Free Republic

Senator Gretchen Hoffman isn’t letting police union opposition to a gun bill she sponsored get to her. Instead, she’s focused on the voices of support she’s received on a piece of legislation she’s dubbed the “Stand Your Ground” bill. The bill (SF 1357) expands gun owners’ self-defense rights. Currently, the use of deadly force is authorized when a person believes they are in danger of bodily harm or death, but the new bill presumes that threat may be posed by a home invader. It also eliminates residents’ “duty to retreat” from a threat if possible, instead allowing deadly force. The...

Minnesota gun and self-defense laws could be set for some major changes if Bill 1467 is signed into law. It's an attempt to enhance the rights of homeowners during an intrusion, and broaden permit-to-carry law. Supporters say the bill only reaffirms and guarantees people rights they should already have under the Second Amendment - the right to bear arms. Opponents disagree, saying it puts people in more danger, most notably law enforcement officials. Bill Bergquist – Clay County Sheriff: “Shoot and ask questions later is what it looks like, so there's some concerns about that.” It's commonly known as the...

Republican legislators are pressing forward with efforts to bring constitutional amendments to the November ballot. The most recent proposal, filed Wednesday and authored by Rep. Tony Cornish of Lake Crystal, reaffirms the right of individuals to "acquire, keep, possess, transport, carry, transfer, and use arms." The legislation adds that any restriction must be subjected to "strict scrutiny." "It's a more strict interpretation" of the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution, said Cornish. Cornish is a veteran in this area, having authored previous gun-rights legislation, including a bill this session that allows county attorneys to carry firearms. He's confident of the...

Registering Tim Tebow and Tom Brady to Vote in Minnesota On the day of the Minnesota caucus, shocking video from James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas – broken here first at PJ Media – shows how easy it is to register NFL stars Tim Tebow, Tom Brady and practically anybody else to vote in that state.No identification of any sort is needed, just a name! In fact, you can take 20 application forms home, fill them in, check the “no ID� slot and batch register people in absentia. Even local election officials are dismayed with the complete lack of authentication of any...

A host of Republican Senators, including Judiciary Chairman Warren Limmer, member of leadership Ted Lillie and Environment Chairman Bill Ingebrigtsen, have introduced a bill to implement a Voter ID requirement by way of constitutional amendment. A total of 10 senators have signed on to two versions of the bill, SF 1577 and SF 1578, that would bypass Gov. Mark Dayton’s threatened veto and instead put the controversial elections reform measure before voters this fall. The bills will be formally introduced Thursday in the Senate. The Senate bill’s chief author, Sen. Scott Newman, said Thursday that his bill would simply amend...

Disgusting misuse of our tax dollars. (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama plans to accelerate the pace of American aid to Egypt, a top State Department official said on Wednesday, as the most populous Arab nation reaches a critical stage in its uncertain transition away from autocratic rule. Undersecretary of State Robert Hormats, part of a U.S. delegation that held unprecedented talks last week with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, said Washington wanted to provide “more immediate benefits” to Egyptians, who earlier this month conducted their first democratic elections in decades. “During this period, we want to be as supportive as we...

Arlington, Va.—May the government force entrepreneurs to do useless things, like build extra rooms in their stores that they do not need and will never use, just to prove they are serious about their business? That issue is at the center of a major lawsuit filed today, January 19, 2012, in Minnesota State District Court by the Institute for Justice (IJ) on behalf of Verlin Stoll, the 27-year-old owner of Crescent Tide Funeral Home in Saint Paul.

A group of Minnesota home-based child care providers have filed a federal lawsuit to halt an order forcing them to unionize. Jennifer Parrish from Rochester filed the suit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation Legal Defense Foundation. Gov. Mark Dayton's executive order would designate the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Service Employees International Union officials as the collective...

FOREST LAKE, Minn. - A Forest Lake homeowner says he is livid about an "outrageous, unnecessary ending to a great wildlife story" after a police officer came onto his property at about 7 a.m. on Saturday and shot two orphaned fawns that often slept in the dog house at close range without warning. Jeff Carpenter contacted FOX 9 News about the weekend shooting, saying an officer "brutally gunned down" the twin, 6-month-old fawns his family had come to love thirty yards from his home. Carpenter said he was working in the home office when he was startled by a shotgun...

