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ST. PAUL, MINN.--After eleven years of facing labor organizers at their doors, Minnesota in-home child care providers overwhelmingly rejected union representation in an election decided today in St. Paul. "Providers have been saying 'no' to the unions for so long, it just feels so good that we’ve finally been heard," said Lakeville provider Pat Gentz. Despite more than a decade of organizing, card campaigns and expenditures, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5 garnered 392 votes, compared to 1,014 for providers opposed to the union. The margin of victory announced by Bureau of Mediation Services officials...

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said Monday that he is willing to step into the presidential race if Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders doesn't win the presidential nomination. "They're setting the groundwork for me because if Bernie loses, by the time we get to June, how sick are the people going to be of all these people," the former professional wrestler and Navy SEAL told the Daily Beast. Ventura ran for governor of Minnesota in 1998 as a member of Ross Perot's Reform Party, and served in the position until 2003. He said that Sanders and Donald Trump are "ripping him...

Well the big day is here, enjoy!

Minneapolis — Jesse Ventura told The Daily Beast he will run for president if Bernie Sanders does not win the Democratic nomination. Ventura was elected the governor of Minnesota as an independent in 1998 after serving as a Navy SEAL and professional wrestler. Ventura said his campaign was so successful at showing an outsider could be elected that Trump and Sanders are “ripping him off.” He bets he can do it again if Sanders loses and the election is Hillary Clinton vs. Trump. “They’re setting the groundwork for me because if Bernie loses, by the time we get to June,...

Donald Trump is poised to grow his delegate lead over the Republican field with a strong showing on Super Tuesday. The long-time GOP front-runner leads in the latest polls in eight of the 11 states that will vote on March 1, and heÂ’s the only candidate who is competitive across-the-board. Even worse for TrumpÂ’s rivals is that you must win at least 20 percent of the vote to get any delegates in the four states with the largest prizes. The latest polls show Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Ben Carson are below the threshold in all four of those states,...

Former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband were in Minnesota Thursday working to boost gun control in the state. It's the second time the former congresswoman has been here to spread her message since she was shot at a public event in 2011. That attack left six people dead. Giffords and many local leaders toured different parts of the Twin Cities with a new coalition to stress that gun ownership is not the problem, it's just making sure the guns are in the right hands. "Stopping gun violence takes courage," Giffords said. She still shows the effects of the...

Officials in Minnesota are revoking a resident's vanity license plate seen as offensive toward Muslims. The plate in question reads "FMUSLMS." Soon after media reports appeared on the plates, a Department of Public Safety spokesman said they would be removed immediately. [...] The plates were approved in June 2015. ...

If you are angry (about the tension in St. Cloud) and want one entity to blame, it is Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, the primary federal refugee resettlement agency working in St. Cloud! That supposedly 'Christian' charitable organization is directly responsible for the high Somali numbers in St. Cloud, and they are jointly responsible for bringing over ten thousand Somalis from around the world to colonize Minnesota towns in the last ten years alone--Catholic Charities and World Relief MN (now Arrive Ministries)*** helped also. Of course they have brought many more than 10,000 in over two decades and not just...

A group of Minnesota Muslims and their allies joined together Saturday afternoon to combat what they say is "Islamophobia." Rallying in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, they showed vocal support for the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR. "People profile [Islam] as being a religion of hate [and as] terrorists quite frankly," said Adam Burch, who participated in the rally. "And that's just not true." A panel discussion related to Islamophobia was held one hour after the rally started. The events were part of a national call for action by the group Stand Together...

Scott Killerud was about to throw away a mailing about the 2016 enrollment period for MNsure last November when something caught his eye. "Just as I was going to drop it in the trash, I was like - wait a second. What did I just read?" the Pine County farmer said.

Across all sectors of Colorado the cost of electricity has skyrocketed more than 67 percent between 2001 and 2014, easily exceeding median income growth and the expected rate of inflation . ... For all sectors between 2001 and 2014, the cost per kilowatthour jumped from just over 6 cents to more than 10 cents, or 67.11 percent. ... the data for the remaining sectors emphasizes the double impact that increased energy costs have in the form of rapidly escalating electricity rates on Colorado ratepayers, who see not only their own personal energy costs rise, but are hit a second time...

