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A man wearing a Marine T-shirt put his arms around an American flag-draped casket Thursday and hugged it. He was one of about 80 people drawn to Our Savior's Lutheran Church Thursday to pay their respects to Jerry Jackson. Many were strangers who didn't know the 58-year-old Marine veteran who died alone, his body found frozen in Indian Mounds Park last month. "That just was so damn tender," Tom Winner said after watching the embrace. Winner, an Air Force veteran who lives a couple of blocks from the St. Paul church, hadn't known Jackson but was moved to attend his...

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...

The Justice Department says distrust of police is one of the defining public safety challenges of our day. On Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a new initiative that aims to improve trust between law enforcement and the people they serve. Minneapolis is among six different cities chosen to be pilot sites. The city of Ferguson, Missouri, is one of many examples of distrust that exists between law enforcement and local residents. The Department of Justice recognizes that it is a problem. Minneapolis political activist Mel Reeves sees it. "Minneapolis isn't Ferguson, but we surely have problems," Reeves said. "The...

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. …

The young Target Corp. employee was told to come to a meeting. The elevator was filled with co-workers crying. That's when she knew her job was gone. "It's crazy that this was my dream, and it was ripped away from me," the woman, who did not give her name, said Tuesday morning through tears. "It's such a great company. That's the worst part." On a grim day at Target's Minneapolis headquarters, the retailer laid off 1,700 corporate workers and eliminated an additional 1,400 open positions. The layoffs left Target with about 11,300 Twin Cities corporate employees, down from 13,000 when...

The Minnesota Republican Party answered a complex Capitol budget question with a simple solution: Give it all back. With a print, television and online ad campaign, the party is proposing that lawmakers and the governor return all of the projected $1.9 billion surplus to taxpayers. 'The Republican Party of Minnesota says send it back -- send it all back," Party Chairman Keith Downey says in the ad. Downey, who is running for re-election to the party post this spring, said Tuesday he did not have a prescription for how he thought the nearly $1.9 billion should be returned. He declined...

Today the Republican Party of Minnesota held a press conference calling for Democrats to give back the nearly $2 billion state budget surplus to hardworking Minnesotans! That surplus belongs to Minnesotans and the Democrats should give it back, not spend it. That's roughly $350 per every Minnesotan. The Democrats raised taxes by an unnecessary $2 billion, and now state government has a nearly $2 billion surplus, which they are proposing to spend! On top of that, Democrats are actually proposing to raise taxes another $6 billion on top of the $2 billion surplus!

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...

The Duluth School District is deciding how to move forward after a racist photo surfaced at Denfeld High School through social media. The photo showed an African American student with a noose around his neck, and the caption "Gotta hang em all." Stephan Witherspoon says the student in the picture is his nephew. "I feel heartbroken," he said. "A little fearful. Because, you know, this type of hate represents a lot more than just a picture that was spread around in the school. It represents a people that have been oppressed for hundreds of years — hosed and burned and...

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...

If you picked up a Star Tribune last weekend, you might have read two seemingly unrelated stories. On Saturday, news of a $1.9 billion surplus, with the state budget growing to $42.5 billion for the next two years (“Surging surplus raises the stakes, Feb. 28). On Sunday, a solid piece of investigative journalism about political cronyism on the Iron Range (“Range agency deep into DFL politics, pockets,” March 1). What if these two stories were related? Researchers at Indiana University published a study last year that explored the impact of public officials’ corruption on the size and allocation of state...

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...

The FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are investigating Community Action of Minneapolis, a defunct nonprofit organization whose leaders allegedly misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money.The investigations were disclosed for the first time Thursday in a new court filing by the organization’s court-appointed receiver, Michael Knight. He was hired by the state to assess the full scope of the organization’s finances after a state audit revealed the agency’s board and its chief executive, Bill Davis, used taxpayer money for a celebrity cruise, tropical vacations, a personal car loan and other questionable expenses.The new documents, first obtained by...

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...

New numbers show that Northstar Commuter Rail Line ridership is down and, after five years of operation, an important goal has not yet been met. Metro Transit numbers show ridership in 2014 was down 8 percent for weekday rides. In 2008, Metro Transit had a goal of removing 5,000 cars from the road by encouraging commuting on Northstar. However, only about 2,500 commuters ride during the week, which is well below the goal set seven years ago. Taxpayers paid $315 million to build the Northstar system. Approximately $15 million each of the five years it's been running for operations and...

The number of handgun permits newly issued or renewed in Minnesota in 2014 dropped after a spike the year before, according to an annual report released Monday by the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Sheriff's offices statewide reported that about 41,500 permits were issued last year. Here's what the numbers look like over the past five years: The year 2014 had 41,493; 2013 had 60,471; 2012 had 31,657; 2011 had 20,772; and 2010 had 17,240. About 1,800 people who applied in 2014 did not receive a permit. Of those, 422 were denied; about 1,300 more are pending. A handful of...

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,...

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...