Dr. Scott Jensen, former GOP candidate for governor, wrote in an op-ed that following his 2022 election loss, he is re-examining his position on abortion.
“Because millions of Americans believed that the Supreme Court’s ruling had had a decisive impact on elections across the nation, I decided to re-examine the abortion issue from both a historical and present-day perspective,” Jensen wrote.
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Minneapolis Democrat Mayor Jacob Frey has ordered the city police department to stop enforcing most laws against using hallucinogenic plants.
Frey in announcing the order Friday pointed to the potential benefits of taking hallucinogenic plants to treat mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case after the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to do so Tuesday, his attorney told Alpha News.
Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder and second-degree manslaughter in April 2021 in connection to the death of George Floyd. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
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As the calendar continues to creep closer to Aug. 1 — when it becomes legal for Minnesotans to possess, consume and grow limited amounts of recreational cannabis — cities across the state are preparing for the inevitable marijuana retail market that will (eventually) follow.
In Rochester on Monday, July 24, members of the public will continue to weigh in on a proposed ordinance that would prohibit marijuana sales in the city until Jan. 1, 2025. This comes after a handful of cities have already passed similar pot shop moratorium ordinances, including: Brooklyn Center, Ramsey, West St. Paul and Mankato.
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A metro area DFL legislator who is also the CEO for the regional Planned Parenthood chapter based in the Twin Cities is continuing to navigate rough waters in her day job.
Ruth Richardson was named the top executive of the Planned Parenthood North Central States chapter in September 2022 — just weeks before she was re-elected to the Minnesota House to represent the southeast metro suburbs of Mendota Heights, Sunfish Lake and part of Eagan. Her recent appointment as CEO of the most powerful abortion rights lobby organization in the upper Midwest drew criticism from some conservatives in Minnesota political circles who suggested a state legislator shouldn’t also lead such an organization because of inevitable conflicts of interest she would face in votes at the Capitol.
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The University of Minnesota is ditching legacy admissions, a mechanism by which children of alumni get preferential treatment within the admissions process, following a Supreme Court ruling that blocked the use of race-based affirmative action policies, a university spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina’s affirmative action admissions policies were unconstitutional. In light of the ruling, the University of Minnesota decided it will no longer consider race, ethnicity, legacy or employment in its admissions process, a university spokesperson told the DCNF.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called for impeaching U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and compared him to a house slave during a recent media interview.
Ellison recently returned to his hometown of Detroit to promote his new book, “Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence.” While there, he sat down for an extended interview with the Michigan Chronicle and discussed recent Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and student loan debt.
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A popular Minneapolis-based security team for hire called “Sequeerity” is not licensed in the state of Minnesota, potentially making the business guilty of a gross misdemeanor, state officials confirmed.
Under Minnesota law, anyone who provides, for a fee or reward, “guards, private patrol or other security personnel to protect persons or their property” is considered to be a “protective agent” and must be licensed, the Minnesota Private Detective and Protective Agent Services Board (PDB) told Alpha News.
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Minnesota businesses reported their experience and expectations regarding inflation and other economic indicators in a new survey.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis surveyed randomly selected 229 Minnesota firms in May and June, according to the report. The department announced the results this week.
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Fresh off a legislative session where Steve Simon was able to check off nearly every item on his election reform “wish list,” the recently re-elected Minnesota secretary of state took some time to speak to both national and local media about how he views the landscape of the upcoming 2024 election, and as he calls it the “democracy business.”
According to Simon, those who intend to suppress the vote with election-related “disinformation” or intimidation may be tripped up by new election-reform laws recently passed by the Democrat trifecta in the Minnesota Legislature. But he told the Washington Post in an interview this week that he doesn’t believe those new voter protections in Minnesota will necessarily deter disinformation efforts come 2024.
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The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Gov. Tim Walz on Monday in a case where a group of citizens had challenged the constitutionality of the governor’s indoor mask mandate that lasted 10 months during 2020 and 2021.
In its decision on Monday, the three-judge panel affirmed a lower court ruling from March 2021 that dismissed the case on the merits. The opinion, written by Judge Michelle Larkin, also noted that Walz was within the authority delegated to him by the legislature to declare a peacetime emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic. That order ran from March 2020 to July 2021.
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The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) runs a program to help art teachers create anti-racist curriculum.
“In this three-day long summer 2023 institute, participants will have an opportunity to deepen their understanding of culturally responsive and ant-racist curriculum development in and through the arts as it relates to Ethnic Studies,” MDE explains of an upcoming course that is an optional aspect of a program funded by the U.S. Department of Education and led by MDE’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Center.
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Abortion and transgender hormone giant Planned Parenthood is drawing teens to its “Sex Ed Summer Camp” in late July with the promise of a $150 gift card to those who complete the program.
