Free Republic

The 2014 race for Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District -- targeted by national Democrats as one they believe they can win -- is about to become more crowded and more interesting. Paula Overby, who is a 59-year-old quality assurance analyst from Eagan, says she has nearly enough signatures on a petition to get on next year's Democratic primary ballot to compete for the congressional seat. Overby, born a man who now identifies as a woman, believes she will be the first openly transgendered person from Minnesota to run for Congress.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Twenty-six-year-old Raymond Widstrand was walking on Payne Avenue Sunday evening when he came across a large group of people, who were watching a fight. Police say it happened Aug. 4, 2013, at about 11:30 p.m. When police arrived, Widstrand was on the ground with his legs and arms spread out. Blood was coming from his nose and mouth. His pants were off and his shirt torn. Police questioned several people who were on the scene. One witness told police she had been a party at an address on Preble, near Minnehaha Avenue in St Paul. She said that some...

A St. Paul man is fighting for his life after a brutal beating late last Sunday night. The beating took place a block from a police station.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Even if Ray Widstrand survives he will likely have permanent brain damage. TwinCities.com reported: Four young males have been arrested after the senseless, brutal beating of a man on a late-night walk Sunday on St. Paul’s East Side, police said Friday. The victim, Ray Widstrand, 26, of St. Paul, reportedly was in critical condition at Regions Hospital with potentially fatal brain swelling. Police found Widstrand lying on the ground, bleeding from his nose and...

REDWOOD FALLS, MINN. -- Wearing rolled-up sleeves and blue jeans, Gov. Mark Dayton stood in an echo-filled shed at Farmfest last week and offered a first glimpse at his case for a second term. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and much more progress needs to be made,” the DFL governor told the crowd. “Clearly, we are doing many things right and we need to stay on this course.” The election is still more than a year away, but there are already ample signs of an intensifying campaign as a diverse and potentially growing pool of Republicans...

In his first formal interview since launching his campaign, McFadden told MinnPost where he stands on a handful of matters the Senate’s considered this year, what type of campaign he wants to run, and which senators he’d try to model himself after if he's elected to the Senate next November. MP: Would you have supported the Senate immigration bill? MM: First of all, the status quo is not acceptable, having 11 million illegal immigrants in this country is de facto amnesty, and that doesn’t work, so we need to find a solution. I applaud members of the Senate for trying...

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Minnesota's health insurance exchange is seeking a $55 million federal grant to pay for its operations next year. The board of directors of MNsure met Wednesday to review the grant request. Five previous federal grants to Minnesota's exchange added up to $110 million. The $55 million request would cover salaries for about 166 full-time employees who would work on MNsure operations, and would also cover spending on technology, marketing, customer service, administration and other items. The director of MNsure says that by 2015, the exchange is expected to be able to cover its own operating costs through a...

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura couldn't enumerate just how a Navy SEAL sniper's book defamed him, but he said he'd had a hard time finding work since the book came out. He also said his main complaint about it -- that the late Chris Kyle's tale that he decked Ventura for badmouthing SEALs was untrue -- left him worrying if people think he's a traitor. "Every day of my life, I walk around looking over my shoulder now, wondering who believes that and who doesn't," Ventura said in response to a question from Kyle's lawyer, John Borger.

DORSET, Minn. — Robert "Bobby" Tufts hasn't made it to preschool yet, but he's already been elected twice as mayor of a tiny tourist town in northern Minnesota. Mayor Tufts' name was picked Sunday during annual Taste of Dorset festival to be mayor of Dorset for a second term. It has no formal city government and has a population of 22 to 28, depending on whether the minister and his family are in town.

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) told a gathering of Democrats, “The bottom line is we’re not broke, there’s plenty of money, it’s just the government doesn’t have it.” Ellison was discussing his ‘Inclusive Prosperity Act’ measure at the July 25th Progressive Democrats of America roundtable in Washington. “People like, George Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sax, Dean Baker, Robert Poland, Larry Summers have said they all support a transaction tax,” Ellison said. “The bottom line is we’re not broke, there’s plenty of money, it’s just the government doesn’t have it,” Ellison continued, “The government...

