Free Republic

Ilhan Omar, who once called Israel an “apartheid regime,” but who more recently came out against the boycott Israel movement, handily won the Democratic nomination in a Minneapolis-area congressional District. Omar, a Somali-born community activist and representative in the State House, is favored to win in November in the 5th District now held by Keith Ellison, who won the DFL primary for state attorney general. DFL is the state’s Democratic Party. There were primaries Tuesday in four states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Vermont. Omar’s tweets about Israel have earned her notoriety in the pro-Israel community. In 2012, she said...

In the Democratic Party’s reckoning following the election of Donald Trump, an unlikely feud has erupted inside an organization at the heart of the progressive movement. Earlier this year, the board of directors of Wellstone Action — an influential training group formed after Sen. Paul Wellstone’s death — dumbfounded Minnesota Democrats when it voted the late senator’s sons off the governing board. The ouster came after the sons, Mark and David Wellstone, raised concerns about overspending in areas of the organization’s budget — and after a dispute over the direction and priorities of the group. -snip - David Wellstone and...

Minneapolis When Donald Trump stopped off in Minnesota the Sunday before the election, it raised eyebrows. No Republican had won the state since Richard Nixon in 1972. But two days later, the outcome was in doubt until late in the night. Hillary Clinton’s 1.5 point margin over Trump was the narrowest victory for her party there since Walter Mondale barely won his home state over Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Minneapolis, MN – Raymond Dehn, candidate for Minneapolis mayor, is proposing police officers leave their guns in their cars, but says it’s okay for them to have nightsticks or pepper spray. Raymond Dehn, who is also a State Representative, is running against current mayor Betsy Hodges in this fall’s election, according to Fox9. He said, “Officers don’t need to carry guns on their person all the time…I’m not saying they don’t have access to that, just like they have access to more lethal weapons in their cars, I would believe they would still have access to their guns in their...

As Minnesota leaders debate how much new money to put toward the state’s roads, they’re also fighting about a related issue: who should choose which roads get attention? Ordinarily, the Legislature appropriates money for roads and bridges, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation decides how to spend the money. But bills in the Legislature this year take a different path: they order the MnDOT to do specific road projects. It’s a process called “earmarking,” and it could spark a showdown over road funding between the Republican-controlled Legislature and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton. Behind the feud are bad feelings from some...

Police are investigating a report of a man being assaulted by a group of people protesting President-elect Donald Trump in St. Paul on Wednesday night. Police were called to Regions Hospital about 10:30 p.m. after a man checked in with facial injuries. The 42-year-old man told police he had just gotten off the Green Line light rail’s Dale Street stop and was walking on the University Avenue sidewalk near Marion Avenue when he was approached by four people, whom he estimated to be in their late teens. The man said the four accused him of voting for Trump, and the...

A Democratic candidate for Minnesota state representative is ending his campaign because of backlash to a post he made on social media about the Islamic State. Dan Kimmel, a software developer and self-described "business process expert" from Burnsville, Minn., posted a tweet Saturday night that said "ISIS isn't necessarily evil. It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though." His tweet came a day after attacks in Paris left 128 dead and at least 350 injured. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. Kimmel has since deleted the statement and...

A Burnsville DFLer's campaign for the state House abruptly ended Sunday morning within hours of him posting on social media that ISIS "isn't necessarily evil" and is "made up of people doing what they think is best for their community." The Twitter posting Saturday by Dan Kimmel, coming as the world's emotions remain raw from Friday's terror attacks in Paris, brought swift rebuke from others on Twitter. House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, called for Kimmel to give up his campaign. "I'm folding up the campaign tent," Kimmel told the Star Tribune. He later issued a written apology and called...

"They never stopped plotting another way to get to Syria. These men are focused men who were intent on joining a terrorist organization by any means possible," Luger said. Luger said the six men are not part of an organized recruiting group but were friends who worked to recruit and help each other get to Syria to support ISIL. There is not one master ISIL recruiting organizer in Minnesota, Luger said; that makes it more difficult to stop. "I will work and help anyone who in good faith wants to break the cycle of terror recruiting in Minnesota," Luger said....

The FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are investigating Community Action of Minneapolis, a defunct nonprofit organization whose leaders allegedly misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money.The investigations were disclosed for the first time Thursday in a new court filing by the organization’s court-appointed receiver, Michael Knight. He was hired by the state to assess the full scope of the organization’s finances after a state audit revealed the agency’s board and its chief executive, Bill Davis, used taxpayer money for a celebrity cruise, tropical vacations, a personal car loan and other questionable expenses.The new documents, first obtained by...

