A Mankato, Minn., man is facing several charges after he allegedly beat a woman so severely that police officers “couldn’t see her eyes.”
The suspect, 23-year-old Paul Peter Jal, was “upset” because the victim was “wearing an American flag shirt,” a criminal complaint says. Jal is facing charges of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, third-degree assault, threats of violence, disrupting a 911 call, and damage to property.
Read the full story
The school board in Mankato, Minnesota, announced strict new rules that effectively prevent parents from criticizing board members.
The new restrictions were announced at a meeting held Oct. 18. “Effective tonight, open forum participants are prohibited from calling out or addressing any individual school board or school district staff member. If this occurs, open forum will be closed,” said School Board Chair Jodi Sapp. “Beginning at the Nov. 1 school board meeting, open forum will be limited to those individuals who wish to speak to an item on the board agenda.”
The effect of these two rules is that parents are not able to discuss anything but topics approved by the board in its agenda and all board members and schools administrators are protected from direct criticism.
Read the full story
The Mankato Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) program is having a “Parenting for Equity” course to teach parents “strategies for anti-racist parenting.” The class description says it’s for children between three and five years of age and their parents. The course description also says it will foster “brave conversations.”
Read the full story
The Mankato School District paid a group $67,000 to the Minnesota Education Equity Partnership to assess the curriculum and policies in place. The group suggested that Mankato update it’s mission statement, values, and have a “list of equity questions to ask with every major decision.”
Read the full story
Prior to President Trump’s arrival in Minnesota Monday, Governor Walz claimed in a virtual interview that he had warned Trump to avoid Minneapolis. Twin Cities PBS reporter Mary Lahammer uploaded a segment of Walz’s statement on Twitter.
“My activism started sixteen years ago with a presidential visit to Mankato, and in a few hours President Trump will visit Mankato, my hometown. I spent this weekend trying to tell the White House why it was a really bad idea to have President Trump go down and stand at the George Floyd Memorial, and use [it] as a backdrop for his campaign and ignite the pain and the anguish that we’re feeling in Minnesota.”
Read the full story
Resistance groups across the state organized protests Monday against President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration. The statewide protests were part of a national grassroots effort to oppose the president’s “fake national emergency.” According to USA Today, rallies took place all across the country, many of which were organized in conjunction with MoveOn.org. “We’re mobilizing rapid-response events on President’s Day against Trump’s fake crisis and racist deportation force and to stand with immigrant, Muslim, and black and brown communities to stop Trump’s dangerous and illegal power grab,” MoveOn.org explains. A map of events provided by MoveOn.org shows that at least five protests happened across Minnesota, including ones in the Twin Cities, Mankato, Rochester, Winona, and Alexandria. The Minnesota Sun found that these protests were organized by a somewhat covert protest group called “Indivisible Minnesota,” which consists of affiliate groups like “Indivisible MN-03” and “Indivisible St. Peter and Greater Mankato.” “If progressives are going to stop Trump, we must stand indivisibly opposed to him and the members of Congress who would do his bidding,” a Facebook description of Indivisible Minnesota states. One of Monday’s protests took place outside of Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) Minneapolis office, according to a statement from Indivisible MN-03.…
Read the full story