<p>The streets outside Minneapolis City Hall were filled with newly-wedded gay and lesbian couples reveling in their new marital status Thursday morning while inside dozens more waited their turn in lines that lasted until dawn.</p> <p>Down the street at the Hotel Minneapolis, Cathy ten Broeke and Margaret Miles, the first couple legally wed in Minnesota, partied into the night, wearing the same slinky dresses they wore 12 years earlier at their commitment ceremony.</p>

<p>At eight hours to midnight, the florists began arranging the first wedding flowers in Minneapolis City Hall.</p> <p>Forty-two couples will be marrying here, starting at the stroke of midnight, the moment same-sex marriage is legal in Minnesota.</p> <p>As the hall filled with the scent of white roses, lillies, stocks and orchids, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak sat on the marble staircase, pouring over the biographies of the 84 people he was about to marry.</p>

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The Mayo Clinic says its Minnesota employees who are in same-sex domestic partnerships will have to get married if they want their partners to remain eligible for health insurance -- now that the state has legalized same-sex marriage. Mayo Clinic spokesman Bryan Anderson told the Rochester Post-Bulletin that the clinic hasn't yet determined the deadline for same-sex couples to get married. Same-sex marriages will be legal in Minnesota as of Thursday. "Mayo has long had a policy providing same-sex domestic partner benefits because those affected were not allowed to be married. That policy notes that marriage would...

Charles Marohn of Strong Towns discusses why our current development attitudes are only costing us millions and millions of dollars and is inevitably unsustainable. Video 41:35

Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday was steadfast in his insistence that he did the right thing by keeping the target of his economic development trip last week a mystery. "I went because I am trying to get jobs for Minnesota and part of that is meeting with businesses who don’t share my willingness to be put in the public limelight," he told reporters on Tuesday, the first day he met with the media since his mystery mission. "If I am going to have to disclose where I went in that kind of situation, it is going to cost me the...

Two Inver Grove Heights men are facing felony drug charges after authorities busted them with almost six pounds of cocaine — far more than was seized in the county in all of 2012 — and two pounds of meth with a combined value of about $150,000, the Dakota County attorney’s office said. Mike Sanchez, 27, and Josue I. Ledezma-Lopez, 22, were each charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree controlled substance crimes. They are being held in the county jail on $500,000 bail. The criminal complaint said the Dakota County Drug Task Force learned that Sanchez was trafficking in large...

Cargill, CHS, Inc. and ConAgra are in the process of merging their flour milling operations into a new firm called Ardent Mills and just last week they announced Denver will be the new flour milling superpower’s headquarters. Cargill and ConAgra will each own a 44 percent stake and CHS, Inc. will own 12 percent. Thus, Twin Cities-based corporations hold a majority stake. Cargill and CHS, Inc. already operate a joint venture, Horizon Milling, and presumably most of Horizon’s 200 high paying Minnesota jobs will be moving to Denver. Folks in Minnesota should be asking why the new firm and its...

The House Ethics Committee is launching a full-tilt investigation of Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. The committee announced on Friday it had received a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent investigative body, and said in a brief statement that it would formally investigate the one-time Republican presidential candidate. A lawyer for Bachmann had previously acknowledged the investigation by the OCE and said that Bachmann was cooperating. That probe is focused in part on her short-lived presidential bid.

Former TV news anchor Don Shelby said Thursday he has been approached by national Democratic campaign officials to run against Republican U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen but hasn't made up his mind. He said he was flattered by the interest but added, "I've absolutely made no decision" about a campaign for the seat in Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District. The former WCCO journalist said he has been approached over the years by three different parties to run for various offices, "so this didn't seem unusual to me that I was approached now that I'm retired."

Amid new sexting revelations involving New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison offered a measured assessment Wednesday of the former congressional colleague he had previously endorsed. Ellison said New Yorkers must decide Weiner’s political fate. That’s less of a ringing endorsement than in April when Ellison told a television interviewer that he would love to see Weiner as mayor of the nation’s largest city. Ellison said at the time he believed Weiner had dealt with sordid personal issues.

Last year, the city of St. Paul paid the largest amount in lawsuits alleging police misconduct -- about $1 million in total costs -- in at least 17 years. One case, settled for $400,000, involved a woman left with serious burns when St. Paul police used a flash-bang distraction device while executing a search warrant at her home. In another case, a man who ran from police wound up with a skull fracture, gashes on his head that required 21 staples to close and burns to his face caused by chemical spray. The city settled his lawsuit, which alleged that...

The man who was shot to death in north Minneapolis on Friday has been identified. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner identified the victim as 23-year-old DeShaun Guilmant of St. Cloud.

Schoep, the aged Bayfield, Wis., dog whose photo traveled around the world via the Internet, has passed away. He was 20 and had just marked a birthday last month. "Schoep passed yesterday," John Unger, Schoep's owner, announced on Facebook on Thursday. "More info in the days ahead." Unger and Schoep became Internet celebrities last summer because of Bayfield photographer Hannah Hudson's tender photograph of the pair in the waters of Lake Superior. Unger took Schoep into the chilly lake to ease the discomfort of the dog's arthritis. Hudson captured the image July 30 and posted it the next evening on...

