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ST. CLOUD, Minn. - Tensions remain high in St. Cloud following a walkout and protest by Somali students alleging a pattern of bullying and discrimination against them. Reports of a fight triggered a lockdown at St. Cloud Technical High School Friday, summoning police, sheriff's deputies and State Troopers to the same place more than 100 students and parents gathered on the lawn Wednesday to protest what they describe as an insufficient response by Tech teachers and administrators to their concerns.

Documents obtained by The Intercept indicate that security staff at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota used a fake Facebook account to monitor local Black Lives Matter organizers, befriend them, and obtain their personal information and photographs without their knowledge. Evidence of the fake Facebook account was found in a cache of files provided by the Mall of America to Bloomington officials after a large Black Lives Matter event at the mall on December 20 protesting police brutality. The files included briefs on individual organizers, with screenshots that suggest that much of the information was captured using a Facebook...

Gun rights supporters rolled out this year's version of the "Castle Doctrine" in the Minnesota House on Wednesday, but House leaders said the measure is unlikely to win focus in 2015. The "Castle Doctrine" would give Minnesotans greater rights to use their guns to defend their property. Expanding that ability has long been a goal for supporters, but the expansion also has long been thwarted. That is unlikely to change this year. "I don't want to go at it again until I think I can garner up enough support in the Senate and in the governor's office. There's no sense...

So Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota wants another new tax--this time adding a 6.5% gas tax at the wholesale level, along with license fee increases and a new metro-wide sales tax for, you guessed it, mass transit. A lack of government revenue isn't what plagues our roads. About 25% of the current federal gas tax of 18.4 (not including diesel) cents per gallon is siphoned off for non-highway uses, primarily via the Mass Transit Account. As a result, the HTF must now rely on general fund bailouts to survive. Recent history here in Minnesota also proves a similar point. In...

"......Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who ran for president in 2012, said Friday that Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are the leading candidates for the Republican nomination. "Scott is from a Midwestern state, but he has a national profile and a national fundraising capability," Pawlenty said. "The non-Jeb money is increasingly flowing to him, and he's used to communicating red messages in blue places." In the past week, aides working for other Republicans expected to run in 2016 have circulated materials that highlight Walker's change in position on immigration, ethanol mandates, Common Core education standards, abortion and right-to-work...

Gun owners in Minnesota could attach silencers to their weapons if a bill sent to the House floor Thursday becomes law. The "suppressor" bill was the most contentious and substantive of three bills expanding gun owners' rights that passed in a House committee and were sent to the floor on what chairman Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, called "fun day gun day at the Capitol." Gun-rights advocates are making a renewed political push this session after fighting off a variety of gun-control measures in 2013 and with the backing of the new speaker of the House, Republican Kurt Daudt, who has...

Wisconsin and Minnesota have long made fascinating bookends. As longtime readers may recall, the two neighboring states have similar sizes, similar populations, similar demographics, and even similar climates. But they don’t necessarily have similar politics, at least not lately. In the 2010 elections, the Badger State elected Scott Walker (R) governor and gave control of the legislature to Republicans, while the Gopher State made Mark Dayton (D) governor and, in 2012, elected a Democratic legislature*. The former got to work targeting collective bargaining and approving tax cuts, while the latter raised taxes on the wealthy and boosted in-state investments. Nearly...

A Wisconsin business owner upset over enactment of a right-to-work law and other policies says he is expanding in Minnesota because the economic policies there are more conducive for his operation. James Hoffman, president of Hoffman Construction in Black River Falls, said Monday that he was accelerating plans to expand an office in Lakeville, Minnesota, that currently has two full-time employees. […] Hoffman says the decision is based on business, not politics. …

Heavy hitters in U.S. media joined prominent First Amendment scholars to file two amicus briefs challenging last summer’s jury verdict that favored former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in his defamation trial in St. Paul. The friend-of-the-court media brief, filed with the 8th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, characterizes the $1.3 million jury award to Ventura as unprecedented, with no basis in common law. The scholars’ filing faults U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle’s instructions to the jury. The briefs support Taya Kyle, widow of Chris Kyle, author of the best-selling memoir “American Sniper.” Ventura’s lawyers convinced the jury in a 10-2...

Smoke wafting from wood fires has long provided a familiar winter smell in many parts of the country -- and, in some cases, a foggy haze that has filled people's lungs with fine particles that can cause coughing and wheezing. Citing health concerns, the Environmental Protection Agency now is pressing ahead with regulations to significantly limit the pollution from newly manufactured residential wood heaters. But some of the states with the most wood smoke -- including Minnesota and Wisconsin -- are refusing to go along, claiming that the EPA's new rules could leave low-income residents in the cold. Missouri and...