“Sex Ed Summer Camp is a sexual health peer education certification program,” Planned Parenthood states about its camp for 15-18 year-olds to be held July 24-28 in Mankato, Minnesota. “Participants will use knowledge they learn to educate friends and peers. Topics covered include sexual anatomy, birth control methods, sexually transmitted infections, healthy relationships and consent, and more!”
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Minnesota lawmakers say a $352 million mistake in a recently passed tax bill shouldn’t affect residents, as long as they update the tax bill in the 2024 legislative session.
In 2019, lawmakers doubled the standard deduction and set the amount for a married joint filer at $24,400 and a single filer at $12,200. The law directs the commissioner for each subsequent year to adjust those amounts for inflation. After four years of inflation adjustments, the 2023 standard deduction for a married joint filer is $27,650 and $13,825 for a single filer.
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Despite the vibe you may be getting from the national media, the presidential election is still more than a year away. But that doesn’t mean voters won’t have a ballot to fill out this November.
The 2023 election cycle in Minnesota won’t be eventful for most voters. There are no legislative seats or congressional or statewide offices on the ballot. But school district communities representing about 1.7 million residents across the state — which combined, steward well over $4 billion in tax dollars — will be holding elections this fall.
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The CDC’s explanation for leaving certain diagnosis codes off Minnesota death certificates that cite COVID-19 vaccines as a cause of death, allegedly hiding vaccine injuries in federal records, shows “intent to deceive,” according to a person who helped analyze the death certificates for the Brownstone Institute, a think tank that challenges the scientific basis for COVID conventional wisdom and policy.
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Former interim Golden Valley Police Chief Scott Nadeau, a white male, claims in a federal lawsuit filed last week that he was effectively fired because of his race.
The lawsuit, which seeks at least $75,000 in damages, accuses city leaders of violating the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Nadeau based on race. It also accuses Mayor Shep Harris of defamation because of comments he made during a March 2022 City Council meeting.
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by Benjamin Rothove Illegal immigrants in Minnesota will soon get free college tuition if their families are below a certain household income level. The “North Star Promise” program “will create a tuition and fee-free pathway to higher education for eligible Minnesota residents at eligible institutions as a ‘last-dollar’ program by covering the balance of tuition and fees remaining after other scholarships, grants, stipends and tuition waivers have been applied,” according to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education summary. That includes illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria, according to the education department. The legislation goes into effect for the fall 2024 semester. The “Adjusted Gross Income” must be “below $80,000,” according to the Office of Higher Education. The College Fix emailed state senator Omer Fateh, one of the bill’s sponsors, twice in the past four weeks to ask for comment on the legislation. Fateh did not respond to questions about potential violation of federal law, concerns about pulling resources away from other students and potential incentivization of illegal immigration. “We’ve been seeing declining enrollment on all campuses,” Fateh said during debate over the legislation. “If we don’t do something quick, we’re at risk of shutting down some campuses. … I see this bill as an enrollment driver.”…
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Abortions in Minnesota experienced a significant increase of 20% in 2022, as revealed in a report released by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).
This sharp rise comes on the heels of new abortion laws passed by lawmakers during the 2023 session, removing restrictions on abortion throughout pregnancy and repealing long-standing abortion laws, including portions of the reporting law that governs the release of the MDH data.
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Minnesota’s tourism arm spent $1,000 to produce an Instagram reel celebrating gay pride month that featured partial nudity.
“Explore Minnesota did not pay Instagram any money to run this video as an ad,” Senior Business Operations Manager Mike Meyer told The Center Square in an email. “Explore Minnesota paid $1000 for the production of the video.”
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A trio of Minnesota residents, along with a conservative voters rights watchdog organization, have filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new law that restores the right to vote for felons still on probation or parole.
The petitioners in the lawsuit include: the Minnesota Voters Alliance and Anoka County residents Mary Amlaw, Ken Wendling and Tim Kirk. They are being represented by the Upper Midwest Law Center.
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A Lutheran church in Edina stood for the reading of the “sparkle creed” during a church service, according to a livestream available on its YouTube page.
“I believe in a non-binary god, whose pronouns are plural,” Pastor Anna Helgen said during Sunday’s service. “I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads.”
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The Office of the Legislative Auditor will release the second of two program evaluation reports as part of its 2023 audit of the Southwest light rail project on Wednesday morning.
The heavily scrutinized $2.76 billion extension of the Metropolitan Council’s light rail Green Line will span 14.5 miles between Minneapolis and Eden Prairie. It’s been under the microscope of legislators in both major parties since early 2022, when it was found to be more than $700 million over budget and four years behind its originally scheduled completion.
