State Sen. Nicole Mitchell didn’t answer any questions about her felony burglary charge from a Senate ethics panel Tuesday night with her attorney decrying the investigation as a “witch hunt.”

The Senate Subcommittee on Ethics, meanwhile, could not reach agreement on any action late Tuesday, with the two DFL and two Republican members unable to settle on when to meet next or how to proceed with a complaint against Mitchell. As of 9:30 p.m. they were still in recess.

Mitchell, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor senator from Woodbury, allegedly broke into her estranged stepmother’s northern Minnesota home last month. Her attorney said the criminal case should be resolved before lawmakers investigate ethics violations.

Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, looks at her computer while at her desk in the State Senate chambers at the State Capitol building on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“Conducting an ethics investigation after the criminal case seems appropriate. But by conducting an ethics investigation before the criminal case, you are participating in a witch hunt,” attorney Bruce Ringstrom Jr. told the committee

Senate Republicans have been calling for Mitchell’s resignation following her April 22 arrest and filed an ethics complaint against the senator citing the felony charges, as well as contradictions between Mitchell’s alleged account of events in charges and in public statements. That, they say, could make her unfit to continue serving in office.

“This isn’t a criminal case. Those are handled by the courts, and we trust them to do their work. What we are examining today is whether the Senate will maintain its reputation and institutional integrity with its membership,” said Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, one of the GOP senators who brought the complaint. “We don’t need to wait for the criminal case to make a decision. We can review the information before us today.”

Mitchell says she won’t resign, and her fellow DFLers aren’t eager to push her out as it would end their one-seat Senate majority with just weeks of the legislative session remaining.

Demonstrators in front of the Minnesota State Senate chamber doors at the State Capitol building demand that Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, resign on Tuesday, May 7, 2024.  (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Members of the ethics committee can take action against a senator accused of an ethics complaint, such as making them apologize for conduct or even calling for expulsion — which has never happened in the history of the Minnesota Legislature. In cases where a lawmaker is convicted of a crime, they wait for the case to be resolved before taking action.

But the committee is split between two Democrats and two Republicans, so unless one member joins the opposite party in a decision, ties would prevent any action. Members include the chair, Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, and Sen. Andrew Mathews, R-Princeton.

Mitchell is next expected to appear in Becker County District Court on June 10.

Champion made an argument similar to Ringstrom’s. He said the charging document and media reports are not proof of any wrongdoing on Mitchell’s part, and that the committee wouldn’t be able to take action until more facts emerge. He wants the committee to meet again sometime after Mitchell’s next court date.

Mitchell’s arrest and charges have been disruptive in the final weeks of the legislative session, as her party controls a one-seat majority in the Senate. If they’re one member short, the DFL will not be able to pass partisan legislation as bills would likely stall in 33-33 ties.

Votes on major bills already got delayed the week of Mitchell’s arrest, though the senator has since returned to the Legislature and has voted on bills and other measures — including measures advanced by Republicans to strip her of the ability to vote.

Republicans want to see her resign or removed from office, but for now at least, that’s unrealistic as there’s a two-thirds majority threshold to oust a senator. Some of Mitchell’s DFL colleagues have suggested she resign.

Mitchell, a first-term senator and former broadcast meteorologist who is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, was elected in 2022 and is in the second year of her four-year term. If she remains in office, she won’t face election again until 2026.

Mitchell, 49, faces a felony burglary charge after police found her in her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home last month. Mitchell told police she had broken into the house to retrieve her father’s ashes and other sentimental items since her stepmother was no longer talking to her, according to charges.

But Mitchell later offered a contradicting account of events following her release from jail. In a post on social media, she said she had entered the house to check on her stepmother, who had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The stepmother has obtained a restraining order against Mitchell and told multiple media outlets she fears her stepdaughter.

Gender-transition surgery video complaint

Sen. Glenn H. Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Senate)

Mitchell’s complaint wasn’t the only ethics matter before the committee on Tuesday. Before taking up her case, the panel heard a complaint from last year by Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, against Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe. Maye Quade filed a complaint last year after Gruenhagen emailed a link to Senate colleagues with what he called “graphic” videos of gender-transition surgery.

Testimony and debate on that issue lasted about two hours, with Gruenhagen arguing he had shared the video because the Senate had planned to take up a bill related to transgender medicine for youth. Maye Quade said the content was inappropriate regardless of the context and did not have a direct relation to the bill.

A committee vote initiated by Republicans to dismiss the complaint failed on a 2-2 partisan tie, though they agreed to meet again on Wednesday.

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Diversity was a theme for the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards, announced Tuesday evening at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul during a program emceed by Nur-D, presented by Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, sponsored by Education Minnesota.

