Free Republic

Minnesotan Jim Johnson, the disciplined, discreet and obsessively meticulous vice presidential vetter for Barack Obama, is a stalwart of the Washington establishment. In the mid-1990s, he headed up a power trifecta: mortgage giant Fannie Mae, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Brookings Institution, one of the city's most prominent think tanks. At various times, political insiders have floated his name in Democratic administrations for White House chief of staff, Treasury secretary and president of the World Bank. His circumspect ways - rare in a town known for its shameless attention seekers - have helped make...

Speaking at the close of the Minnesota Republican Party convention, the former adviser to President Bush painted Democrat Barack Obama as someone 'far out of the mainstream' and he urged the GOP to go after undecided voters. Legendary Republican strategist Karl Rove rallied the party’s troops this afternoon to bring the curtain down on the GOP’s state convention. In a 45-minute speech to convention delegates, he mockingly dismissed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s policy positions and campaign missteps, saying the Illinois senator is someone “far out of the mainstream” who “doesn’t necessarily have the same view of America that you...

Ron Paul continued his push for a speaking role at the Republican National Convention with an address Friday to supporters outside the Minnesota state convention. Paul has continued his presidential bid despite Sen. John McCain's status as the presumed nominee. With state GOP leaders refusing to allow him to speak inside the convention hall, Paul told about 400 supporters he was more concerned about spreading his libertarian message than preserving party unity. "The campaign that is going on right now is the campaign for the freedom revolution, which is going to be going on for a very long time," Paul...

It's easy to understand how Minnesota National Guard soldiers deployed overseas would miss lots of things about home. Things like sitting down to a simple Sunday dinner with family. A number of years ago, that notion struck St. Paul City Councilman Pat Harris as he sipped a beverage at Mancini's Char House on West 7th, and he decided that an overseas dinner was do-able. Harris didn't have to go far for help. Mancini's, Cossetta, O'Garas, Skinners Pub, are among the familiar names on St. Paul's restaurant landscape that power and help fund an effort called 'Serving our Troops.' It's a...

A group of Muslim workers allege they were fired by a New Brighton tortilla factory for refusing to wear uniforms that they say were immodest by Islamic standards. Six Somali women claim they were ordered by a manager to wear pants and shirts to work instead of their traditional Islamic clothing of loose-fitting skirts and scarves, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil liberties group that is representing the women. The women have filed a religious discrimination complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "For these women, wearing tight-fitting pants is like being naked," said Valerie...

Minnesota Republicans unleashed one of their harshest piece of opposition research yet on Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken, pointing out a 2000 column, including graphic sexual descriptions, written by Franken for Playboy magazine. The Minnesota Republican Party on Thursday circulated a letter from GOP women calling on Franken to apologize for the piece. The public airing of the column coincided with Republican objections to Playboy CEO Christie Hefner throwing a fundraiser for Franken. In the column, titled “Porn-O-Rama!” and clearly intended to be humorous, Franken describes visiting a fictional sex institute where he participates in sex acts with machines and...

An act of bravery to defend a co-worker has cost a Minnesota gas-station attendant his job. Mark Beverly, an overnight shift supervisor at a SuperAmerica in Roseville, Minn., was fired in March after he jumped on a masked robber who he believed was attacking a fellow employee. SuperAmerica said

A man opened fire into a crowd of people Wednesday night, hitting a woman holding her 2-year-old granddaughter and the woman's 18-year-old male relative in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood, police said today. The 49-year-old woman and the man were each shot in the leg and had non-life-threatening injuries, said Peter Panos, police spokesman. A fight between juveniles had broken out in the street near the woman's home in the 700 block of Conway Street about 6:30 p.m., Panos said. The woman went to get her granddaughter from the yard, he said. "As she started to walk back to the...

