City workers remove George Floyd Square barricades at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS — City crews on Thursday cleared away vehicle barriers and portable toilets to reopen portions of the sprawling memorial at the south Minneapolis intersection where George Floyd was murdered by police more than a year ago. But as soon as workers finished, protesters began parking cars and piling pallets in the streets once again.
At a news conference, Mayor Jacob Frey said the "phased reconnection" of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue with the rest of the city had been planned for months but wasn't yet complete. He declined to say when he thought traffic would return.
"I acknowledge that it will be a bit touch and go and difficult over the next several days," Frey said.
Municipal workers began taking the city barricades at about 4:30 a.m., erecting bike lanes and street signs at 38th and Chicago — dubbed George Floyd Square — with community members involved in coordinating the removal of flowers, artwork and barriers and shacks, said city spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie.
While the task was complete in less than four hours, protesters who have been occupying the intersection since Floyd's death weren't ready to yield. Using trash bins, discarded furniture and upended street signs, they continued to block the intersections where the city barriers once stood. About 150 people gathered at the former Speedway gas station and milled about the center of the intersection throughout the first half of the day, erecting new art and discussing next steps.
McKenzie said the Agape Movement, a peacekeeping force whose staff includes ex-gang members from the neighborhood, took the leading role in the early morning operation. The group is on contract with the city to maintain a semblance of security in the area in lieu of police, who have largely avoided the semiautonomous zone for the past year.
—Star Tribune
Feds reportedly investigating whether Matt Gaetz obstructed justice
ORLANDO, Fla. — Federal investigators are exploring whether U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz obstructed justice by attempting to influence a witness in the federal sex trafficking probe targeting him, according to a pair of new reports.
According to Politico, the obstruction element of the case concerns a phone conversation between the witness and an ex-girlfriend of Gaetz, who at one point added the Florida congressman to the call.
Politico’s report, attributed to two unnamed sources, said it was unclear what was said in the call, but noted that the witness had subsequently spoken with prosecutors. The witness was described as having “entered Gaetz’s orbit” through Joel Greenberg, the disgraced former Seminole County tax collector who recently pleaded guilty to six federal charges
A subsequent report by CNN, also attributed to two unnamed people, added that federal investigators have been concerned about “efforts to obstruct the probe” since at least last fall.
Authorities are also aware of Gaetz having discussed with an unnamed associate a plan to talk with Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend about the investigation last October. Prior reports have indicated that the ex is viewed as a potential key witness whose cooperation authorities hope to secure.
Politico reported that the ex-girlfriend might come to an agreement with prosecutors “by the end of the month,” adding that insiders with knowledge of the probe view July as “a prime time for the congressman to be indicted if there’s enough evidence against him.”
Harlan Hill, a spokesperson for Gaetz, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports but fired backat the newly disclosed details of the investigation in a statement to CNN and Politico.
“Congressman Gaetz pursues justice, he doesn’t obstruct it,” the statement said. “After two months, there is still not a single on-record accusation of misconduct, and now the ‘story’ is changing yet again.”
—Orlando Sentinel
Fivefold surge in migrants en route to US overwhelms Panama
Panama is struggling to cope with a fivefold increase in migrants who trek for days through its dense southern jungle in the hope of reaching the U.S., according to the country’s top diplomat.
The migrants, from as far away as Senegal and Nigeria, are starting to overwhelm Panama’s shelters as numbers surge, Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes said.
“The migrant situation has gotten a lot worse,” Mouynes said this week in an interview in New York. “We give them food, we put them in camps where you do biometric testing and COVID testing. That is fine if you have numbers you can manage, but if all of a sudden you have five times that amount it becomes difficult.”
The nation’s migration authority recorded 5,818 undocumented foreigners crossing into Panama from Colombia in April, up 477% from January. The biggest source countries are Haiti and Cuba, but many also travel from as far away as Bangladesh and Uzbekistan, trying to eventually reach the U.S.
The flow of people picked up as travel restrictions eased across the world, after the pandemic increased unemployment and poverty in developing nations. Migrants enter South America in places where visa rules are favorable, then make their way north to Colombia, before crossing into Panama across the dangerous no-man’s land known as the Darien Gap.
Mouynes said she is seeking talks with governments in South America to help control the flow, or at least to vaccinate migrants as they travel.
—Bloomberg News
