Walz makes Juneteenth a holiday

ST. PAUL (AP) — Juneteeth will become a state holiday in Minnesota, under a bill signed by Gov. Tim Walz on Friday in a state where it’s now illegal to discriminate on the basis of hair texture or style. The Democratic governor made Minnesota the 26th state to recognize June 19th as a holiday. It’s the date in 1865 viewed as the final abolition of slavery in the U.S. even though it came two years after President Abraham Lincolnís 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. It became a federal holiday in 2021, and many local governments and companies already observe it.

Family of man killed in no-knock raid sues

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The parents of Amir Locke, who was shot to death by a Minneapolis police officer when a SWAT team executed a no-knock search warrant one year ago, sued the city and the officer Friday, alleging he was “gunned down in cold blood” in violation of his constitutional rights. Locke, 22, who was Black and had hoped to build a career as a hip-hop artist, was sleeping on a couch in his cousin’s downtown apartment when authorities entered without knocking Feb. 2.