Here are the winners:

Children’s literature (sponsored by Red Balloon Bookshop)

“Beneath” by Cori Doerrfeld (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group): Finn is in a horrible mood, but they agree to go for a hike with Grandpa. Throughout their walk, they see strong trees with networks of roots underneath, still water with schools of fish swimming below, and an expectant bird with eggs nestled under her. Grandpa explains that sometimes beneath a person who seems like they won’t understand is someone feeling the exact same way. Doerrfeld is the award-winning author/illustrator of many children’s books, including “The Rabbit Listened,” a Minnesota Book Award winner. She received her undergrad degree in studio art from St. Olaf College and her post-baccalaureate from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

General nonfiction (Loren & Christine Danielson)

“Lessons on the Road to Peace” by John Noltner (self-published): In the fall of 2020, Noltner and his wife, Karen, sold their Minnesota home and hit the road to live small, listen deeply, and learn about who we are as a country. Over the next 900 days, they drove 93,000 miles across America and gathered hundreds of stories with one goal: in a divided world, to rediscover what connects us. Noltner is an award-winning photographer and author and the founder and executive director of A Peace of My Mind, a nonprofit that uses storytelling and art to bridge divides and build community. He has produced projects for national magazines, Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations.

Genre fiction (Macalester College)

“Ink Blood Sister Scribe” by Emma Törzs (William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers): Two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family’s library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection. In the process, they uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined. Törzs is a writer, occasional translator and teacher at Macalester College. Her fiction has been honored with an NEA fellowship in prose, a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction, and an O. Henry Prize. Her stories have been published in journals such as Ploughshares, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, and American Short Fiction.

Memoir & creative nonfiction (Bradshaw Celebration of Life Centers)

“Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History” by Emily Strasser (University Press of Kentucky): In 1942, the U.S. government constructed a 60,000-acre planned community in rural Tennessee. Oak Ridge attracted more than 70,000 people eager for high-paying wartime jobs, who didn’t know it was one of three secret cities constructed by the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb. Strasser exposes the toxic legacy that forever polluted her family, a community, the nation  and the world. Strasser’s award-winning essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Colorado Review, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and elsewhere. She earned her master of fine arts in creative writing from the University of Minnesota.

Middle-grade literature (Education Minnesota)

“Shannon in the Spotlight” by Kalena Miller (Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House): Shannon Carter never considered herself much of a theater person. As a 12-year-old with obsessive-compulsive disorder, she depends on routine. But when she braves the audition, she discovers that center stage is the one place where she doesn’t feel anxious. As opening night approaches, Shannon feels pressure to save her friendships, manage her family and to follow the old theater adage: The show must go on. Miller is also the author of “The Night No One Had Sex,” a Minnesota Book Award winner. She received her master of fine arts in creative writing at Hamline University.

Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction (Annette and John Whaley)

“Making the Carry: The Lives of John and Tchi-Ki-Wis Linklater” by Timothy Cochrane (University of Minnesota Press): John Linklater, of Anishinaabeg, Cree, and Scottish ancestry, and his wife, Tchi-Ki-Wis, of the Lac La Croix First Nation, lived in the canoe and border country of Ontario and Minnesota from the 1870s until the 1930s. This illustrated biography follows the couple as they navigate great changes in their homeland along the U.S.–Canada border in the early 20th century. Cochrane was superintendent at Grand Portage National Monument for 20 years, where he worked closely with the Grand Portage Band of Anishinaabeg and the tribal council. His books include “A Good Boat Speaks for Itself: Isle Royale Fishermen and Their Boats” and “Gichi Bitobig, Grand Marais: Early Accounts of the Anishinaabeg and the North Shore Fur Trade” and “Minong: The Good Place — Ojibwe and Isle Royale.”

Novel & short story (Minnesota Humanities Center)

(Mariner Books)

“A Council of Dolls” by Mona Susan Power (Mariner Books/HarperCollins Publishers): From mid-century Chicago to the ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, this is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried. The novel is ultimately hopeful and shines a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people. Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is the author of three previously published works of fiction, “The Grass Dance,” “Sacred Wilderness” and “Roofwalker.” Power is a graduate of Harvard and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Poetry (Wellington Management)

“Wail Song: or wading in the water at the end of the world” by Chaun Webster (Black Ocean): A multi-form long poem that offers an extended contemplation on being that lays bare how the construction of the human and the animal both rely on black abjection. Readers find themselves in the belly of the whale, and in that darkness, “Wail Song” asks readers how deep they are willing to wade in the water with blackness. Webster is a poet and graphic designer whose work is attempting to put pressure on the spatial and temporal limitations of writing. Webster’s debut poetry book, “Gentry!fication: or the scene of the crime,” received the 2019 Minnesota Book Award.

