Free Republic

A career criminal with a long history of fraud offenses was sentenced to seven years in federal prison last week for defrauding an electronics manufacturing business. At a June 23 sentencing hearing, Judge Joan Ericksen commented on how Thomas Thanh Pham has proven himself to be “an efficient and effective perpetrator of fraud” whose crime was “part of a skilled execution of a scheme that he has refined over decades.” As a result, Pham was immediately ordered into custody because it “was too dangerous and too risky” to the public for him “to remain at liberty.” “Fraudsters have flocked to...

ICE says Mehran Makari Saheli is an Iranian national, a convicted felon, a former member of Iran's IRGC, and has "admitted connections" to the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials announced they arrested a former member of the the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in St. Paul this weekend. Mehran Makari Saheli was arrested on June 22 by federal officials. According to ICE, the 57-year-old Saheli was illegally present in the United States after an immigration judge ordered him to leave the country three years ago. ICE says Saheli is an Iranian national, a convicted felon, a...

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said Monday on CNN’s “News Central” that President Donald Trump “promoted” the violent environment that brought the shootings of Minnesota lawmakers over the weekend. Co-host John Berman said, “There was a state representative, Democratic leader of the state legislature in Minnesota killed over the weekend, a state senator shot. How would you describe the current political atmosphere in this country this morning?” Merkley said, “I feel like Trump has really popped the lid off of the rhetoric and the the sense of hate and violence and promoted this type of an environment. It’s profoundly disturbing for...

SummaryLargest outpouring of protests against Trump since his return to power Protests come on day of military parade in Washington Minnesota protests canceled after lawmaker assassination, Walz calls it politically motivated Critics label parade as authoritarian and wasteful amid Trump's cost-cutting agendaWASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES/ATLANTA, June 14 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Americans attended rallies on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump's aggressive approach in major cities from New York to Atlanta to Los Angeles, on a day marred by the assassination of a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota.The protests marked the largest outpouring of opposition to Trump's presidency since he returned...

In 2024, a bill was introduced into the Minnesota legislature that would ban many semi-automatic rifles. The bill was similar to the President Clinton-era “assault rifle” ban. A related bill, HF3628, did not pass out of the legislature in the last legislative session. In 2025, a new bill, Senate File SF1596/House File HF2449, takes a somewhat similar approach. The bill adds some new twists and turns. The new bill was introduced on February 20, 2025, and posted on February 25, 2025. SF1596/HF2449 takes a different approach than HF3628 did. HF3628 banned the possession of a large number of rifles, pistols,...

A federal jury in Minneapolis Wednesday convicted Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock and former restaurant owner Salim Said on charges of wire fraud and bribery in a trial that followed a lengthy investigation into an alleged scheme to fleece taxpayers out of $250 million by exploiting government child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jurors deliberated about five hours before finding Bock, 44, guilty on all seven counts. They convicted Said, 36, of all 21 charges, which also included five counts of money laundering. U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel ordered Bock and Said jailed and did not set a...

I attended the Feeding-Our-Future trial from opening statements on Monday through adjournment for the weekend yesterday at noon. This is the second of the cases to come to trial. The indictment charged a total of 70 defendants with fraud, but this trial features the all-stars: ringleader Aimee Bock, founder and executive director of Feeding Our Future, and Salim Said, co-owner of two grossly fraudulent sites, Safari-Restaurant (just off Lake Street in Minneapolis) and ASA-Limited (small storefront at a Maplewood strip mall). Two of the co-defendants in this case pleaded guilty on January 28. [snip] By October 2020, Safari claimed to...

U.S. Sen. Tina Smith announced Thursday she will retire after next year, opting against a 2026 bid for another six-year term and putting a Democratic-held seat in play in an increasingly competitive Upper Midwest. The decision comes after Smith had been conveying her plan to run again for a seat she has held since 2018. She has won two prior Senate elections, including a 5-percentage-point victory when last on the ballot in 2020. She had more than $700,000 in her campaign account to start the year. "I have loved my job as United States Senator, and also, after 20 years...

(FOX 9) - The Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) says that transgender student-athletes' eligibility to participate in sports is determined by state law, not President Donald Trump's recent Executive Order banning transgender athletes from women's or girl's sports. MN state law What they're saying: MSHSL says that the eligibility of transgender student-athletes is "determined by state law, through the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the Minnesota Constitution." The organization will continue to abide by the anti-discrimination laws in the state, which doesn't allow discrimination based on gender identity. Because of these state laws, students in Minnesota can participate in...

