Lawmakers still can’t agree on DWI reforms and voting rights for felons.

A husband and wife from Fridley allegedly bilked the state of more than $4 million as part of a complex scheme in which they recruited aid-eligible parents to enroll their children in day care, created no show jobs for the parents to satisfy work requirements and submitted false records to the Department of Human Services.

Both chambers have rejected provision requiring search warrant, a key provision pushed by privacy advocates.

A key question remaining is whether police should be required to obtain a search warrant before deploying a Kingfish, Stingray or other such device in a criminal investigation.

A House panel on Tuesday took four hours of testimony on a raft of bills aimed at restricting the government’s use of cellphone tracking devices and drones.

A recent KARE-11 report about the secretive use of cellphone tracking devices by Minnesota law enforcement agencies has sparked calls for hearings from lawmakers and outraged open-government advocates.

Right out of the box, Maplewood's new anti-vehicle-theft technology has proved its effectiveness. The system - essentially three camera-bearing, Spam-can shaped boxes hanging off the city's unmarked squad car - nabbed a stolen vehicle two days after it was deployed earlier this month.

Michael Campion, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, has named a 20-member panel to study the issue of gang databases maintained by law-enforcement agencies. The work group will be co-chaired by Don Gemberling, a veteran advocate of government transparency, and David Johnson, executive director of Minnesota Justice Information Services.

[This interview first ran in the April 10, 2009 issue of the PIM Weekly Report.]Among the hordes of lobbyists who ply their trade at the ...

“Criminal intelligence data may be shared with: …(2) a law enforcement agency to charge a person with a crime or allege that a juvenile is ...