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(CNSNews.com) - Apparently because he doesn't get out of the White House enough (?) -- or have enough to do? -- President Obama will travel to Minnesota on Thursday to "spend a day with Rebekah," described by the White House as a "hardworking mom from Minneapolis," who wrote to the president to tell him "how much harder it's become to get ahead and do right by her family." When the president receives letters like Rebekah's, he "makes notes in the margins, and sits down to reply personally," the White House said. This time, he's made plans to meet with Rebekah...

John has previously noted the problem of robberies at the University of Minnesota on its main campus in Minneapolis. The campus is near downtown in an urban setting. Following standard practice, the university issues crime alerts that identify the race of the perpetrator when the authorities have a basis to do so based on victim identification or otherwise. Some groups on campus are not happy with the crime alerts. The local CBS station reports: School officials at the University of Minnesota are working with black student and facility organizations after they wrote a letter to the school’s president about the...

I really wanted Opus Delecti to mean delicious opus, but it doesn't. In almost 16 years, this is my first vanity. And all I can muster is to post it in bloggers and personal, where it ostensibly belongs. Vanities were against the rules, and as a date once told me, I'm a rule follower. Nobody will miss me when I'm gone. In fact, I know many folks will rejoice. There are many folks I will miss, once zotted. I'll miss the kitty pings, most of all. I'll miss the quiet solitude of Lurker and the crazy shenanigans of Laz. I...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Brooklyn Park volleyball coach faces felony charges for allegedly having child porn on his computer and photoshopping images of a student he knew onto pornographic pictures. James Edward Ferdig, 41, is charged with two counts of possessing child porn, court documents filed earlier this month show. A criminal complaint states that officials began investigating Ferdig last year. In August, officers executed a search warrant and seized a computer and other items belonging to Ferdig.

When Rick Perry stumps for businesses to relocate, at least he’s cheering for his home state of Texas as the final destination. In Minnesota, we have the unusual experience of having a governor laud a corporation for moving its headquarters out of the state — and out of the country. Medtronic, a leading manufacturer of medical devices, acquired an Irish firm in the same sector, but will move its corporate headquarters to Ireland rather than transfer Covidien’s executive operations to Minnesota (via Gary Gross): “As I look at the project as governor of Minnesota, this is a good deal...

Think of it as a lottery with a 30 percent chance of winning. The prize? A city permit authorizing people to be among the lucky property owners on their block allowed to rent their house. For 70 percent of their neighbors, well, that’s just too bad. That’s how it works in Winona, a southeastern Minnesota college community that in 2006 instituted an across-the-board rental restrictions on property owners. “It’s basic freedom, it’s your house, it’s your property. And here’s another case of the government coming in blindly saying you don’t have those rights anymore because we’re the Winona City Council,”...

Garrett McKay dipped his brush in a bucket of water and began scrubbing the dirt from another bright white headstone, this one from a second lieutenant who served in World War I, dying in 1963. “I know in the winter the headstones do get very weathered,” he said, as the bristles removed grime caked into the engraved letters. “The ones under the trees are really pretty dirty.” Despite the Saturday morning drizzle, McKay and 20 friends and family members spent the morning at Fort Snelling National Cemetery cleaning the limestone graves of hundreds of soldiers, their wives and the occasional...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2014/06/13/rick-nolan-minnesota-bergdahl-veterans-hospitals/10447371/

As you know, we are committed to overturning Minnesota election law that enables ineligible individuals to vote in two ways: by not determining the eligibility of election-day registrants before counting their votes, and by accepting the statements of individuals that they are eligible even when the state has records showing they are not, such as non-citizens and felons. We have spent considerable time with our attorneys refining the arguments that connect the precise text of the Minnesota Constitution (“[Ineligible] persons shall not be entitled or permitted to vote at any election in this state.”) to the statutes that in fact...

GALVESTON, Texas — A man who voted absentee in Texas and Minnesota during the 2012 general election then touted his bogus balloting on Facebook has pleaded guilty. A judge in Galveston on Tuesday fined Richard Alan Collier $4,000 after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of Texas election law. Collier, who pleaded guilty to attempt to commit illegal voting, claimed residence in both states when seeking absentee ballots for the November 2012 election. Authorities say Collier then voted in Anoka (uh-NOH'-kuh) County, Minnesota, and in Galveston County. Prosecutors in Galveston say a tip that Collier posted a Facebook message...

