Free Republic

ST. PAUL — (AP) State legislators are working on ways to better identify Minnesota residents who drive without auto insurance. Motorists don't have to show proof of insurance when renewing a vehicle's registration. People who drive without insurance can lose their licenses and be fined about $300. The state has a law mandating insurance but doesn't have a meaningful verification system, said Sen. Susan Kent, who heads the uninsured motorist task force that is expected to come up with recommendations by Feb. 1. The committee has explored options ranging from increasing fines to seizing license plates of uninsured drivers. "There's...

Six moderate Democratic senators are asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give states more time to comply with its climate rule for power plants. The moderate Democrats said that states should be responsible for developing their own “glide paths” toward the 2030 goal. The senators signing the letter were Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.).

A fugitive suspected of killing his 1-year-old child was reported at least three times to Hennepin County child protection for abusing the boy and his sibling, public records show. Brooklyn Park police were called Tuesday night to the 2100 block of 74th Court N. on a report of the child not breathing, authorities said Wednesday. First responders and paramedics administered CPR at the residence, then rushed the boy to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, where he died. Witnesses told police the child’s death was due to an assault. The boy’s father, Reggie Delanie Harper, 23, fled the residence before...

ROMA, Texas — Standing on a cliff looking over the Rio Grande river in this border town, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) notes the buildings behind us on the American side—largely abandoned, run-down houses and a seemingly abandoned local chamber of commerce outpost—look like they’ve been ravaged by war. “This looks like it’s post-World War II, like after a bombing,” Bachmann said while Breitbart News and CNN accompanied her and Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to an outpost on the border where illegal immigration and drug cartel crime runs rampant. “We don’t see people living here, but they told us these are...

As they're sorting through requests for more funding from programs and agencies next legislative session, state lawmakers are likely to be asked to help out a huge New York City-based nonprofit: the National Football League. 2015 is the year when any additional tax exemptions for the league related to the 2018 Super Bowl would likely be passed, and stadium officials have confirmed they will be making requests. The question of what exactly Minnesota taxpayers would be giving the NFL as part of hosting the game has been in limbo since Minneapolis' bid was accepted by league owners in May. As...

One Democratic congressman is so opposed to the Keystone XL Pipeline that he wouldn’t vote for it even if his party got a minimum-wage bump from Republicans in exchange. “I wouldn’t make that trade,” Rep. Keith Ellison, Minnesota Democrat, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” of a hypothetical raise to $9.50 per hour. Senate Democrats late Tuesday filibustered a measure to green-light the contentious oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast, potentially dooming the chances of party colleague Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and underscoring the power of the pro-environment caucus. Republicans vowed to put President Obama’s veto pen to the...

The Minneapolis City Council’s decision to cut money for a $300,000 disparity study from Mayor Betsy Hodges’ budget won’t prevent officials from launching the project, the city’s civil rights director said Tuesday. The planned study, which will look at the success of minority and women-owned firms in winning contracts, was part of a package of cuts tentatively approved Monday by the council. The 7-6 vote, which also targeted spending on the convention center, home ownership and clean energy programs, would allow the city to reduce a proposed tax levy increase from 2.4 percent to 2.2 percent. The budget for the...

When a man with a gun walked into the St. Paul bar where Eric Wasson was working as a security guard, it flashed through Wasson's mind that his mother shouldn't lose a second son. Wasson's brother was fatally shot in 2009. "If I got killed out here, if I got hurt, what about my mama?" Wasson said. "When it boils down, my mama don't deserve that." Wasson took action. When talking to the gunman didn't work, the former high school and college football player rushed him. The gun went off twice as they struggled and Wasson disarmed him. No one...

Rolling Stones journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely has written yet another problematic story, GotNews.com has learned. Erdely may be in the news these days for a botched story on an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia but writing thinly sourced problematic stories isn’t a new occurrence for her. One of Erdely’s most celebrated works of journalism, also for Rolling Stone, is full of unsubstantiated claims and tentative connections written in a ham-handed attempt to politicize a series of personal tragedies. The story, published in 2012 and titled “School of Hate,” tries to drag then-Congresswoman Michele Bachmann into complicity in...

As LifeNews previously reported, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released its national abortion report last month and the new statistics show the number of abortions in the United States have declined to a historic low. However, unfortunately, a new analysis reveals that out of the ten states where the most abortions occurred, 60.48% of the babies killed were African American and Hispanic. blackbaby6According to the Census Bureau, Blacks and Hispanics comprise only 13.2% and 17.1% of the population respectively; however they get 37.3% and 22% of all abortions. Additionally, while it definitely isn’t news that Planned Parenthood targets minority...

