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Katherine Kersten, reporting for the Minnesota Star Tribune, writes: Do you believe in the American dream -- the idea that in this country, hardworking people of every race, color and creed can get ahead on their own merits? If so, that belief may soon bar you from getting a license to teach in Minnesota public schools -- at least if you plan to get your teaching degree at the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus. In a report compiled last summer, the Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group at the U's College of Education and Human Development recommended that...

It took more than 60 years, but a World War II vet from Plymouth finally got his full military honors on Sunday. The 86-year-old received two medals for his service. Earl Joswick was a fighter pilot in World War II, when his plane was shot down over Germany. He broke his leg when he ejected then was captured by the Germans. Now his military record will have two additions to it, the POW medal and the Purple Heart. It may take them a few extra steps. Earlier this month, Joswick and more than 100 other World War II vets made...

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Authorities unsealed terrorism-related charges Monday against eight defendants they said recruited young Somali-American men to return to their homeland to fight for an Islamist militant group. The charges said men were recruited in Minneapolis mosques to fight for al-Shabaab, which the United States accuses of being al Qaeda's proxy in the Horn of Africa nation. In all, authorities have charged 14 people with recruiting, training or financing travel for young Somali immigrants in Minneapolis, which is home to some 50,000 Somalis. About 20 young men, all but one of Somali descent, have left the Minneapolis area since...

Note: The following text is a quote: Terror Charges Unsealed in Minnesota Against Eight Defendants, Justice Department Announces The Justice Department announced that terrorism charges have been unsealed today in the District of Minnesota against eight defendants. According to the charging documents, the offenses include providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization; attending terrorist training camps operated by al-Shabaab; and fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab. Thus far, 14 defendants have been charged in the District of Minnesota in indictments or criminal complaints that have been unsealed and...

Federal authorities are expected to announce charges against eight more people today in a long-running investigation into how perhaps dozens of young men from the Minneapolis area were recruited to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia. It will be the most significant and public move to date in the case. Charges against the eight people will be announced at a joint FBI-U.S. Attorney's Office press conference in Minneapolis on Monday afternoon, a source said. Some, if not all, of the individuals will be charged with providing material support to terrorists, the source said. Many of those charged have already...

The 12-year-old boy saw Rebecca O'Malley-Tietz standing in her bathroom with her hand behind her back. According to a criminal complaint filed Thursday, his former teacher's aide asked him if he had told anyone about their sexual relationship. He told her he hadn't. She took a gun from behind her back, put the muzzle under his chin and threatened to hurt him and his family if he did, the complaint states. Pierce County prosecutors charged O'Malley-Tietz, 34, of River Falls, Wis., with first-degree child sexual assault. The boy told investigators they had sexual contact as many as 40 times.

Dad spoke to son in Klingon   By VIRGINIA WHEELER Published: Today         A DAD spoke only KLINGON to his son for the first three years of his life to see if he could pick up the alien language. Linguist Dr d'Armond Speers came up with the idea after watching an episode of Star Trek. He spent days translating phrases into Klingon - hoping his toddler's first word would be "vav" rather than "dad". Dr Speers, of Minnesota, US, battled on with commands like "find the USS Enterprise", - but his wife only spoke English to...

Racial tensions are rising within the Rochester School District. The most recent incident took place this morning when a group of students erupted into a fight. School District Officials wouldn't talk to us on camera, but did issue a statement. They say they are continuing to gather information about the fight, and that “student safety is their utmost concern.” We tried calling the diversity council today, but our calls were not returned. This latest fight comes less than a week after a racially inspired altercation broke out at Owatonna High School. Students say it was between 20 Somali students and...

Minnesota's 27th Congressional District has snared just over $3 million in federal stimulus money, five times as much as the 57th District has gotten. One problem: Neither district exists -- except on Recovery.gov, the Obama administration's website that tracks the flow of stimulus cash. Beyond Minnesota's eight actual congressional districts, which have gotten the lion's share of the money, the website list 11 phantom districts that supposedly have been awarded more than $7 million in grants.

A group of young, Somali men posted a video of themselves attacking pedestrians and bicyclists in St. Paul. The suspects openly identify themselves in the video, and then attack unknowing victims. None of the victims have reported any of the attacks. St. Paul police is urging victims to step forward, if they recognize themselves in the video. The video, posted by YouTube user "madbi001," has since been removed from the website and the account has been closed. The Midtown Greenway Coalition reported an incident of assault on the Greenway on Sunday, Nov. 15. A bicyclist was riding along the Greenway...