Young adult literature (Minnesota Humanities Center)

“The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be” by Shannon Gibney (Dutton Books/Penguin Random House): This novel is woven from the author’s true story of growing up as the adopted Black daughter of white parents and the fictional story of Erin Powers, the name Gibney was given at birth by the white woman who gave her up for adoption. It is a tale of two girls on different timelines occasionally bridged by a mysterious portal and their shared search for a complete picture of their origins. Gibney is an author and university professor. Her novel “See No Color”, drawn from her life as a transracial adoptee, was hailed by Kirkus as “an exceptionally accomplished debut” and by Publishers Weekly as “an unflinching look at the complexities of racial identity.” Her sophomore novel, “Dream Country”, received five starred reviews and earned her a second Minnesota Book Award.

Special awards

Hognander Minnesota History Award (Hognander Family Foundation)

“Minescapes: Reclaiming Minnesota’s Mined Lands” by Pete Kero (Minnesota Historical Society Press): These stories from Minnesota’s Iron Range highlight the challenges of competing needs on lands that offer opportunities for both mining and recreation. Kero explores the record that is written on Minnesota’s mined lands – and the value systems of each generation that created, touched, and lived among these landscapes. His narratives reveal ways in which the mining industry and Iron Range residents coexist and support each other today, just as they have for more than a century. Kero is an environmental engineer practicing at Barr Engineering Co. in Hibbing, Minn. For more than 25 years, he has consulted with public agencies, mining companies, and communities who are reclaiming and repurposing the mining landscape of the Midwest.

Book artist award (Lerner Publishing Group)

Vesna Kittelson (previously announced): Kittelson’s “Letters to AmeriKa” is based on a decades-long imaginary conversation between Kittelson and American “culture.” As described by the artist, “the dialogue has been about everything, but especially my trying to understand the meaning of democracy and (absence of) justice for immigrants.”

Kay Sexton Award

Bao Phi (previously announced): Phi is an author, artist, arts administrator, activist, and grass-roots organizer who has been a leader in Minnesota’s literary community for more than 25 years. He has been a featured poetry performer, children’s book reader and guest workshop leader in hundreds of organizations in Minnesota and across the United States, from colleges to community centers, to prisons, to homeless centers, and has sat on numerous panels where he’s advocated for equity for artists from underrepresented communities.

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The Twins and Mariners traded blows for eight innings on Tuesday, combining for 19 hits including a three-run homer by Ryan Jeffers and a grand slam from Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, to head to the ninth inning tied 6-6.

The Mariners, however, didn’t stop there.

In the ninth, Dylan Moore hit a leadoff triple off the wall in left field off Jorge Alcala, the first of four consecutive batters to reach base, as Seattle pulled away with four ninth-inning runs for a 10-6 victory over the Twins in front of 14,710 at Target Field.

Seattle evened the four-game series at a game apiece and pulled into a first-place tie with Texas in the American League West. The Twins lost for the second time in three games for the first time since April 19-21.

Margot, Kyle Farmer and Austin Martin each drove in a run, and starter Bailey Ober left after five innings with a 4-2 lead. He was charged with two runs on three hits and a walk and fanned seven.

Jorge Alcala, who pitched a scoreless eighth inning, faced eight batters in the ninth and was charged with four earned runs on four hits and a pair of walks.

Jeffers hit a towering, three-run home run as the Twins rallied from a two-run deficit to give the Twins a 4-2 lead in the third, but Raleigh did him one better, hitting a mammoth, pinch-hit grand slam off reliever Steven Okert in the seventh inning to put the Mariners up 6-4.

Mariners manager Scott Servais sent Raleigh to the plate as a pinch-hitter for Seby Zavala afterTwins manager Rocco Baldelli replaced right-hander Jay Jackson with lefty Okert.

Raleigh hammered a hanging curveball deep into the second deck, where all three of the night’s three home runs landed — although this one was the biggest, in length and importance.

The Twins got one back when Jose Miranda and Kyle Farmer started their half of the seventh with consecutive doubles, but Manny Margot couldn’t move him to third — he grounded out to third — and Farmer was caught trying to steal third as Jeffers struck out to end the inning.

After a strong first inning that included a 5-4-3 double play, Ober ran into issues in the second.

Leadoff hitter Mitch Haniger hit an 0-2 pitch into the second deck in left field, and after Ober retired Mitch Garver on a grounder and struck out Ty France, he hit Luis Urias in the shoulder. Dylan Moore, the No. 8 hitter, then hit a double into the left-center gap that scored Urias from first for a 2-0 lead.

The Twins went down in order in their half of the inning but their bats came alive for a four-run, two-out rally in the third off Seattle starter Emerson Hancock.

