The Minnesota House of Representatives passed legislation on Saturday that would raise the minimum age for purchasing tobacco and tobacco-related products to 21 years old.
The bill, which is similar to a federal one, applies to both traditional tobacco and e-cigarettes.
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Republican Jason Lewis, a former conservative radio host turned congressman, said his campaign for the U.S. Senate will be about the “forgotten man and woman in Minnesota.” His opponent, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), on the other hand, has become “the poster child for how the DFL has left behind the working man and woman of Minnesota.” “This is not Hubert Humphrey’s party anymore. This is the party of Jacob Frey, Ilhan Omar, and Tina Smith. And that is a total, radical departure from at least the Farmer-Labor part of the DFL. She sort of represents the elite one percent of Democrat orthodoxy,” Lewis told The Minnesota Sun in a recent interview. According to Lewis, Smith can “spit all over” Minnesota’s working class so long as she says “the right things on a couple of hot button issues.” “And that’s where the Democratic Party is, which is why they’re losing, losing the forgotten man and woman of Greater Minnesota in droves,” Lewis said. Before entering politics, Smith worked as an executive for the abortion giant Planned Parenthood while her husband, Archie, was a venture capitalist. According to financial disclosure forms from 2018, the two have a net worth of at…
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Two more rural Minnesota cities passed resolutions last week asking Gov. Tim Walz to allow all businesses to reopen.
According to the Grand Forks Herald, the Roseau City Council unanimously approved of a resolution during its Monday meeting that asks the governor to lift restrictions on small businesses. Roseau Mayor Jeff Pelowski said in a letter to Walz that his city is “dealing with several inequities that need to be addressed.”
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has endorsed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) for a second term in Congress.
“I see U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar as a leader who is disrupting conventional wisdom and challenging 50 years of thinking that has brought us stunning inequality, weakened public institutions and an utter lack of preparedness for a global pandemic,” Ellison said in an endorsement of Omar in The Star Tribune.
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The state of Minnesota plans to spend $6.9 million to acquire a warehouse facility for the “temporary storage of human remains.”
The funds will come from the COVID-19 Minnesota Fund and was recommended for approval by Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans.
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The Star Tribune accepted $150,000 in grant money from Facebook, the tech giant revealed Thursday.
According to a press release from Facebook, the company awarded $10.3 million to 144 local U.S. newsrooms as part of a “COVID-19 Local News Relief Fund Grant Program.” Another $5.4 million was awarded to 59 North American newsrooms that participated in Facebook’s “Local News Accelerator” program, including The Star Tribune.
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A Republican lawmaker put forward an amendment Thursday that would suspend Gov. Tim Walz’s salary during the course of his peacetime emergency declaration.
The move is the latest escalation in a battle between Republican and Democratic lawmakers over the best course of action in addressing the coronavirus pandemic. House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) announced last weekend that he would block a public works bill from being passed until Walz agreed to relinquish his emergency powers.
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More than 600,000 Minnesotans have filed for unemployment since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the state has had 633,405 applications for unemployment insurance since March 16. That number represents a little more than 20 percent of the state’s workforce, Fox 9 reported Wednesday.
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A second lawsuit was filed Wednesday against Gov. Tim Walz on behalf of multiple Minnesota churches and small business owners.
The complaint asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota to strike down Walz’s emergency executive orders issued during the coronavirus pandemic as unconstitutional under the First, Fifth, and 14th Amendments.
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The economic shutdown has turned Minnesota’s projected $1.5 billion budget surplus into a $2.4 billion deficit, state officials announced Tuesday.
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The city of Lakefield, Minnesota will no longer direct any resources to the enforcement of Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order issued in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The owner of a St. Paul barbershop reopened for business Monday in defiance of Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order.
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President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed Lacy Johnson, a GOP congressional candidate running to unseat Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar.