The Belle Plaine man who fatally shot his 8-year-old son while turkey hunting last month had alcohol and marijuana in his system at the time of the incident, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Sibley County. Anthony Klaseus mistook his son, Hunter, for a wild turkey last month and shot him in the chest with a 12-gauge shotgun, according to police. When officials arrived at the scene, they smelled alcohol and asked Klaseus if he had been drinking. Klaseus stated he had consumed one beer several hours earlier in the day and agreed to take a preliminary breath...

Election day is exactly six months from Sunday and Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race will be one of the most closely watched in the nation. DFL candidate Al Franken jumpstarted his campaign with a rally the day before Republican Norm Coleman officially announced his reelection bid. Since then, headlines have not been kind to Franken. First, a $25,000 fine for not paying workers’ compensation insurance in New York. Then he revealed he is paying $70,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest to 17 states. In the latest SurveyUSA poll about Franken's tax troubles, 500 people were polled. Of those people, 59...

DOVER, Minn. — A southeastern Minnesota woman is accused of hitting her brother-in-law with a hatchet in a dispute about cows. Brenda Kay Shorter of Dover faces two counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, according to Olmsted County prosecutors. The alleged attack happened last week in Dover Township. Shorter, 35, told deputies she "just lost control" and struck the man on the head, court records said. A current phone listing for Shorter wasn't available. The alleged victim told officers he had a dispute with the woman over how he treated his cows.

<p>Al Franken's career as an entertainer made him famous and rich and positioned him to run for the U.S. Senate.</p> <p>But now, just as he appears on the verge of securing the DFL endorsement to take on Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, Franken could be tripped up by missteps in the way his show business enterprise was run.</p>

DETECTIVES: Chris Jenkins murder connects dozens around country Could there be a calculated, cross-country plot to kill young college men, including some in Minnesota? It seems a little hard to believe, but two New York detectives say, they can prove it. Now, they are revealing years of their evidence for the first time to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS... University of Minnesota college student Chris Jenkins was found in the Mississippi River in February of 2003. Minneapolis Police began investigating the case, which also caught the attention of two retired NYPD detectives. Turns out, Jenkins' death was the missing part of the...

From the Winona Daily News: When Winona Bishop Bernard Harrington talks about Kathy Redig, he speaks of her great heart. He regards her as a “great Christian person.” Harrington praises her work as a chaplain at Community Memorial Hospital.And when he thinks of her upcoming ordination in the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement — a largely excommunicated group of women ordaining other women to the priesthood — his mood changes. He calls the situation “very, very sad.” And pauses momentarily. “She has chosen to make this decision, and I have to respond,” Harrington said. “My responsibility is as a shepherd...

The way Olga Franco tells it, she was a passenger the afternoon of Feb. 19, heading toward work in Cottonwood and arguing with her boyfriend, who was behind the wheel, when she saw the school bus. She yelled at him to be careful, but the van's brakes weren't working well, she said, and they went through the intersection and into the bus. Franco is now charged with criminal vehicular homicide in the deaths of four schoolchildren who were on the bus and has become a flashpoint in the debate on undocumented immigrants. Speaking publicly Tuesday for the first time, Franco,...

< snip > Now, however, an eyewitness has stepped forward. Amanda Getz of Bloomington is a substitute teacher. She worked as a substitute in two fifth-grade classrooms at TIZA on Friday, March 14. Her experience suggests that school-sponsored religious activity plays an integral role at TIZA. Arriving on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, she says she was told that the day's schedule included a "school assembly" in the gym after lunch. Before the assembly, she says she was told, her duties would include taking her fifth-grade students to the bathroom, four at a time, to perform "their ritual washing."...

This is a very short article. But on the left side there is a picture one can hit and get percentage of subprime mortgages in your area as well as the percent foreclosed. For Minneapolis/St. Paul Minnesota 9-12% of all mortgages are subprime. Of these 17% are now in default.

