29 May 2024

Why new quarterbacks coach Josh McCown is perfect fit for Vikings

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There was a particular throw during Vikings rookie minicamp earlier this month that sent shivers down the spine of new quarterbacks coach Josh McCown. As rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy tried to rip a ball toward the sideline, McCown was instantly transported back to Oct. 18, 2015.

Though the play itself has been lost in the sands of time, McCown can still recall it without much effort. He was playing quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, and he tried to complete a pass to receiver Travis Benjamin on the outside. The new thing McCown knew he was chasing star cornerback Aqib Talib into the end zone after gifting the Denver Broncos an interception returned for a touchdown.

“Sometimes as a coach I’m talking about plays and there are real scars there,” McCown said with a laugh on Wednesday afternoon at TCO Performance Center. “I said, ‘Listen, I’m not just saying this, I tried to make this throw. It did not go well and I watched Aqib Talib run into the end zone.’ ”

The message was received loud and clear.

“It’s like learning from his mistakes,” McCarthy said. “He’s so vocal about it. It’s invaluable. I really appreciate it.”

That anecdote illustrates why McCown is the perfect fit for the Vikings at this moment in time. Not only does he have the knowledge to help develop McCarthy in the early stages of his career, McCown has a preexisting relationship with veteran quarterback Sam Darnold dating back to their time together with the New York Jets.

“I was teammates with him in 2018 and it felt like we were best friends,” Darnold said. “The youngest guy on the team with the oldest guy on the team. It’s good to be back with him. Just so much wisdom he can share.”

The experience that McCown possesses is arguably the biggest reason head coach Kevin O’Connell made hiring him a priority this offseason.

After getting drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in 2002, McCown bounced around the NFL mostly as a backup before officially retiring in 2020. He played for seemingly every team on under the sun in that span, learning tricks of the trade from a long list of players that includes everybody from legendary quarterback Kurt Warner to  journeyman Jake Delhomme.

“Those things kind of come up organically in our meetings,” McCown said. “Something will happen and I’ll say, ‘Oh yeah remember playing with this guy, and I learned that from him.’”

Asked what he felt the biggest thing he could impart on McCarthy and Darnold at this point. McCown laughed to himself before delivering the punchline.

“Well a lot of it is what not to do,” McCown said. “They can learn from my mistakes, and we can avoid some of them.”

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29 May 2024

To recuse or refuse? A look at Supreme Court justices’ decisions on whether to step aside in cases

by | posted in: Politics | 0

By MARK SHERMAN (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — In declining to step aside from two high-profile Supreme Court cases, Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday provided a rare window on the opaque process by which justices decide to step aside from cases.

Alito faced calls from Democrats to recuse from two cases involving former President Donald Trump and Jan. 6 defendants because of the controversy over flags that flew over his homes.

Both flags were like those carried by rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in January 2021 while echoing Trump’s false claims of election fraud.

Revelations about the flags came as the court is considering cases related to the Jan. 6 riot, including charges faced by the rioters and whether Trump has immunity from prosecution on election interference charges.

In letters to members of Congress, Alito said he had no involvement in flying an upside-down flag over his home in 2021 and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his New Jersey beach house last year. He said his wife, Martha-Ann, was responsible for both flags. His impartiality, he said, could not reasonably be questioned.

The explanation is unlikely to satisfy Democratic critics, but they have little recourse.

A look at the Supreme Court’s recusal process:

THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW

There is, as well as a recently adopted Supreme Court ethics code to guide the justices, though there’s really no means of enforcing either.

A law that applies to Supreme Court justices and all other federal judges lays out several criteria that require recusal.

The language most relevant in Alito’s case reads, “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

The court’s code of conduct says a justice ordinarily has a duty to take part in cases since justices, unlike lower-court judges, can’t be replaced when there’s a conflict. The code differs from the federal law by saying a justice “should,” rather than “shall,” disqualify himself or herself. It also says that only an impartial and reasonable person who is “aware of all relevant circumstances” can validly call for recusal.

WHO DECIDES?

Supreme Court justices decide for themselves whether and when to recuse from a case. On rare occasions, a party to a case will ask a justice to recuse.

In one notable example, the Sierra Club asked Justice Antonin Scalia to recuse from a 2004 case about an energy task force convened by then-Vice President Dick Cheney after reports that Scalia and Cheney, old friends, went duck-hunting together.

Scalia spent 21 pages explaining his decision not to recuse, acknowledging that he accepted an invitation to fly to a Louisiana hunting camp on Cheney’s government plane, but denying that they actually hunted or spent any significant time together.

“If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined,” Scalia wrote.

“Since I do not believe my impartiality can reasonably be questioned, I do not think it would be proper for me to recuse,” he wrote.