“And I’m Endorsing you also Lacy, you truly deserve it. You are doing a great job, and Omar is a disaster who wants much higher taxes, hates our Military & our Vets, demands Open Borders, and is fighting to take away our great 2nd Amendment,” Trump tweeted on Monday.
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Long-term care facilities continue to account for 80 percent of all COVID-19 deaths reported in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Department of Health reported nine new deaths Monday, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 428. Of those 428 fatalities, 345 (80 percent) were people who resided in long-term care or assisted living facilities.
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Several small business owners called for reopening the economy during a Monday press conference at the Minnesota Capitol.
“We desire to honor our God, and our government and governor. We think we can do both. But we have no idea how to get a plan approved, to whom to submit it, or if anyone needs to or will consider it. The church needs to gather, we are more the church when we gather than at any other time. Please, Gov. Walz, help us by providing clear ways for plans to be approved and for us to meet,” said Rory Martin, pastor of the Liberty Baptist Church in Eden Prairie.
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A new report indicates that the coronavirus pandemic could wipe out more than half of Minnesota’s craft breweries.
“With the closure period extended, breweries continue to see a decline in revenues despite their ability to sell curbside and delivery. The biggest hurdles to continued revenue are a lack of off-sale options as well as a drop in orders from distributors and retailers given the inability for bars and restaurants to serve draught beer,” states an April 26 report from the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild.
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The leader of the Minnesota House Republicans said Saturday that his caucus will block a bonding bill from being passed while the governor’s emergency powers remain in effect.
Republicans have made three unsuccessful attempts to end Gov. Tim Walz’s peacetime emergency declared in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The emergency declaration expires May 13 but can be extended for an additional 30 days. Walz has already extended the peacetime emergency once.
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Protesters clogged the streets with their vehicles outside the Minnesota Capitol Saturday afternoon in protest of Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order.
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KARE 11 announced Friday that it has fired popular meteorologist Sven Sundgaard after he called opponents of the ongoing economic shutdowns “Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants.”
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An Oregon man who was arrested this week in Minnesota was apparently on his way to the White House to kill President Donald Trump.
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The DFL-controlled Minnesota House rejected a third resolution this week that would have ended Gov. Tim Walz’s peacetime emergency declaration.
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz extended his stay-at-home order Thursday for another two weeks, but with some modifications.
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A recently released document reveals that the state of Minnesota spent $62,000 to develop its controversial COVID-19 model.
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Vice President Mike Pence visited the world-renowned Mayo Clinic Tuesday to discuss its fight against the coronavirus, but the media obsessed over the fact that he wasn’t wearing a mask.
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The coronavirus pandemic has taken out another Minnesota business, this time the famous Izzy’s Ice Cream in St. Paul.
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A group of small business owners announced Wednesday that they are suing the state of Minnesota over the “unconstitutional” restrictions imposed on them during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Vice President Mike Pence praised the innovation and leadership of Mayo Clinic during a Tuesday visit to the distinguished institution’s headquarters in Rochester, Minnesota.
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A legal organization said members of the Minnesota Legislature are holding committee meetings in small groups in order to avoid triggering the state’s “Open Meeting Law.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota said legislators have been deliberately meeting in small groups so they can bypass the law, which generally requires that all meetings be open to the public.
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Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said Monday that he has decided to “test the waters” on a third-party presidential bid.
“If I were going to run for president, the Green Party would be my first choice. I’ve endorsed the party and I’m testing the waters,” the former professional wrestler said on Twitter.
Ventura said he hasn’t filed for candidacy but simply authorized a letter of interest sent to the Green Party on his behalf.