A 43-year-old Somali man from Minneapolis was arrested this week in the Netherlands for allegedly financing the recruitment of up to 20 young Somali men from Minnesota to train and fight with terrorists in their homeland. The arrest appears to be the most significant development yet in one of the most far-reaching counterterrorism investigations since 9/11. The identity of the man, who was arrested Sunday at an asylum-seeker's center 45 miles northeast of Amsterdam, was not released. But Special Agent E.K. Wilson of the Minneapolis FBI office confirmed Tuesday that the man was arrested in connection with the ongoing counterterrorism...

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is planning a second anti-health care reform Tea Party at the Capitol -- this one scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday -- approximately the time when the House is due to vote on Democrats' public option bill, POLITICO's Jake Sherman reports. King and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) organized a rally Thursday that drew thousands to the west front of the Capitol, drawing chants of “Kill the Bill.” There were a handful of arrests. “We can kill this bill and stop the government takeover of health care,” King said in a news release. “We need the help of...

A handful of Minnesota veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will join other vets in Washington, D.C., Thursday to call for more support for troops in Afghanistan. Some veterans from Minneapolis and St. Paul plan to meet with elected officials and White House officials to urge support for Gen. Stanley McChrystal's troop recommendations for the war in Afghanistan. McChrystal recommends up to 80,000 more troops in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama is considering several options, including McChrystal's preference of about 40,000 additional U.S. forces next year.

Minnesota Power is seeking an almost 20 percent increase in rates for its residential customers to cover investments made in cleaner, greener energy. For the average residential customer, that amounts to $13 per month. “We know this is unwelcome news at an unwelcome time,” said Pat Mullen, the company’s vice president of marketing and public affairs. “These are improvements that need to be made. It is creating an environment that we all value.”

Fellow conservatives from other groups have been compiling lists of conservative candidates around Minnesota to support November 3. Below is our list of candidate picks from these groups (and ours). We are not supporting a candidate for their party, but for their conservative principles. If you know of a conservative candidate to add, email us with name, city race and their website link. Check back often for updates.Conservative candidate picks:Minneapolis: Park & Rec Commission – at large: Dave WahlstedtBoard of Estimation & Taxation: Michael MartensCity Council: Ward 2: Allen AigbogunWard 3: Jeffrey CobiaWard 4: Grant CermakWard 6: Mike TupperWard 7:...

State Rep. Paul Kohls became an early casualty of the crowded race for Minnesota governor, dropping out Thursday because of a lack of support from GOP constituencies. "I've come to the conclusion that I don't have sufficient support from the delegates to keep going," Kohls told reporters. Kohls, who has been in the state House since 2002, was not among the top finishers in the state Republican party's straw poll earlier this month. The poll was won by House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, one of the first and most prominent Republicans to join the race after incumbent Tim Pawlenty, a...

KSTP investigated absentee ballot inconsistencies and reported their findings last night, and you can watch the video here. Many cities put up roadblocks to their investigation request -- and Bloomington threatened felony charges against KSTP if they reported on their findings. The most damning part is Sec. of State Mark Ritchie's denial of problems and response when asked to look at ballot envelopes and comment. "Ritchie first told us he could not read our examples, then said he wouldn't look at photocopies of absentee ballot envelopes." A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS investigation has found that mistakes made with absentee ballots in...

HUGO, Minn.- Four Minnesota friends fashioned a medieval catapult to fling a variety of objects -- such as wheelchairs and obsolete appliances -- into the sky, they said. The men, all in their 30s, built a trebuchet -- a catapult originally designed in the Middle Ages to hurl objects at castle walls -- the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported Sunday. The trebuchet was built by Kurt Modert, of Hugo; Roger Bacon, of White Bear Lake; Ryan Krueger, of Maple Grove; and David Proehl, of New Hope -- all municipalities in Minnesota -- the newspaper said. They're catapulting items like...

Only a handful of people have their hands on the president's daily schedule. In the Obama administration, four of them come from Minnesota -- a tightknit crew that helps plan almost every detail of the commander-in-chief's day. They spent years bouncing from campaign to campaign together, in a happenstance journey that has landed them at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "It's always a joke that it's the Minnesotans who have kind of taken over the scheduling office," said Chase Cushman. "And it's been that way since the [Obama] campaign." Not long ago, Cushman's biggest worry was likely shaving seconds off his swim...