After Willi Castro and Carlos Santana each flied out to center, Jose Miranda reached on a single to right. Edouard Julien then walked, and Trevor Larnach brought Miranda home from second with a sharp single to right to cut the Mariners’ lead in half.

The next batter was Jeffers, and he hit the first pitch he saw from Hancock into the second deck in left — on a rope — to make it 4-2. The homer was Jeffers’ seventh, tying him with Julien for the team lead.

After Cole Sands pitched a 1-2-3 sixth, the Mariners made some hay against right-hander Jay Jackson.

Mitch Garver started the inning by beating out a slow grounder to short for a single, and after Jackson got Ty France looking, Moore hit a sharp single to left, and Garver went first to third.

That brought pitching coach Pete Maki to the mound, and Jackson got a high popup behind the plate from Moore. But Jeffers never got a good look at it, and it fell harmlessly in the warning track with Santana giving chase. That made the count full, but Moore took the next pitch for a ball to load the bases with one out.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli replaced Jackson with lefty Steven Okert, and Mariners manager countered with pinch-hitter Cal Raleigh, who cleared the bases with a no-doubter that traveled an estimated 445 feet before landing near the back of the second deck in left for a 6-4 lead.

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The WNBA plans to commit $50 million over the next two years to provide full-time charter flight service for its teams during the season, the league’s commissioner announced Tuesday in a move that addresses years of player safety concerns.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a meeting with sports editors that the league will launch a charter program “as soon as we can get planes in places.” She said it’s projected to cost around $25 million per year for the next two seasons.

That means no more long security lines, bodyguards in public spaces, cramped legroom or layovers for the professional athletes who have been lobbying for better travel long before Caitlin Clark’s celebrity brought newfound interest to the league.

Most importantly, Lynx forward Napheesa Collier says, it means safety for the players.

“All these players and these faces are becoming so popular that it really is about that as much as it as about recovery,” Collier said, noting how last season Brittney Griner was harassed by what the WNBA called a “provocateur” while traveling commercial.

The WNBA already had announced plans to once again pay for charter flights for the entire playoffs as well as for back-to-back games during the upcoming season. The league introduced that program last year, spending about $4 million on charter flights. Engelbert said at the time the league needed to be in the right financial position to do full-time charter flights.

The WNBA has never been more popular thanks to rookies like Clark, who helped the NCAA reach its best viewership in history for women’s basketball, with nearly 19 million fans watching the title game, along with Angel Reese who went to the Met Gala on Monday night and Cameron Brink.

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said it’s not business as usual anymore: It’s time for the league, franchises and women’s sports to be innovative.

“We’ve had moments in the league,” Reeve said, calling the current momentum a tsunami. “But this is clearly a movement. And if you think it’s not, you’re going to get left behind.”

Clark attracted attention walking through the airport with her new Indiana Fever teammates for a preseason game with the Dallas Wings last week. That exhibition sold out with fans lined up eager to get inside.

WNBA teams also have been moving games against Clark and Indiana to bigger arenas because of increased demand. The defending champion Las Vegas Aces became the first WNBA team to sell out allotted season tickets back in March after leading the league in attendance in 2023.

Flights have been an ongoing issue for the WNBA that only increased last year when the league began working with the Phoenix Mercury and Griner after the All-Star center’s 10-month detainment in Russia.

The league hadn’t allowed teams to use charter flights except for when they had back-to-back games.

That forced players like Breanna Stewart, the 6-foot-4 forward for the New York Liberty, to squeeze past fellow travelers on commercial flights to fit into her assigned window seat. WNBA players also had to not only retrieve their own luggage but endure travel days that could stretch 13 hours with delays.

Charter flights will allow WNBA players to go through private air terminals straight to buses or their own cars when returning home. Avoiding layovers also will help with recovery between games, which is even more crucial with this season’s schedule around the Olympics.

WNBA coaches and players were waiting Tuesday for details about the charter flights.

Stewart spoke to reporters via Zoom just before the commissioner spoke in New York. Stewart shared on social media an airplane emoji with a question mark to the attention of the WNBA’s account.

Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon, whose Aces already had security in place to protect players, knows what will make everyone ecstatic.

“Everybody’s very happy they’re not going to have to stand in security lines as much, or as long,” Hammon said.

Two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, who now has an endorsement deal with Gatorade, said the growth of the women’s game has been a “whirlwind” that was just a matter of time. Wilson said it’s up to the players and teams to put the best product on the court with so many people watching now.

“That’s what continues to bring more eyes and more people and more investors, and then we end up with charter flights, and then things are going off and people are spinning off, and now we’re having a great time,” Wilson said.

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