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said Wednesday that the Florida case involving Trayvon Martin's death in a scuffle with a neighborhood watch volunteer has stiffened his opposition to efforts to expand cases where lethal force is presumed legitimate. Dayton commented on last weekend's acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Martin in 2012. Dayton said while he isn't privy to evidence jurors in the case saw, he personally believes Zimmerman "went way beyond what was called for in the situation." He tied the case to proposals recently before lawmakers to expand Minnesota's stand-your-ground law in which people can use...

There are major flaws in the state's new $70 million accounting system known as "S.W.I.F.T." That is the assessment of the top auditor of Minnesota State Government. Legislative Auditor James Nobles tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the accounting system created serious delays in getting financial reports put together. Nobles says Minnesota missed its deadline and violated federal law when it did not get its final audits of all state agencies submitted to the Federal Government on time. Nobles says he is concerned that the accounting system problems are persisting even though "we have had several years to prepare for this...

Xcel Energy on Tuesday announced its single largest increase in wind generation in the Upper Midwest, saying it will add three large wind farms in Minnesota and North Dakota. The additional 600 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve 180,000 homes, is a 33 percent increase over the Minneapolis-based utility’s existing wind capacity of 1,800 megawatts in the region. Xcel, which serves 1.2 million electric customers in Minnesota, said new wind generation is priced so competitively right now that customers will save $180 million during the 20-year life of the projects compared with electricity generated from existing power plants. The new...

Republicans were treated to a strange surprise last week when Jonathan Martin reported on Liz Cheney's plan to primary three-term Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, of Wyoming, in 2014. Martin captured some hostility toward Cheney ("She just moved back here, she didn’t even grow up here"), but provided little insight as to why the intellectual heir to Dick Cheney's War on Terror was preparing to challenge a popular--if inactive--GOP incumbent.While Cheney refused to comment for the article, Enzi suspects that "she may take aim at his legislation, passed this year in the Senate, to let states collect sales tax on Internet...

A Minneapolis rally to support Trayvon Martin in the not guilty verdict of George Zimmerman is slated for Monday night with help from a group that supports Uptown shooting victim Terrance Franklin. MN Neighborhoods Organizing for Change calls it the #HoodiesUp for Trayvon Rally which is set to begin at 6 p.m. at the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis. The Justice 4 Terrance Franklin Committee is also helping organize the event, among others. SNIP Terrance Franklin, 22, was fatally shot by Minneapolis police in Uptown on May 10 after allegedly shooting two cops. According to the Minneapolis Police...

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Sunday that the Justice Department had a tough choice in deciding whether to bring federal civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. A former prosecutor, Klobuchar said that the department would need to wait until their investigation collected all the evidence they could. “I know that investigation’s going on. As a former prosecutor, I know you wait until you see all the evidence,” Klobuchar said on ABC’s “This Week.” “They’re going to have to make that decision. It’ll be a tough one.” (snip) On “This Week,” Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) called the verdict “devastating.” “I just...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Fourth of July tradition that’s been around for decades is canceled this year because police fear it draws gangs. Police urged the City of Richfield to cancel its annual Fourth of July Carnival at Veterans Park. “I was kind of bummed,” said resident Maria Casillas, “because every year we come out to the carnival.” Casillas thinks it’s ridiculous for the gangs to ruin the carnival for her, her two children and other families. Lt. Mike Flaherty of Richfield Police says a number of gangs from north Minneapolis came to the Richfield Carnival last year and police...

Contrary to popular belief, the Obama presidency has not taken its cue from environmentalists on all major issues. Nor has it been nearly as liberal as it is accused of being, even in President Obama’s native Great Lakes region. But if it succeeds with its ambitious, multi-tiered climate change initiative, it will take the nation off dead center on what many people – including Obama’s 2008 rival, Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona – have described as one of Earth’s biggest crises. The administration will set America on a new path of greenhouse gas reductions and quite possibly leave...

The Suicide Charge of the First Minnesota, Gettysburg, Day 2, July 2nd, 1863 For historians, Gettysburg is one of the most fascinating of all battles. Though the participants did not know it at the time, it was a watershed event, three days that would echo throughout the rest of the war. Though it would go on for another two long years, the outcome of this battle laid the eventual groundwork for what some believe was its inevitable conclusion, the end of independence for the south. It was Lee’s last viable opportunity to bring the North to its knees. He came...