In this Oct. 15, 2009 photo, Scott O'Konek, a Minnesota bowhunter displays a 32-point buck he took during a hunt at Camp Ripley, Minn. The buck might have the largest non-typical or asymmetrical rack taken by archery in Minnesota. The buck scored a preliminary antler score of 228. The current record is 225 set in 1989, according to the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. The deer was an estimated 5 years old and field-dressed at 192 pounds. (AP Photo/Minn. Dept. of Nat. Resources, Beau Liddell)

Hundreds of people have been arrested in Texas and around the country what officials say is the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel in the U.S WASHINGTON (October 22, 2009)—U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls the arrests of more than 300 people in a series of drug raids in Texas and across the country the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating here. Holder said at a news conference Thursday that the arrests over the past two days were aimed at the U.S. operations of the La Familia cartel. Click here to find out more! Holder...

A Proctor man driving a motorized La-Z-Boy lounge chair hit a parked vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Dennis LeRoy Anderson, 62, pleaded guilty Monday in St. Louis County District Court to DWI in connection with the Aug. 31, 2008, incident in Proctor. There were no injuries. According to the criminal complaint, Anderson drove his motorized chair into a vehicle parked near a Proctor bar. Anderson told police he was traveling from the Keyboard Lounge after consuming approximately eight or nine beers. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.29 percent, more than three times the legal limit to drive.

ADD to post no. 105: http://www2.lasvegasnow.com/docs/terror_complaint.pdf http://www2.lasvegasnow.com/docs/terror_indict.pdf LAS VEGAS, NV — SNIPPET: “The real end, however, came in a Minnesota Federal Court. Two weeks ago, the FBI arrested Abdow Munye Abdow for two counts of making false statements to a federal official. The FBI believes Abdow lied about his trip to Las Vegas, and a passenger he was with who was on the terrorism watch list. The Nevada Highway Patrol pulled over Abdow and four other people on October 6, 2009 for speeding. Trooper Alan Davidson, a spokesperson for NHP, said the officer on the scene began asking questions.” SNIPPET:...

An early season cold spell across the Upper Midwest and northern Plains this past weekend and into the start of this week mixed with available moisture has set up for early season snow. Some of this snow has been quite heavy and has been record breaking. Here are some of those records:

The House of Representatives is expected to vote Friday on the massive economic stimulus plan. All of the Republican members of Minnesota's Congressional delegation say they plan to vote against the bill. St. Paul, Minn. — The members of Congress who represent Minnesotans are spilt largely along party lines on the tax cuts and new spending in the $789 billion economic stimulus package. Republicans John Kline, Michele Bachmann and Erik Paulsen plan to cast no votes. "We hear about fantasy football games. This is fantasy economics," Bachmann said. Bachmann, who represents the 6th District, said the plan spends far too...

EVEN the Democrats in Minnesota now realize their new US Sen. Al Franken was elected with the help of ACORN chicanery. The disgraced, pimp-friendly community organizing group claims it registered 43,000 new Minnesota voters. If just 1 percent were fraudulent but survived the recount process, that's 430 votes, almost all cast for Franken, who won by just 312 votes. Asks Katherine Kersten in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "Did ACORN folks pull some fast ones to help get their favorite son Franken elected -- a win that handed Democrats the 60-vote, veto-proof majority that they needed to enact their liberal agenda?"

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is a calendar girl. Bachmann and 11 others are featured in the "2010 Great American Conservative Women Calendar" from the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, a Herndon, Va.-based group. Others featured in the calendar include columnists Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin and former Miss California Carrie Prejean. Bachmann is Miss November, according to WCCO-TV. Bachmann represents Minnesota's 6th District. The calendar is available beginning Oct. 2. Cost is $25.

Regulators have shut Warren Bank in Warren, Mich., and two small banks in Colorado and Minnesota, boosting the number of failed U.S. banks this year to 98 as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Warren Bank, with about $538 million in assets and $501 million in deposits as of July 31. The Huntington National Bank, based in Columbus, Ohio, agreed to assume the deposits and about $83 million of the assets of the failed bank. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition. Warren Bank's six branches...

EVEN the Democrats in Minnesota now realize their new US Sen. Al Franken was elected with the help of ACORN chicanery. The disgraced, pimp-friendly community organizing group claims it registered 43,000 new Minnesota voters. If just 1 percent were fraudulent but survived the recount process, that's 430 votes, almost all cast for Franken, who won by just 312 votes.

It's Betty McCollum vs. Michele Bachmann in a congressional smackdown over ACORN, the community organization that's been the target of Republican attacks since the 2008 presidential election. Just weeks after embarrassing footage from an amateur sting prompted the U.S. House to defund ACORN, Rep. McCollum, D-Minn., is introducing a similar bill aimed at barring federal dollars to corporations that run afoul of the law. "It just points out the hypocrisy," McCollum said in an interview Wednesday. "Here we have corporations that have been convicted of felonies, and continue to do business with the government." McCollum's bill serves as a pointed...

