Free Republic

The old "Spamboni" ice resurfacer has sold for the $2,000 asking price -- and it's going to a family with deep Minnesota hockey roots. Dave Langevin, whose dad grew up in St. Paul and won four Stanley Cups as a defenseman with the New York Islanders in the early 1980s, is now the owner of the Hormel-sponsored Zamboni that once wheeled around the St. Paul Civic Center while promoting the Austin, Minn.-based company's canned meat. The 1972 HDB Zamboni (Serial No. 1566) was the Civic Center's original machine.

<p>MINNEAPOLIS - A court has struck down an NFL policy preventing off-duty Minnesota police officers from bringing their guns to Vikings games.</p>

A Boston Scientific executive who was fatally shot Monday at an Arden Hills gas station once had his life intertwined with the shooting suspect -- they had been life partners and started a popular Minneapolis nightclub together. But Kelly L. Phillips, 48, had moved on. He was to marry another man this month and had ended his business relationship with Lyle "Ty" Marvin Hoffman, 44. The Ramsey County sheriff's office said Tuesday that it was seeking Hoffman as a suspect in Phillips' homicide. Five police agencies searched for Hoffman in two hangars at the Anoka County Blaine airport Tuesday afternoon,...

A St. Paul police officer drove through a red light, struck another vehicle with his squad car and left the scene of the accident last spring, according to two misdemeanor charges filed against the officer Monday. Officer Vosinick "Nick" Kellum, 39, was on duty at the time, according to the police department, though the criminal complaint said he hadn't been assigned to respond to any police calls that day and there were no police calls for service in the immediate area of the incident. Kellum, a St. Paul officer since 1999, "admitted to driving the vehicle and being involved in...

The University of Minnesota is working with the Minnesota Vikings in an effort to keep the Washington Redskins’ name from being used in “promotional and game date materials” during the NFL teams’ Nov. 2 game at the school’s stadium in Minneapolis, according to an Aug. 1 letter from university President Eric W. Kaler to U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.).

Last Friday, for the first time in nearly a decade, Minnesota's minimum wage went up. The first in a series of incremental hikes brought the wage floor from $6.15 to $8 per hour for relatively large companies, and from $5.25 to $6.50 for small ones. As you'd expect, some businesses aren't thrilled about that -- especially bars and restaurants, as the new law doesn't include a tip exception. But the Oasis Cafe in Stillwater is generating a stir for transparently including a "Min Wage Fee" on all customer checks:

A little over one year ago, The New York Times and USA Today were reporting that the Great Lakes hit all time lows in water levels. According to those reports, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan were 29 inches below their average measurements taken since 1918. Scientists warned communities that they could only expect more tragedy with the Great Lakes. With a lack of rain from climate change, they told everyone to expect levels to continue to drop. In an April 2013 report from the International Joint Commission, a group with members from the United States and Canada that advises on...

In a decidedly unhappy meal, three men were charged with first-degree burglary after they climbed through a McDonald's restaurant drive-through window and fought with employees, according to charges filed in Ramsey County District Court. The three also were accused of third-degree riot for the benefit of a gang in the incident early July 24. According to the criminal complaint: The three -- Willie Charles Lassiter, 18, St. Paul; Evan Kasadine McMillan, 18, St. Paul; and Keith Lamar Garrett Jr., 20 -- were in an SUV at the McDonald's at 1388 E. Maryland Ave. when they argued with a 24-year-old employee...

Patrick Sawyer was supposed to be at his kids’ birthday party in a few weeks—but he died of the virus before he could board a flight to Minneapolis. His wife on the epidemic’s toll. Nigeria felt a chill from the hot zone when a 40-year-old man collapsed and died from the dread Ebola virus after flying there from Liberia. That hot zone chill now reaches America, with word that the same man was scheduled to fly to Minneapolis in time for an August 16 party celebrating the birthdays of two of his three young daughters. Patrick Sawyer was a naturalized...

Minnesota began hunter education in 1955 in response to a growing number of hunting accidents. "The curriculum ... has greatly contributed to a steady decline both in non-fatal and fatal firearms accidents," the DNR website states. In an effort to make hunting even safer, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law in 1990 requiring anyone born after Dec. 31, 1979, to have a firearms safety certificate before a hunting license can be issued. About 4,000 volunteer instructors around the state teach the hunter education course to about 23,000 students annually. Safe handling of firearms and hunter responsibility are the goals of...

