Tag: St. Paul

Chinese Intelligence Arm Quietly Operates ‘Service Centers’ in Seven U.S. Cities

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by Philip Lenczycki   A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority, according to state media reports and government records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department (UFWD) — which at least one U.S. government commission has characterized as a “Chinese intelligence service” — operates so-called “Overseas Chinese Service Centers” (OCSCs) that are housed within various U.S.-based nonprofits. OCSCs were ostensibly set up to promote Chinese culture and assist Chinese citizens living abroad, according to Chinese government records. State media reports, Chinese government records and social media posts show that during a 2018 trip to China, U.S.-based OCSC representatives met with Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officials. During the meeting, state security officials demonstrated how they’re leveraging new technology to conduct “cross-border remote justice services” overseas. MPS is China’s national police authority and has been referred to as “China’s FBI” by China experts. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says MPS also conducts covert “intelligence and national security operations far beyond China’s borders,” including “illicit, transnational repression schemes” on U.S. soil. In April 2023, the DOJ charged two men for allegedly opening a secret police station…

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DFL Raises White Flag on Statewide Ranked Choice Voting Push this Session

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A well-funded push to make Minnesota a ranked choice voting state appears to have run out of steam — at least this session at the Minnesota Legislature.

On Monday, State Sen. Jim Carlson, DFL-Eagan, told his colleagues in the Senate Elections Committee that a bill introduced last month that would implement ranked choice voting for statewide and legislative races by 2026 “is much more complicated than we originally thought.”

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St. Paul Refuses to Drop Mask Mandate for Students

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Mother putting mask on child

St. Paul Public Schools voted this week against a resolution that would make masks optional for students and faculty.

St. Paul is one of a few school districts in the state to still have a mask mandate in place — Minneapolis Public Schools is another district that has yet to drop its mandate. Nationally, liberal strongholds like New York City and Portland have dropped their mask mandates for schools.

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Illegal Alien Convicted in Minneapolis Carjacking Had Lengthy Criminal Record

Peter D'Abrosca

An illegal alien with a long prior rap sheet that includes violent crimes has once again been sentenced to prison time.

Abdulhakim Omar Erbob, 27, attempted to carjack a man in St. Paul last year, according to Pioneer Press. He beat the man who he tried to carjack when the man began to fight back, and was subsequently charged with attempted first-degree aggravated robbery. 

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Minnesota Man Sentenced to over Two Years in Prison for 2020 Arson

Hayley Feland

A Brooklyn Park man was sentenced to over two years in prison and over $30,000 restitution for his participation in the May 2020 riots and arson. According to the District of Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office, “Samuel Elliott Frey, 20, and co-defendant McKenzy Ann DeGidio Dunn, 21, joined other individuals who had gathered near the Great Health and Nutrition store located at 1360 University Avenue West, in St. Paul.”

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Amid Rising Crime, Twin Cities Boost Police Funding

The Center Square

With two 30-year veteran police chiefs retiring amid surging record violent crime, Minneapolis and St. Paul are increasing police funding.

Both cities have either surpassed their record homicide numbers or are single digits from it with 15 days left in 2021. The Pioneer Press reported a Dec. 2 fatal stabbing over a parking dispute pushed St. Paul to its record 35th homicide in one year.

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Minnesota Catholic School Offers ‘Social Justice Algebra’

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Benilde-St. Margaret’s students gathered in a common area

Some students at Benilde-St. Margaret’s (BSM), a Catholic preparatory school for grades 7-12 in St. Louis Park, are actively working to weave “social justice” themes into the curriculum.

The school’s student newspaper, Knight Errant, published an article last Thursday which stated that social justice is “a key part of Catholic education,” though it did not make a necessary distinction between the historic meaning of the term and its contemporary 21st century meaning.

“BSM has committed to upholding the seven Catholic Social teachings in its strategic plan, and incorporating social justice into the BSM community is an important part of meeting that goal,” the article claims.

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University of Minnesota Beats First Amendment Challenge to ‘Heckler’s Veto’ Against Ben Shapiro Event

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Ben Shapiro speaking

Sixteen minutes after learning that a University of Minnesota student group booked conservative commentator Ben Shapiro to speak at its main campus in Minneapolis, then-president Eric Kaler declared, “I do not want this in the middle of campus.”

All he knew at that point, four months before the February 2018 event, was that Shapiro was “a right wing speaker and he made some appearances on other campuses.”

Citing security needs, the university ended up putting Shapiro in a venue on its St. Paul campus, far from student housing. Demand far exceeded capacity, and a regent accused the university of passing over a larger venue on the main campus that was easier to secure.

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Minnesota Court Asks State of Minnesota to Suspend State Rep. Thompson License for Failing to Pay Fine

Hayley Feland

The Ramsey County attorney is asking the state of Minnesota to suspend Representative John Thompson’s (D-Forest Lake) drivers license after failing to pay a fine and a late fee. Thompson was pulled over on July 4 and given a traffic citation. During the stop it was also uncovered that his license was suspended. According to the Star Tribune, “Thompson received a late payment advisory in August after he failed to pay a $286 fine for the citation and has since added $30 in late fees as of Monday.”