A pending bill on the floor of the Minnesota House and Senate will strip citizens of genetic privacy and DNA ownership rights. Today, a state genetic privacy law requires informed parent consent for government testing, ownership and research on the DNA of the newest Minnesota residents. The Minnesota Department of Health wants to eliminate the informed consent requirements. A bill to remove consent requirements for government ownership and genetic research will soon be voted on by the Minnesota House and Senate. Thus far, the state of Minnesota has illegally collected and claims ownership to the DNA of 780,000 children (soon...

Concern for "student safety" was a primary reason that the Forest Lake School District canceled a visit by touring military veterans to its high school, says a newly issued statement today from Superintendent Lynn Steenblock. Police said today, however, that those concerns, weren't relayed to them. "At no time was student safety mentioned to the chief of police or to our assigned liaison officer at the high school," police Sgt. Greg Weiss said this afternoon. Steenblock this afternoon said that the safety concern was not passed on to police because it was alleviated when the event was scrubbed. He said...

Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) -- named for the Muslim general who conquered medieval Spain -- is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Its approximately 300 students are mostly the children of low-income Muslim immigrant families, many of them Somalis. The school is in huge demand, with a waiting list of 1,500. Last fall, it opened a second campus in Blaine. TIZA uses the language of culture rather than religion to describe its program in public documents. According to its mission statement, the school "recognizes and appreciates the traditions, histories, civilizations and accomplishments of the eastern world (Africa,...

A janitor at a Lino Lakes middle school has been jailed after the mother and a neighbor of a 15-year-old girl in a rural Kansas town worried about the teenager talking on the phone with strange older men. William Peter Foxley, 44, a night maintenance worker at Centennial Middle School, was arrested Thursday at the school after an investigation that began in the small community of Sabetha, Kan., about 70 miles northwest of Kansas City, Mo. According to a Ramsey County search warrant, police in Sabetha were alerted in mid-February by a woman who worried that her neighbor's 15-year-old daughter...

Representative Marty Seifert (R-Marshall) came up one vote short on an amendment to a bill that would have taken local aid away to cities that prohibit their law enforcement officers from inquiring about the legal status of people detained by police. Currently, Minneapolis and St. Paul disallow their police officers from inquiring about the status of people detained for violations of the law. Reports of illegal aliens using the two cities as "safe harbors" have come to light since the cities adopted the ordinances some years ago. "Something needs to be done to bring sanity to this insane system," Seifert...

Al Franken is a serious comedian. He has sincere intentions to better the lives of Minnesotans. Some locals are even starting to believe this. A Rasmussen poll released last week showed Franken with a slight lead over incumbent Senator Norm Coleman, 49-46. That's good news for Franken, but he still has serious problems that he must overcome to unseat Coleman in one of the three most watched Senate races in the country. Franken has enjoyed a reputable career as a Saturday Night Live writer and actor, authored several bestselling screeds, and hosted the flagship radio show on Air America. Though...

COTTONWOOD, Minn. -- Authorities have confirmed that the the driver of the van that struck the school bus that killed 4 students on Tuesday is an illegal alien. Officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement are checking to see where she came from and how long she's been in Minnesota. FOX 9 has also learned that the name she gave to police, Alainiss Morales, is an alias.

TEXAS CITY — A massive superhighway that Texans have protested at public hearings statewide drew heated opposition among Galveston County residents, who said they feared the toll road would cripple the local shipping industry and do nothing to improve insufficient hurricane evacuation routes. The Trans-Texas Corridor would wind from Laredo to Corpus Christi, wrap around the western edge of Greater Houston, parallel Interstate 59 through East Texas and leave the state in Texarkana. But residents at a public hearing Thursday night in Texas City questioned the real purpose for the road, which would also be part of a national Interstate...

Citing an "overwhelming response," Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has moved his caucus-eve rally at the University of Minnesota tonight to a larger venue. Originally scheduled to be held at Coffman Union, the event has been moved to Northrop Auditorium. Paul, a congressman from Texas, has consistently lagged in polls of the Republican field, but his fundraising has been robust in Minnesota and nationwide, fueled largely by Internet donations.

