Free Republic

A DFL legislator will introduce legislation in January aimed at making it easier to prosecute state employees who misuse public money. The bill comes in the wake of two high-profile cases in which prosecutors declined to press charges against former employees of the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for what most acknowledge were cases of misappropriating state dollars. "Scamming the state of Minnesota is always bad, but it's even worse in an economic downturn like this one," Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-St. Louis Park, said at a St. Paul press conference hosted by the legislation's...

On top of everything else, we don't need a filibuster-proof supermajority, controlled by Dems, in the U.S. Senate. If that happens, there won't be anybody to filibuster on limiting abortion (including forcing pro-life doctors to perform abortions), stopping the so-called "Fair"ness Doctrine, fighting against higher taxes, etc.. In Georgia, conservative Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss is in a runoff on Dec. 2. They're still counting votes in Alaska and Minnesota, and in Minnesota they keep "finding" absentee ballots.

ST. PAUL, Minn.—A convicted felon who got a break from a judge who delayed his sentencing so he could vote failed to show up in court. Twenty-four-year-old Javontez Lavel Ross pleaded guilty to a drug charge Sept. 11. Ramsey County District Judge Margaret Marrinan agreed then to delay his sentencing so he could vote in what she called a "historic election." Felons can't vote until they finish serving their prison time and probation. When Ross failed to return to court Wednesday, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. Marrinan said she didn't regret granting the delay.

ST. PAUL, Minn.—A convicted felon who got a break from a judge who delayed his sentencing so he could vote failed to show up in court. Twenty-four-year-old Javontez Lavel Ross pleaded guilty to a drug charge Sept. 11. Ramsey County District Judge Margaret Marrinan agreed then to delay his sentencing so he could vote in what she called a "historic election." Felons can't vote until they finish serving their prison time and probation.

An Augsburg College student and Sarah Palin supporter from Alaska was beaten on election night while walking to her dorm and was called a racist by a group of four young women because she had on a McCain/Palin presidential campaign button, authorities and the victim said. Annie Grossmann, a freshman on the Minneapolis college's hockey team, suffered blurred vision and is thought to have had a concussion from a punch in the eye, but declined medical attention, she said

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who dipped into his own deep pockets to help finance his presidential bid, has directed $5,000 from his “Free and Strong America” political action committee to aid the recount effort of Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota. Mr. Coleman, the Republican incumbent, is locked in a tight race with his Democratic opponent Al Franken. Though the initial vote tally showed Mr. Coleman ahead by 725 votes, as counties double checked their figures over the last week that margin has thinned even more. As of Monday, just over 200 votes separated the two challengers. The vote totals...

Barack Obama's victory last night was no doubt historic, and the Democrats, as expected, extended their leads in the House and the Senate. But their victory was no landslide, despite what appeared to be overwhelming advantages. Obama won around 52 percent of the popular vote, defeating John McCain by between five and six points. That's nothing like the true landslides of the past: Reagan by ten points in 1980 and 18 in 1984; Nixon by 23 in 1972; or even Bush by eight in 1988. And yet, with hindsight, it is remarkable how much Obama had going for him. After...

Obama misleads us about taxes. He was wrong about the surge. My candidate showed courage. AS I LOOK OUT AT THE SEA OF OBAMA SIGNS in my neighborhood and in the neighborhoods I drive through each day in the Twin Cities, I get the same sinking feeling I get every four years. Once again, my vote for the Republican presidential ticket will be for naught. Don't get me wrong. Unlike Al Gore, I'm not down on the winner-take-all rules of the Electoral College process. In close elections, I think it's the best way to give presidents -- especially new presidents...

Senator Norm Coleman says he'll vote for a $700 billion financial industry bailout, arguing that Congress has no choice but to act.

St. Paul, Minn. — A few Somali parents in Willmar complained that the public schools weren't allowing their Muslim children to step out of class for daily prayer. Some didn't send their children to school last week in protest. Today, school officials said they won't change their policy, which allows students to pray during lunch time and between classes. For now, families have reluctantly agreed to send their children to school, but the issue may resurface later in the school year. This is the first school year Somali parents have had an issue with Willmar public schools over when their...

Minnesota Poll: Obama, McCain are dead even in state With 51 days before Election Day, Barack Obama and John McCain are tied with 45 percent support, raising the stakes in the campaign.

Forest Lake / Palin's husband to attend race event Todd Palin, who could be America's "second man" come January, is slated to attend a large snowmobile event Saturday in Forest Lake, according to an event sponsor. Palin, the husband of Republican vice presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is the four-time champion of the famed Tosoro Iron Dog race, a 2,000-mile run stretching across Alaska.

Let's see if things start to get back to normal now. Not much of a scheduel at all at the GOP site. I am sure they are put things in line as fast as they can.

Does anyone have audio/visual of the events in St. Paul, similar to what we saw in Denver? Much appreciated.

WASHINGTON — Freshman Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison has become a de facto American emissary, meeting with foreign policy makers both here and abroad to preach peace and democracy. Ellison, a Democrat, had already developed an international reputation when he took his oath of office on the Quran last year. In his first term in office, he's built on that with congressional trips, State Department functions and internationally themed town hall meetings in his district. "Peace is a key component of what I'm here to do," he said in a recent interview.

At his first public appearance for Barack Obama, former Vice President Walter Mondale today told a group of campaign volunteers they will confront "trash ads" and subtle racism aimed at the Democratic presidential candidate. During an event with about 50 seniors at Obama's state campaign headquarters in St. Paul, an audience member asked Mondale why the race between the Obama and Republican John McCain was so close when polls show a large majority of Americans are dissatisfied with GOP policies.

This St. Cloud Times story about only one person attended a public event for Al Franken yesterday hit the Drudge Report. “ONE Person Shows Up At Franken Event..” This story is turning into a national embarrassment for Team Franken.

NEW ULM, Minnesota, JULY 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI named Father John LeVoir as the bishop of New Ulm, Minnesota. Bishop-designate LeVoir, 62, succeeds Archbishop John Nienstedt. Archbishop Nienstedt was named coadjutor for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in April 2007 and became the archbishop there last May. John LeVoir was born in 1946 in Minneapolis. In 1981, he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis. The Diocese of New Ulm has some 66,000 Catholics served by 58 priests, 60 religious and three permanent deacons.

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...