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Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Says State Had Record Number of Murders in 2020

Hayley Feland

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released their annual report on Tuesday, showing that Minnesota had a record number of murders in 2020. According to Bring Me The News, the report “shows there were 186 murders in Minnesota in 2020, a 58.1% increase compared to 2019, and 2020 marked the most murders in the report’s history, exceeding the previous record of 183 murders in 1995.” Of the 186 murders, 82 were from Minneapolis and 32 were from St. Paul. The number of murders look on track to be even higher in 2021, as Minneapolis alone has already seen 50 murders so far.

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Representative John Thompson Says he Did Not Apologize to Police Officer

Hayley Feland
Police lights on top of car

Representative John Thompson said in an interview with the Star Tribune on Sunday that while he did speak with the officer who pulled him over, he did not apologize. As was reported by The Minnesota Sun, “St. Paul Police spokesman Steve Linders said in an interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, ‘John Thompson did show up unannounced at our Western District offices … so he could apologize to the sergeant who pulled him over on July 4.’”

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Minnesota State Rep. John Thompson Apologizes to Police Sergeant, While Scrutiny About Abuse Grows

Hayley Feland
St. Paul Police officer

Representative John Thompson allegedly apologized to the St. Paul police officer that he accused of “racial profiling” who pulled him over on July 4 for driving without a front license plate. St. Paul Police spokesman Steve Linders said in an interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that, “John Thompson did show up unannounced at our Western District offices…so he could apologize to the sergeant who pulled him over on July 4th.”

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Minnesota’s St. Paul School District May Close Schools Due to Low Enrollment

Hayley Feland
St. Paul School District

The St. Paul School District is considering closing some schools as enrollment is low. “School board members are listening to the most recent update on how to make schools more equitable in resources and programs,” FOX 9 reported.

The district says that there will not be enough students to fill classrooms, so in the interest of best utilizing resources, they are considering closing some elementary schools. This is not an issue isolated in St. Paul. In fact, schools statewide are experiencing losses of students. Federal data suggests that public school enrollment in Minnesota has gone down by over 17,000 students. Homeschooling rates have increased dramatically, along with a slight increase in private school enrollment.

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Representative John Thompson Releases Statement About Traffic Stop

Hayley Feland
Minneapolis Police Department

Representative John Thompson released a statement on Monday regarding a traffic stop where he was pulled over for not having a front license plate and was cited for driving with suspended privileges. Thompson had claimed that the traffic stop was racially motivated, but failed to give any evidence to back up his claims. There have been calls by lawmakers to release the bodycam footage of the incident. The statement from Thompson says that while the officer won’t be seen doing anything not “by the book,” but that the book needs to be rewritten.

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St. Paul Firefighters to Begin Wearing Bulletproof Vests, Helmets on Emergency Calls

Hayley Feland

After getting a large donation of bulletproof vests and helmets, St. Paul firefighters will start to wear them on some of their emergency calls. St. Paul Deputy Fire Chief of EMS Kenneth Adams said, “Twenty years ago we worried about having the best turnout gear and the best air packs, and nowadays we’re having to worry about, ‘Are we going to get shot?’”

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St. Paul Target Criticized for Its Juneteenth Display: ‘Missed the Mark’

Hayley Feland

A Target store in St. Paul came under fire for their Juneteenth display in their employee break room which had hot sauce, red Kool-Aid, and watermelon. Someone, presumably an employee, shared photos of the display on social media, leading to public backlash. One of the public comments called “every single Target employee who thought that the display represented Juneteenth,” racist.

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St. Paul Schools Committee Calls for End to School Suspensions After Examining ‘Racial Inequities’

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Seven Indigenous students from AIMS middle school participated in the "This is Me: Indigenous in 2020" art exhibition exploring self portraiture in representational, symbolic and abstract work. The exhibition has been located in the Minneapolis U.S. District Court House since November 2020.

St. Paul Public Schools’ Equity Committee recently called for an end to school suspensions among other recommendations as a way to tackle inequities in the district.

The Equity Committee in the St. Paul Public School District was created in 2019 and is led by Superintendent Joe Gothard. The committee meets monthly to identify and examine “racial inequities” and equity disparities, as well as craft recommendations for the school board at large.

During a June 15 St. Paul Public School Board meeting, the Equity Committee brought forward a list of recommendations, including ending the use of suspensions in the district.

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BLM St. Paul Founder Resigned After Learning ‘Ugly Truth’ About the Organization

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Rashad Turner

Rashad Turner, a former leader of St. Paul’s Black Lives Matter chapter, said he resigned from the organization because it does not help black communities.

In a video released by Take Charge Minnesota, Turner spoke out about his decision to leave the Black Lives Matter movement. Take Charge Minnesota is an initiative led by Kendall Qualls, a former Republican candidate for Congress.

According to Turner, Black Lives Matter does not address a root issue within black communities — family structures. Instead, the group has worked to further degrade the concept of the nuclear family and is not interested in promoting quality education for young African Americans, according to Turner.

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St. Paul Commission Wants City to ‘Rethink’ Police Response

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Side of police car while it's raining

A St. Paul public safety committee recently called for a slew of operations to be moved out of the police department and into non-law enforcement divisions.

