Free Republic

A man was sentenced Thursday to more than five years in prison for his role in a firearms purchasing conspiracy that also involved his wife. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota says Fausi Ibrahim Mohamed, 22, was sentenced to 64 months in federal prison for conspiracy and providing false statements in the acquisition of firearms. His wife, 23-year-old Sabrina Aweys Ikar, was sentenced to three years of probation for her role in the crimes. According to court documents, Ikar purchased six firearms from a licensed Robbinsdale gun shop at the urging of her husband. In each of the five transactions,...

There is considerable alarm in Minnesota over a list of 36 law enforcement officers, including private addresses and other confidential information, that was posted on an encrypted message app used by ISIS in the past. Labor Jany of the Star-Tribune writes: An alleged ISIL "kill list" containing the personal information of dozens of Minnesota law enforcement officers is the focus of an investigation by state and federal agencies. The list, purportedly created by a group of hackers affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, includes the names, addresses and telephone numbers of officers from across Minnesota....

"Where is my 1095-A? This is what it must be like dealing with a government agency in a third world country." That was the lament on Twitter of just one poor citizen this week trying to get his tax records in order. Nationwide, hard-working Americans are struggling to meet the April 18 IRS filing deadline. Standing in the way: the bumbling Obamacare bureaucracy. In Minnesota, an estimated 18,000 people who were on health insurance plans last year offered through MNsure, the state Obamacare health insurance exchange, still haven't received their 1095-A form. It's the "health insurance marketplace statement" required to...

The Caliphate Cyber Army released the names online. FBI agents are investigating the release by a group of hackers affiliated with the Islamic State group of a “kill list” with the names, addresses and telephone numbers of dozens of law enforcement officers across Minnesota, a spokesman for the Bureau confirmed on Tuesday. At the same time, authorities acknowledge that they are still gauging the seriousness of the threat posed by the group, which calls itself the Caliphate Cyber Army...

There is good news and bad from the states on school choice, as compiled by the Heartland Institute in its School Reform News. First, the bad news: • "A Minnesota family choosing to educate their child at home was threatened with legal action by local government school officials over alleged violations of the state's laws requiring compulsory attendance. In December 2015, Wayzeta Public School District (WPSD) officials notified the family of their alleged failure to file a 'mandatory' notice of intent paperwork. WPSD included in the notification a warning that it planned to file charges with local law enforcement and...

A Roseville restaurant is under fire for an image found on a dining table depicting a hanging. The Minneapolis NAACP says Tyrone Williams and Chauntyll Allen were preparing to dine at Joe's Crab Shack Wednesday night when they noticed a photo embedded inside the table top. The image appears to show a large group of white people watching a public execution of at least one black person. On the bottom of the picture, it reads: "Hanging at Groesbeck, Texas on April 12th 1895." At the top, the caption reads, "All I said was that I didn't like the gumbo." Williams...

"We may be introducing a kind of poison into the American political system that can hurt us," Mondale said. "If this sort of stuff is accepted, condoned, is seen as positive, we'll see more of it." Mondale, who supports Hillary Clinton for president, worries if Donald Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wins the Republican nomination. Trump, he said, has "stirred up a sub-caucus of Americans that like anti-immigrant talk, that like assaults against decent immigration rules. If there is an America out there that is so brash, so racist, so nativist that they like supporting Trump or so evangelically...

A public school cook from Andover is backing Republican billionaire Donald Trump after voting twice for President Obama, disillusioned after years of feeling financially stuck. Brian Billman is a Duluth area business owner who believes the president should be viewed as chief executive of a wealthy country — one with experience like Trump’s, employing thousands of people and “making things work.” Nickolas Pilotta is rooting for Trump to break up the two-party establishment, even if he has reservations about the candidate’s bombastic style. “Do I like Trump as a person? Probably not,” said the Minneapolis author and entertainer who usually...

It’s not that last night’s contests in Idaho, Hawaii, Michigan and Mississsippi doomed Marco Rubio’s campaign; it’s that the four bad performances atop Rubio’s previous disappointments — New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, and just about everywhere else not called Minnesota and Puerto Rico – have now created what feels like an insurmountable perception of defeat. Three Rubio-friendly conservative writers — Jen Rubin of the Washington Post, Dan McLaughlin of Red State, and Guy Benson of Townhall.com — contend it’s time for Rubio to quit the race and endorse Ted Cruz. Jen and Dan urge Rubio to strike the deal now...

Indirectly invoking the left-wing and Islamic narrative of Israel’s existence as the cause of political dysfunction in the Middle East, Senator Bernie Sanders implied to supporters at a campaign rally on Monday in Dearborn, Michigan - home of one of the nation’s largest Arab and Muslim communities - that “hatred and warfare” in the Middle east region were the fault of Israel. Praising former Democrat presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton for their presumably good faith-endeavors to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict, Sanders implied that America unjustifiably treated the various parties unequally. In other words, allegedly favorable treatment of Israel at...

A Minneapolis man accused of threatening to kill a federal judge and FBI agents accepted a plea deal Tuesday morning to avoid a trial. Prosecutors say 20-year-old Khaalid Abdulkadir posted the threats on Twitter in December after his friend was arrested on ISIS-related terrorism charges. Abdulkadir entered a guilty plea Tuesday to a lesser misdemeanor charge of impeding a federal officer or employee. He was sentenced to three years of probation and two years of electronic monitoring.

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party's most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump's candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt over the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

Yeah, this will work: A federal court in Minnesota has created a program to assess the risks posed by terrorism defendants and come up with plans to deradicalize them so they don't engage in similar activities again. U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, who has handled recent terrorism cases in Minnesota, outlined the program Wednesday and called it the first of its kind in the country. It initially will be applied to four men who have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State group, and Davis said it could be expanded to supervise other terror...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) ’s dismal Super Tuesday performance has prompted comparisons likening him to failed Democratic Presidential candidate Walter Mondale, who suffered an embarrassing defeat against Ronald Reagan in 1984, when the only state he won was his home state of Minnesota.

Rubio's Minnesota finish will allow his campaign, at long last, to call him a winner. The freshman Florida senator is in dire need of a spark to help him continue making the case to party leaders, donors, and anti-Trump voters that he remains the best hope to stop the billionaire businessman from romping to the nomination.

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!