Free Republic

There is a new chart-topper in Roll Call’s latest monthly ranking of the 10 most vulnerable senators. Montana’s appointed Sen. John Walsh was by far the most endangered incumbent in the chamber at the time of the previous installment in early August, but his decision last month to not seek a full term opened the top slot to a couple other worthy contenders. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., is still in a perilous political position, but Louisiana Sen. Mary L. Landrieu has leapfrogged him on the list to become the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbent. The Democrat is pushing hard to eclipse...

It's been nearly five years since a U.S. soldier opened fire on his own comrades. Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan opened fire at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, killing 13 people and injuring 30 others. One army sergeant, who was injured in that shooting and fought for his life to survive and recover, spoke Saturday at the Minnesota State Fair at the Mayo Clinic booth. "They called me number 14 for a while, because I shouldn't have lived, survived my wounds," said Sergeant Patrick Zeigler. As Zeigler takes a load off at the Minnesota State Fair, a fellow military man...

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...

The comedian-turned-senator is running an unusually low-key reelection campaign, trying to avoid scrutiny. Will Republicans get the last laugh?In reality, polls from both parties show Franken with only a tenuous advantage over his challenger, Republican businessman Mike McFadden. President Obama's job-approval numbers are weak in Minnesota, with a Suffolk University poll conducted in April revealing a 43 percent rating. The same survey shows Franken polling at 44 percent against McFadden, with his net favorability at 46 percent/41 percent. (A robo-poll, conducted this week by SurveyUSA, showed Franken up 51 percent to 42 percent, with a 56 percent approval rating.) But...

So, Senator, will you agree to debate your opponent during the campaign? Hey, let me tell you about this sweet corn. It is so delicious that you can't eat just one ear. So sweet and tasty that I eat them by the dozen. And since I still have to run out the clock until election day, let's switch gears to ponder on the issue of chocolate chip cookies. You can buy them by the bucket and float them in bottomless glasses of ice cold milk...

Minnesotans? Or “Britons.” Or “Norwegians.” Call them what they call themselves: Muslim members of the ummah: 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. The fighters appear to have made the decision to go fight with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/Levant while the terror group was fighting to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, but some may now be in Iraq, where the marauding group is seeking to...

The St. Paul Police Department is investigating an officer-involved shooting Thursday morning. Police confirm that the officer was not injured and the suspect is dead. The shooting reportedly happened around 7 a.m. outside of a Holiday gas station near Wabasha Street and Plato Boulevard. A witness tells KSTP he saw the suspect and police involved in an altercation. He says the suspect was throwing rocks and at one point punched one of the officers. He allegedly continued to “physically and aggressively” interact with the officers before the shooting. No other information has been released at this time.

Police shot and killed a man shortly before sunrise Thursday on St. Paul’s West Side, authorities said. The shooting occurred about 6:20 a.m. near Plato Boulevard and Wabasha Street, south of the Mississippi River. A Twitter message from a Police Department spokesman described the man as a suspect in an unspecified crime and added that the officer was not injured. No other details were immediately available.

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...

JAMIE YUCCAS CBS NEWSAugus Minneapolis Has Become Recruiting Ground For Islamic Extremists MINNEAPOLIS - The U.S. military said today the number of airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq has topped 100. President Barack Obama is getting closer to a decision on whether to attack ISIS bases in Syria as well. He's expected to meet with the National Security Council on Thursday. An American named Douglas McAuthur McCain died in Syria fighting for ISIS, the acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria. He was from Minnesota - where he and...

Another American from the Twin Cities area was killed fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, CBS News reports. This man, who’s not yet been named, is the second American from the Minneapolis area to die fighting for ISIS. CBS News spoke with his friends and family. The first man to die was 33-year-old Douglas McCain. He was killed over the weekend fighting in Syria, the State Department said. McCain grew up in New Hope, Minn., and attended Robbinsdale Cooper High School. His former friends described McCain as a class clown. He moved to San Diego before going...