There's a controversial new study group at the University of Minnesota. Students are not learning about science and sewing -- but about sex.

Earlier today, I received the first of what I presume will be a flurry of phone calls looking for my vote in Minnesota's caucus on February 5th. This call didn't come from the Republicans, however, but from the Barack Obama campaign. They wanted to see if they could count on my vote. How did they get my name on their list? Recall a couple of months ago that I attempted to get leading Democratic presidential contenders to appear on my Heading Right Radio show on BlogTalkRadio. The only response I received was a blizzard of e-mails asking me to contribute...

WARNING: Due to the offensive nature of these remarks, citations supporting Al Franken’s comments in the video are available by request only.

Best-selling mystery author John Sandford has a new assignment: reporting from Iraq. Sandford -- real name John Camp -- leaves Saturday for two weeks as an embedded reporter with the Minnesota National Guard's 2-147 Assault Helicopter Battalion in Iraq. He'll spend time at the air base in Balad, 25 miles north of Baghdad. Sandford, 63, who won a Pulitzer Prize with the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1986 for a series about a southwestern Minnesota farm family, told the newspaper he's "more excited than scared." He and photographer Eric Bowen, who was in Iraq last February, plan to file daily...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty today unveiled a host of executive actions and legislative proposals on immigration. The proposals revive the divisive and controversial immigration issue, which has likely helped Pawlenty win elections but hasn't won him much support among Democrats, who control the Legislature. His legislative proposals should be familiar to those who've watched the immigration debate in Minnesota - they are largely reworked ideas he's suggested before. Those proposals include: ? Forbidding city policies that restrict local law enforcement from asking about immigration status as part of routine business. Minneapolis and St. Paul currently have such policies. Barring such...

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and his strongly held, sometimes outrageous opinions will soon be back on public display in his new book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me." The book - part Mexico travelogue, part memoir, part screed - details his brushes with famous people; his feelings about his governorship; and hints, teases and jokes about a possible 2008 run for president. In the book, co-written with author Dick Russell, Ventura says he suggested to then-President Clinton that certain disputed Israeli sites should be blown up to stop the fighting over them; he consulted with then-Vice President Al Gore...

Minnesota Atheists are taking their message to the air waves with a new radio program that will debut in January on the talk station Air America Minnesota. Called "Atheists Talk" -- the same name as a show the organization airs on cable access television -- the live radio broadcast featuring news, interviews, listener call-ins and special guests is believed to be the first show of its kind in Minnesota, said August Berkshire, a spokesman for the Minnesota Atheists. The show will air Sundays from 9 to 10 a.m. on AM 950 starting Jan. 13 when Oxford professor, evolutionary biologist and...

A Minnesota man has made it his mission to get a specially programmed GPS unit for troops in Iraq. Ed Meyer told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that if a soldier were to go to Iraq right now and use a GPS device, all it would show is the country’s border. But Meyer has discovered a new global positioning system that would be able to show someone the whole country, pinpoint cities, and even find which road a soldier was traveling on. The difference between the two systems is a tiny chip that not many soldiers have access to. "At night they're...

Cop indicted in road-rage incident during which other driver shot him in leg After being indicted Thursday for allegedly making terroristic threats during a road-rage incident last summer in Coon Rapids, a Robbinsdale police officer gave his side of what happened in the confrontation that left him with a gunshot wound to the leg. [...] A 19-year-old Anoka woman said she saw the man later identified as Beard driving next to another vehicle and leaning out his window as he repeatedly swore and threatened to kill the other driver, adding, "I don't care about jail." Several witnesses said they saw...