Don't talk to me about passing a single new gun law if you aren't fighting to make sure criminals are being prosecuted to the fullest extent of our existing laws. Criminals who commit crimes involving firearms are routinely allowed to cut plea deals on every level, even after people are killed with stolen or straw-purchased weapons. A gun thief in Minnesota who is receiving probation after stealing more than 85 guns is just the latest example of our nation's continued failure to put those committing gun crimes behind bars.

Former congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) recently joined historian David Barton on the show “Foundations of Freedom,” where she spoke out against the progressive income tax system, saying that class warfare rhetoric leads people to “violate the 10th Commandment.” “It’s appealing to the lower interest of man, and it appeals to the American people to violate the 10th Commandment,” Bachmann said. “We are told, ‘Don’t covet’ — in other words don’t be jealous and don’t want what your neighbor has … Instead politicians say, ‘Oh no, no. Your neighbor is rich, because he stole it from you.’” She continued, “That’s not...

A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group. Twenty-year-old Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame entered his plea at a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court. Warsame admitted he tried to help other young men from Minnesota's Somali community with their plans to travel to Syria to fight for the Islamic State group. Warsame also boasted of being able to take down a plane at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Warsame says he learned about the Islamic State group by watching videos on YouTube and listening to lectures. He faces up...

Apparently liberals on college campuses are not only "triggered" by what they hear from conservatives but even by their silence. "The University of Minnesota's undergraduate student government approved an annual moment of silence to recognize the victims of 9/11, after rejecting a similar proposal earlier this month," the Pioneer Press reported on November 24, 2015. "The vote by the Minnesota Student Association Forum was nearly unanimous, said MSA President Joelle Stangler." "The student government's legislative body approved the measure on a voice vote Tuesday evening, so no actual tally is available. Stangler estimated four or five people voiced opposition." "It...

The Republican National Committee (RNC) was not happy that Ron Paul, who had won second place in Minnesota's February of 2012 caucuses, ended up with over three-quarters of the state's delegates to the Republican National Convention. The RNC was not happy with Paul's delegates' large wins in other states either. The rules had allowed an outsider to win. Therefore, the insiders decided the rules needed to be changed. Well, what do you know! Because of the new rules for allotting delegates to the winner on caucus night, the insiders are now fretting that the winning of the state's delegates...

Minnesota residents are lining up to obtain gun permits, with an uptick of 6,000 permits last month. Fears over terrorism and President Obama's recent executive actions on gun control are responsible for the rush, though the Star Tribune added that some of their numbers might be permit renewals. Regardless, there still was a drastic increase in Minnesotans who wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights: Since the beginning of the new year, there have been at least 221,712 active permit holders — a 6,189 increase from December 2015, according to a monthly data report from the state's Bureau of Criminal...

Five Twin Cities men accused of plotting to go to fight alongside ISIL in Syria are asking a federal judge to drop murder conspiracy charges on grounds that they have "combatant immunity" under both common and international law. They say combatants are immune from criminal prosecutions for acts of war, including murder, against military targets. The five -- Hamza Ahmed, brothers Adnan and Mohamed Farah, Abdirahman Daud and Guled Omar -- are scheduled to appear in federal court in Minneapolis next week for a hearing on that and other motions in the case, which is set to go to trial...

A man was arrested for allegedly throwing two tomatoes at Sarah Palin from the second floor balcony during a book signing event at the Mall of America in Minnesota, MyFoxTwinCities.com. reported. Neither tomato came close hitting the former 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, but did hit a police officer in the face, the station reported. The unidentified man may face charges for assaulting a police officer, according to the station. Die-hard supporters treated the event like another Black Friday, lining up outside in freezing weather before the mall doors opened at 5 a.m. Emily Calhoon, a high school junior from...

A community advocate who spends his days helping Somali families and a youth soccer coach who works to keep kids off the street are among the people lining up for a crack at federal and private funds aimed at stopping terror recruiting. Friday was the deadline for applicants to request roughly $400,000 in money being administered by a nonprofit entity as part of Minnesota's efforts to stamp out violent extremism. The program is part of a three-city pilot project, which includes Boston and Los Angeles, launched more than a year ago by the Obama administration. Minneapolis' program, called Building Community...