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A freight train traveling through Minnesota derailed in a fiery crash near the town of Raymond, prompting an evacuation of area residents. The train, operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), went off the tracks on the western edge of Raymond at around 1 a.m. local time, according to a statement from the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office. “Emergency personnel were dispatched and soon located a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train that had numerous rail cars derail,” the sheriff’s office said. The tankers were carrying a “form of ethanol” and a “corn syrup liquid,” according to the sheriff’s office, which noted...

Burlington Northern Santa Fe says 22 cars from train have come off the tracks in Raymond ... A Minnesota town outside of Minneapolis has been ordered to evacuate Thursday morning after a train carrying "a form of ethanol" and "a corn syrup liquid" derailed and caught on fire, police say. Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway told FOX Business that its train came off the tracks near Raymond around 1 a.m. ... Fire departments from Raymond and numerous area departments responded as several of the derailed tankers started on fire and were determined to be carrying a form of ethanol...

Residents in western Raymond, Minnesota were evacuated early Thursday morning after a train derailed and several rail cars started on fire. According to the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Office, numerous rail cars from a BNSF Railway train derailed on the western edge of Raymond at around 1 a.m. According to BNSF, four cars carrying ethanol and corn syrup derailed and caught fire. No injuries have been reported.

A Minnesota woman is awaiting trial in May for multiple federal charges stemming from Jan. 6, 2021. Victoria White, 41, of Rochester is speaking out after new body camera video from that day was obtained by The Epoch Times. She joined Liz Collin Reports this week. The video from inside the lower west terrace tunnel at the U.S. Capitol is difficult to watch. It shows White being struck dozens of times by police with a collapsible metal baton over the course of four minutes. She was also punched in the head and sprayed with mace. “This video was not turned...

Minnesota is seeking to become the third state in the nation to employ ranked-choice voting (RCV) for state and federal elections, following in the steps of Alaska and Maine. While five cities in the Gopher state already use RCV for municipal elections — Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Bloomington, Saint Louis Park, and Minnetonka — Minnesota state Sen. Kelly Morrison has introduced a bill that would require RCV for all state and federal elections. The bill is currently in committee, and it has a companion in the Minnesota House waiting for a hearing. RCV requires voters to rank candidates in order of...

MINNEAPOLIS - The former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of George Floyd pleaded guilty Friday to two tax evasion counts, admitting that he didn't file Minnesota income taxes for two years due to "financial concerns." Derek Chauvin pleaded guilty specifically to two counts of aiding and abetting, failing to file tax returns to the state of Minnesota for the 2016 and 2017 tax years. [Snip] He was sentenced to 13 months in prison on the tax charges, but he has already been incarcerated for longer than that and was given credit for time served. [Snip] Shortly after...

Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, recently signed Executive Order 23-03, effectively making Minnesota a “sanctuary state” for gender-transitioning treatments and procedures. Several of the bill’s provisions require various health organizations to provide such services-- and forbid them from sharing information with other states that have banned such treatment for minors.Both Walz and Minnesota's lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan, also a Democrat (of course), spoke at a press conference celebrating the signing. Walz sniffed: “In this state, hate has no home. In this state, love and acceptance is what we preach.” Is it? Are they? Might want to ask the taxpayers if...

Minnesota regulators said Thursday they're monitoring the cleanup of a leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from Xcel Energy's Monticello nuclear power plant, and the company said there's no danger to the public. The leak was first detected in November of last year. "Xcel Energy took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment," the Minneapolis-based utility said in a statement. While Xcel reported the leak of water containing tritium to state and federal authorities in late November, the spill had not been...

The utility company boasted of record profits at a recent shareholder meeting. ... Kim Lysobey typically wears three layers and thick boots while at home during the winter. She keeps her thermostat at 60 degrees during the day and turns it down to 50 degrees overnight. She keeps the house dark during the day. Even her dog, Boo, wears a sweater in the house. Despite these efforts to conserve energy, her Xcel Energy bill — like so many other customers around the state — still saw a sharp increase at the end of 2022. In Lysobey’s case, her bill nearly...

Legislative select committee opens inquiry into high energy bills.. Colorado’s high energy costs are partly due to a high-stakes regulatory "game" being played largely outside of the public’s view, said the official advocating for customers before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. A joint committee hearing on high energy costs at the statehouse Wednesday provided insights into the regulatory process that determines how much money investor-owned utilities make and how much utility consumers have to pay. “I would say if a rate payer is deciding between paying their heating bill or paying their prescriptions this month, then yes, something is wrong,”...