A conservative group and several gubernatorial candidates are asking Democratic Attorney General Lori Swanson to investigate ACORN over voter registrations and other activities in Minnesota. Minnesota Majority president Jeff Davis says a felon convicted of registering illegally in Ramsey County claimed an ACORN canvasser helped her. He was joined at a news conference on Wednesday by a handful of GOP candidates and one Democrat.

Did ACORN Elect Al Franken? Remember Franken won his seat by a little more than 300 votes and ACORN might have helped Franken to get his "landslide" margin in one of two ways,in the actual counting of the votes, or the new voters registered by ACORN... Minneapolis Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was the guy in charge of counting the votes. Richie a former Community Organizer, was elected two years ago with help from former self-described Nazi Collaborator George Soros and ACORN. In 2006, the Minnesota ACORN Political Action Committee endorsed Ritchie and donated to his campaign. According to the...

Here's a shocker. ACORN may have helped Al Franken steal the US senate seat from Minnesota. The Minnesot Star-Tribune reported: But ACORN does have a special place in its heart for at least one prominent Minnesota politician. Last year, it showered praise on Al Franken, endorsing his run for the U.S. Senate. Franken returned the esteem: "I'm thrilled and honored to receive this endorsement," he gushed in a press release. He added that he was "more motivated than ever to work with ACORN."

President Obama's once-robust support in Minnesota has dwindled sharply as he confronts a sluggish economy and significant unease about a health care overhaul that has split Democrats and Republicans in Congress, according to the latest Star Tribune Minnesota Poll.

October 2008: From the start, Baby-Kay lived with us nearly full time. Baby-Momma would take her for a day, maybe two, then "give her back", because she couldn't handle a baby and a toddler full time. Around janurary 2009, she wore out her welcome,abused the hospitality/welfare of Paula's sister, husband and 3 kids. She and was asked to leave, and move out. At that point, baby-Daddy #1 got the legal work started to gain full custody of Baby-Boy. Baby Momma continued to be a mommy to baby-Kay when it was convenient for her. April 2009: Baby-Momma finally agreed to sign...

Jeffrey Alan Wagner, doesn’t have a traditional resume for a politician. He works as a baggage handler for Delta Airlines at the airport and runs a video-production company. The Loring Park resident attended his first city council meeting last Friday and says he initially jumped into the race on a lark after drinking too much alcohol on the day of the filing deadline. “Do you have to be able to spell Minneapolis to be a city council member?” he laughs. Wagner has not raised any money or sought any political endorsements. But the 42-year old insists he is running a...

In First National Bank v. Daly (often referred to as the "Credit River" case) the court found: that the bank created money "out of thin air": [The president of the First National Bank of Montgomery] admitted that all of the money or credit which was used as a consideration [for the mortgage loan given to the defendant] was created upon their books, that this was standard banking practice exercised by their bank in combination with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneaopolis, another private bank, further that he knew of no United States statute or law that gave the Plaintiff [bank]...

Donald Peterson can still remember the day more than 30 years ago when his St. Paul neighborhood became the scene of a murder mystery. "I haven't thought about that in a long, long, time," he says. "Nobody ever found the guy who did it." In May 1977, 30-year-old Mark Shemukenas was found dead in his apartment. His body had been mutilated. And according to news reports from that time, he had been sexually assaulted and castrated. "It was very brutal and very bloody, several instruments were used," says Sgt. Anita Muldoon with the St. Paul Police Department. But the case...

Rasmussen Reports has just released a new approval/disapproval poll from the late great state of Minnesota, a state which has elected Jesse Ventura and Al Franken into statewide & federal offices, perhaps the two largest disgraces to elected office in history. Anyhow, polling data does not go well for Senator Franken, who is entering his third month in the United States Senate, after ballots mysteriously we're found to give him the edge over Republican Senator Norm Coleman. The polling data is not good for Franken, as he has to be the least liked new Senator in the United States of...

A left-leaning community organizing group says it has no contracts with Minnesota that would be impaired by Gov. Tim Pawlenty's directive to cut off state money. Pawlenty on Wednesday ordered a review and suspension of public contracts with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN. The potential 2012 presidential candidate says no state money would go to ACORN unless legally obligated. ACORN is under fire after a hidden-camera story alleging illegal activities by some of its workers. ACORN deputy political director Kevin Whelan says there are no present contracts that would be affected in Minnesota. Whelan...