Archbishop John Nienstedt is warning Catholic clergy across Minnesota that there should be no "open dissension" of the church's strong backing of a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would define marriage as a union only between a man and woman.  In other early signs of the fervent campaign the church intends to wage for the amendment, which will be on every ballot in the state this fall, Nienstedt is appointing priests and married couples to visit archdiocesan high schools to talk about marriage. He has directed parishes to form committees to work for passage of the amendment....

The generic name for this mayhem is ice cross downhill, a label that reflects its blending of elements from skating, skiing and boardercross (snowboard racing). Crashed Ice, the title of this series of races, offers an additional nod to what happens to many of the racers. Falls are such a part of the race that competitors are required to wear full hockey or motocross protective gear.

Jacob Volkmann admits he’s trying to make a name for himself as a fighter. The problem is it’s getting him in trouble at his other job. Following a fight last Friday, the 31-year old White Bear Lake man was being interviewed by Joe Rogan. Volkmann told Rogan that President Obama should call him to schedule a “glass-ectomy.” Rogan then asked what a “glass-ectomy” is. “A glass-ectomy is when you cut your bellybutton out and put a piece of glass in there so when you have your head up your butt you can see where you’re going.” Volkmann said. The White...

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Minnesota Republicans elected political consultant Pat Shortridge as their new state chair Saturday as the party deals with debts that could total $2 million. Shortridge, a former top aide to former U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, defeated businessman Todd McIntyre and Terry McCall, the party's 2nd District chairman, at a meeting of the party's State Central Committee in St. Cloud. Shortridge won on the first ballot, with 66.5 percent of the vote. McCall received 30 percent and McIntyre 3 percent. "It's about reinvigorating and galvanizing our activists . to restore their confidence in what we're doing," Shortridge told the...

The Minnesota Republican Party's debts total about $2 million, including more than $700,000 in contested legal fees from the 2010 gubernatorial recount. The party's financial troubles were no secret, but an internal review released Friday detailed the extent of the problems. It shows the party has obligations totaling $1.3 million over and above the legal fees, including $415,000 that hadn't been reported before and $120,000 in Federal Election Commission fines. "The debt number is higher than anyone wants it to be," said Jeff Johnson, chairman of the party's executive committee and a Hennepin County commissioner. "There's some pretty ugly stuff...

A guy who makes late-night deliveries can carry a handgun for protection while he goes about his work, assuming he has a legal permit and his boss doesn’t mind. County prosecutors, who try to send violent people to prison for a living, can’t carry a handgun anytime they are on the work clock. The tragic shooting of a county prosecutor and a witness in a Grand Marais courthouse recently shows the need to amend the state’s conceal/carry gun law. Cook County Attorney Tim Scannell was shot by Daniel Schlienz, who had just been convicted of criminal sexual conduct. There have...

nice version of "Deck the Halls".

MANKATO, Minn. - A KEYC-TV anchor who made David Letterman's Top 10 List after many speculated she could have been drunk during a newscast has been arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. An anonymous caller contacted the North Mankato Police Department on Wednesday morning to report an intoxicated person was leaving a Roe Crest Drive residence in a vehicle. A report describing the vehicle was put out to law enforcement officers in the area and the car was stopped by a Nicollet County sheriff's deputy on U.S. 14. Annie Stensrud, 28, was arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated. She...

“At Hamline, students collaborate with professors invested in their success. They are challenged in and out of the classroom to create and apply knowledge in local and global contexts, while cultivating an ethic of civic responsibility, social justice, and inclusive leadership and service.” – From the Hamline University website Hamline University is not a liberal arts college as it claims to be. It is an illiberal arts college that has just disgraced itself in the national court of public opinion. Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer was hired to teach at the school but then abruptly canned by those who...

A 6-year-old boy struck by a car at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was listed in fair condition Sunday at Gillette Children's Hospital. Zachary Drew, his mother and three siblings had been on his way to greet his father who was returning from an 11-month tour in Iraq with the Oklahoma National Guard, the boy's mother said Saturday. They were crossing the ramp to the terminal around 8 p.m. Friday when the accident happened. The little boy suffered a broken leg and nose, lost most of his teeth, and he may need reconstructive surgery on his jaw. "This guy turns the...

