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Tribal advocates keep up legal pressure for fair political maps; 12-member jury sworn in for Trump's historic criminal trial; the importance of healthcare decision planning; and a debt dilemma: poll shows how many people wrestle with college costs.

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Civil rights activists say a court ruling could end the right to protest in three southern states, a federal judge lets January 6th lawsuits proceed against former President Trump, and police arrest dozens at a Columbia University Gaza protest.

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Rural Wyoming needs more vocational teachers to sustain its workforce pipeline, Ohio environmental advocates fear harm from a proposal to open 40-thousand forest acres to fracking and rural communities build bike trail systems to promote nature, boost the economy.

Questions Continue Over Convention Mass Arrests

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Monday, September 8, 2008   

St. Paul, MN – St. Paul is back to normal this morning, after being in the world spotlight as host of the Republican National Convention - or is it? The controversy continues about the mass arrests outside the convention hall, that included dozens of reporters and bystanders.

Overall, Minnesota has received good reviews about the convention, but some tactics used by police to subdue demonstrators are being questioned. Reporter Art Hughes, working for Public News Service, was among those arrested on the last night of the convention.

"The net they cast was extraordinarily large. They scooped up bystanders, people passing by on bicycles – I heard one story in which someone had stepped out of a nearby hotel to grab a smoke, and just happened to get swept up in it. It was very indiscriminate."

The Society of Professional Journalists' Clint Brewer calls jailing reporters doing their job "unacceptable in an open society."

"By having journalists scooped up off the street in police sweeps, the public is not going to know the extent of protest. And there's a long-term, chilling effect on reporters if they know that, by covering what goes on, they may end up in jail."

Thirty journalists were arrested during the convention. St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington says the department will review what happened and how well it worked. He adds that the news media isn't exempt when officers declare - and try to disperse - an "unlawful assembly." Hughes says, in the cases he observed, police essentially cornered people, including journalists, giving them no safe way to obey the order.

Attorney Michael Bryant, with the Minnesota Association for Justice says, arresting reporters may be something that happens in other countries – but it's not supposed to happen here.

"They have a right, under the United States Constitution, to do what they're doing. We've had multiple cases over history where they've attempted to stop reporters - and the courts constantly come down on the side of the reporters' rights to do their job."





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