Category: The Upper-Midwest

Feds Announce Indictments Against 45 Minneapolis Gang Members

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U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Andrew Luger announced on Wednesday the indictment of 45 Minneapolis gang members and associates in what he described as a years-long pattern of violence including murders, numerous shootings, acts of retaliation against rival gang members, drug dealing, and robberies.

A press conference held by Luger and several local and federal authorities described two indictments that were unsealed Wednesday in the District of Minnesota charging 30 members and associates of two Minneapolis-based street gangs — the Highs and the Bloods — with racketeering (RICO) conspiracy.

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Wisconsin Legislative Budget Committee Axes Controversial Plan for Office of Election Transparency and Compliance

M.D. Kittle

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee this week rejected a plan by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to create a $2 million Office of Election Transparency and Compliance. 

While the proposed bureaucracy’s name suggests election integrity, it would be built by WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe, the same bureaucrat who has presided over an agency riddled with election integrity complaints and election law violations. 

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Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Threatens to Veto Republicans’ Shared Revenue Plan

M.D. Kittle

Republican leadership is blasting Governor Tony Evers for threatening to kill a bill that would boost state shared revenue and bail out financially troubled Milwaukee. 

The liberal governor, however, isn’t the only critic of the legislation that pours hundreds of millions of dollars of new taxpayer revenue into Badger State towns, villages, cities and counties. 

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Former Biden Appointee and Nurses Union President Will Join University of Minnesota Board of Regents

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The president of the Minnesota Nurses Association — a one-time appointee of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Health Equity Taskforce — has been elected to serve on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents.

Mary Turner, an ICU nurse at North Memorial Medical Center, has led the nurses union since 2015. Last fall she helped lead a strike of more than 15,000 nurses across the state as they negotiated with hospital employers for higher wages and what they described as workplace safety improvements.

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Wisconsin’s Largest Business Advocate Applauds Republicans’ Removal of Hundreds of Governor Tony Evers’ Proposals from Budget

M.D. Kittle

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee this week jettisoned 545 of liberal Governor Tony Evers’ budget proposals, packed with higher taxes on businesses and individuals and growing government initiatives.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business advocate, is applauding the Republican-controlled budget-writing committee for trimming Evers’ bigger government budget plan. 

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Wisconsin Measure Would Allow Teens as Young as 14 to Serve Alcohol

The Center Square

Teenagers as young as 14 could soon be allowed to serve alcohol to seated customers in bars and restaurants if a measure being advanced by a pair of state GOP lawmakers passes.

Current law allows only workers 18 and older to perform such duties, and “causes workforce issues due to an establishment’s underage employees only being able to do part of their job,” Sen. Rob Stafsholt, of New Richmond, and Rep. Chanz Green, of Grandview, said, as they are now pushing the bill and seeking more cosponsors.

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Highly Rated Detroit Public Schools Teachers Struggle Teaching Students

The Center Square

Just 5% of Michigan students are rated “proficient” in a district with 99% of teachers rated “highly effective” or “effective.”

The classification of students for Detroit public schools comes from the latest national testing referred to as the “Nation’s Report Card.” The classification of their teachers is provided to the Michigan Department of Education by The Center for Educational Performance and Information.

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Exclusive: Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty Report Urges Ending ‘Taxation Without Representation’ in Funding Badger State Tech Colleges

M.D. Kittle

A new report finds Badger State homeowners pay nearly a half-billion dollars annually in property taxes to fund Wisconsin’s technical colleges, a figure expected to grow in the next biennial budget. 

But in Wisconsin there are no directly elected members to authorize these taxes, creating a system of “taxation without representation,” according to the study from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL). 

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State Senate DFLers Vote to Abandon Electoral College for National Popular Vote

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DFLers in the Minnesota House and Senate voted this month to transform American presidential elections by abandoning the Electoral College.

The Senate voted along party lines, 34-33, on Wednesday to pass an elections omnibus policy bill that includes a provision that would have Minnesota award its presidential electors to the candidate with the most votes nationwide. Republicans unsuccessfully tried to remove that language from the bill.

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Wall Street Exec Considers a U.S. Senate Run for Stabenow’s Seat in Michigan

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A Wall Street executive is considering a run for United States Senate in Michigan for retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s seat in 2024 as Republicans have yet to court a serious contender for the vacancy, according to Politico.

Vice Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and Michigan native John Tuttle served under former President George W. Bush’s Political Affairs Office and has been working on Wall Street since 2007, according to Politico. The Wall Street executive could potentially face Democratic opposition from Rep. Elissa Slotkin, and has already been corresponding with Republicans in Michigan and Washington, D.C.

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Wisconsin Ending COVID Emergency, Health Officials Continue Warnings

The Center Square

Wisconsin’s coronavirus emergency is ending, but the state’s public health managers are continuing to urge people to get vaccinated and “take care of their health.”

Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services on Wednesday said the state will be transitioning away from its emergency footing as the Biden Administration prepares to end the national coronavirus emergency on May 11.

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Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman: House Debt-Ceiling Bill a ‘Big Step in the Right Direction’

M.D. Kittle

While President Joe Biden has preemptively declared the House debt-ceiling bill dead on arrival, U.S. Representative Glenn Grothman (R-WI-06) remains hopeful the budget-slashing proposal will bring big spender Biden to the negotiating table. 

“Some people question the will of Republicans to fight for a conservative bill. In my first eight-plus years in congress this was the most conservative bill that we have passed yet,” Grothman told The Wisconsin Daily Star on Thursday’s edition of the Vicki McKenna Show. 

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Minnesota House Passes Red-Flag, Universal Background Check Proposals

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The Minnesota House passed an omnibus judiciary and public safety bill Wednesday that contains two controversial gun-control measures.

The Senate version of the omnibus bill, which passed earlier this month, doesn’t include the gun-control proposals and the differences between the two bills will have to be sorted out in a conference committee in the coming days, Session Daily reported.

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DFL Wants to Strike Anti-Pedophile Language from Minnesota Statutes

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Minnesota Democrats want to remove language from the state’s Human Rights Act which clarifies that pedophilia is not included in the protected “sexual orientation” class.

“‘Sexual orientation’ does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult,” the Human Rights Act says. HF 1655, a bill carried by Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St.Paul, seeks to remove that language from state statutes.

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Michigan Strategic Fund OKs $615 Million for District Detroit

The Center Square

The state signed off on $615 million of taxpayer incentives in the transformational Brownfield Plan for District Detroit.

The Michigan Strategic Fund approved funds for the $1.5 billion development from the Related Companies and Olympia Development of Michigan, which aim to renovate the area near Little Caesars Arena, Comerica Park, Ford Field, the Fox Theatre, Cass Park, and the Masonic Temple.

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Wisconsin’s Republican Congressional Delegation Demands Answers Following Revelations of ‘Gain-of-Function’ Biosafety Incidents at UW-Madison

M.D. Kittle

Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation wants answers from federal health agencies following recent revelations of a biosafety lab incident at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

The so-called gain-of-function experiments at Wisconsin’s flagship public university shine a brighter light on the same scientific practices used in a lab in Wuhan, China that are suspected of unleashing the COVID-19 pandemic on the world. 

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POS Poll Shows DeSantis Faring Better Than Trump Against Biden in the Badger State Despite Many Polls to the Contrary

M.D. Kittle

Public Opinion Strategies is out with yet another poll showing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis faring better against former President Donald Trump, this time in battleground Wisconsin. 

But just who is paying for the polling that paints a picture of DeSantis’ presidential strength despite Trump’s significant lead in primary polls remains unclear. 

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Hundreds Protest Chinese-Owned Electric Vehicle Battery Plant in Michigan

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Hundreds of people protested against a Chinese-owned electric vehicle battery plant being constructed in northern Michigan due to concerns about national security.

“How many abuses have we seen over the years from China? And to think that they will set up a battery factory in our state and they will just play by the rules? That makes no sense whatsoever,” Michigan Republican Chair Kristina Karamo said at the protest Saturday, NewsNation reported.

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Amendment to ‘Trans Refuge’ Bill Fails amid GOP Absences

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Does a “trans refuge” bill that passed in the Minnesota Senate on Friday contain language that could unintentionally drag Minnesota families into child protection services proceedings if someone reports a parent has refused to seek puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy for their child who claims to want it?

State Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, offered an amendment during debate over the legislation, HF146, he hoped would eliminate legal confusion over that possibility. But that amendment narrowly failed after four of his fellow Republicans failed to cast a vote on it.

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National Right to Work Foundation Files Amicus Brief in Michigan Union Lawsuit

The Center Square

The National Right to Work Foundation filed an amicus brief at the Michigan Supreme Court opposing a strategy used by a Michigan union.

The brief, filed Friday, says the union officials of the Technical, Professional, and Officeworkers Association of Michigan “weaponizes” the grievance process to force nonmember public employees to pay fees to the union.

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Wisconsin Congressman Scott Fitzgerald Says Judiciary Committee Will Push for Answers in Manhattan DA’s ‘Bizarre’ Prosecution of Trump

M.D. Kittle

The House Judiciary Committee will continue to seek answers from Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his “bizarre” prosecution of former President Donald Trump, U.S. Representative Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI-05) says. 

Fitzgerald, a member of the powerful committee, said Bragg’s decision to drop his lawsuit against the Republican-led Judiciary Committee is a victory for the committee and its chairman, U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH-04). 

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Wisconsin Senate Approves Plan to Charge Local Governments for Withholding Public Information

The Center Square

Wisconsin Senators want to take away a strategy that some local governments have used to keep public information under wraps.