The St. Paul “Community-First Public Safety Commission” advised the city to “rethink” its response to certain service calls and provided specific measures to implement in traffic-stop scenarios. The commission was appointed by St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and is headed by the Citizens League, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization.

The commission’s recommendations call for ending the practice of pulling people over for “motor vehicle repair notices” and “other moving violations.” Instead, police should “utilize a mailed citation,” according to the commission. Repair notices include broken lights, turn-signal malfunctions, and expired tabs, to name a few.

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Father of Man Shot by Police Calls for ‘Destroying The System’ at BLM Protest

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The father of a man who was fatally shot by Minneapolis police in December called for “destroying the system” at a Black Lives Matter protest Friday in St. Paul.

“There is something I would like to say today: police, it’s not only the police who kill our people. It is the system. It’s the system. This whole system, it is sucking our blood,” said the father of Dolal Idd, who died of multiple gunshot wounds after firing a weapon at police.

Both Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Idd fired at officers first, which was seemingly corroborated by body camera footage from the incident.

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Minnesota Cities’ Police Settlements Ranged from $50,000 to $24.3 Million from 2018-20

The Center Square

Freedom of Information Act research conducted by The Center Square reveals Minnesota cities relied on taxpayers to foot police-settlement payouts ranging from $50,000 to more than $24 million between 2018 and 2020.

Police settlements compensate the public for violated rights and also avoid clogging the court system.

Still, over the past few decades, taxpayers are being left with more significant bills.

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Minnesota’s St. Paul City Council Approves Creation of Slavery Reparations Committee

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The St. Paul City Council unanimously voted to approve the creation of a committee dedicated to researching reparations for descendants of slavery in order to engage in “racial healing.”

The resolution, which was approved during a Wednesday night meeting, names the new group the Saint Paul Recovery Act Community Reparations Commission. The main goal of the committee is to “make significant progress toward repairing the damage caused by public and private systemic racism in the City of Saint Paul.”

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ANTIFA Carries Sign Telling Minnesota Trump Supporters to Kill Themselves

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A group of agitators dressed in black-bloc attire and carrying makeshift shields crashed a pro-Trump demonstration outside the Minnesota governor’s residence Saturday.

Activists with Hold the Line Minnesota have been holding “Stop the Steal” protests outside Gov. Tim Walz’s home every weekend since Nov. 3, part of a national movement to draw attention to alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election.

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Citizens Concerned About Election Integrity to March for Trump in Every State Capitol, Washington on Saturday

Jason M. Reynolds

A series of marches supporting President Donald Trump and to demand election integrity are being held throughout the country at noon local time on Saturday.

The March for Trump will be held in every state capitol as well as at Freedom Plaza, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C., according to the event website. The website links to America First Projects.

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Minnesota’s Bonding Bill Includes More Than $11 Million for ‘Response to Civil Unrest’

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The $1.9 billion bonding bill passed last week by the Minnesota Legislature includes upwards of $11 million for “costs incurred” during May’s Minneapolis riots.

The bill appropriates more than $5 million from the trunk highway fund and $3.5 million from the general fund to the Department of Public Safety “for costs incurred related to the response to civil unrest in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.”

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St. Paul Primary Winner John Thompson Leads BLM Protest to Police Union Leader’s Neighborhood, Calls for Violence

Corinne Murdock

Over the weekend, Democratic candidate John Thompson spoke at a Black Lives Matter protest by the home of police union leader Lt. Bob Kroll. Thompson recently won the Democratic primary for District 62A in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Multiple video coverages of Thompson’s seven-minute speech show him calling for violence against the “racists” of Hugo, Minnesota.

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Walz Calls Another Special Session, Says He Will Extend COVID-19 Emergency Powers

Anthony Gockowski

Gov. Tim Walz said he plans to extend his COVID-19 peacetime emergency declaration for another 30 days when lawmakers return to St. Paul Monday for a special session.

The governor announced Friday night that he has convened a special legislative session for July 13, the same day his peacetime emergency declaration is set to expire. According to Minnesota law, the governor must convene both houses of the Legislature if he wishes to extend a peacetime emergency when the Legislature is not in session.

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DOJ Announces Twin Cities Violent Crimes Task Force In Response to ‘Extraordinary Spike’ in Violence

Anthony Gockowski

The Department of Justice announced the formation of a new Twin Cities Violent Crimes Task Force Wednesday in response to an “extraordinary spike in gun violence and violent crimes.”

Erica MacDonald, U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, said the task force will bring together federal and state resources to assist local law enforcement in investigating, arresting, and prosecuting individuals responsible for gun violence.

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Republican Lawmaker Proposes Bill to Sell Minnesota’s $6.9 Million COVID-19 Morgue

Anthony Gockowski

A Republican lawmaker has drafted a bill that would require Minnesota to sell a facility it purchased for the storage of deceased COVID-19 patients.

Due to a projected surge in COVID-19 fatalities, the state of Minnesota spent $6.9 million in May to acquire a warehouse for the “temporary storage of human remains.” As of early June, however, the facility had yet to be used.

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