Free Republic

A Roman Catholic archbishop in Minnesota who had been one of the hierarchy’s most vocal opponents of gay rights is the target of an investigation into allegations that he had a series of sexual relationships with priests, seminarians and other men. The investigation of Twin Cities Archbishop John Nienstedt is being conducted by a prominent Minneapolis law firm hired by the archdiocese after church officials received an allegation against Nienstedt. The archdiocese confirmed the investigation, which was first reported by Commonweal, a Catholic magazine based in New York.... Commonweal’s story cites Jennifer Haselberger, former top canon lawyer for Nienstedt, as...

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...

President Obama made headlines in Minneapolis on Thursday, rolling out his “phony scandal” rhetoric to address the cascade of questionable acts now receiving public outrage, and not just from Republicans. In a stunning rebuke, the dominant newspaper in the state of Minnesota, the very left-wing and politically correct Star-Tribune of Minneapolis has editorialized a demand for a special prosecutor: The old caution against ascribing to malice what can be explained by incompetence is worth keeping in mind when evaluating a high-profile blunder in either the private or public sector, such as the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for...

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...

Barack “Yes we can” Obama has already proven that he’s big on slogans. Leaving behind FORWARD, and of course ‘Hope and Change…We Can Believe In,’ the president’s newest catchphrase is “In the shoes,” which describes loafer-lover Barack Obama attempting to reconnect with everyday Americans by metaphorically slipping into other people’s shoes. To infuse added relatability into his plans to do future ‘in the shoes’ walkabouts, the White House is officially calling Obama’s planned encounters with the unwashed masses a “day-in-the-life” series, wherein the POTUS leaves his billionaire friends and devoted low-maintenance wife behind to venture forth onto the highways and...

Multiple law enforcement agencies on Friday afternoon were responding to a report of an armed suspect at the 2900 block of Centre Pointe Drive in Roseville, the Roseville Police Department reports.

fter years of starts and stops, the next frontier has finally arrived for biodiesel. Starting Tuesday, Minnesota will require all diesel fuel sold here to contain at least 10 percent biodiesel -- except during the winter, when the requirement will be 5 percent biodiesel. Currently, state law requires every gallon of diesel fuel to contain at least 5 percent biodiesel -- and 2 percent during the winter -- so supporters are excited to see Minnesota raise the bar to a highest-in-the-nation level.

With Republicans in Washington thus far successfully fending off insurgent tea party challengers in competitive races, odds makers are now indicating that the GOP has a better than even chance of retaking the upper chamber of Congress in November. President Barack Obama’s sinking job approval rating is not helping boost Democrats’ chances. Speaking anonymously to The Hill, one Democratic Senator said Obama’s “unpopularity” is troubling. “It’s a tense time,” the source said.It is with this backdrop that Obama descended on Minnesota on Thursday where freshman Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) is seeking reelection. Franken has spent the last six years...

....Obama is pitching his ideas to boost the American middle class in Minnesota, a state that already has embraced a key component of the president's economic agenda by moving to raise its minimum wage....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama headed to Minneapolis on Thursday, the first stop in series of summer road trips where he will aim to spend a "day in the life" of an ordinary American and persuade voters that the White House understands their challenges. The trip is also aimed at reconnecting Obama with Democrats ahead of midterm elections where Republicans stand a good chance of taking control of the Senate, jeopardizing the chance to accomplish goals for his last two years in office. Obama will have lunch with Rebekah Erler, an accountant in St. Paul with two young sons...

With his job approval rating at a low ebb and his policy agenda stymied in Congress, President Barack Obama is trying again to show a common touch and convince more Americans that he is still fighting for their interests. The latest move in Obama's empathy campaign will come Thursday when he plans to meet with a mother identified by White House officials as "Rebekah" of Minneapolis. She wrote to the president to explain her day-to-day economic problems; he read the letter and decided to reach out to everyday people like her around the country.

A Minnesota man is in jail because he logged on to Facebook. Police say 26-year-old Nicholas Wig checked his profile from a home he broke into, and then he didn’t log off. It happened June 19 in South St. Paul.

Top GOP officials are concerned that missing among the IRS’s internal emails are communications with Sen. Mark Udall and a dozen other Democrats who received campaign contributions from the federal agency’s union. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) first issued Freedom of Information Act requests to the IRS last year seeking all electronic and written documents between top officials there and the Democrats who received the campaign funding, but the attempts have been repeatedly stonewalled. Udall has accepted $13,000 in donations from the National Treasury Employees Union that represents IRS employees ... This is just another instance of Mark Udall...

<p>As many as 15 Somali-American men have left their homes in Minnesota in recent months to travel to the Middle East and join up with ISIS, the jihadist army at war with Syria and Iraq, according to Minnesota Public Radio.</p>

The nation of Sweden is demanding that the Obama administration act to deny copyright status to the Minnesota Vikings, claiming the name demeans its citizens and all other Scandinavians. “We can no longer tolerate the use of this disgusting epithet by an American football team,” said Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Milkquist in a letter to President Obama “First of all, ‘football’ means ‘soccer,’ Milkquist wrote. “I realize that this is an unrelated matter, but it really pisses people off in Europe. You only use your foot occasionally in football, whereas in soccer the foot is the only thing you can...

A federal jury has convicted a Minnesota man of smuggling arms to Nigeria and lying on firearms purchase records. Fifty-one-year-old Sheriff Olaleran Mohammed was convicted of one count of smuggling goods from the U.S. and 17 counts of providing false statements while purchasing a firearm.

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...

Corey William Becker, 21, has been charged in connection with a St. Cloud home invasion on Saturday where he beat and sexually assaulted another man. Stearns County prosecutors charged Becker with burglary, first-degree assault, kidnapping, second-degree criminal sexual conduct and third-degree assault. Around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, the victim told police that he woke up and noticed a man he didn’t know in his bedroom. Police have identified that man as Becker, and said he then went over the victim’s bed and started strangling him saying he needed to die. The victim said there was a struggle, and that he tried...

Is Medtronic's massive international corporate merger a billion-dollar tax dodge, an indictment of the U.S. tax code or a business-savvy work-around that could spur investment and growth in the Twin Cities? The answer depends on whom you ask. The $42.9 billion cash-and-stock purchase of Covidien, which was announced Sunday, comes with plans for Medtronic to decamp its executive suite to Ireland, where Covidien is based. It also will nearly double the size of the Fridley-based medical device maker and likely result in no significant change in its 8,000-strong Twin Cities workforce. The company is talking about adding 1,000 workers locally....