While states such as Indiana and Tennessee recently have eliminated wealth-transfer taxes, Minnesota is doubling down. A state gift tax, scheduled to take effect Monday, makes Minnesota only the second state in the country to tax large gifts between residents. But large means $1 million or more over a lifetime, meaning most Minnesotans won't be affected by it. Those who are affected will find themselves charged for giving relatives such gifts as lake homes, boats and family businesses. The tax was part of the omnibus tax bill the Legislature approved this year.

AL FRANKEN: Unfortunately, in Minnesota you can’t milk cows seasonally, if you did that, they just get cranky, the cows.

Demonizing personal insults flow far too easily from Minnesota Democrats these days. The latest: Rep. Ryan Winkler calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas "Uncle Thomas." Offensive enough on its own, worse, Winkler's attack is but a symptom. DFL Party Chair Ken Martin and Alliance for a Better Minnesota's Executive Director Carrie Lucking have perfected a systematic program in Minnesota that takes political name calling to a new level. This strategy is straight out of Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals." Alinsky's Rule #5 states: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." Rule #12 says: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and...

Minnesota state representative Ryan Winkler, a white Democrat, did not have the world's most well-thought-out response to the Supreme Court's 5–4 ruling against a key provision of the Voting Rights Act today. As you can see in the tweet above, he referred to Clarence Thomas, who voted with the majority, as "Uncle Thomas." Uncle Tom is a derogatory term used to describe "a black who is overeager to win the approval of whites (as by obsequious behavior or uncritical acceptance of white values and goals)," which is exactly how it's being used here by Winkler. Winkler deleted the tweet and...

Meet Ryan Patrick Winkler. He's a 37-year-old liberal Minnesota state legislator with a B.A. in history from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. He's also a coward, a bigot, a liar and a textbook example of plantation progressivism. On Tuesday, Winkler took to Twitter to rant about the Supreme Court's decision to strike down an onerous section of the Voting Rights Act. The 5-4 ruling overturned an unconstitutional requirement that states win federal preclearance approval of any changes to their election laws and procedures. Winkler fumed: "VRA majority is four accomplices to race discrimination...

Dane Smith has been my worthy counterpart at Minnesota’s major progressive think tank, Growth & Justice, since he assumed the presidency there six years ago. Long before that, he was my colleague at the Pioneer Press in the 1980s. . . In the same way he generously has written approvingly about some things I’ve written in recent years, I’m pleased to write approvingly about a recent commentary of his in the Star Tribune on academic, employment, homeownership and other racially demarcated gaps in the Twin Cities (“The employment gap: The ‘why’ and ‘what to do,;” June 16). . . ....

Meet Ryan Patrick Winkler. He's a 37-year-old liberal Minnesota state legislator with a B.A. in history from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School. He's also a coward, a bigot, a liar and a textbook example of plantation progressivism. On Tuesday, Winkler took to Twitter to rant about the Supreme Court's decision to strike down an onerous section of the Voting Rights Act. The 5-4 ruling overturned an unconstitutional requirement that states win federal preclearance approval of any changes to their election laws and procedures. Winkler fumed: "VRA majority is four accomplices to race discrimination...

Parents in Community Action (PICA) Head Start Executive Director Alyce Dillon said her program’s resources are stretched to the max. If further federal cuts, known as sequester, are to occur, Dillon is forecasting a bleak future for those who could be dropped from Head Start, the federal preschool educational, health and nutritional program for disadvantaged children. The 43-year veteran of the program said Head Start in Hennepin County is already in a dire predicament. “Keep in mind, even prior to the sequester, we had 1,000 parents who were trying to get their children into the program (but could not access...

A Democratic legislator from Minnesota swiftly apologized Tuesday for a tweet he sent that referred to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as "Uncle Thomas" following a major ruling on the nation's landmark voting rights law. Thomas, who is black, was part of a 5-4 majority that invalidated part of the Voting Rights Act meant to deter racial discrimination in elections. The ruling makes it tougher for federal officials to prevent states and localities, primarily in the South, from adopting policies that add barriers to voting. In response, state Rep. Ryan Winkler tweeted: "#SCOTUS VRA majority is four accomplices to race...