Torii Hunter is an anti-gay bigot. This is something he has proven with his own words on multiple occasions. Yesterday, at the press conference to announce the one-year, $10.5 million deal he signed to return to the Minnesota Twins, beat writer Mike Berardino of the Saint Paul Pioneer-Press asked him about those beliefs—specifically, in the context of how Hunter thought supporting Arkansas Republican Governor-elect Asa Hutchinson in his recent election had affected his free agency. Torii Hunter Says Homosexuality Is "Not Right" (Then Claims He Was Misquoted) Hunter's response: You got some people who are just messy, you know? So,...

35W N and Lake street blocked by DUmmies and DFLrs "Die in" in the freeway...

It’s a matter of common sense that putting boys in a girls’ locker room would create confusion, anxiety and discomfort. It’s a matter of common sense that boys, with their greater muscle mass, should not be allowed to compete on girls’ athletic teams. Those norms are self-evident to an overwhelming majority of the public. On Thursday, the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) will vote on abolishing those norms of common sense. A pending policy would end the traditional rule of dividing athletes by biological gender. Instead, it would grant boys with a “deeply felt internal sense” of being female...

The U.S. attorney's office on Tuesday charged a 20-year-old St. Paul woman with misusing a passport, ostensibly for travel to join an international terrorist organization in Syria. According to the criminal complaint, Yusra Ismail stole a friend's passport on Aug. 18 and, three days later, took a flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Amsterdam and then Oslo, Norway. On Aug. 24, Ismail reportedly contacted her family and said that she was in "Sham," which is a term commonly used to describe the area within Syria and Iraq where Islamic State militants are attempting to establish a caliphate, according to a statement...

Minnesotans are currently facing a fast and furious onslaught by the transgender lobby, which seems to be dictating policy to the Minnesota State High School League. The MSHSL decides policy for all extracurricular activities in public, private, religious, and home schools. It’s currently in the process of outlawing all sex distinctions in high-school sports. On December 4, it plans to install an athletic policy granting transgender students the choice to play on either boys’ or girls’ teams. In this scheme, there would be no accounting for sex differences in high school sports on the field or in locker rooms, bathrooms,...

Minnesotans are currently facing a fast and furious onslaught by the transgender lobby, which seems to be dictating policy to the Minnesota State High School League. The MSHSL decides policy for all extracurricular activities in public, private, religious, and home schools. It’s currently in the process of outlawing all sex distinctions in high-school sports. On December 4, it plans to install an athletic policy granting transgender students the choice to play on either boys’ or girls’ teams. In this scheme, there would be no accounting for sex differences in high school sports on the field or in locker rooms, bathrooms,...

The St. Paul Public Schools superintendent apologized Tuesday for a Twitter comment on the Ferguson, Mo. shooting that sparked a flurry of reaction, most of it negative. Authorities announced Monday that a grand jury decided against indicting white police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man. Soon after the announcement, Superintendent Valeria Silva tweeted, "No indictment for officer Wilson! Very sad day in America. How do I explain this to my black students?" Silva later deleted the tweet and clarified her intent. But her remark offended many, including some who agreed with the grand...

The shipping season on the upper Mississippi River will end on Thursday as ice surrounding locks and dams near Minnesota's Twin Cities forced the earliest winter closure on records that date back to 1969, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said.

Democrats scrambled Wednesday to tamp down anger among veterans groups who objected to the party’s choice of Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida as ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Compounding the anger was the Democratic leadership’s treatment of the sole veteran among the panel’s Democrats, who was briefly ousted from the committee on a technicality and thus made ineligible to seek to become ranking member. As a result, Rep. Brown was the only Democrat seeking to serve as party leader on the committee that has been a watchdog for the Veterans Affairs Department’s wait-time scandal and the implementation...

Outgoing Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told reporters Wednesday that President Barack Obama was seeking to grant legal protection to millions of “illiterate” immigrants who would then become Democratic voters by 2016. “The social cost will be profound on the U.S. taxpayer — millions of unskilled, illiterate, foreign nationals coming into the United States who can’t speak the English language,” Bachmann said. “The president has a very single-minded vision. He’s looking at new voters for 2016.” Bachmann told the Washington Post’s Robert Costa that “illiterate” wasn’t her word: “I’ve been down to the border. The reason why I would say that...