On January 7, 2025, two interstate commercial truck drivers filed a complaint in the Federal District Court for the District of Minnesota. The lawsuit contends Minnesota, and in particular, the Commissioner for the Department of Public Safety, is infringing on the exercise of their Second Amendment rights by not recognizing their right to bear arms across state lines.Here is the introduction of their complaint:This is a constitutional challenge to Minnesota’s refusal to recognize firearm permits lawfully issued by other States. Minnesota criminalizes carrying a firearm without a Minnesota permit or a recognized out-of-state firearm permit. Every year, the Commissioner for...

J. Alexander Kueng, one of the four former Minneapolis police officers tried over the death of George Floyd, is scheduled to be released from prison on Wednesday. Kueng, who had been serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence for aiding and abetting manslaughter, is set to leave the low-security Elkton Correctional Institution in Ohio. His release was confirmed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which noted that federal inmates typically serve 85 percent of their sentences but "there is leeway with the First Step Act and other factors." According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Kueng will return to Minnesota and be put...

Minnesota city “likely disposed of” 21 missing ballots in a race that was decided for the Democrat incumbent by a margin of 14 votes, according to an investigation. The county attorney for Scott County, Minnesota, said that the city of Shakopee “likely” tossed 21 ballots without counting them. While it is currently unknown how those votes would have broken down, the state House race for seat 54A — which could have determined party control for the Republicans — has been called for the Democrat. The current makeup of the state House is a 67-67 tie. The investigation is ongoing. “The...

Across Minnesota, more than 105 district court seats are up for election next week. But just six are contested. And only one has garnered the attention of partisan politicos. In the 10th Judicial District—which covers eight counties that wrap around the northern portion of the Twins Cities—attorney Nathan Hansen is hoping to unseat one-term incumbent Judge Helen Brosnahan, who was appointed to the bench by DFL Gov. Tim Walz just two years ago, after Judge Tad Jude announced his retirement and intent to run for attorney general. Although judicial candidates don’t typically seek political party endorsements, Hansen is bucking that...

When a pregnant woman had her blood sampled back in 1972, doctors discovered it was mysteriously missing a surface molecule found on all other known red blood cells at the time. After 50 years, this strange molecular absence finally led researchers from the UK and Israel to describe a new blood group system in humans. "It represents a huge achievement, and the culmination of a long team effort, to finally establish this new blood group system and be able to offer the best care to rare, but important, patients," UK National Health Service hematologist Louise Tilley says, after nearly 20...

When a pregnant woman had her blood sampled back in 1972, doctors discovered it was mysteriously missing a surface molecule found on all other known red blood cells at the time. After 50 years, this strange molecular absence finally led researchers from the UK and Israel to describe a new blood group system in humans. "It represents a huge achievement, and the culmination of a long team effort, to finally establish this new blood group system and be able to offer the best care to rare, but important, patients," UK National Health Service hematologist Louise Tilley says, after nearly 20...

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The Attorney General of the State of Minnesota has filed a petition in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, asking for an en banc review of the three-judge panel’s opinion, which struck down the Minnesota statute banning the carry of firearms in public by people over the age of 18 and under the age of 21.On July 16, 2024, a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit confirmed District Judge Katherine M. Menendez was correct when she struck down Minnesota’s law banning people over the age of 18 and...

Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate, according to three sources with knowledge of the pick, adding a popular Midwestern state executive to the Democratic ticket as the party gears up to hold onto key Northern battleground states this fall. In picking Walz, who's in his second term and also served 12 years in Congress, Harris will have as her No. 2 someone with a proven record of winning over white working-class voters in Rust Belt states while also boasting a robustly progressive record. Democrats will hope that mix of attributes...

A three-judge panel in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has unanimously struck down a Minnesota law that forbids the exercise of rights protected by the Second Amendment for people over 18 but less than 21 years old. The decision is a significant victory in the ongoing process of restoring rights protected by the Second Amendment. Multiple infringements have piled up over the last century.The particular infringements on the right to bear arms in Minnesota started in 1975. In 1975, the Minnesota legislature passed a sweeping gun control law that forbid anyone from carrying handguns in...

Minnesota has remained close with Biden leading by three four and now two points, all nearly a statistical tie. Many pundits and pollsters have assumed that Minnesota is a safe Democratic state in 2024...this poll indicates that is not the case.