<p>A Democratic lawmaker from Minnesota criticized Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act by calling Justice Clarence Thomas “Uncle Thomas,” then saying he didn’t know “Uncle Tom” was a racist epithet.</p> <p>On his Twitter account Tuesday, state Rep. Ryan Winkler called the justices’ 5-4 ruling striking down a part of the law racist, and the work of “four accomplices to race discrimination and one Uncle Thomas.” Justice Thomas, who is black, was one of the five justices in the majority.</p>

State Sen. Branden Peter­sen’s support of same-sex marriage continues to reverberate in his district. Last week, his Senate district’s Republican executive committee announced it voted to admonish the first-term senator, who voted last month to legalize same-sex marriage. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton signed the bill legalizing same-sex marriage last month and Minnesota gay couples can be legally wed in August. The “no confidence” motion, said several members of the executive committee, came not because Petersen supported legalization, but because of his actions around that decision. “It wasn’t really his view on the marriage issue, it was just multiple violations of...

Isabel Levinson walked out of Cathedral of St. Paul after the funeral mass for author Vince Flynn, stopped on a sidewalk nearby and looked back at the massive steps that lead down to John Ireland Boulevard as Flynn's family and friends offered condolences to each other. Levinson, of Minneapolis, didn't know any of them. But she felt like she knew Flynn. The author of the Mitch Rapp espionage series, Flynn died Wednesday of prostate cancer at United Hospital in St. Paul. He was 47. Levinson said though she had read each of Flynn's 14 books, it was during a writing...

The tobacco levy isn't the only tax going up July 1. This year, the Minnesota Legislature extended the sales taxes to a number of new services. Consumers will start paying the state's 6.875 percent sales tax on the digital music, movies, books, e-greeting cards and video and computer games that they download from the Internet or receive by email. They also will pay sales taxes on some -- but not all -- Internet purchases. The new law requires online retailers that have a physical presence or affiliates in Minnesota to start collecting state sales taxes, eliminating their advantage over Minnesota's...

It is a simple question without a simple answer: Should Minneapolis be its own power company? Delegates at last weekend's Minneapolis DFL convention passed a resolution supporting an initiative to study whether Minnesota's largest city has anything to gain by going into the utility business. The passage provided momentum to the proposal, borne of a coalition of green-energy groups. Their goal: compel Xcel Energy to step up efforts to provide clean, affordable electricity -- and CenterPoint Energy to provide more affordable natural gas -- or get the city to provide it. "Our campaign is not saying we should kick Xcel...

Citing intimidating reaction from opponents, a gun-owners group said Thursday it has shelved its intention to gather at Twin Cities neighborhood family events with their weapons in full view. The gun owners “meet-up” events, in which the promoters suggested that so-called “concealed-carry” permit holders carry their handguns openly, came as a surprise to some city officials and organizers of the Open Streets neighborhood gatherings. Shelley Leeson, the gun group’s director, explained that she called off the meet-ups because “people kind of freaked out and didn’t understand that we were just meeting up. It wasn’t trying to be some sort of...

When "Memorial Day" was published in 2004, Flynn told the Pioneer Press how elated he was when a CIA chief of operations said "you can't get into a Humvee in Baghdad without kicking a Vince Flynn paperback." "That director is a former Marine responsible for operations in all the bad spots, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran," Flynn recalled. "When he jumped up, starts pumping my hand and tells me he's a huge fan of my books, I almost fainted. He'd just gotten back from Baghdad, where the guys sat around a bonfire, drinking beer, arguing about who should play Mitch Rapp...

Vince Flynn was calling his next book The Survivor. He got the idea for this title while on a trip to Cabo in February. A friend, Roberto, made him a cake (with the aid of his minions) that looked like a book. “Survivor Man” was written along the bottom on edible paper. He took a look at that dessert and said, “Wow, that would be a great title for my novel!” That vacation was the last time Vinnie felt well enough to walk around much. In fact, he even made it to a beach located a few resorts away to...

A group of gun owners have set their sights on a series of Twin Cities neighborhood family events for their own gun-toting get-togethers, beginning this weekend. The gun owners “meet-up” events, in which the promoters suggest guns be carried openly and not just concealed, came as a surprise to some city officials and organizers of the Open Streets neighborhood gatherings. “I’m shocked and saddened,” said Nancy Homans, policy director for St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. “It seems like guns isn’t the right kind of activity for this event. We’re not even allowing alcohol. … I’m not sure there’s much of...

WCCO-TV has learned that Flynn died Wednesday morning at United Hospital in St. Paul. Flynn has authored 15 novels centered around the character of Mitch Rapp, an undercover CIA agent. The majority of those novels have made it to the New York Times bestseller list. Flynn self-published his first book, “Term Limits,” in 1997 before landing a publishing deal After releasing his 13th, “Kill Shot,” Flynn talked with WCCO-TV’s Frank Vascellaro about his battle with cancer. You can watch that full interview here. “I was in pain writing the last 2 books, but I didn’t know how serious it was,”...