The town rejected the Islamic center on zoning grounds, but at a meeting, some opponents of the project “made disparaging remarks about the Muslim faith.” Time to call in the Thought Police! Time for Obama’s feds to force the mosque on this city! It is impossible to have a mature discussion about mosques in the U.S. It is impossible to point out that 80% of mosques in the U.S. are Saudi-funded, and that four separate, independent studies since 1998 have found that 80% also teach hatred of Jews and Christians and the supremacy of Sharia over Constitutional law. Anyone who...

After winning his 2008 election to the U.S. Senate by the narrowest of margins, Sen. Al Franken starts his 2014 general election campaign with a nine-point lead over Republican challenger Mike McFadden. According to our exclusive new KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, Franken leads McFadden 51 percent to 42 percent. Independence Party candidate Steve Carlson is at two percent, while two percent favor other candidates and three percent are undecided. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percent.

In one of Minnesota’s largest labor organizing efforts since the Depression, home care workers across the state on Tuesday voted to join the Service Employees International Union, giving that organization the power to bargain on their behalf. The vote is the culmination of one of the most sweeping union expansion efforts in Minnesota history and represents a victory for Gov. Mark Dayton and the DFL-controlled Legislature, who pushed through legislation that enabled the certification vote. Workers and those they care for erupted in cheers and chants of “When we fight, we win!” when results were announced at the labor pavilion...

Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33, of San Diego California was killed over the weekend in fighting between the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and a Syrian opposition group, according to the Free Syrian Army. After the battle, McCain, along with his American passport and the bodies of three other foreign jihadis were found. McCain, who referred to himself as “Duale ThaslaveofAllah” on Facebook made his allegiance to Islam apparent on his social media pages. His Twitter bio read: “It’s Islam over everything.”

Four people were arrested Sunday afternoon in connection with the stabbing of two 21-year-old men who gave two women a ride from a Fridley bar early Saturday. Police arrested Kevin Lilroy Moore, 25, of Spring Lake Park, Marcus Fultz, 20, no known city, Leanne Ranae Todd, 22, of Minneapolis and Tiffani Marie Ivy, 22, of St. Paul in connection with the stabbings, according to the Anoka County sheriff's office. Yani Randi Singh of Columbia Heights and Anthony Michael McCollum of Hilltop, Minn., both 21, gave two women a ride when the Two Stooges Bar in Fridley closed early Saturday. When...

Minnesota law enforcement agencies have nearly $10 million worth of military surplus equipment, an amount that has worried some people who say police have strayed from their civilian roots. Through a program to transfer surplus military gear to local law enforcement agencies, Minnesota departments have received about 3,300 weapons, 40 tactical vehicles and 40 pairs of night-vision goggles. The U.S. Defense Department's 1033 program has been around for decades, though it's been in the spotlight after racially charged unrest in Ferguson, Mo., after a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager. The initial police reaction to the protests...

The Islamic Society of North America or ISNA, the nation's largest Muslim group, will hold its 51st annual convention in Detroit's Cobo Center Friday through Sept. 1, and will feature former President Jimmy Carter as the keynote speaker. ... A “secret special guest” is also on the bill. The convention‘‍s opening session Friday will include words from Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, the national leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim member of Congress,

He was once a terrified 11-year-old filled with guilt and shame at being molested by his St. Paul parish priest. As an adult serving six years aboard Navy submarines, he felt safer next to a nuclear warhead in the middle of the Pacific Ocean than he had at church. Now, he said, he's not terrified anymore. And he wants the world to know his name. "My name is Jon Jaker," said the 54-year-old resident of Orange, Calif., who won a settlement Wednesday morning in his lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Jaker claimed he was sexually abused...

Vote tallies on whether Minnesota home care workers will create a large union should come next week after a federal judge ruled Wednesday that an ongoing union election can continue. In July, nine home care workers brought a challenge in federal court against Gov. Mark Dayton and other state officials, claiming that unionization efforts in the state are violating constitutional guarantees of free expression and association. Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is trying to organize some 27,000 home care workers, also was named as a defendant in the case. Plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction to block a union election...