It's a database of words that no lawmaker can talk their way out of. "We just want lawmakers to be a little bit more transparent and accountable," said Tom Lee, with the non-profit Washington, D.C. organization the Sunlight Foundation. On Monday, it announced a retooled and beefed up website, capitolwords.org, that tracks every word uttered on the floor of the U.S. House and Senate, going back 15 years. "It's not only something that's fun," Lee said, "but it's also a serious tool. It can be used to show deliberate ways in which language is used to manipulate the public.

The University of Minnesota sent employees its seasonal celebration guidelines for office activities. The school recommends using "winter celebration" as terminology instead of "holiday party." Also they say to keep decorations, music, and food general, not specific to any religion. The University says the policy mirrors federal guidelines.

Dressed in a priestly white robe and green stole, Monique Venne lifted communion bread before an altar -- defying centuries of Catholic Church law. Despite promises of excommunication from the Vatican, she and six other women in Minnesota say they are legitimate, ordained Catholic priests, fit to celebrate the mass. They trace their status through a line of ordained women bishops back to anonymous male bishops in Europe. "We love the church, but we see this great wrong," said Venne, 54, who cofounded Compassion of Christ Church, a Minneapolis congregation that just celebrated its first anniversary. "Not allowing women to...

COON RAPIDS, Minn. (WCCO) — It’s the last thing two burglary suspects expected to hear when they broke into a Coon Rapids home. From within the house came the unmistakable sound of a pump shotgun. At the other end of that gun was a 22-year-old woman who is nine weeks pregnant. The young woman asked not to be identified because the two suspects are still at large. However, she says when the men ignored her barking pit bull and black lab, and broke through a kitchen door, she had no other choice but to chamber a round into the 12-gauge...

ST. PAUL, Minn.—A Ramsey County judge on Monday blocked a unionization vote by Minnesota child care workers that was to get under way this week, saying the issue must go through the state Legislature. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that the Democratic governor exceeded his powers with the executive order setting up the election. "If unionization of day care is to become the law of Minnesota, it must first be submitted to the lawmaking body of the state," Judge Dale Lindman said after hearing three hours of testimony. Lindman also said he was "bothered" that less than half of the...

The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration voted Thursday to file a "friend of the court" brief in support of a lawsuit seeking to stop an upcoming unionization election for in-home child care providers. The vote was 6-1 along party lines, with Republicans in favor and the lone Democrat in attendance, Richard Cohen of St. Paul, opposed. GOP senators argued that Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, overstepped his legal authority in issuing an executive order for the election. Filing an amicus brief does not make the Senate a party to the suit but offers support for the complaint submitted Monday...

A substitute teacher for a special-education school in North St. Paul has admitted to trying to sway a student to engage in prostitution. Tameshia Leeann Allen-Hodges, 23, of Oakdale was accused of bringing a 21-year-old female student with developmental disabilities to her home, where she took photos of the student in lingerie and suggested she perform sex acts for money. The photos were posted online with the student's contact information. The student told police she received multiple calls and said at least one man came to Allen-Hodges' apartment, though the student said she did not engage in any physical contact...

Hopefully for the Minnesota Wild, goalie Josh Harding stays healthy on Wednesday night, because their backup is 51 years old. Paul Deutsch, who runs a printing business in Richfield, Minn., is filling in for Niklas Backstrom, who's out for personal reasons, and Matt Hackett, who couldn't make it to St. Paul from the team's AHL affiliate in Houston in time. Deutsch, according to the Star Tribune, is a friend of former assistant coach Mike Ramsey and filled in for Wild goalies in the past, but only in practice.

We have been given expensive ringside seats to quite a public backscratching. Unions - AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and SEIU, Service Employees International Union - have been patting their old pal, Governor Dayton, on the back and saying, "You can do it" and "Atta boy, go get 'em." And lo, Dayton, who is beholden to unions, looked out his window one day and decided he saw some people he could bring into the collective fold. Now, how the governor has the constitutional authority to order anybody to take a vote on joining a union...

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota sued Hennepin County on Monday on behalf of OccupyMPLS, the protest group camping out on the Government Center Plaza in downtown Minneapolis in defiance of county rules. The ACLU suit contends that those rules, which forbid tents and electricity, and “certain unwritten procedures enforced by the county” violate the demonstrators’ free speech rights. … The suit asks that new rules restricting the use of chalk, electricity and tents be declared unconstitutional. The plaintiffs are also seeking an injunction against the rules, and they want the county to provide electricity for the protesters. It...

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that the Minnesota Department of Health is violating the Minnesota Genetic Privacy Law with its storage, use and dissemination of newborn screening test results and newborn DNA.

Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday ordered an election to allow Minnesota's in-home child care providers to vote on whether to unionize. But his executive order drew swift response from Republicans who vowed to sue to prevent the vote. "There is nothing in Minnesota law that provides the governor with the power to do the thing that he says he's going to do," said Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, who chairs the Senate health and human services committee. "And I think the real question for us is, what do you do with a governor who won't follow the law?" Dayton, a...

Gov. Mark Dayton has ordered a vote among home-based child care providers about whether they should unionize. His executive order issued Tuesday sets an election for December. It affects thousands of self-employed providers. The state Bureau of Mediation Services will oversee the election. Dayton says if a union is authorized during the vote, membership would be voluntary. Dayton's decision furthers an already politically charged debate over union rights. The Democratic governor and majority Republican lawmakers have clashed for months about Dayton's authority to call an election and whether a union should exist.

MINNEAPOLIS - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is blasting two high-profile leaders in the metro Somali community as anti-Muslim ahead of a conference with police departments to discuss Somali culture -- and the public spat is testing the limits of tolerance. The controversial claim comes from a group that is no stranger to controversy itself, and the conflict centers over who speaks for the local Somali community, which is a complicated mesh of 15 separate groups with deep cultural and religious divides. "I'm not anti-Muslim," said Omar Jamal. "I'm anti-Islamic terrorism." Omar Jamal and Abdi Bihi were the first...

Give some credit to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, even if the outcome of the Evanovich case was nothing more than common sense. Darren Evanovich and his sister participated in an armed robbery outside of a grocery store in Minneapolis last week, which they concluded by pistol-whipping the middle-aged woman they robbed. A Good Samaritan chased after Evanovich, but Evanovich pulled the gun when he turned the corner. Unfortunately for Evanovich, the Good Samaritan had a carry permit and a handgun of his own — which he drew and fired after Evanovich drew first. Evanovich died almost immediately, and the...

MINNEAPOLIS -- The sister of the man fatally shot in a botched robbery attempt was charged Friday in connection with two robberies. The prosecutors, however, have decided to not charge the man who shot Darren Evanovich. Octavia Shonte Marberry of Minneapolis was charged with two counts of aggravated first degree robbery. The criminal complaint states on October 12, a 59-year-old woman was walking to her car in the Target parking lot at 2500 Lake Street East when a woman threatened her with a knife and demanded her wallet. A man with Marberry also demanded the victim's car keys before they...

Evanovich's sisters say they know what their brother was doing was wrong, but they say the police should have handled the response because they’re trained to deal with crimes in progress. Johnita Beal says the witness should have dialed 911, "Police could have been easily contacted, easily, and my brother would have been behind bars, or something like that, but no, he's gone now."

Police called him a "Good Samaritan," but Minneapolis detectives were still investigating Friday the case of a man who shot and killed an armed robber he chased down the night before. The man who fired the fatal shot had a permit for his handgun and told police he used the weapon after the fleeing robber turned and confronted him behind a restaurant. Police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer said the department was leaning toward classifying the shooting as self-defense. "However, decisions on charging are left up to the county attorney's office. And since there's a death, it might even be taken...

A Duluth man continued to say someone else shot him, but nevertheless pleaded for a shorter sentence Thursday by telling the court: "If I shot myself, your honor, I don't need any prison; I need a damn shrink." Judge David Johnson was unmoved and sentenced Alcide Cloutier, 35, to a longer-than-guideline prison sentence of 7-1/2 years. Last month, a St. Louis County jury rejected Cloutier's claim that he was a good Samaritan who was shot by a black man - whom he later described as a white man - while trying to help a woman in Duluth's Lakeside neighborhood in...

The city is promoting two new plug-in hybrid electric cars available for use by members of the Hourcar vehicle-sharing organization in St. Paul and Minneapolis. This fall and next spring, St. Paul will install 20 public stations where drivers can charge the vehicles. The two new hybrid cars were bought with a $30,000 contribution from Xcel Energy. Hourcar is run by the Neighborhood Energy Connection, a St. Paul nonprofit. The vehicles are in the Lawson and Lowertown parking ramps in downtown St. Paul. There are 13 Hourcars at nine locations throughout the city. Charging station locations, rates and details can...