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An executive order from Gov. Tim Walz bans evictions, foreclosures, and lease terminations for the duration of the state’s peacetime emergency, but one Democratic lawmaker wants to take things a step further. State Sen. Jeff Hayden (DFL-Minneapolis) recently called for a “rent and mortgage moratorium” in Minnesota, an idea championed by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) in the U.S. Congress. “Every Minnesotan deserves to have a safe, reliable place to call home. Right now, communities across the state are facing loss of income and increasingly exacerbated economic hardships during this public health emergency, while their rent and mortgage obligations continue to pile up,” he said in a statement. Without the “suspension of these payments,” the state will continue to see “devastating consequences both during this public-health emergency and after,” according to Hayden. “Our priority should be to provide the immediate relief Minnesotans so greatly need in a timely manner, and that includes a moratorium on rent and mortgage payments,” he concluded. The Minnesota House is currently considering a bill that would appropriate $100 million from the general fund for housing assistance grants. Under that bill, Minnesotans who are unable to pay their rent or mortgage because of a public-health emergency…
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The opening day of the Great Minnesota Get-Together is still four months away, but state leaders are already suggesting that the whole thing could be called off.
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Attorney General Keith Ellison said a federal ban on using aborted fetal tissue for research is “hampering” the nation’s ability to respond to COVID-19 in a letter sent to the Trump administration.
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A group of small business owners described the devastating economic impact of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order in a recently released video.
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A former Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) senior editor and director of political news told Republicans to drink bleach and shoot themselves on Twitter Friday morning.
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Vice President Mike Pence will visit Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota on Tuesday, his office announced in a statement.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) paid her husband’s political consulting firm another $292,000 in campaign funds during the first quarter of 2020.
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Minnesota has now seen more unemployment applications during the coronavirus pandemic than during the “Great Recession,” the state’s chief economic commissioner revealed Thursday.
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Gov. Tim Walz announced Wednesday that Minnesota now has the capacity to test as many as 20,000 residents per day for COVID-19.
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Health officials revealed during a Tuesday press conference that nursing home residents account for slightly more than 70 percent of all COVID-19-related deaths in Minnesota.
Infectious Disease Division Director Kris Ehresmann said during a Tuesday press briefing that 113 of the state’s 160 deaths “are associated with long-term care.”
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A prominent civil rights attorney and Black Lives Matter activist announced Monday that she is endorsing Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN-05) opponent in the DFL primary.
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Facebook is not allowing anti-quarantine protesters to use the site to organize demonstrations in states that have enacted strict social distancing measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
The social media giant has already removed promotions for anti-quarantine events in California, New Jersey, and Nebraska in cooperation with those state governments.
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Minnesota’s political establishment and mainstream media mocked and condemned the Trump-backed protesters who gathered outside the Governor’s Residence Friday, but were silent just two days later when hundreds gathered for a demonstration in Minneapolis.
According to the St. Paul Police Department, an estimated 800 people were in attendance at Friday’s “Liberate Minnesota” protest, which called for an end to Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order issued in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Minnesota’s Senate Republican Caucus said it received more than 1,600 responses in just two days from small business owners across the state on their ideas for how to safely reopen the economy.
The Republican Caucus created a new online portal Wednesday for “businesses and workers to share feedback on reopening Minnesota’s economy.”
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U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis announced last week that he will be embarking on a “Reopen Minnesota for Business” RV tour in protest of the economic shutdown imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Lewis’ campaign said the tour began Friday with select stops in the Metro area. The former congressman said he plans to meet with small business owners impacted by the coronavirus shutdown throughout the course of the tour.
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called for nationwide mail-in voting in a recent op-ed published in The New York Times.
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Thursday that he has joined a seven-state compact that will work in “close coordination” on plans to “reopen the economy in the Midwest region.”
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President Donald Trump expressed his support Friday for the hundreds of Minnesotans who gathered outside the Governor’s Residence in St. Paul to protest Gov. Tim Walz.
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A group of rural Minnesota lawmakers want the governor to reconsider his one-size-fits-all approach to addressing the coronavirus pandemic.
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Minnesota has seen 464,513 new applications for unemployment insurance since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
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More than 400 Minnesotans plan to participate in a protest Friday of Gov. Tim Walz outside the Governor’s Residence in St. Paul.
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