Most members of the Metropolitan Council rarely use the public transportation system they are in charge of overseeing, based on transit pass usage and a Star Tribune survey of the 17-member body. Met Council members receive a free transit pass as part of their appointments to the board. Information obtained through an open records request shows that 10 of those passes were never used in the past year. Five council members swiped their cards between 10 and 21 times, while just two registered more than 70 rides. By comparison, a full year of two-way weekday commutes would rack up closer...

The Hennepin County attorney’s office is investigating whether a private mailbox center in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood has been improperly used as an address for more than 140 voters. State records show that 419 Cedar Avenue S. has been used by some of the voters as far back as 2008. No one lives at the address, which is a Somali-dominated commercial building housing several small businesses and a popular mail center. Several dozen apartments upstairs use a different building number. Records also show that more than 90 of the registrants at that address have voted in previous elections, although it’s unclear...

Absentee voting started Friday, six weeks ahead of primary elections. Already there are strong allegations of voter fraud. The attorney for Phyllis Kahn says he got word Thursday night; there might be hundreds of people who are registering and voting using an address that's not their home. Absentee voting kicked-off Friday morning in a hotly contested democratic primary race for the state house between incumbent Phyllis Kahn and Mohamud Noor. Brian Rice, attorney for the Phyllis Kahn Volunteer Committee, claims there's voter fraud. "I think there is a coordinated effort to use this address to bring voters into the DFL...

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Minnesota's minimum wage would rise to $9.50 per hour within a few years and continue going up unless a governor's administration applied the brakes, according to terms of an agreement announced Monday. The outline described by leaders of the House and Senate resolves one of the biggest remaining standoffs in a session on course for an early adjournment. The wage legislation could move through both Democratic-led chambers this week; it was scheduled for a Senate vote on Wednesday. Gov. Mark Dayton said he would sign the bill.

This top-down, statewide measure stems from political correctness — not protection. “Antibullying” legislation is a top priority for DFL leaders at the Capitol this year. In the last session, their bill got hung up in the Senate, and they appear determined to muscle it through this time around. Bullying is wrong. No child should have to put up with it. But a glance at the bill raises troubling questions. Why doesn’t it protect all children equally, instead of singling out for favored treatment children of “protected classes,” such as race, sexual orientation, and “gender identity and expression”? Why are traditional...

Party caucuses are going on tonight in precincts across Minnesota. Caucuses are an old-fashioned civic tradition, more noted for boredom and long nights than anything else, but tonight there was some excitement at a DFL caucus in Minneapolis. A fight broke out: A very tense night at a caucus site in Minneapolis where DFLer Mohamud Noor is challenging longtime DFL state Rep. Phyllis Kahn. The heat in one Minneapolis location resulted in police being called out. With 300 people at the Byan [sic] Coyle Center, a fight broke out and people rushed the stage. After the melee, the Minneapolis police

This is the year hardworking taxpayers found out what one-party control of Minnesota government looks like. It isn’t Shangri-La. More like Detroit. A recent report titled “The Fiscal Survey of States: Spring 2013,” produced by the National Governors Association (Gov. Mark Dayton serves on the group’s Executive Committee) makes very clear that Minnesota’s tax increases this year were extreme compared to the rest of the country. Our sales tax increases were the fourth-highest in America. Our income tax increases were second-highest. Our corporate tax increases were the very highest, as were our tobacco tax increases (by a mile). Considering the...

While states such as Indiana and Tennessee recently have eliminated wealth-transfer taxes, Minnesota is doubling down. A state gift tax, scheduled to take effect Monday, makes Minnesota only the second state in the country to tax large gifts between residents. But large means $1 million or more over a lifetime, meaning most Minnesotans won't be affected by it. Those who are affected will find themselves charged for giving relatives such gifts as lake homes, boats and family businesses. The tax was part of the omnibus tax bill the Legislature approved this year.

Demonizing personal insults flow far too easily from Minnesota Democrats these days. The latest: Rep. Ryan Winkler calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas "Uncle Thomas." Offensive enough on its own, worse, Winkler's attack is but a symptom. DFL Party Chair Ken Martin and Alliance for a Better Minnesota's Executive Director Carrie Lucking have perfected a systematic program in Minnesota that takes political name calling to a new level. This strategy is straight out of Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals." Alinsky's Rule #5 states: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." Rule #12 says: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and...

I have contended for quite some time that the left’s love of black people ends when that black person does not walk in lockstep with the Democrat line. If they DARE to be a conservative, then not only are they fair game, but they are then open to ridicule, condemnation, and attack from the left. These attacks will just roll off their tongue with such ease that it is disturbing. In the case of MN State Rep. Ryan Winkler, a Democrat, the racist attack rolled from his fingers to the internet via his computer......