In today’s segment, Senator Nicole Mitchell resigns post-conviction. Then, a small nonprofit newsroom gets a major victory in court. And, for the first time, a female CEO will head up the nation’s largest freestanding pediatric health system, located in Minnesota.
—–Executive Producer: Victor Palomino Producer: Xan Holston Anchor: Grace Jacobson Reader scripting: Xan Holston Fact checking: Joel Glaser, Victor Palomino Editorial support: Emily Krumberger Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood
Transcript
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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.
ANCHOR: In today's segment, Senator Nicole Mitchell resigns post-conviction. Then, a small nonprofit newsroom gets a major juridical victory. And, for the first time, a female CEO will head up the nation's largest freestanding pediatric health system, which is here in our state.
I'm Gracie J.
State Senator Nicole Mitchell has resigned weeks earlier than expected. The Democrat who represented the Twin Cities metropolitan area in Woodbury and Maplewood was found guilty of two felony burglary charges in mid-July. Mitchell initially said she would step down in early August after finishing outstanding legislative work — an unusual move that would have kept her in office as a convicted felon. Her resignation would have temporarily cost Democrats their one-seat majority in the Senate, but long-serving Republican Senator Bruce Anderson unexpectedly died just days after Mitchell's conviction. Governor Tim Walz is expected to call for special elections for both seats in the coming months.
Next, Minnesota's highest court handed a major victory to press freedom in a recent decision involving the nonprofit newsroom Unicorn Riot. Xan Holston reports.
Xan Holston: In a case with big implications for journalism, the Minnesota Supreme Court recently ruled that Unicorn Riot doesn't have to hand over unpublished materials and footage to a major pipeline company. The coverage at the center of the case involved protests around DAPL, the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Niko Georgiades: I think, for a small independent media organization to first stand up to a multinational, billion-dollar corporation and win in court, it should bring hope to every journalist out there.
Xan Holston: That's Niko Georgiades, a founding member of Unicorn Riot, a nonprofit news organization based in the Twin Cities known for its street level reporting like its extensive work at the DAPL protests. Peacefully, the news group got pulled into a major lawsuit filed by Energy Transfer, the company that built DAPL. In 2019 Energy Transfer sued Greenpeace, alleging the group organized and funded protests against DAPL's construction. Energy Transfer recently won that case and was awarded over $600 million in damages. Though Unicorn Riot wasn't part of that lawsuit. Energy Transfer still subpoenaed it, demanding internal documents, communications and raw footage related to the protests. The journalists said no.
Niko Georgiades: It was pretty vast. It was like a fishing expedition.
Xan Holston: Unicorn Riot argued that it was protected under Minnesota's Free Flow of Information Act, a shield law enacted by the state legislature that protects journalists from having to give up their sources. There, Energy Transfer's attorney Richard Sneider, alleged that Unicorn Riot isn't a real news organization, and therefore shouldn't have that protection.
Richard Sneider: Anyone with a cell phone now and an internet connection can be a citizen journalist and take advantage of this, of the statute to not disclose what it is that they've been doing.
Xan Holston: But Unicorn Riot said they were no different than journalists embedded within troops during wartime.
Niko Georgiades: We're a media organization, you know what? I mean? Like we're not we're not having these conversations to organize the protests.
Xan Holston: This is really an important ruling. Jane Kirtley is Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota. She says the ruling upholds the laws written but its impact is even broader than that. It shows that the courts are willing to defend the public's right to information, especially when journalists are the ones digging it up.
Jane Kirtley: Very few of us have the time and the resources to conduct investigations, to go out and cover a protest that we rely on the news media to let us know what's going on.
Xan Holston: But the ruling doesn't quite end the case. A lower court still needs to determine if Unicorn Riot has to provide a privilege log, a detailed legal document that inventories with the news org is keeping private and why? But Unicorn Riot's Georgiades says the decision sends a clear message about press freedoms here.
Nico Georgiades: It shows how Minnesota values independence within reporting and how it values its press. And I don't know if we would get that in other places.
Xan Holston: For North Star Stories, I'm Xan Holston.
Anchor: You are listening to North Star Stories.
Children's Minnesota has named Emily Chapman as its new president and CEO. Chapman has served as senior vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer of the organization since 2017. Children's Minnesota has two hospitals and numerous specialty centers and clinics throughout the Twin Cities.
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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.