Free Republic

It's a case of dueling press releases. But it deserves a minute of Minnesotans' time -- especially those Minnesotans who oppose the Sandpiper Pipeline and can't understand why their fellow residents keep rejecting their arguments. For those opponents, gaining this understanding is crucial. For indisputable evidence now has surfaced that the pipeline's backers are carrying the day -- evidence in the form of Friday's unanimous vote in favor of the pipeline by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. How can that be? How is it that even in famously liberal and environmentally sensitive Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes, the commission...

The parents of two of the defendants in a Somali-American terrorism case allegedly knew that their sons planned to leave the U.S. to fight with terrorists in the Middle East, according to transcripts of secret wire recordings released by federal prosecutors Wednesday. Mohamed Farah, whose detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday morning in federal court in Minneapolis, told another alleged conspirator that in mid-April his mother knew of his impending plans to travel to Syria, according to the recordings made by a confidential informant, a friend of Farah’s who was working for the FBI. “She knows where I’m going, bro,...

A young man who had threatened local FBI agents was set free Tuesday in part because of a U.S. Supreme court ruling 10 days ago. Mohamed Ali Omar, the older brother of one of seven Minnesota terror suspects accused of trying to join ISIS, was found guilty in March of threatening FBI agents who came to his south Minneapolis home to investigate his brother. But on Tuesday he walked out of federal custody. A judge will decide in September if his conviction should be tossed out and if he should get a new trial. It was just eight days ago...

Big premium increases that Minnesota insurers proposed last week reflect losses they’ve been taking in a part of the market targeted by the federal health law. Insurers say they collectively lost more than $300 million on policies for individuals who buy coverage on their own last year because subscribers had more costly health problems than expected. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, which is the largest insurer in the individual market, announced proposed average increases of 54 percent and 55 percent. Blue Cross says it lost $135 million in the individual market during 2014. “When there are losses that...

June 05--Minnesotans got a shock Thursday when the state's health insurers proposed "eye-popping" rate increases for people who buy health insurance on the individual market -- premium increases as high as 70 percent. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Gov. Mark Dayton condemned the increases as "outrageous" and suggested they should be scaled back. Republicans saw them as reason to criticize the state-run portion of that market, MNsure. Here's the background about these premium increases, why they're happening and what they mean: What's proposed? Federal law requires health insurers to disclose any premium increases above 10 percent. Those were released Wednesday, and in Minnesota, there...

Charges have been filed against the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, which is accused of failing to protect children, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi announced Friday. Choi said the charges are in relation to three victims of former priest Curtis Wehmeyer. Six charges have been filed, all of which are gross misdemeanors. They include three counts of Contributing to Need for Protection or Services and three counts of Contributing to Status as Juvenile Petty Offender or Delinquency. Because the charges are against a corporation rather than individuals, Choi said no one is looking at jail time; if convicted, the...

“What I saw happening on our trip, I thought it was beautiful because kids could talk to these sex educators without any shame, without any fear,” Hedges said Monday. Gaia is a K-12 school with a motto promising academic freedom, youth empowerment and democratic education. Parents say the school has about 25 students, including several described by administrators as transgender...“It was certainly the first time we have taken that kind of field trip and it will probably be our last, which I feel bad [about] because the kids had so much fun,”

Show and Tell no longer has the same harmless meaning it once had. “Parents of students at Encinal High School in Alameda want a teacher fired after they say he sent them home with an extra credit assignment of finding sex toys and condoms in their parents’ private drawers, and taking a selfie with what they find,” CBS San Francisco reported on June 3, 2015. “Mothers Kimberly Cobene and Evangeline Garcia heard about the sex toy selfie last month from a counselor at an afterschool program their sophomore daughters attend.” “It was to go into your parents’ private drawers or...

The field trip upset some parents at Gaia School. “It’s just a major breach of trust," said one parent. Some parents are outraged after the leader of a small Minneapolis private school took about a dozen middle- and high-school-aged students on a sex education field trip to an adult novelty store late last week. “It’s just a major breach of trust,” said Lynn Floyd, whose 11- and 13-year-old daughters were part of the outing to the Smitten Kitten. “You just can’t erase those images.” A leader of Gaia Democratic School and the host of the field trip defended the outing,...

A West St. Paul man is accused of beating his young children and forcing two of them to take shots with him until they were drunk. Officers were called at 11:56 p.m. Friday, May 29, after a woman reported a domestic assault. The woman said she is married to 28-year-old Oscar Oswaldo Cruz of West St. Paul and that they have been together for five years. They have a 1-year-old and 4-year-old together, and she has a 6-year-old and 9-year-old from a previous relationship. All of them live together in West St. Paul. The woman said Cruz called her at...

