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On Thursday, Minneapolis station WCCO reported on guns and crime in Minnesota. Anchor Frank Vascarello's introduction: "More people are carrying guns than ever before, but the crime rate remains low." Imagine that. Reporter Pat Kessler also treated more guns and less crime as paradoxical. Reporting on crime and guns has been infested with the "Fox Butterfield effect." It is named after a New York Times reporter, who in November 2004 was surprised that: The number of inmates in state and federal prisons rose 2.1 percent last year, even as violent crime and property crime fell. Later, a puzzled Butterfield referred to "the paradox...

MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis day care owner has pleaded guilty to trying to kill a toddler in her home. Forty-three-year-old Nataliia Karia entered the plea to attempted murder and third-degree assault.

Of the 11 countries included in President Trump's refugee ban, one stands out -- Somalia. That ban expired two weeks ago and the U.S. has begun accepting refugees again from Somalia and 10 other high-risk nations. Although Trump promises "extreme vetting," many Muslim refugees come as children and become radicalized years later. Somali crime rivals Somali terrorism as a major problem, and the two clearly blur into one another. The problem is leaking from Minnesota into South Dakota -- as Lutheran Social Services has resettled more than 4,500 Somalis in Sioux Falls. Many of the Somalis have migrated from Sioux Falls to...

Recently released fundraising totals and voter turnout figures have reaffirmed the higher-than-average attention being paid to a Florida House of Representatives race. As the House District 72 special election heads into its final day, Democrat Margaret Good and Republican James Buchanan have both out-fundraised their respective party’s candidates in the 2016 House District 72 election. Another candidate in this year's race, Libertarian Alison Foxall, said she has raised the most money in her party’s history for a campaign for the Florida Legislature.

Unofficial Results Monday, February 12, 2018 Results Home « Previous Page Precincts Reporting in Contest: 29.82% 17 of 57 Last Updated: 02/12/18 8:19 PM Voters Registered at 7AM : 22695 Results for State Representative District 23B State Representative District 23B Results By Precinct Party Candidate Totals Pct Graph Republican Jeremy Munson 1067 68.01% Democratic-Farmer-Labor Melissa Wagner 481 30.66% WRITE-IN** WRITE-IN** 21 1.34% Unofficial Results Monday, February 12, 2018 Results Home « Previous Page Precincts Reporting in Contest: 26.47% 9 of 34 Last Updated: 02/12/18 8:30 PM Voters Registered at 7AM : 27379 Results for State Senator District 54 State Senator...

Two former state representatives are competing for an open Minnesota Senate seat in the suburban southeast metro district. Residents there said it’s the most attention and spending they have ever seen in a local legislative race. It is one of two contentious and high-stakes special elections on Monday, both to replace lawmakers who resigned after sexual harassment scandals, and which stand to test whether the Minnesota DFL can capture the same political momentum that Democrats have been riding to win recent special elections in other states.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said Sunday she believes Congress should hold President Trump accountable for the numerous allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him. “I think he should resign, and if he’s unwilling to do that, which is what I assume, then Congress should hold him accountable. We’re obligated to have hearings,” Gillibrand said in an interview with CBS's “60 Minutes.” Gillibrand, who was among the first to call for former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign due to sexual misconduct allegations, was also one of several Democratic senators who late last year said Trump should resign due to sexual...

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota -- A family in Minneapolis says their father was targeted by ICE after speaking up for immigrants' rights. Luis Candela, who is an undocumented immigrant, was arrested last month. Luis' family says he was on the right track in life, an active father and talented chef. He got in trouble a decade ago for a robbery, serving seven months - a case that's been closed. He came to the U.S. from Mexico. "My parents came here for job opportunities, for security and being here we can bring our families and have a better future for our children," said...

Three Democratic congressmen attended a private dinner hosted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, a new report reveals. Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Andre Carson of Indiana and Gregory Meeks of New York attended the private dinner, along with Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite who leads the black supremacist group Nation of Islam. Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism, according to the United States government, which has listed the Islamic Republic as a state sponsor of terror since 1984. Rouhani was in New York for a United Nations meeting and held the dinner party just hours...

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan announced Friday he won't seek re-election, handing Republicans a rare opportunity to pick up a seat this fall. "There is a time and a purpose for everything and now is the time for me to pass the baton to the next generation," Nolan said in a statement. Nolan won re-election by about 2,000 votes in 2016, but northeastern Minnesota's 8th District is Donald Trump country: The President won the district by 16 percentage points over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. That was an incredible 22-point swing for the GOP over the 2012 election...

