won statewide election since 2006, the contest for an open Senate seat is closer than expected.

Should Peggy Flanagan – the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor – win the election, she will be the first Native American woman to serve in the US Senate. But history has not yet been made. The closely watched Cook Political Report shifted its rating on the race this week from “likely Democrat” to “lean Democrat”.

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© Photograph: Elizabeth Flores/TNS/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Elizabeth Flores/TNS/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Elizabeth Flores/TNS/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Debris was found in Indonesia on Monday, just days after a farmer across the globe in Minnesota reported a massive metal object thought to be space junk in a cornfield.

© Ahmad Syihab/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Democratic lawmaker says family’s safety is at risk amid death threats and raid making apartment’s address public

• Our reporters answer your questions about ICE, immigration and the midterms

Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar said she plans to move out of her Washington DC apartment after federal agents raided her residence last week as part of a larger immigration investigation.

“I mean obviously, I can’t continue to live there,” Omar told MS Now in an interview that aired on Wednesday. “So we have to figure out where to move to, because our address has been public and with the death threats that I deal with, it’s no longer going to be feasible to be in that house and have my kids, like, visiting off and on, having people track them.”

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© Photograph: Tim Evans/Reuters

© Photograph: Tim Evans/Reuters

© Photograph: Tim Evans/Reuters

Federal agents searched Ms. Omar’s Washington home last week and issued subpoenas to some family members in search of evidence of fraud in immigration paperwork.

© Ben Brewer for The New York Times

Minnesota lawmaker’s attorneys asked for return of seized items and the preservation of any recordings of search

Ilhan Omar’s attorneys have asked the US Department of Justice to return property that federal agents removed days earlier from her home during a search.

The lawyers for the Minnesota Democrat contended that the seizure as “neither justified nor lawful”, according to a letter that the Associated Press reported on Friday.

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© Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

© Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

© Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

A criminal investigation into the lawmaker’s immigration process advanced after federal investigators reviewed family text messages from a seized phone.

© J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Despite hopes for a blue wave, Democratic candidates in Minnesota, Maine and Michigan are facing local political headwinds and have struggled to open up clear daylight in the polls.

© Jenn Ackerman, Nick Hagen and Ryan David Brown for The New York Times

Statehouses make health-care policy, guide education, and may redraw congressional districts ahead of 2028. With the stakes high, more than 6,100 legislators will be elected Nov. 3.

© Ashley Wu/The New York Times

After years of investigation, the Justice Department appears to be intensifying a criminal inquiry into the immigration history of Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, and her family.

© Tim Evans/Reuters