When Katie McNichols saw an envelope from Hennepin County Court in her mailbox on December 30, she was expecting a holiday windfall of sorts: a formal dismissal of criminal charges that had been hanging over her for four months. McNichols, along with 65 other protesters, was arrested for participating in the highly publicized demonstration against the July 24 conference of the International Society for Animal Genetics in downtown Minneapolis. When charges against McNichols and 15 other protesters were dismissed in November, the Minneapolis resident figured her legal troubles were over. Instead, she says, the Minneapolis City Attorney's Office was playing Grinch: She, along with 11 other protesters, received summonses to stand trial for the same charge that had earlier been thrown out. "A lot of us thought, 'It's over. Good. Now we can get on with our lives,'" she says. "People are... More >>>