Tag Archives: Minnesota

Harris To Make History With Abortion Clinic Visit

NBC News reports: Vice President Kamala Harris plans to tour a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota that provides abortion services Thursday, according to three sources familiar with the planning. The sources said they believed this was the first time a president or vice president has ever visited a clinic that provides abortion services in U.S. history. Harris plans to tour …

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Rioter Arrested After FBI Tip By High School Classmate

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: A tip from a high school classmate led the FBI to arrest a Lakeville man who has been charged with invading the U.S. Capitol during the violent and destructive Jan. 6 insurrection in 2021. Martin James Cudo, 43, was charged with illegal entry of the Capitol with the intent to impede or disrupt the U.S. House …

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The Cult Melted Down Over New Minnesota State Flag

Media Matters reports: After a Minnesota commission unveiled its finalist pick for a new state flag to replace a racially offensive design, right-wing media insisted that the new design resembled one from a state in Somalia. Conservatives used the redesign to promote the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, claiming that Minnesota has been “conquered” by Somali immigrants. Right-wing media claimed …

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MN Supreme Court: Trump Can Stay On Primary Ballot

CNN reports: The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an attempt to block Donald Trump from the state’s GOP primary ballot next year based on the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause” but said the challengers can try again to block from the general election ballot if the former president wins the Republican nomination. At oral arguments earlier this month, several of …

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Arguments Begin In Trump Minnesota Ballot Case

ABC News reports: Former President Donald Trump’s legal battles continue to mount as oral arguments begin on Thursday in Minnesota, where the state’s Supreme Court will decide whether or not the case to prevent him from appearing on the state’s ballot. If the justices decide the case against Trump should move forward, they could appoint a special master to oversee …

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WSJ: Dem Rep To Launch Biden Challenge On Friday

The Wall Street Journal reports: Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is preparing to formally announce a long- shot Democratic primary challenge to President Biden, offering himself as a next-generation alternative to the 80-year-old president, according to people familiar with his plans. The 54-year-old Phillips, after months of encouraging fellow Democrats to challenge Biden, has told people in his home state …

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Minnesota Youth Pastor Arrested On Child Sex Charges

Minnesota Public Radio reports: A former youth pastor at a Duluth church was jailed Tuesday and charged with sexually abusing five teenage girls. St. Louis County prosecutors said that Jackson M. Gatlin, 35, assaulted the teens between 2007 and 2010 while he worked at Vineyard Church. Gatlin is the son of former pastors Michael and Brenda Gatlin. The couple resigned …

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New Lawsuit Seeks To Bar Trump From Minnesota Ballot

Talking Points Memo reports: Groups pushing to disqualify Donald Trump from 2024 ballots struck again Tuesday, filing a lawsuit in Minnesota Supreme Court to bar him from the state’s presidential primary ballot. Free Speech for People filed the complaint on behalf of a handful of Minnesota voters, naming Minnesota secretary of state Steve Simon (D) as the respondent. The lawsuit …

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GOP Megadonor Gets 21 Years For Child Sex Trafficking

The Associated Press reports: A formerly well-connected GOP donor convicted of giving teenage girls gifts, alcohol and money in exchange for sex was sentenced Wednesday to 21 years in prison on sex trafficking charges. Anton “Tony” Lazzaro was found guilty in March by a federal jury of seven counts involving “commercial sex acts” with five girls ages 15 and 16 …

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Politico: Battleground GOP State Parties Have Collapsed

Politico reports: Michigan’s Republican party is broke. Minnesota’s was, until recently, down to $53.81 in the bank. And in Colorado, the GOP is facing eviction from its office this month because it can’t make rent. Around the nation, state Republican party apparatuses — once bastions of competency that helped produce statehouse takeovers — have become shells of their former machines …

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MN Becomes 23rd State With Legal Recreational Weed

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: Minnesota became the 23rd state in the country to legalize recreational marijuana for adults after Gov. Tim Walz signed the measure into law on Tuesday. The bill signing marked a watershed moment for Minnesota, which legalized medical cannabis about a decade ago but had seen efforts to allow recreational marijuana repeatedly stall at the state Capitol. …

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Feds: Man Set Fires At Mosques, Graffiti’d Omar’s Office

From the Justice Department: Jackie Rahm Little, aka Joel Arthur Tueting, has been arrested and charged in a federal criminal complaint with arson following fires at two Minneapolis mosques, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger. Little was apprehended and arrested last night in Mankato by the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office and taken into federal custody today by FBI and …

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GOP Megadonor Guilty Of Sex Trafficking Underage Girls

CBS News reports: Anton Lazzaro, a former GOP operative, has been found guilty of sex trafficking underage girls. Lazzaro was charged with seven counts involving “commercial sex acts” with five minors ages 15 and 16 in 2020, when he was 30 years old. Closing arguments wrapped on Friday, and the jury was handed the case shortly before noon. The jury …

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Minnesota Derailment Sparks Fire And Evacuations

CBS News reports: An early morning train derailment in the small town of Raymond in west-central Minnesota started a large fire and resulted in evacuations, authorities said. BNSF Railway said in a statement that about 22 cars of a train carrying ethanol and corn syrup among other things left the tracks at about 1:02 a.m.. No one was hurt, the …

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Minnesota Rep: Ex-Gay Torture Bans Enable Pedophiles

“If the person is struggling with some of those behaviors and desires, we want to insert government and say to the counselor or therapist, you cannot try to tell him that what he’s doing isn’t right. You must reinforce his behavior. “To a certain degree, you almost believe you know that these minors are being groomed for pedophilia. In other …

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MN Rep Votes Against Free Lunches For Poor Students Since He’s “Yet To Meet A Hungry Minnesotan” [VIDEO]

NBC News reports: A Republican state senator in Minnesota said Tuesday he was voting against a bill to provide free breakfast and lunch for school students in part because he’d never encountered anyone in the state who was hungry. “I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that is hungry,” Sen. Steve Drazkowski said in remarks on the floor …

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Far-Right Ex-Sheriff David Clarke Floats Run For Senate

The Daily Beast reports: Over his controversial years in politics, David Clarke has worn several hats: Milwaukee sheriff, right-wing firebrand, prominent Donald Trump surrogate, cowboy. (Literally.) But there’s another hat Clarke might want to add to the collection: U.S. Senator. As Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) gears up for her 2024 re-election campaign, Clarke has courted speculation in the Badger State …

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MN Senator: The GOP Isn’t Bigoted Against “Polacks”

The Independent reports: A Minnesota state senator’s defense of the Republican Party was complicated when he used a derogatory term for Polish people. State Sen. Mark Johnson was arguing in a speech on the Senate floor that Republicans had good faith objections to a bill that would allow undocumented Minnesotans to obtain driver’s licenses. “There are holes in this bill. …

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Minnesota GOP Bill Requires Teaching That “Sickness, Death, Disease, And Pain” Are Caused By “The Creator”

From the text of Minnesota Senate bill SF17: To advance critical thinking skills in history and science, a school district must provide instruction to students in grades 9 to 12 exploring the contrast between the scientific facts on how sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death relate to the existence of complex living organisms and how sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and …

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Minnesota Gov Signs Bill Guaranteeing Abortion Rights

Minnesota Public Radio reports: Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday signed into law a proposal that guarantees in state law the right to abortion and other reproductive health care options. The move backstops the current right to an abortion laid out in a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision, and it expands that to include access to birth control, sterilization, family planning …

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