JayCee Cooper, a transgender powerlifter born a male, has won a big victory in liberal Minnesota after a court ruled that USA Powerlifting violated Cooper’s rights under state law by barring him from competing as a woman. Cooper, 34, claims he transitioned to being a woman in 2014 and takes an anti-androgen drug that substantially decreases the testosterone in his body, the New York Daily News reported in 2021. But in 2018, Cooper says he was sent a letter by USA Powerlifting telling him that he was banned from competing as a woman because “male-to-female transgender people are not allowed...

My wife works at the Minnesota state legislature, and the other day she was describing the scene as the Minnesota State Senate passed a bill that would grant illegal immigrants the right to get driver’s licenses.The concept itself has pros and cons–mainly having to do with ensuring that illegal immigrants be forced to carry insurance if and when they are on the road. I dislike the idea itself but understand how others might make a policy argument for it.What I cannot understand is the fact that illegal immigrants have been testifying before our legislature, threatening to vote legislators out of...

The students came to the Senate Education Committee with a plea for an addition to their curriculum: Teach us more about the impact of the changing climate on global populations. Amal Mohamed, who attends Bloomington Jefferson High School, told senators she made a similar request in a presentation to staff at her school two years ago. But there have been no additional offerings, she said. "Changes must be made because students want to learn about climate change," Mohamed said. "Even if you don't believe in climate change, please believe in your students' voices." Several high school and higher ed students...

Minnesota - Abdullah Arif, 48, of Stillwater was shot and killed last Thursday outside his tobacco shop in St. Paul. Arif’s murder is in part the result of a broken court system that has repeatedly failed to hold violent offenders accountable. Sadly, Arif’s assailant had walked out of a Ramsey County courtroom just 40 mins earlier, after appearing on a gun-related charge. If any other entity failed at public safety the way our Minnesota courts have been failing, there would be consequences. Instead, our court system continues its record-setting pace of departing from sentencing guidelines while obsessing over perceived “racial...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers in several Democratic-controlled states are advocating sweeping voter protections this year, reacting to what they view as a broad undermining of voting rights by the Supreme Court and Republican-led states as well as a failed effort in Congress to bolster access to the polls. Legislators in Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and New Mexico have introduced voting rights measures, while Michigan’s secretary of state is preparing a plan. Among other things, the proposals would require state approval for local governments to change redistricting or voting procedures, ban voter suppression and intimidation, mandate that ballots are printed...

In a video from June of 2021 that is going viral, a 15 year-old student from Rosemount High School in Minnesota explains to the local school board how the embrace of Critical Race Theory in education has made things worse for students. In his speech, he describes his first day of high school, when the principal praised multiple racial identities to the student body while neglecting half of the audience that looked like him, noting that in doing so, the principal was pitting students against each other for things they can’t control. He talks about a teacher who praised socialism...

The Minnesota legislature reached another new low this week when Sen. Omar Fateh called Minnesota Senate Republicans terrorists and white supremacists during his speech on the Senate floor in the debate over a bill granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Republican Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen reminded the Senate the reason the law was changed 20 years ago was in response to terrorists using state identifications to board the airplanes used in the 9/11 attacks. Gruenhagen asked the authors of the bill what will prevent terrorists from repeating this sequence, especially knowing the REAL ID provisions will not be in effect for...

Two Twin Cities lawmakers have introduced bills to ban the sale of new gas-powered lawn mowers and Zambonis in Minnesota.Reps. Jerry Newton, DFL-Coon Rapids, and Heather Edelson, DFL-Edina, introduced HF 1715 and 1716 this week. The first would require all new lawn and garden equipment sold or distributed in Minnesota after Jan. 1, 2025, to be powered solely by electricity. This would apply to lawn mowers, leaf blowers, hedge clippers, chainsaws, lawn edgers, string trimmers, and brush cutters.“While electric leaf blowers or hedge clippers may work fine for urban and suburban dwellers, these tools are entirely insufficient for anyone who...

Two Democrat members of the Minnesota state legislature, Reps. Heather Edelson and Jerry Newton, proposed a ban on gas-powered chainsaws and lawnmowers in the North Star State on Monday. According to Fox News, the ban would go into effect on January 1, 2025 and include "any machine that uses 'a spark ignition engine rated at or below 19 kilowatts or 25 gross horsepower.' Commonly used landscaping tools like lawn mowers, leaf blowers, hedge clippers, chainsaws, lawn edgers, string trimmers and brush cutters would all be prohibited by that definition." The ban would cover garden and lawn equipment as well as...

Two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers are proposing a pair of bills that would significantly impact the state's backyards and neighborhood ice rinks in an effort to combat climate change. State Reps. Jerry Newton and Heather Edelson, members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, introduced legislation on Monday that would block the sale of common landscaping appliances like lawn mowers and chainsaws as well ice resurfacing machines such as Zambonis, requiring that only electric battery versions be sold in the state starting Jan. 1, 2025. The ban on lawn and garden equipment would include any machine that uses "a spark ignition engine rated...