Minnesota ranks as the fifth least affordable state for prekindergarten child care, after New York, Montana, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Minnesota is among the most expensive for child care partly because the industry is highly regulated by the state, according to Ann McCully, executive director of Minnesota Child Care. For example, Minnesota requires a lower ratio of staff to children than other states, which requires centers to spend more money on personnel. McCully said it can be difficult for centers to make a profit or simply break even.

It's 5:30, and the straw poll has been underway for half an hour. Results are due out at about 6:30. I'll be here for the scoop,when it happens, 6:30 - Sutton is on stage w/the results. 0.2% Johnson 0.9% Huntsman 2% Santorum 3.3% Gingrich 4% Rick Perry 10.7% Paul 11.1% Romney 12.2% Bachmann 52.6% Herman Cain!

Jen and Keith Gorney have chosen to serve their children raw milk from a local farmer. They've also chosen to send two of their kids to an Eden Prairie daycare for half day sessions. They didn't realize those choices would work against each other. The Gorneys learned that USDA guidelines require centers that serve meals to serve pasteurized milk with those meals. The Gorneys wanted to bring water to serve as a substitute but that is not allowed. They understand the daycare has no choice. If they do not follow guidelines they could lose their state license.

The cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as other defendants, have settled with "Democracy Now!" journalists who sued over their arrests while they were covering the 2008 Republican National Convention. As part of the settlement, the cities and the U.S. Secret Service will pay a total of $100,000, said Anjana Samant, a Center for Constitutional Rights attorney who represented journalists Amy Goodman, Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous. The settlement was reached Thursday night and recorded Friday in U.S. District Court, Samant said. The cities agreed to pay a combined $90,000; the federal government agreed to pay $10,000.

If abuse is found, it's up to the individual agency to take action, Skoogman said. If it's serious enough, the agency could contact the city attorney for possible charges. The department could also revoke access privileges. About 26,000 people in Minnesota have access to DVS records because of their profession, Skoogman said. About half of them are in law enforcement. DPS audits the DVS database monthly and monitors it regularly, Skoogman said. If patterns of potential misuse are found, DPS contacts the individual agency.

Galtney was shot near East Fourth Street and Bates Avenue in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood just after 6:30 p.m., police said. Friends drove him to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where he died. Police say Nichlis John Kruse, 24, also known as Nicholas, was booked into the Ramsey County Jail early Thursday on suspicion of aiding an offender. Kruse was in a vehicle stopped by police Wednesday night near Johnson Parkway and Minnehaha Avenue in St. Paul. Police haven't ruled out more arrests. Galtney "was getting his life back on track," Yvette White said Thursday of her friend. "It's...

I've never seen this much attention given to child care," Clarissa Johnston, a 24-year home day care provider, told a Minnesota Senate committee hearing Thursday night. The reason for the attention was the possibility that Minnesota's 11,000 in-home child care providers might be unionized. The providers who testified were deeply divided over the issue. During the three-hour hearing, they argued passionately for and against being organized into labor alliances. Proponents contended that forming a union would enable them to negotiate the state rules and regulations that govern their operations and affect their wages, benefits and working conditions. "Recognize our right...

According to the criminal complaint, Sule broke into the man's home in the 6800 block of Seventh Street Northeast in Fridley about 8 p.m. Sept. 19, 2010, and made the man go with him to a bedroom. After repeatedly telling the man, "I love you, I want to kiss you," Sule sexually assaulted him, the complaint said. The man, who died earlier this year, told police he tried to fight back but was weak from ongoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments. His attorney argued Sule did not know the implications of agreeing to the swab because officers asked him in English,...

Even before a vote is possible, the battles lines have been drawn over a potential vote on unionizing in-home daycare providers. At a rally at the Capitol Tuesday, daycare providers against a union vote wanted to make their sentiment known to the Governor as he considers potential next steps in a possible union vote. Becky Swanson is an in-home daycare provider and she says she's against any union effort, "I feel it's very important that Governor Dayton listen, and stop now, and don't put it to a vote. It's not necessary."

With a two-year budget of more than $22 billion in state and federal funds, the Human Services Department is involved in the lives of more than a million Minnesotans who rely on state programs for health care, food support, welfare, mental health treatment, home care, nursing homes and child care aid. The agency also licenses 24,000 medical and social service providers.

Kimanie Markeys Carter, 24, faces aggravated robbery, kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges. He will appear in Ramsey County District Court on Monday afternoon.