Brand Logo
Minnesota assassination, Israel-Iran escalation and ICE raid bifurcation

 
Today's CRIME story

Police capture suspect in Minnesota lawmaker killing

What happened
Police yesterday evening captured the man suspected of killing the top Democrat in the Minnesota House and her husband and wounding a Democratic state senator and his wife early Saturday morning. The suspect, Vance Boelter, was armed when arrested in a field near his home in Green Isle following a two-day manhunt involving more than 100 law enforcement officers, officials said last night.

Who said what
Police said Boelter, 57, impersonated a police officer to shoot state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in the northern Minneapolis suburb of Champlin, then drove 9 miles to Brooklyn Park and killed former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. Police checking on local elected officials after learning of the Hoffman shootings witnessed the killing of Mark Hortman and engaged in gunfire with the suspect, according to charging documents.

Police found a car belonging to Boelter near Green Isle then encircled a wooded area on a tip from a local resident and after an "alert police officer" thought he saw him running into the woods, Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said. "There's no question that this is the largest manhunt in the state's history." 

Authorities said they believe that Boelter acted alone and that "the shootings were deliberate and targeted" after finding a "roster of dozens of names, including Democratic lawmakers and people who are supportive of abortion rights and other liberal causes" across the Midwest, in his fake police SUV, The Washington Post said. Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Saturday said the Hortman killings appeared to be a "politically motivated assassination."

What next?
Boelter was charged with two initial state counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder. "One man's unthinkable actions have altered the state of Minnesota," Walz said last night, thanking law enforcement officers for having "spent Father's Day away from their families to deliver justice for Melissa and Mark Hortman and their children, who spent this Father's Day alone." He remembered the slain lawmaker as the "most consequential Speaker in state history" and said the Hoffmans were out of surgery and expected to recover. 

 
 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

US says Trump vetoed Israeli strike on Khamenei

What happened
Iranian missiles struck the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa this morning after Israel stuck Tehran, pushing the escalating fight between the longtime regional foes into a fourth day. Israeli strikes have killed at least 10 Iranian generals and several nuclear scientists. But President Donald Trump stopped Israel from assassinating Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, U.S. officials told The Associated Press and Reuters yesterday. Iran said Israeli strikes have killed at least 224 people since Friday while Israel put its death toll at 24.

Who said what
Israel told the U.S. it had a credible shot at killing Khamenei, "but Trump waved them off of the plan," Reuters said. "Have the Iranians killed an American yet? No," a senior U.S. official told the news service. "Until they do we're not even talking about going after the political leadership." The White House has been "desperate to keep Israel's military operation" from "exploding into an even more expansive conflict," the AP said.

Israeli officials called the Khamenei report "fake news" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News there were "a lot of false reports about conversations that didn't take place." But "we'll do what we need to do," he told anchor Bret Baier, and regime change "could certainly be the result" of the conflict because Iran's government "is very weak."

What next?
"I hope there is going to be a deal" between Israel and Iran, Trump told reporters before departing yesterday evening for a G7 summit in Canada, "and we'll see what happens, but sometimes they have to fight it out." Iran told mediators in Qatar and Oman they "will not negotiate while under attack," an official told Reuters.

 
 
Today's IMMIGRATION Story

Trump tells ICE to hit blue cities, spare farms, hotels

What happened
President Donald Trump has directed immigration agents to pause workplace raids at hotels, farms and restaurants, news organizations reported over the weekend. But he said on social media last night he was ordering ICE to "expand efforts to detain and deport" undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and other large cities that "are the core of the Democrat power center."

Who said what
Trump conceded in a post Thursday that his "very aggressive" immigration policy had been depriving "our great farmers" and hotel owners of "very good, long time workers" who are "almost impossible to replace." Later that day, senior ICE official Tatum King emailed colleagues nationwide to "hold on all work site enforcement" on "agriculture (including aquaculture and meatpacking plants), restaurants and operating hotels," according to The New York Times and Axios.