The federal government says 173 unaccompanied immigrant children have been placed in Minnesota since the start of the year. The Office of Refugee Resettlement on Thursday issued a state-by-state breakdown of unaccompanied child placement. The figures show more than 30,000 children have been released to sponsors this year through July 7. The specific locations of the placements were not specified. Fifty have been placed in Wisconsin. Texas, New York, Florida and California are receiving the most unaccompanied children caught at the U.S. border, according to the information. Federal and state governments are scrambling to find shelter for the children fleeing...

It’s been almost one year since Minnesota rolled out its state version of Obamacare, called MNsure. How is this experiment with government-run health care working? Let’s start with the basic fact that Minnesota’s health care is second to none. Before MNsure, close to 97 percent of Minnesotans had health insurance coverage or were eligible to procure it at very low or no cost. This was among the highest percentage of insured people in the nation. Some $160 million in taxpayer money has been spent to launch MNsure, and we are no better off today. The state had two unique programs:...

<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Gov. Mark Dayton challenged energy policy and business leaders Thursday to find a way for Minnesota to eliminate coal from the state's energy production.</p> <p>Dayton, who has spoken of his aim to eliminate coal before, said it's time to start talking details so that Minnesota can lead the nation.</p>

Two former administrators at Linwood Monroe Arts Plus School in St. Paul have been charged for failing to report alleged sexual abuse by a former custodian. Beth A. Behnke, 48, of Burnsville was principal in 2011 when Walter Happel allegedly spied on an 11-year-old boy in a bathroom. Craig A. Guidry, 52, of Arden Hills was assistant principal. On Monday, Behnke and Guidry were both charged with one count each of misdemeanor failure to report the maltreatment of minors. According to the criminal complaint, on Dec. 26, 2011, a mother of the boy reported to St. Paul police her son...

ome health care workers in Minnesota are moving ahead with a union election, despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Union organizers presented a petition to state officials Tuesday. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that similar workers in Illinois don't have to pay any union dues. The 2013 Minnesota Legislature passed a bill that allows a unionization vote by workers who provide care to elderly and disabled people in their homes. Minnesota Public Radio News reports more than 26,000 workers are eligible to vote, and the 9,000 cards delivered to the state Bureau of Mediation Services exceeded the 30...

Now that we have light rail, the progressives are ready to move on to the next step, streetcars along Seventh Street in St. Paul, with more lines to follow. The city council will vote Wednesday night to authorize a detailed study of a streetcar line between Arcade Street and Randolph Avenue on Seventh. That would be a second study, the first one being last year, your money paid out to a consulting firm from San Francisco. Progressives are dedicated to blocking the individual while encouraging the collective, but that offers no evidence of progress of any kind. There are already...

How is this not a violation of the establishment clause? The government is funding sharia and sharia finance. Sharia financial institutions cannot fund pork, alcohol, gambling  or adult entertainment businesses (these are whole American business sectors).  A portion of sharia finance funds must go to zakat – Islamic charities which we know fund Islamic terror. Minneapolis may be helping to finance international terrorism. No American city should be in the sharia finance business. Taxpayers funding our own demise. Someone with standing - a Minneapolis taxpayer ought to sue. We need hearings on taxpayer dollars being used to fund Islamic finance...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — One of the oldest Catholic churches in St. Paul had to close down because of a dwindling congregation, but it's been given new life as an Islamic community center. The Church of St. John parish, built in 1886, closed in 2013. It reopened Friday as the Darul-Uloom Islamic Center, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported (http://bit.ly/1z0o5In ). "There are a lot of East Africans in the area, and we want to give them a place to worship, a place to be educated, a community space," center spokesman Feisal M. Elmi said. The former church held...

Absentee voting started Friday, six weeks ahead of primary elections. Already there are strong allegations of voter fraud. The attorney for Phyllis Kahn says he got word Thursday night; there might be hundreds of people who are registering and voting using an address that's not their home. Absentee voting kicked-off Friday morning in a hotly contested democratic primary race for the state house between incumbent Phyllis Kahn and Mohamud Noor. Brian Rice, attorney for the Phyllis Kahn Volunteer Committee, claims there's voter fraud. "I think there is a coordinated effort to use this address to bring voters into the DFL...

WEST ALLIS, Wis. -- A former police officer charged in the deaths of two women -- one from the Twin Cities -- whose bodies were stuffed into suitcases and left on a rural Wisconsin highway met his victims online, according to police and a criminal complaint. Steven Zelich, 52, a security officer, was charged Thursday with two counts of hiding a corpse. He was arrested Wednesday, when detectives wearing hazmat suits removed large bags of evidence and a refrigerator from his apartment in West Allis, a Milwaukee suburb. Highway workers discovered two suitcases containing female remains June 5 in the...