Ultimately, the only consequence for a justice’s refusal to recuse is also a highly unlikely one: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal from office by the Senate. That’s never happened.

ALITO’S EXPLANATION

Alito pointed to the Supreme Court’s ethics code to explain that justices have an obligation to take part in a case unless their impartiality might reasonably be questioned. In this instance, he said, anyone “not motivated by political or ideological considerations or a desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases” would see that recusal is not required.

The justice wrote that in both instances, the flags were flown by his wife and were not hoisted to identify with Capitol rioters or the “Stop the Steal Movement.” Alito said he was unaware of the “Appeal to Heaven” flag’s association with the effort to undo the 2020 election results. In 2021, he said he urged his wife to take down the inverted U.S. flag, but she refused for several days.

Alito defended his wife’s right to her express herself and also detailed some of the sacrifices she has made because of his Supreme Court service, “including the insult of having to endure numerous, loud, obscene, and personally insulting protests in front of our home that continue to this day and now threaten to escalate.”

DO JUSTICES EVER RECUSE?

Yes, it happens all the time. Most recently, Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted his recusal from the court’s rejection Tuesday of lawyer Michael Avenatti’s appeal of his criminal conviction for attempting to extort up to $25 million from Nike. Although Kavanaugh didn’t say why, it seems likely that he sat out the case because Avenatti represented one of the women who accused Kavanaugh, during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, of sexual misconduct. Kavanaugh has denied any impropriety.

Other examples are when justices, including Alito, hold even a tiny investment in a company with a case before the court. Last year, Alito didn’t take part in an appeal involving Phillips 66. He didn’t explain his decision, but his financial disclosure showed he owns between $15,000 and $50,000 in company stock.

One other common reason for recusal is when justices have dealt with cases in previous jobs, either in the executive branch or as lower-court judges. Last week, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Kavanaugh recused from a case involving former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, whose case had previously been before the federal appeals court in Washington on which Jackson and Kavanaugh both served. Jackson noted the reason for her recusal, but Kavanaugh didn’t.

29 May 2024

St. Paul: Cooper’s Foods to close final location on June 27

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Cooper’s Foods will close out more than a century of service when its last remaining St. Paul grocery store shutters on June 27, according to store proprietor Gary Cooper. The location at 633 Seventh St. W., a few blocks from the Smith Avenue High Bridge, has served the West Seventh community since the 1990s.

Cooper, in a brief interview, declined to speculate on the location’s fate, though customers and employees appeared convinced on Wednesday that the shop would reopen as a grocery geared toward the Asian community.

“Somebody bought the building and it’s up to them what they want to do with it,” he said.

Built in 1950 and spanning 18,000 square feet, the single-story structure adjoins a 47-stall parking lot. A certificate of real estate value listing the buyer and seller’s information, which must be filed when major property is sold or transferred, was not immediately available Wednesday from the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

Five generations of Coopers have worked the store shelves at two locations along West Seventh Street.

The grocery’s departure from the West Seventh location, at St. Clair Avenue, leaves the neighborhood with relatively limited options for fresh produce, at least within walking distance. The downtown Lunds & Byerlys, the Mississippi Market co-op farther down West Seventh and Trader Joe’s on Randolph Avenue are all about 1.5 miles away. Cooper’s also kept late-night hours.

The Cooper’s Foods’ Highland Park location in the Sibley Plaza strip mall closed in 2017, though an Aldi supermarket has since opened in its place. The Coopers closed their 107-year-old Chaska store in early March, citing competition from big box stores.

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29 May 2024

St. Paul man charged after toddler son shoots himself in wrist

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A man is charged with negligent firearm storage after prosecutors say his toddler accessed his gun and accidentally shot himself in the wrist in St. Paul.

The 22-month-old child was treated at Children’s Minnesota Hospital in St. Paul after the Saturday shooting, according to police.

The boy’s father, who lives in the Summit-University neighborhood, previously found a firearm and wrapped the loaded gun in a towel, said a criminal complaint filed Monday. The 29-year-old stored it in the lower cubby of a closet in the residence on Fuller Avenue near Lexington Parkway.

The St. Paul city attorney’s office charged the man with negligently storing a loaded firearm in a location where a person knows, or reasonably should know, that a child is likely to gain access unless reasonable access is taken to secure the firearm. The offense is a gross misdemeanor.

Everytown for Gun Safety tracks unintentional shootings by children and, for the first time since it began in 2015, they saw more than 400 incidents across the U.S. last year.

Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. In half of unintentional shootings by children, they shoot themselves and in more than 90 percent of the remaining cases, the victim is another child, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Children who are five and younger, and teens ages 14 to 17 are most likely to unintentionally shoot themselves or others, the data shows.

Ramsey County and its partners have free cable gun locks available and bit.ly/RamseyCogunlocks lists the locations.

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