The FBI says more Somali travelers have left Minnesota, possibly to fight for al-Shabaab in Syria. Investigators believe Somalis who left to fight against the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria were motivated by radical ideology, not nationalism. The FBI asking the Somali community in the Twin Cities for more information on anyone who may have left to fight overseas. If you know anyone who is planning to and/or has traveled to a foreign country for armed combat or who is being recruited for such activities, please contact www.fbi.gov/fttips or call (763) 569-8020. All information will be kept completely...

ROSEMOUNT, Minn. (KMSP) - It's yet another instance of a neighbor puling a gun on a neighbor. This time, it happened in Rosemount, Minn. while a father was teaching his 7-year-old daughter how to ride a bicycle. Gary Drake, 61, is facing second-degree assault and terroristic threat charges after he was accused of brandishing a shotgun on Daytona Way last week. It's an idyllic street, but neighbors there like to talk. When Jeanne Helgeson heard rumors that a well-known neighbor had threatened someone with a gun, she didn't believe it -- until her next-door neighbor confirmed the details, that is....

Here in Minnesota, where we managed to elect Jesse Ventura as Governor and Al Franken to the US Senate within a decade of each other, the state Republican Party held its convention this past weekend. Minnesota has a caucus-plus-primary system, in which the two parties attempt to settle its nominations with convention endorsements for state-wide offices. Often, the fight continues through to a late-season primary, drawing resources away from the general-election campaign. Democrats hold all of the state-wide offices, including Franken as the incumbent Senator and Mark Dayton as Governor, so their nominations have long been settled.Republicans batted .500 on...

Students at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota cancelled a “Hump Day” party last week featuring a live camel following complaints that the event could be viewed as offensive to Middle Eastern cultures. The campus’ Residence Hall Association nixed its own event after several students began organizing a protest on Facebook. The protest had received more than 100 RSVPs before it was deleted Wednesday, according to aThursday report in Campus Reform. The episode has since triggered a social-media backlash against campus political correctness, with critics expressing incredulity over the idea that a camel is somehow culturally insensitive or racist....

On Friday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin urged Minnesota's GOP delegates to support Julianne Ortman for U.S. Senate at this weekend's state convention. Palin told the 2,200 GOP delegates that Ortman "is a true conservative and the only candidate who is battle tested with the leadership and experience necessary to beat [Sen. Al] Franken in November." "As a state senator, she proved her commitment to conservative principles and her determination to make the tough calls to get things done," Palin wrote. "As the first woman to ever head the Senate Tax Committee, she led the effort to balance a $5...

The politics of faux victimization are spiraling out of control at a community college in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where several white students, their black professor and irritated administrators have one-upped each other with complaints, reprimands and now a lawsuit. The trouble began in English professor Shannon Gibney’s Introduction to Mass Communications class at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Though the class ostensibly has little to do with race, Gibney considers herself an activist on racial issues, and frequently invokes white privilege and oppression during class time, according to her students. (She has previously taught classes on race and gender.) Recently, several...

It’s only a small matter of time until the Obama administration finally, rapturously releases what its hopes will be the crown jewel of its rise-of-the-oceans-slowing climate-change agenda: Regulations capping the emissions from existing power plants, a.k.a., stamping out coal plants across the country. This set of regs is going to be even more complicated and controversial than the regulations for only new power plants the administration released last year, and as the AP obliquely explains, we’re likely to start seeing those “necessarily skyrocketing” energy prices Obama once mentioned pretty quickly here: Electricity prices are probably on their way up...

Gun control supporters appear poised to force New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, often discussed as a potential presidential candidate in 2016, to show where he stands on the Second Amendment. On Monday, the state's Senate passed A2006, legislation to lower the state's magazine-capacity limit from 15 rounds to 10 rounds, by a vote of 22-17, mostly along party lines. The bill will be sent to Christie for signature or veto after the Assembly, which previously approved it by a vote of 46-31, approves technical changes made to the bill by the Senate. Once the bill reaches Christie's desk, he...

In a line that says a lot about where health care is heading under Obamacare, an insurance executive offering plans through the law was quoted in the New York Times on Tuesday as saying, “We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has.” Marcus Merz, the chief executive of PreferredOne, made the remark in an article describing the trend toward narrow networks in health care plans. The article notes, "In the midst of all the turmoil in health care these days, one thing is becoming clear: No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they...

Health insurers are now openly admitting that with Obamacare’s reforms, patient choice can no longer be a priority for Americans. “We have to break people away from the choice habit that everyone has,” Marcus Merz, CEO of Minnesota insurer PreferredOne, told The New York Times Tuesday. “We’re all trying to break away from this fixation on open access and broad networks.” With boatloads of mandatory services provided each and every customer whether they’re wanted or not, health insurers’ costs are going up. If insurance companies are going to keep prices at a manageable level, narrow networks are one of their...