Coon Rapids man charged with shooting officer in road rage The Anoka County courthouse revealed documents Wednesday that charge 35-year-old Martin Scott Treptow with the shooting of a Robbinsdale Police officer. Treptow, of Coon Rapids, claims Officer Landen Beard was not wearing a uniform at the time he forced Treptow off of the road on June 7. Beard supposedly was driving an unmarked car. When the two men confronted each other, Treptow claimed Beard pointed a gun at his wife. "We were about three feet away from each other and he pointed the gun at my wife. It was a...

August Schell Brewing Company has reached a few milestones in its 147-year history: It survived the Sioux Uprising of 1862, which left the rest of New Ulm in ruins, and even made it through 13 years of Prohibition. On Wednesday, Minnesota's oldest brewery reached another landmark by cranking out its millionth case of beer since Jan. 1. Schell owner and brewmaster Ted Marti, along with some of the brewery's 44 employees, celebrated the landmark case - 24 bottles of Schmaltz's Alt, named after previous owner Warren "Schmaltz" Marti - Wednesday with a ceremony and pub crawl through town.

WASHINGTON - It's the political equivalent of a hunger strike. As Congress lurches toward a budget showdown before Christmas, Minnesota Rep. John Kline is at the center of an ideological food fight over the role of pork-barrel "earmarks." The Lakeville Republican calls the system of special funding for pet projects a "corrupting" influence in Congress, and says he won't take any.

A metrowide trend to return to the good old days of civic Christmas celebrations downtown is delighting kids but tiptoeing near the boundaries for church and state. "Santa saw me!" 7-year-old Joseph Grant told his mom after the jolly old elf made his way down the chilly main street of Savage to take his seat in a store and hoist children onto his lap. Kids circled a giant Christmas tree as their parents shivered around a pair of fires, producing s'mores. Motorists pulling off the nearby highway paused, confused by the blocked-off street where teams of horses raced up and...

His column harshly criticized for "spiritual violence" and "persecution" toward homosexuals November 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a recent column in the local diocesan newspaper, Minneapolis/St. Paul Coadjuter Archbishop John C. Nienstedt concisely explained the Church's teaching regarding both a homosexual's obligation to chastity and the Church's obligation to support and encourage such a chaste lifestyle. The column has caused a backlash of harsh criticism from the 'homosexual community' in what has until recently been known as a notoriously liberal Catholic diocese. Archbishop Nienstedt's column in the diocesan paper 'The Catholic Spirit' was authored as a sequel to a previous column,...

Anti-Photo ID Legislation Would Promote Election Fraud, Says Group For Release: November 5, 2007 Contact: David Almasi at (202) 543-4110 x11 or dalmasi@nationalcenter.org Washington, D.C. - Legislation introduced by Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) to prohibit photo ID requirements for voting in federal elections would promote election fraud, say members of the black leadership network Project 21. "Representative Ellison's proposal is fundamentally flawed and potentially harmful to the integrity of our democratic process," said Project 21 chairman Mychal Massie. "Why invite that which can only lead to unimaginable fraud and corruption?" Imposing existing Minnesota election law on a national scale, the...

43% McCain 50% Clinton 7% Undecided 40% Giuliani (-1) 51% Clinton (-1) 9% Undecided 37% Fred Thompson (-2) 57% Clinton (+5) 7% Undecided 34% Romney (+1) 57% Clinton (+1) 8% Undecided 30% Huckabee 60% Clinton 10% Undecided 28% Paul 61% Clinton 11% Undecided 44% Giuliani 50% Gore 6% Undecided Data Collected: 10/12/2007 - 10/14/2007 Release Date: 10/25/2007 10:15 AM ET Sponsors: KAAL-TV Rochester-Mason City-Austin, KSTP-TV Minneapolis, WDIO-TV Duluth Sample: 513 - 540 RVs MoE: ±4.3% - ±4.4%

John Michels, right, prays during Mass at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul. Joining him are Scott Carter and Gachuhi Kamunge. Michels and Carter are seminarians at SJV; Kamunge was a guest at Mass. - Photo by Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit Number of men attending St. John Vianney seminary by state location of their diocese. They've increased their housing; they've increased their staff; they've increased the rigor.And the men keep coming. St. John Vianney Seminary's enrollment is at an all-time high, with 154 men from 28 dioceses, which currently gives it the largest college seminary...