Trump was "persuaded" to shield the agriculture and hospitality industries by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who "relayed a growing sense of alarm from the heartland," and by "influential Trump donors" who urged him to "include the restaurant sector," the Times said Saturday. "Top White House officials were caught off guard — and furious" at Rollins — over the easing of the "hard-line approach" designed by top aide Stephen Miller.

Late last month, Miller reprimanded ICE leaders for failing to arrest enough immigrants, telling them to "just go out there and arrest illegal aliens," The Wall Street Journal said. "Miller said, 'What do you mean you're going after criminals? … Why aren't you at Home Depot? Why aren't you at 7-Eleven?'" an official told The Washington Examiner. Miller then tripled their daily arrest quota to 3,000 migrants.

What next?
It "remains to be seen how effective" Trump's new order will be and whether he "will stick with his decision," the Times said.

 
 

It's not all bad

A British startup is using human ashes as a source of oceanic renewal. Resting Reef mixes cremated ashes with oyster shells to create memorial 3D-printed reefs that support marine life. Anchored to the seabed, the structures help filter water, prevent erosion and regenerate biodiversity. "We want to shift the industry from death to life," co-founder Aura Murillo Pérez told The Guardian. The company plans to install its first U.K. reef within 18 months, pending licensing approval.

 
 
Under the radar

Scientists may have discovered a dwarf planet far beyond Neptune — an unearthing that may disprove a longstanding theory about the possibility of a giant ninth planet. The dwarf planet's existence also opens the likelihood of many more like it in our solar system waiting to be found.

A dwarf planet is "classified as a celestial body that orbits the sun that has enough mass and gravity to be mostly round but unlike other planets has not cleared its orbital path of asteroids and other objects," said NBC News. The new discovery was "not very different from how Pluto was discovered," study lead researcher Sihao Cheng, a member at the Institute for Advanced Study, said to NBC News. "This project was really an adventure." 

The area of space where this planet was found was previously thought to be empty. The potential planet, which has been temporarily called 2017 OF201, takes "more than 24,000 years to travel around the sun just once along a highly elliptical orbit, coming as close as 4.2 billion miles and moving as far out as 151 billion miles," said The New York Times.

Scientists have long theorized that there's a "huge and mysterious planet lurking in the darkness at the edge of our solar system, evading all our efforts to spot it," said CBS News. This potential planet has been called Planet Nine or Planet X. The discovery of 2017 OF201, however, may disprove the Planet Nine theory.

 
 
On this day

June 16, 1963

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space, completing 48 Earth orbits aboard the Vostok 6 capsule. Of the more than 600 people who have traveled to space, only about 100 have been women, according to the Palm Beach Post. Next year, NASA astronaut Christina Koch hopes to become the first woman on the Moon.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

As President Donald Trump "celebrates Army's founding, his critics take to the street," the Miami Herald says on Monday's front page. "Message to Trump: No kings allowed," the San Francisco Chronicle says. "Rally takes on Trump" in West Palm Beach, says The Palm Beach Post. "'No Kings' in Wisconsin," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says. "Arizonans join in protest vs. Trump," says the Arizona Republic. "Thousands brave the rain" for "No Kings" rally in Oklahoma City, The Oklahoman says. "Protest in Austin draws thousands" despite earlier "death threat," the Austin American-Statesman says. Trump's "damp and relatively low-key" parade "could prove pivot point," ultimately "less consequential than the 'No Kings' marches it sparked," USA Today says.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

A picture's worth 1,000 milligrams

Uniq Cannabis in Monroe, Michigan, is offering a pre-rolled joint to any customer who can bring them photographic proof of Bigfoot. The promotion comes after a local father and son claimed to have had a close encounter with a "large primate about 6 feet tall with dark fur" while out hunting, said Gray Media. They won't be getting the free weed, however, as "neither had thought about taking a photograph since it happened so suddenly."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Ramsey County Sheriff's Office via AP; Khoshiran / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images; Francis Chung / Politico / Bloomberg via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images