The State Senate on Wednesday approved SB 117, also known as The Open Government Protection Act, with a simple voice vote. The legislation would force local governments to pay the legal fees of people who sue over open records requests, even if the local government doesn’t technically lose the case.

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Minnesota Lawmakers Approve 40 Percent Increase in State Operating Expenditures, Move to Study Ranked Choice Voting

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Forming a commission to redesign the state flag, studying the possibility of instituting ranked choice voting in statewide elections, and signing onto a national popular vote compact for selecting president — these proposed provisions were rolled into two versions of a $1.5 billion omnibus state government bill that passed along party lines in the House and then the Senate last week.

The DFL holds a majority (70-64 in the House and 34-33 in the Senate) in both chambers.

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Minnesota Senate Passes Three Controversial Bills, Including ‘Trans Refuge’ Legislation

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A few hundred people filled the halls outside of the Minnesota Senate chambers Friday morning both in support of and opposition to three polarizing bills dealing with gender and abortion.

Protesters opposing the bills held signs saying “Vote no” and “We don’t co-parent with the government.” The bills being voted on included SF23, a conversion therapy ban, SF63, the “trans refuge” bill, and HF366, the “Reproductive Freedom Defense Act.”

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Woke Wisconsin School District Accused of Failing to Protect Girls in Transgender Shower Incident

M.D. Kittle
Girls Sports

The Sun Prairie Area School District failed to protect four freshman girls from being exposed to the genitals of an 18-year-old biological male — identifying as a transgender woman — who was showering in the girls’ locker room, according to a Milwaukee-based public service law firm. 

 In a letter to the woke Madison-area school district, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) alleges the “alarming incident” in early March not only violated the girls’ privacy rights, but district administrators’ “completely inadequate” response continues to put Sun Prairie students in further danger. 

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Michigan Democrats Approve $175 Million in Taxpayer Funds to Chinese-Owned Company

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Michigan Democratic lawmakers authorized taxpayer funding for a Chinese-backed project Thursday, prompting criticism from state residents at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

Lawmakers approved $175 million in public funding for Gotion to construct an electric vehicle battery factory in Big Rapids, Michigan. However, the public expressed worries due to China-based parent company Gotion High-Tech having corporate bylaws establishing a Communist Party of China (CCP) Committee within the company; every committee Republican and three Democrats voted against it, but the measure passed with a 10-9 vote.

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Exclusive: U.S. Senator Ron Johnson Says Secretary of State Antony Blinken Should Resign If He Was ‘Impetus’ Behind Hunter Biden Laptop Scandal

M.D. Kittle

The latest allegations that Antony Blinken “played a role’ in duping the public on the Hunter Biden laptop story shows just how deep the Biden administration corruption runs, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) told The Star News Network in an exclusive interview.

The Wisconsin Republican said Blinken, President Joe Biden’s Secretary of State, who was a top adviser to Biden’s 2020 campaign, has much to explain to Congress about his role in the U.S. intelligence community’s disinformation drive on the Biden’s and the damning laptop.

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Court of Claims Rejects Relief for Michigan Gun Group Lawsuit

The Center Square

Court of Claims Judge Thomas Cameron has denied immediate relief via a temporary restraining order for two gun groups that sued the Michigan House and Senate with claims alleging the bodies suppressed speech and violated the Open Meetings Act.

Great Lakes Gun Rights and Michigan Open Carry sued on April 13 to challenge gun restriction bills moving through the Legislature. The lawsuit, filed in the Court of Claims, says that the House and Senate – both dominated by Democrats – suppressed speech by not allowing gun rights activists to testify against the bills, thus violating the Open Meetings Act.

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DeSantis Coming to Wisconsin as Trump Pounds the GOP’s No. 2 Presidential Contender

M.D. Kittle

As he moves closer to a presidential campaign announcement, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has scheduled a trip to the Badger State next month. 

DeSantis, who is expected to officially launch his run for the White House after the Florida legislative session ends in early May, will speak at the Republican Party of Marathon County Lincoln Day Dinner on May 6.

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Kim Potter Scheduled to Be Released from Prison Monday

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After serving 16 months behind bars, online records show Kim Potter is scheduled to be released from prison on Monday. However, the Department of Corrections says the time “has yet to be established.”

The former Brooklyn Center police officer was convicted in December 2021 of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright. Potter accidentally grabbed her gun instead of her Taser on a traffic stop where Wright tried to flee.

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New Report Highlights Benefits of a Wisconsin Flat Tax

M.D. Kittle

As the Wisconsin Legislature considers sweeping tax cuts, a new report finds a flat tax would yield substantial benefits for all. 

The report, published by the Badger Institute, notes single-rate reform to Wisconsin’s costly progressive tax system would spur faster economic growth, creating more jobs and more investment — all while lowering the burden on Badger State taxpayers. 

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