The FBI and the IRS are investigating a social services group that was shut down last fall after a state audit found its CEO spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on trips and other perks. Minnesota Public Radio News reported Friday that the federal investigation into Community Action of Minneapolis was revealed in documents filed in Ramsey County District Court. The documents were filed by court-appointed receiver Michael Knight, who is going through Community Action's books. "There are ongoing investigations by the FBI, the IRS and the DOC (Minnesota Department of Commerce) that are draining time and...

Some senior buyers are already gone. Vice presidents, too. But for 13,000 other Target Corp. employees in Minnesota, there's fear that the bull's-eye is on their backs. Target jolted the Twin Cities on Tuesday when it said "several thousand" corporate staffers will be laid off in a cost-cutting move. Executives didn't say who, when or where -- although the buzz is the ax will swing freely next week. Since the news broke, reaction to Target's $2 billion cost-savings plan has been split, especially by street. On Wall Street, analysts mostly liked the plan. Target stock touched an all-time high Wednesday...

This week, Rep. Dan Schoen and Sen. Ron Latz introduced...well, we call it the Sign Away Your Rights & Rat Out Your Family Act. The Bloomberg bill, HF1361/SF1289, starts with the assumption that every gun owner is a ticking time bomb. The bill would encourage doctors to trick you into giving up your gun rights, and encourage your most anti-gun family member to petition a court to take away your Second Amendment rights. Grief isn't a crimeTricks and kicks gun owners when they're down. Everyone has moments in life where things seem hopeless. A death in the family, a job...

"In the future, close attention may be paid to the content published by Students for a Conservative Voice to ensure that any material that is produced with student fee funds does not compromise the cultural harmony of the campus."

Currently, 61 members of Congress have confirmed they will not attend the speech. Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) California Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — “I am disappointed Speaker Boehner chose to irresponsibly interject politics into what has long been a strong and bipartisan relationship between the United States and Israel. As President Obama has noted, it is inappropriate for a Head of State to address Congress just two weeks ahead of their election. I agree that Congress should not be used as a prop in Israeli election campaigns,...

ULUTH, Minn. – Research by a University of Minnesota Duluth professor that separates Earth’s natural climate variability from outside factors points in particular to greenhouse gas-induced climate change as the likely cause of the warming planet. The study found that natural climate variability probably has helped keep things cooler in recent years than they otherwise would have been due to the outside factors. The research, published Sunday in Science Magazine, was headed by the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Byron Steinman, an assistant professor of geological sciences with the Large Lakes Observatory and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

WASHINGTON -- Mere weeks into his first term as a U.S. congressman, Republican Rep. Tom Emmer is challenging the right flank of his party. Just after midnight Saturday, Emmer issued a statement calling out Republican House colleagues who don't support fully funding the Department of Homeland Security because of President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration. (snip) "I am disappointed that many of my colleagues chose to put the security of Americans at stake and waste time playing politics," said Emmer, who replaced Rep. Michele Bachmann in January. "Congress has a solemn responsibility. As a body, we should never hold...

EVELETH, Minn. – Workers in a call center on Minnesota’s Iron Range don headsets each day knowing their employer’s core business: Get Democrats elected. For years, prominent Democratic candidates and political groups have used the obscure center tucked among hills and pines to canvass and raise money from small donors. DFL organizations, state and national, have paid the phone bank’s current and former owners about $80 million over the last decade, campaign records show. The call center relocated to Eveleth in 2006 thanks in part to a $625,000 loan from a unique state agency called the Iron Range Resources and...

"Minnesota's Governor raised the minimum wage, signed an equal pay act, and raised taxes on the rich to fund K-12 schools and higher education. Minnesota now has the 5th highest job growth in the nation and median income is $8,000 higher than the national average. By contrast, Governor Walker in the neighboring state of Wisconsin did the opposite: he gave the rich $2.1 billion in tax breaks, busted unions, and cut school funding more than any governor. Wisconsin now ranks 37th for job growth, median income is $800 below the national average, and the budget deficit is so large Walker...

Governor's Islamist Terror Comparison Shocks Wisconsin Protesters Scott Walker’s CPAC account of 2011 protests in state’s capitol unnerve those who were present as some accuse him of painting working people as the enemy Ed Pilkington 27 February 2015 Participants in the massive political protests in Wisconsin in 2011 have reacted with a mixture of shock, disbelief and anger to remarks by Governor Scott Walker which compared his handling of the peaceful demonstrations to his stance on Islamist terrorism were he to become president. Walker, who is enjoying a surge of support among the conservative wing of the Republican party amid...