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A Minnesota parent organization is pushing back after being labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center in its annual “Year in Hate and Extremism Report.”
The center claims Moms for Liberty advances an “anti-student inclusion” and “antigovernment” agenda.
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The majority of a unit of nursing support, clerical and environmental staff have voted to remove a union’s officials from power at Mankato Mayo Clinic.
Members of the unit signed the petition May 9 to oust American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 1856 union officials, according to a National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation news release. Mankato Mayo employee Melody Morris, with free legal aid from the foundation, filed the petition asking the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union decertification vote at the hospital. The majority of her coworkers supported the petition, the release said.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has co-authored a letter to the CEO of Target that suggests he would use the powers of his office to ensure that Target is not intimidated into “pulling some Pride merchandise from stores.”
In a June 20 letter Ellison and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell wrote to Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO the Minneapolis-based retail titan, they expressed concern over Target’s “choice to pull Pride merchandise,” which Ellison and Campbell said “demonstrates that intentional violence and intimidation can set back the march for social progress and LGBTQIA+ equality which as we have noted is already under intense attack nationwide.”
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The University of Minnesota is guilty of “genocide” of Native Americans and should atone for it with reparations forever and the return of land.
The “Towards Recognition and University Tribal-Healing Project,” shortened to “TRUTH Project,” released a 215-page report that accused the Big Ten university of “persistent, systemic mistreatment of Indigenous peoples.”
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An internal email from the St. Louis Park Police Department explains that the agency will be obtaining Pride ribbons, trans visibility ribbons and pronoun stickers for officers to wear.
The email, obtained by Alpha News, says the stickers and ribbons were provided by the city’s LGTBQ Employee Resource Group (ERG).
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While acknowledging that it “can always strive to be better,” the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis criticized a recent U.S. Department of Justice report because it “condemns an entire agency and its employees based on anecdotes.”
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was in Minneapolis Friday to announce the findings of the federal government’s “pattern or practice” investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.
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School boards just gained more control over your property taxes, thanks to a new law that took effect across Minnesota last month.
In May, Gov. Tim Walz signed the state’s largest ever education bill that increases spending for K-12 education by 10.2 percent, or about $2.26 billion, over the next two years — for a total of $23.2 billion.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the results of a years-long probe Friday finding that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) repetitively violated the rights of residents prior to the death of George Floyd.
“The Department of Justice has reasonable cause to believe that the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of their rights under the Constitution and federal law,” the DOJ wrote in its report.
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In response to a recent lawsuit filed by Christian families and schools, the state of Minnesota has agreed to not enforce a new law that restricts some faith-based schools from offering Post Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) to high school students.
“It’s not every day that a state asks a federal court to tie its hands to prevent it from enforcing its own anti-religious law — but Minnesota has done just that,” said Diana Thompson, senior counsel at Becket, the legal firm representing the families and schools.
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Several DFL legislators posed for a picture in April with members of an organization that has been widely condemned as an “anti-Catholic hate group.”
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, whose roleplaying as Catholic nuns has been described by some as “religious blackface,” are at the center of a national controversy that began when the Los Angeles Dodgers announced plans to present them with a “community hero” award.
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The 2023 Minnesota legislative session wrapped up about three weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean lawmakers have stopped working.
Democrats in a state House legislative committee voted themselves a pay raise last week that allows legislators in the House of Representatives to retroactively receive a per diem increase of about $20 per day they served during the 2023 legislative session.
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The St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) is encouraging teachers to ignore a letter from the Freedom Foundation notifying them of their right to opt out of Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union.
Caitlin Reid, lead organizer for SPFE, sent an email with an “anti-union postcard alert” telling members to toss the letter from the Freedom Foundation “in the garbage” and let their building organizers know if they received it, according to a copy of the email obtained by Alpha News. Reid did not respond to a request for comment.
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Minnesota has the third-highest small business rent delinquency rate, according to a new report.
Alignable.com, a referral network for small businesses in North America that has more than 8 million members, released the state-by-state report this week. The network surveyed 4,424 randomly selected small businesses from May 6 to 30.
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A St. Cloud Pride drag brunch, advertised for kids as young as 4 years old, tells attendees to bring cash tips.
“Bring plenty of dollar bills so you can tip the performers,” the Eventbrite page states. “They work hard to create these characters for you — show them your appreciation by tipping!”
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Former gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen is suing the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice and Attorney General Keith Ellison in connection with multiple instances over the last three years where the board conducted investigations of his medical license.
The Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) is representing Jensen in both claims, which were filed Tuesday in two separate actions. One is a First Amendment constitutional claim filed in federal court, and the other a Data Practices Act-related claim filed in Carver County state district court.
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St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) is boycotting the National Education Association’s (NEA) annual meeting, which will be held in Florida, claiming Florida is hostile towards minority and LGBTQ communities.
