Free Republic

The Republican candidate for Minnesota House District 6A on the Iron Range faces a civil trial in Itasca County this week after sawing his neighbor’s garage in half. Roger Weber of rural Nashwauk is being sued by Mark Besemann of Iron after Weber used a power saw to bisect the building. Weber then removed half of the garage he insists was built, decades ago, on property that he now owns. Besemann is suing Weber for $20,000 in damage to the garage and $20,000 in punitive damages. Besemann also is seeking a small portion of Weber’s land adjacent to the garage...

(CNSNews.com) - House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) joined forces early Wednesday evening as the House passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government after the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and that will permit funding for Planned Parenthood (the nation's largest abortion provider), the entirety of Obamacare, and an amendment requested by President Barack Obama "to train and equip appropriately vetted elements of the Syrian opposition." The bill passed 319 to 108 with four members not voting. But there were not enough Republican members to pass the bill without...

Minnesota drivers will face a 1-in-88 chance of hitting a deer on the state’s highways this year, according to a report released Monday by the nation’s largest auto insurance company. State Farm’s annual report estimates that Minnesota drivers will collide with 37,549 deer in 2014. Minnesota drivers have the 8th highest odds of hitting a deer among the 50 states, according to the report, down from 6th highest in last year’s report.

It’s a major blow to the MNsure health insurance exchange – the insurance company with the lowest rates and the most customers signed up through MNsure will not be back in 2015. The decision is expected to have a major impact on health insurance customers and the governor’s race. Golden Valley-based PreferredOne Health Insurance just notified MNsure and the Minnesota Department of Commerce of their decision through a letter. Sources tell KSTP’s Tom Hauser that MNsure CEO Scott Leitz was notified by phone Tuesday morning. PreferredOne Spokesman Steve Peterson tells Hauser this is “purely a business decision.” He says the...

Food shelves can be a life line for people dealing with poverty and hunger. But many in the Somali-American community say finding a food shelf that caters to their religious dietary restrictions is almost impossible. “Some food shelves are trying to meet the need, but some of them already got canned beans that have already been mixed with pork — and there is a literacy issue here,” said community activist Fartun Weli. A group of first-generation Somali Americans says they need help in developing a food shelf that specializes in healthy foods that do not contain pork or pork byproducts....

Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, who represents a sizable Muslim community in his Minneapolis district, has a message for Obama administration officials: Work with the locals during this time of unrest in the Middle East. “The most important thing to understand about the Islamic community in Minnesota is it sees itself as part of Minnesota,” said Ellison, who was the first Muslim to be elected to Congress. “We need to work with the local community and build trust with the local community … so it’s important to monitor web traffic and also to engage with the local community in countering violent...

A big part of the fight against the terror group known as ISIS and ISIL is taking place on American soil in places where young people are leaving the country to go join their cause, even fight and die overseas. Perhaps the biggest question of all is: Who is recruiting? It's a question no one seems to be able to answer definitively in Minnesota, but a lot of fingers are pointing at Amir Meshal, a former al Qaeda suspect who lived on a quiet cul de sac in Eden Prairie, Minn., until recently. Yet, some believe he may actually be...

A growing chorus of liberal Democrats is pushing President Obama to get Congress's explicit approval before launching missile strikes into Syria. The pressure from supporters on Capitol Hill is not only a headache for Obama, but also puts House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top Democrats in the difficult position of bucking a broad segment of their own caucus in order to protect an ally in the White House. Scores of Democrats had signed letters a year ago advocating against military strikes targeting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad without congressional backing. Thirteen months later the enemy...

* Three girls left Minnesota three weeks ago to join ISIS insurgents in Syria * Their identities have not yet been revealed * The FBI has subpoenaed a 19-year-old girl's family to appear before a Grand Jury later this month * She was about to start nursing classes at St. Paul College but decided to leave to give aid to wounded fighters * The girl is one of five children to a single mother originally from Somalia * She had recently started taking classes at al-Farook Youth and Family Center, an alleged recruiting ground for ISIS At least three young...

"St. Thomas’ mascot, Tommie, was seen using a flier from a College Republicans booth to wipe his rear end Tuesday. Minnesota Republican House hopeful, Andy Brown, was promoting his candidacy in the Anderson Student Center Tuesday afternoon when Tommie reportedly grabbed a piece of Brown’s literature and proceeded to wipe his bottom with it."

