A federal lawsuit filed Monday argues that the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) violated the First Amendment when it abruptly canceled a Christian rehab program.
The voluntary program, called “Quest for Authentic Manhood,” was available to inmates at the Minnesota Correctional Facility–St. Cloud thanks to Anthony Schmitt, who taught the program over the course of a decade until it was canceled in 2023.
Read the full story
A St. Cloud allergy and asthma doctor is allegedly refusing to see unvaccinated patients, screenshots appear to show. Messages between a patient and the doctor’s Facebook page, posted by State Representative Erik Mortenson, show that the doctor is fearful of those not vaccinated against COVID.
Read the full story
The owner of a Sauk Rapids bar and restaurant has sued a local activist group for defamation after it boasted about getting the business removed from a tourism website.
Rollie Hogrefe, owner of Rollie’s Rednecks and Longnecks, filed a defamation and tortious interference lawsuit Wednesday against the “radical agitators” of UniteCloud and its executive director Natalie Ringsmuth.
Read the full story
Former Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, once told a crowd of frustrated residents to “find another state” if they weren’t happy with Minnesota. The comments were made during an October 2015 forum in St. Cloud hosted by the local chapter of the NAACP. Dayton was responding to concerns some residents had about the large number of refugees settling in the area. “Minnesota is not like it was 30, 50 years ago. But this is Minnesota and you have every right to be here. And anybody who cannot accept your right to be here and that this is Minnesota should find another state,” Dayton said, calling the behavior of some St. Cloud residents “unacceptable, un-Minnesotan, illegal and immoral.” “If you are that intolerant, if you are that much of a racist or a bigot, then find another state,” he continued. “Find a state where the minority population is one percent or whatever. It’s not that in Minnesota. It’s not going to be again. It’s not going to be that in St. Cloud, or Rochester or Worthington.” Video of Dayton’s comments were circulating in conservative Twitter circles Tuesday in response to the mainstream media’s coverage of President Donald Trump. As…
Read the full story
The New York Times recently sent one of its east-coast reporters to St. Cloud, Minnesota to report on the frustration some residents have with the influx of refugees settling there. The article begins by noting that a “few thousand” refugees “moved into this small city.” But a few paragraphs later The Times writes: St. Cloud, the state’s 10th largest city, increased in population by 33 percent over the last 30 years, to roughly 70,000 people. The share of nonwhite residents grew to 18 percent from 2 percent, mostly with East African immigrants from Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, and the numbers of Somalis are estimated to grow. According to the City of St. Cloud, the estimated 2019 population is 67,924, so a population of 18 percent East African immigrants would be 12,226. A jump from 2 percent of the population to 18 percent would be an increase in 10,868. The actual number of refugees is likely a bit lower, but not as low as the “few thousand” reported by The Times. According to U.S. Census estimates, the number of foreign-born residents as of 2017 was 6,865. Additionally, between 2000 and 2012, the population of the City of St. Cloud grew…
Read the full story
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed Wednesday that a 23-year-old man accused of sexually abusing a resident of a St. Cloud senior center is in the country illegally. ICE issued an immigration detainer and administrative arrest warrant against Jesus Manzanilla-Alvarado after responding to a call from St. Benedict’s Center where he was employed. Manzanilla-Alvarado later admitted to having sexual contact with a female resident in the home over a period of two weeks. According to a criminal complaint filed against Manzanilla-Alvarado with the Minnesota Department of Health and obtained by The St. Cloud Times, he spent an “inordinate amount of time with” the woman and was accused of touching her genitals while masturbating. Manzanilla-Alvarado faces charges of gross misdemeanor mistreatment of residents or patients, and gross misdemeanor criminal sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult by a caregiver. If convicted and sentenced, Manzanilla-Alvarado would likely face deportation after he’s released. But according to ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer of the agency’s St. Paul field office, this isn’t the first time Manzanilla-Alvarado has faced criminal charges. In fact, he has a “criminal history” that includes “numerous misdemeanor convictions,” Neudauer told The Minnesota Sun. One of those convictions seems to include a 2015…
Read the full story