The SPFE urged the NEA to cancel the 2023 Representative Assembly (RA) or convert to a virtual format. The RA is where delegates annually vote on issues that will nationally impact education and the teachers unions.
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Everything was rolling along smoothly at a press conference in St. Paul on Thursday morning where Secretary of State Steve Simon gathered with felon voting rights restoration activists and a handful of legislators to celebrate the June 1 enactment of a new law that restores voting rights to an estimated 55,000-plus Minnesotans serving probation or parole for a felony crime.
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Under a settlement reached this week, the Minnesota Department of Corrections has agreed to transfer a biological male inmate who identifies as a woman to an all-female facility and will allow him to pursue a vaginoplasty procedure.
Left-wing legal group Gender Justice announced the settlement agreement Thursday, saying its client Christina Lusk will also receive $495,000 in monetary compensation, about half of which will go towards legal fees.
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Illegal immigrants will be eligible for free college tuition in the state of Minnesota, according to Axios.
Under Minnesota’s free tuition program, dubbed the “North Star Promise,” illegal immigrants will have their full tuition paid for if they enroll in a two or four-year program within the University of Minnesota or Minnesota State systems and come from a household with an income of $80,000 0r less, according to Axios. To be eligible for the free tuition, applicants must have either graduated from a Minnesota high school or have lived in the state for a year without being enrolled in a college for six months.
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The DFL has officially banned a Minneapolis City Council candidate from seeking future endorsement from the political party, two weeks after his supporters were allegedly involved in starting a melee that broke out at a local endorsing convention.
On Tuesday evening, longtime DFL Party Chair Ken Martin released a statement announcing the organization had utilized a pair of newly-approved bylaws that allowed its state central committee to ban Nasri Warsame, a Minneapolis resident, from “seeking the DFL Party endorsement for any office.”
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Democratic Sen. Omar Fateh is facing another ethics complaint, this time for making disparaging comments about his Republican colleagues and allegedly misrepresenting their views.
The complaint was filed in April but wasn’t made public until earlier this month. The Minnesota Senate’s subcommittee on ethical conduct is scheduled to discuss the complaint at a June 15 meeting.
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Celebrating their “undeniable force” at the Minnesota Capitol, members of the DFL’s “Queer Caucus” said they plan to pursue legislation next session to grant “everyone” a “fundamental right” to gender transition procedures.
This language appears to mirror that of the radical “Protect Reproductive Options Act,” which grants all Minnesotans a “fundamental right” to abortion and was criticized by Republicans for, among other concerns, its lack of clear age restrictions.
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The Children’s Minnesota Hospital system gave Democratic Minnesota State Rep. Leigh Finke an award Tuesday for her work in children’s health after she authored a bill designed to protect child sex changes.
Finke, who is transgender, was the chief author of HF146, Minnesota’s “trans refuge” legislation, which would prevent the enforcement of out-of-state laws that would remove a child from their parent’s home for receiving transgender medical interventions, such as hormones or puberty blockers. Finke received the “Children’s Health Hero” award from the Minnesota hospital system for her work on the bill, according to a release from Children’s Minnesota.
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Geologists and mining experts say Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula may provide a solution for an obstacle facing the electric vehicle transition.
Minerals are needed, and this area has them.
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It’s not a bonding year at the legislature, but that didn’t stop lawmakers — every Democrat and a number of Republicans — at the Minnesota Capitol from giving the green light to about $2.6 billion worth of bonding and “cash-only” capital investment projects across the state before time ran out on the 2023 session.
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Minnesota is poised to become the second state in the nation to allow illegal immigrants to enroll in a state health insurance program for low-income earners.
That’s according to a provision found inside an 844-page omnibus health and human services conference report that passed in the DFL-controlled House and Senate on Monday afternoon, during the final hours of the 2023 legislative session. The House passed the bill on a mostly party-line 69-64 vote. Rep. Dave Lislegard, of Aurora, was the lone Democrat who voted against the bill. The Senate voted to pass on party lines.
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A nearly $8 billion finalized transportation bill has cleared the House and Senate and is on its way to the desk of Gov. Tim Walz to be signed into law.
On Sunday, the DFL-controlled House and Senate voted along party lines to pass the conference committee report for HF2887. That omnibus transportation finance bill includes nearly $1 billion in new taxes and fees dedicated to transit and roads that will come from three sources: a new metropolitan area sales tax increase of 0.75 percent, a 50-cent fee for all deliveries of retail goods over $100 and a gas tax increase indexed to inflation. An increase in fees for automobile registrations and a sales tax increase for purchase of automobiles will also add more than $340 million in new revenues for transportation expenditures over the next two years.
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