DULUTH, Minn. - Students taking English classes in a Minnesota city will no longer have to read two American classics or write reports about them, the Duluth News Tribune reported. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which contain racial slurs, will no longer be required reading for students in the Duluth Public School district’s English classes next fall. However, the books are not banned: They will be available in the school as optional reading for students, the News Tribune reported. The decision comes two months after a Virginia school temporarily banned the two novels after a...

A Minnesota woman whom prosecutors said set fires at a Minnesota university out of anger because of U.S. military actions overseas was charged with terrorism Wednesday after she allegedly tried to assist a terrorist organization last year. Tnuza Jamal Hassan, 19, was charged in federal court for attempting to provide material support to Al Qaeda, lying to the FBI and arson, Fox 9 reported. She was initially arrested Jan. 17 after she set eight fires in seven buildings on the St. Catherine University campus in St. Paul. The Minneapolis woman admitted to investigators that she started the fires...

The United States Attorney's Office in Minnesota announced Wednesday that the 19-year-old woman accused of starting fires in several different buildings last month on the campus of St. Catherine University in St. Paul is now facing federal charges, including attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Those charges stem from an incident federal authorities claim happened in March of last year when she is alleged to have attempted to recruit two fellow St. Kate's students to "join the jihad in fighting." According to a release, U.S. Attorney Gregory G. Brooker announced a three-count indictment against Tnuza...

MINNEAPOLIS (CN) – A grand jury convened Tuesday over the fatal shooting of an Australian woman by a Minneapolis police officer last summer, a month after a state prosecutor called for further investigation. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman went back on his word and decided to use a grand jury in the officer-involved shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, 40, who was killed in an alley near her home when Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor and his partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, responded to her 911 call about a possible assault in the area. She was dressed in pajamas when she...

BLACK LIVES MATTER AND ANTIFA BLOCK TRAINS TO SUPER BOWL IN MINNEAPOLIS– The protesters are blocking the light rail to US Bank Stadium in Minnesota hours before the Super Bowl. The protesters chained themselves together to block the light rail to the stadium.

Question for Minnesota FReepers. I live in IL and it a total sh**hole. Dems are always saying how great the MN ecomony is and its a worker friendly state. There there any truth to this? Thanks!

A public school district in Minnesota is taking a radical social justice approach to the education of their youngest children. Young students in the Edina School District in Edina, Minnesota, will be introduced to the concept of “white privilege” as early as kindergarten, according to a new report from the Weekly Standard. The report details some of the unusual practices of the district. As a result, the school system’s obsession with “white privilege” now begins in kindergarten. At Edina’s Highlands Elementary School, for example, K-2 students participate in the Melanin Project. The children trace their hands, color them to reflect...

The Senate confirmed another one of President Trump’s Circuit Court nominees on Tuesday over “blue slip” protests from Democrats, who said the nominee never should have been given a hearing, let alone a vote. Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras was confirmed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by a 56 to 42 vote, becoming Mr. Trump’s 13th Circuit Court pick to clear the Senate. But Democrats said Justice Stras was only placed on the federal bench after Republicans disregarded the “blue slip” tradition, which allows home state senators to sign off on judges from their home states.

On Thursday, 20-year-old Mahad Abdiaziz Adbiraham pleaded guilty to stabbing two men at the Mall of America. The incident occurred on Nov. 12, where authorities say he stabbed two brothers in a dressing room at the mall's Macy's. At the plea hearing Thursday, Abdiraham's attorney read a statement — which is public record — to the courtroom, which explained why he attacked the two men. In the statement, Abdiraham said he went to the Mall of America to answer the "call for jihad by the Chief of Believer, Abu-bakr Al-baghdadi, may Allah protect him, and by the Mujahiden of the...

An auto mishap morphed into a defensive shooting in Rochester, Minnesota on Sunday, January 14th, a little after 8 a.m.  A car driven by 17 year old Muhammed Rahim, with another 17-year-old male and two teenage girls in the car, spun out of control and crashed into the side of the road in slippery conditions. A car driven by 25 year old Alexander Weiss managed to avoid the out of control vehicle. He pulled to the side of the road to see if the people in the crashed vehicle needed assistance. Muhammed then backed up the crashed vehicle and...