KSTP.com - 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Posted at: 09/28/2007 05:19:24 PM Updated at: 09/28/2007 10:24:53 PM By: Nicole Muehlhausen, Web Producer Stillwater blogger creates safety concerns   A school referendum has Stillwater worrying about public safety.Voters will go to the polls in November to vote on more money for the schools. But the debate has been overshadowed by an Internet blogger.What he’s been writing has left many people upset. The blogger goes by the name of ‘The Stillwater Infidel.’He supports a new school levy referendum and for those who don’t, he has named names and released personal information about them in...

Vatican City, Sep 28, 2007 / 09:48 am (CNA).- The Diocese of Crookston received a new bishop this morning with Pope Benedict XVI’s appointment of Monsignor Michael Hoeppner as its next spiritual head. Bishop-elect Hoeppner will replace Bishop Victor Balke who has been the bishop of Crookston since 1976. Msgr. Hoeppner comes to Crookston from the Diocese of Winona, Minnestoa where he is well regarded for his service to the Church.  Bishop Bernard Harrington of the Diocese of Winona praised Msgr. Hoeppner’s appointment. “I am delighted that Father Hoeppner has been appointed as Bishop of Crookston,” Bishop Harrington said. “He...

St. Paul man was catching a bus to his anger management class when a fellow bus rider reportedly ticked him off. Justin John Boudin's anger management class didn't help him avoid the confrontation, police say. But his paperwork from the class helped authorities nab Boudin on suspicion of assault, according to a criminal complaint. Ramsey County prosecutors charged Boudin with felony fifth-degree assault, alleging he hit a woman at the bus stop. Police identified him after he dropped his class paperwork at the scene.

Congressman Jim Obserstar, who serves as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, proposed legislation on Wednesday that would raise the federal gas tax by 5 cents. During the press conference on Wednesday, Oberstar lectured people who may not support a 5 cent gas-tax increase. Please watch the video clip below.

The Westboro Baptist Church has announced that they will be protesting the funerals of two victims of the 35W Bridge Collapse. They will be protesting the funeral of Paul Eickstadt at 10:45 AM on Tuesday, August 7th at Grace Evangelical Free Church at 755 73rd Ave. in Minneapolis. They will also be protesting the funeral of Sherry Lou Engebretsen at 10:45 AM on Wednesday, August 8th at Incarnation Lutheran Church at 4880 North Hodgson Rd. in Shoreview, MN. Links to copy and paste to your URL.... These two are just opinions on why the bridge collapsed. 1. http://www.godhatesfags.com/writings/20070804_americas-highways-lay-waste.pdf 2. http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/aug2007/20070802_minneapolis-bridge-collapse.pdf...

Nearly a fifth of America's roads are now considered in poor shape and about one-in-four bridges is rated "structurally deficient." The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that the cost to fix these problems is a staggering $460 billion. The tab grows far larger when you add in the hundreds of billions to build the new transportation infrastructure that's needed to handle the country's growth. Part of the problem is that big increases in state and local spending for politically popular programs, especially Medicaid and education, as well costly public employee pensions and benefits, have crowded out infrastructure -- even as...

Vickie Kliner holds her the face of her son, Kristofer Kliner, seconds after he was officially dismissed from his deployment at Crookston High School this afternoon. Kristofer, of Warren, will take some time off, his mom said, then will think about studying law enforcement in Moorhead, which is what he was looking to do when the Crookston-based Minnesota National Unit received notice of its mobilization more than two years ago. Waiting for her youngest son to get home has been like waiting to give birth to him two decades ago, Vickie said. "You never know what might happen, so...