In a pair of crowded, cluttered, work-ripened hotel suites, campaign workers quietly tapped at their laptops and could hardly believe what they saw. The roars and tears of supporters of Barack Obama and John McCain had long subsided. It was the early morning after Election Day 2008, time for them to either celebrate or drown their sorrows. But these stalwarts of the bitter red-vs.-blue U.S. Senate battle between Norm Coleman and Al Franken stayed at their posts and nervously watched the numbers. Which were frozen. After two years and $40 million, Coleman and Franken were tied and headed into overtime....

In the final days of a nearly three-year battle with lymphoma, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug was asked by his daughter if he needed anything. The 95-year-old responded: "Africa. Africa. I have not finished my mission in Africa," his daughter, Jeanie Borlaug Laube, said Sunday from Dallas. Norman Borlaug, an Iowa farmboy who graduated from the University of Minnesota, believed food was a moral right. He traveled the world as a scientist and humanitarian, becoming the Green Revolution's "Apostle of Wheat" for the high-yield grain he perfected. Borlaug, who most recently had been a distinguished professor at Texas A&M...

Is this the same man who promised a new era of bipartisanship and working with both sides to solve problems?That was just another of his LIES! On a day when hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered in Washington, DC to demand their voices be heard, Obama was in Minnesota. The first 48 seconds are all you need to hear: [VIDEO AT SITE] OBAMA: "They can't stop us." Who is "they?" Seems to me his biggest obstacle in his overreaching bid for a government takeover of health care are members of his own party! This speech is another demonstration of the...

Note: Photo included. http://images.publicradio.org/content/2009/09/11/20090911_troykastigar_39.JPG # SNIPPET: "St. Paul, Minn. — A sixth Minnesota man is feared dead in Somalia after joining an Islamic extremist group there. But Troy Kastigar stood out from his fellow recruits, because the Minneapolis man was not Somali. Kastigar, 28, was a Muslim convert who apparently had no personal ties to the lawless east African country. Troy Kastigar's family received reports of his death within the past week, according to friends of the family. The circumstances of his reported death aren't clear, and the information could not be confirmed by the FBI."

A former Austin woman convicted of threatening to shoot local officials pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to making bomb threats against eight U.S. post offices in southern Minnesota.

Here is video of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty talking with CNN's John King and assessing President Obama, and particularly his Health Care Plan. Pawlenty said Obama needs to take on one of his own constituencies, the Trial Lawyers, and deal with medical lawsuit reform. Pawlenty cited a Harvard study showing that 30% of medical costs are linked to unnecessary treatments - which is a direct result of doctors' fear of malpractice lawsuits. Pawlenty said he would not favor a "trigger" that would allow Government to provide a "Public Option" if insurance companies are not providing affordable policies to the public....

(CNN) – Minnesota’s Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who was a contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, said Sunday that he does not view himself as being in competition with his party’s most recent vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Asked about his own 2012 plans, Pawlenty was coy and judicious, suggesting that his recent travels to many states likely to be important in the next White House race were because of his duties as the vice chair of the Republican Governors Association.

A fifth Somali man from Minneapolis apparently has been killed in his war-ravaged homeland, a relative said Friday. Mohamoud Hassan, a 23-year-old former engineering student at the University of Minnesota, reportedly died in the past day or two. "It's real bad news," Hassan's uncle said Friday night. "But that is what happened." The uncle, who did not want to be identified, said he didn't know when Hassan was killed, but added that "it's very recent. Today or last night." The circumstances of Hassan's death were not immediately known. Abdirizak Bihi, a community activist who visited with Hassan's grandmother on Friday,...

The fight over global warming and Canadian oil is heating up, and Minnesota, which gets 80 percent of its oil from Canada, is sitting on the griddle. A group of oil companies and big industries launched a TV and radio ad campaign this week to try to snuff out rules that might raise the cost of piping Canadian tar-sands oil through the Dakotas to refineries in the Twin Cities. Meanwhile, environmentalists on Thursday appealed a federal decision that allows construction of another major pipeline across northern Minnesota to bring in even more tar-sands oil from Alberta.

Does anybody know if there is any effort going on to reverse the open primary system that gave us John McCain? According to Wikipedia the following states have open primaries: * Alabama * Arkansas * Georgia * Idaho * Indiana * Michigan * Minnesota * Mississippi * Missouri * North Dakota * South Carolina * Tennessee * Texas * Vermont * Virginia * Wisconsin I've run a google news search and come up with blanks.