Roughly one dozen students in Minneapolis, Minnesota, some as young as 11 years old, were taken on a private school-sponsored field trip to an adult novelty store last week, leaving some parents furious. The director of the private Gaia Democratic School in Minneapolis, Starri Hedges, took the middle- and high school-aged kids to “Smitten Kitten” as part of a sex education lesson. Parent Lynn Floyd called the field trip a “major breach of trust,” adding that parents were not even notified ahead of the trip. Both of her daughters, aged 11 and 13, attended the off-campus trip. “You just can’t...

The political class -- they build themselves new office buildings and such -- live in a different universe from the rest of us, and the rest of us are getting routinely pickpocketed. No greater proof of this truth exists than the remarks of St. Paul's own City Council Member Dave Thune last week after Metro Transit released the financial figures for the first six months of the Green Line. Passengers boarding the Green Line from its debut in June, 2014 through the end of the year paid $6.21 million into the farebox, or about 35.8 percent of what it costs...

MINNEAPOLIS – A sex education teacher has drawn the ire of parents after taking students on a field trip to an adult novelty store in Minneapolis. Gaia Democratic School director Starri Hedges took about a dozen middle- and high-school-aged students to the Smitten Kitten last week. Hedges told the Star Tribune that she wanted to provide a safe and welcoming environment for students to learn about human sexual behavior.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Have the taxpayers of St. Paul spent nearly $3 million over the past five years to bring chaos and danger to their schools and students? Apparently so. In 2010, the St. Paul school district began a contractual relationship with the Pacific Educational Group, a San Francisco-based organization that tries to help public schools deal with achievement and disciplinary issues involving black students. PEG packages and sells the concept of victimization, for a very high price. It claims that the American education system is built around white culture, tradition and social norms – aka “white privilege” –...

A student walks down a Harding High hallway wearing headphones, chanting along to violent rap lyrics. Teacher Erik Brandt taps him on the shoulder. Turn it down, he gestures. The kid stares at Brandt with chilling intensity. He points at the older man, fingers bent in the shape of a gun, and shoots. Then moves on. Within Harding's corridors is a turbulent clutter of students who push and cuss and bully their way from one end of the building to another. Brandt, a finalist for Minnesota's Teacher of the Year and a 20-year veteran of the English department, doubles as...

Aviation buff John Zimmerman was at a weekly gathering of neighbors Friday night when he noticed something peculiar: a small plane circling a route overhead that didnÂ’t make sense to him. It was dark, so a sightseeing flight didnÂ’t make sense, and when Zimmerman pulled up more information on an aviation phone app he routinely checks, he had immediate concerns. The planeÂ’s flight path, recorded by the website flightradar24.com, would eventually show that it circled downtown Minneapolis, the Mall of America and Southdale Center at low altitude for hours starting at 10:30 p.m., slipping off radar just after 3 a.m....

State regulators approved Minnesota's first industrial-scale solar energy project Thursday, a mammoth 21-site setup that will dot the Twin Cities exurbs and beyond with acres of solar panels. The unanimous vote by the Public Utilities Commission advances the ramp-up phase of large-scale solar energy in Minnesota, with this single $250 million project promising up to 100 megawatts of power by 2016. Currently, fewer than 15 megawatts of solar power are estimated to be generated in Minnesota -- so the swift addition of 100 megawatts would represent more than a six-fold increase, with other huge projects on deck. The project is...

While Metro Transit's Green Line isn't exactly paying for itself through passenger fares, it's doing a better job than most other Minnesota public transit options. Passengers boarding the state's second light-rail line from its debut in June through the end of 2014 paid $6.21 million into the fare box, or about 35.8 percent of what it costs to operate the 11-mile route. "I think 35 percent is a really good percentage," said St. Paul City Council member Dave Thune. "I love it. I think it has been a success. The kind of traffic it's seeing, going from one end of...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – It’s not unusual for authorities to try to silence those who speak the painful truth.Aaron Benner, a veteran elementary teacher in the St. Paul school district, is a perfect example.For more than three years, Benner has been calling out the district for what he believes are dangerously lax disciplinary policies, particularly involving black students.He believes those policies are largely the result of the district’s contractual relationship with the Pacific Educational Group, a radical San Francisco-based consulting firm.PEG pushes the idea that black students are victims of “white privilege” school policies that make it difficult or impossible...

WND has discovered what amounts to the government playbook for countering the rising “backlash” against the secret planting of Muslim refugees into cities and towns across America. The 2013 report anticipated two years ago that resistance would increase to the seeding of communities with Muslim refugees if counter measures were not undertaken. The report was prophetic. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/u-s-pushback-against-muslim-refugees-growing/#GBRH1YZ4ysm4rizv.99