In a move that has a few people scratching their heads, the Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday its decision to cut interest rates by a quarter point to around 2.25 percent. Several economists and investors think the move lacks justification thanks to a strong economy, The Washington Post's Heather Long writes. Instead, they reportedly see the Fed as caving to President Trump, who has been pressuring Fed Chair Jerome Powell to make large cuts for months.
"I have to conclude that the Fed has lost some independence here," Blu Putnam, chief economist at CME Group told the Post.
The last time the Fed cut rates was in 2008 when unemployment was over 7 percent, the stock market had lost a third of its value, and Lehman Brothers had declared bankruptcy. The economy needed a stimulus back then. In contrast, the current unemployment rate is at a healthy 3.7 percent, the economy is growing steadily if not overwhelmingly, and the stock market is hitting record highs.
But Powell said in a press conference that the Fed was not acting on pressure from the White House. "We also don't conduct monetary policy in order to preserve our independence," he said. Instead, Powell said the decision — which was not made unanimously — was about fulfilling goals of maximum employment and price stability. Slow foreign growth, a decline in business investment, and trade policy tensions are among the reasons why Powell and his colleagues felt that those goals could be at risk going forward, despite the strong economic situation.
Realistically, the Post reports, one cut won't do much, but Powell isn't ruling out more. He did say, however, instituting a cycle of cuts "is not our perspective right now." Read more at The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Tim O'Donnell
The family of George Floyd is demanding stronger charges for the former Minneapolis police officer arrested Friday in connection with Floyd's death. Derek Chauvin received third-degree murder and manslaughter charges, despite evidentially ignoring police training that would have taught that restraining a person in such a way as he did Floyd is "inherently dangerous," according to the criminal complaint.
"We want a first-degree murder charge," the family's statement said. "And we want to see the other [three] officers arrested. We call on authorities to revise the charges to reflect the true culpability of this officer."
The disturbing complaint describes how Chauvin placed "his left knee in the area of Mr. Floyd's head and neck. Mr. Floyd said, 'I can't breathe' multiple times and repeatedly said 'Mama' and 'please' as well. The defendant [Chauvin] and the other two officers stayed in their positions."
Floyd then stopped breathing or speaking. One of the officers checked his pulse and said "I couldn't find one," but Chauvin did not remove his knee for several more minutes. An ambulance eventually arrived; Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The autopsy "revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation" but "Mr. Floyd had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease" that, along with the police restraint, could have contributed to his death. The report adds that "the defendant had his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was non-responsive." Jeva Lange
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has responded to criticism of her time as Minneapolis' top prosecutor.
Before she was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006, Klobuchar was the Hennepin County attorney in Minnesota, in charge of prosecution for the state's most populous county. Reports have indicated Klobuchar did not go after numerous police officers who shot civilians, and when MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell asked her about that on Friday, Klobuchar described her decisions as routine procedure, but also expressed regret for how she handled those cases.
"When I was county attorney, cases we had involving officer-involved shootings went to a grand jury. I think that was wrong now," Klobuchar said. "It would have been much better if I took responsibility and looked at cases and made a decision myself." Still, Klobuchar maintained that "we did not blow off these cases. We brought them to a grand jury, presented the evidence for a potential criminal prosecution, and the grand jury would come back with the decision."
Klobuchar also addressed a 2006 shooting that involved former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was arrested Friday after kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, who later died. Klobuchar was elected to the Senate a week after Chauvin was implicated in the shooting of a suspect who was allegedly attacking police, and left her attorney position just a few months into an investigation into the incident. She said it's "absolutely false" that she declined to prosecute the case involving Chauvin, describing it as a case handled by her successor that a grand jury later declined to prosecute.
Klobuchar went on to call for "systematic change" following Floyd's death both in Minnesota and "across the country." Kathryn Krawczyk
Ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been arrested in relation to the death of George Floyd, Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington announced Friday. Chauvin is the officer who was filmed kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly 10 minutes as Floyd protested "I can't breathe;" he was fired from the department earlier this week.
According to KARE 11, the local NBC affiliate, Chauvin's charging decision has not yet been made. Nevertheless, Harrington called Floyd's death a "murder," explaining "that's what it looked like to me … I'm just calling it what I see at that point." The nation has been rocked by protests since Floyd's death, with many of the protesters demanding justice and expressing anger that the officers involved had not yet faced legal repercussions.
Chauvin had at least 10 conduct complaints during his 19-year tenure before he was fired. In particular, he was involved in the shooting death of a man who had stabbed other people before attacking police, as well as some other undisclosed complaints. Additionally, he was placed on leave when he and other officers shot and wounded a Native American man in 2011. Jeva Lange
Disney's story of a rabbit and a fox recognizing and overcoming police bias was apparently used to educate human police officers.
More specifically, St. Paul, Minnesota's police force — which has been pulled into the protests in neighboring Minneapolis — watched Zootopia a few years ago as part of its annual anti-bias training. The animated movie specifically covers discrimination against a young police officer and suspects based on their species, but many officers "never saw the parallels with real life" until they watched it in training, Sgt. Amanda Heu told local station Fox 9 back in 2017.
Zootopia tells the story of the first rabbit to join the animal-run city of Zootopia's police department. She's placed on parking duty and doubted because of her species, but also discriminates against a fox con artist because of his, with nods to human race relations — the fox plays with a sheep's "hair," for instance — along the way.
"When you see the story, it has bias and prejudice woven throughout," Hua said at the time. She specifically pointed to a moment where the fox notes "if the world is only going to see a fox as shifty and untrustworthy, there's no point in trying to be anything else," saying "it boiled down the psychological construct that perpetuates discrimination and prejudice in America." But because the movie used animals instead of humans, officers "could learn from it without being judged," Hua said.
At the time, St. Paul was considering passing the Zootopia training idea on to other departments. Read more at how the Zootopia training went down at Fox 9. Kathryn Krawczyk