Bob Suter, a member of the 1980 U.S. "Miracle on Ice" team and father of Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter, died Tuesday. He was 57. "We are very saddened by today's news that Minnesota Wild scout Bob Suter suddenly passed away," the Wild said in a statement. "The Wild organization sends its condolences to the entire Suter family during this difficult time. Not only was Bob a great hockey ambassador, he was a terrific person off the ice who will be greatly missed by all of us." The cause of death was not given.

As Republicans contemplate the possible size of their November victory, outlier races may get interesting. Scott Brown, a few weeks ago considered certain to lose, may well win in New Hampshire. Most folks would not have thought that Republican Terri Land had a chance in a blue state like Michigan, but she continues to run close to Peters in the race. Al Franken also cannot pull away in his re-election fight, and all the polls show that race tightening. Surely the trophy in any general election is for one party to knock off a legislative leader of the other party....

Amir Meshal has a fascinating history. He's originally from New Jersey, but back in 2007 he was detained and interrogated by the FBI in Kenya after escaping from Somalia. Somehow, his travels brought him to Minnesota, and to a mosque in Bloomington, which kicked him out this summer. Friday prayers bring hundreds to the Al-Farooq Youth and Family Center, which is perhaps the largest mosque in the Twin Cities. But not everyone is welcome -- not after Meshal began attending prayer and hanging out earlier this year. In June, the center called police and had Meshal, 31, removed and ticketed...

MINNEAPOLIS — Two former employees of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center allege they were pressured to falsify patient appointment dates and medical records to hide delays, a television station reported. In a report that aired Wednesday night, the ex-employees told KARE-TV that in some cases, they were told to falsify medical records by writing that patients had declined follow-up treatments when, in reality, they say the veterans had never been contacted. The former VA workers fear that patients' lives may be at risk because they say some cases involved suspected colon cancer. "Some of them were getting missed altogether," said...

Atwater Police Chief Trevor Berger 'dispatched' the chicken on August 16 after a neighbor complained of a 'chicken on the loose' The bird, named Carson Petey, belonged to five-year-old Phoenix Turnbull Phoenix's mother Ashley Turnbull had been asked to remove three hens and two ducks she had given her son as a birthday gift, but was not home when Berger killed the hen

A U.S. citizen who died fighting for ISIS reportedly had a job in one of the places where you would least want him to be — a major American airport. Before fleeing to Syria, Abdirahmaan Muhumed, 29, worked a cleaning job at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport that gave him security clearance with access to the tarmac and planes, KMSP reported. Several sources told the Minneapolis station the traitor was employed by Delta Global Services, a subsidiary of Delta Airlines. It is unclear when Muhumed left Minnesota to join the thugs who have been spreading terror throughout northern Iraq and Syria....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US lawmakers on Friday "strongly condemned" what they called Beijing's harsh pre-Olympic crackdown in China's Muslim-populated far northwest Xinjiang region. The bipartisan leadership of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in a statement cited "credible" reports about a July 9 conviction in a closed trial of 15 minority Muslim Uighurs on terrorism charges that led to "the immediate execution of two" of them. Three others were given suspended death sentences and the remaining 10 received life imprisonment, it said. These are "abuses of due process and rule of law," said caucus co-chairmen Democrat Jim McGovern and Republican Frank...

WASHINGTON — American intelligence and law enforcement agencies have identified nearly a dozen Americans who have traveled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the militant group that the Obama administration says poses the greatest threat to the United States since Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. As ISIS has seized large expanses of territory in recent months, it has drawn more foreign men to Syria, requiring more American and European law enforcement resources in the attempt to stop the flow of fighters, senior American officials said. And as a result of the...

A second American reportedly killed fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria has been identified as Abdirahmaan Muhumed, of Minneapolis, two sources told Fox News late Wednesday. KMSP-TV in Minneapolis reported that Muhumed was killed in the same battle as Douglas McAuthur McCain, who grew up outside Minneapolis in the town of New Hope and most recently lived in San Diego. The State Department confirmed McCain's death earlier this week, but spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the U.S. has no independent confirmation of the second American's death. "We're looking into it," she said. A source told Fox News...