Free Republic

Police officers have responded to Crossroads Mall in St. Cloud for multiple stabbing victims. The police department says one suspect was taken into custody at Macy's. Investigators responded to the mall around 8:20 p.m. Saturday. The number of possible victims is not known at this time.

If you are angry (about the tension in St. Cloud) and want one entity to blame, it is Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, the primary federal refugee resettlement agency working in St. Cloud! That supposedly 'Christian' charitable organization is directly responsible for the high Somali numbers in St. Cloud, and they are jointly responsible for bringing over ten thousand Somalis from around the world to colonize Minnesota towns in the last ten years alone--Catholic Charities and World Relief MN (now Arrive Ministries)*** helped also. Of course they have brought many more than 10,000 in over two decades and not just...

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — A suspect in a domestic incident who was being treated at a Minnesota hospital grabbed a gun from a sheriff's deputy and killed the officer early Sunday, prompting hospital security officers to subdue the suspect with a stun gun, authorities said. After the suspect was taken into custody he died, despite efforts by medical personnel to revive him.

As a state investigator escorted several small children out of a child care center in Minneapolis Wednesday, federal investigators were inside searching files and computers. An FBI spokesman would not comment on the extent of the investigation but confirmed a search warrant was executed at the Salama Child Care Center, 1411 Nicollet Ave. S. Investigators with the Minnesota Department of Human Services were also seen entering and exiting the building but directed all questions to the FBI. Parents trying to drop off their children for daycare were turned away at the door. Investigators were later seen carrying files and computers...

She’s no Grinch about it, but Lynn Grewing is the principal who stole snow days. The early arrival of wintry weather in the Midwest this week gave Grewing an opening to test out a virtual class day at St. Cloud Cathedral high school in central Minnesota, having students whip out laptops or iPads and work from home. After a successful test run, Grewing declared Tuesday that students’ cherished snow days are a thing of the past—at least at Cathedral. […] Private schools like Cathedral—and, increasingly, some public school districts—across the nation are starting to use the flexibility technology provides to...

When director Ivan Reitman made the movie "Stripes," he wasn't trying to predict the future. He was just trying to be funny. The vehicle for his humor was the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle, commandeered by a ragtag group of neophyte soldiers led by actor Bill Murray. It resembled a family Winnebago -- with a nice color scheme and user-friendly interior -- but came with bulletproof shields and flamethrowers. It was only a matter of time before everyone would want one. That dream finally came true for St. Cloud, Minn. -- population 66,000. Courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security, America's...

More than two dozen Muslims and their supporters rallied across from Apollo High School in St. Cloud in support of students who attend St. Cloud schools. The St. Cloud Times reports Monday the group claims that school staff members are not doing enough to keep Muslim students from being harassed and sometimes contribute to it. The rally crowd Monday was mostly adults. They chanted and held signs that said "Discrimination is intolerable" or "St. Cloud school district must integrate" among other things.

Crude cartoons intended to offend Muslims in St. Cloud were found posted on utility poles this week. The cartoons, reminiscent of those published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, "are clearly offensive to the Muslim community here, inappropriate and not wanted in our community," said police Sgt. Marty Sayre. Five pages of cartoons, posted on a pair of utility poles, depict the prophet Mohammed in derogatory ways, the Qur'an and a swastika. "We've had swastikas before, but I believe this is the first time we've seen" images specifically targeting Muslims, Sayre said. One of the posts was stapled to a...

One of two outspoken Muslim clerics scheduled to speak at St. Cloud State University this week is unable to attend, the school said today. The clerics were booked as part of St. Cloud's Islam Awareness Week, which started Monday. Siraj Wahhaj was supposed to speak Thursday on the topic "What is Jihad?" The school was unaware of a reason for his inability to participate. Wahhaj was also scheduled to speak to other college student groups in the state this week. His appearance at the University of Minnesota has also been canceled, said Lolla Mohammed Nur, a U student organizer. Wahhaj,...

Two Muslim clerics with outspoken backgrounds are among the speakers at St. Cloud State University's Islam Awareness Week, which starts today. One of them is Siraj Wahhaj, who will speak on "What is Jihad?" at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Atwood Memorial Center Theatre. Wahhaj, an American-born imam of a mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y., is on the executive committee of the Muslim Alliance in North America, a network of organizations addressing needs in American Muslim communities. In 1991, speaking to an Islamic association of Texas, Wahhaj called Operation Desert Storm "one of the most diabolical plots ever in the annals...

It was a sight that would catch anyone's attention, a woman riding a bicycle around St. Cloud Monday night in bitter cold. Turns out there was another reason a citizen took notice: The cyclist was carrying a gun. Police caught up to the bicyclist a few minutes after a call came in around 11:15 p.m. They found her near 14th Avenue N. and St. Germain Street with a shotgun strapped to her back, said Sgt. Joe Kraayenbrink. Turns out the 22-year-old suspect is a felon and had a warrant out for her arrest, police said. She was arrested and faces...

A Ku Klux Klan symbol and swastika were found Tuesday in separate locations at St. Cloud State University. A drawing of a Klan hood, including a burning cross symbol, was found late morning on a small card posted in a women's restroom on the main floor of Atwood Memorial Center, the school's public safety department said in an alert. In the afternoon, police were called to a swastika scratched on a stall's door in a men's restroom, main floor, Stewart Hall.

Dave Gilmartin has never been to St. Cloud, and after including the central Minnesota city in his recently released book, "The Absolutely Worst Places to Live in America," he probably never will go. Gilmartin chose St. Cloud as the lone Minnesota entry, along with such locales as Los Angeles' Skid Row, Detroit and Tulsa, Okla. The 30-year-old New Jersey writer (yes, his home state makes his list) used the Internet to solicit recommendations for his "worst places" list, and says he was surprised at the negative response from St. Cloud because "when you think of Minnesota, nothing really crappy comes...

<p>One of the men in the buzz-generating photograph taken in Iraq is a St. Cloud police sergeant, St. Cloud Police Chief Dennis Ballantine said. ...</p>

St. Cloud police arrested SCSU professor Robert Weisman, 45, for alleged criminal sexual assault Tuesday after receiving reports he was inappropriately touching a minor while sitting in the waiting area of a St. Cloud office building. The incident, which allegedly occurred between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Monday, was first reported to Sherburne County's Department of Human Services by an unidentified individual, and St. Cloud Police arrived at the scene a short time later. Police took Weisman, a long-time weather forecaster and SCSU professor, into custody Tuesday -- finding probable cause to arrest him for second degree criminal sexual assault, according...

ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- Officials at St. Cloud State University are expressing support and concern for the male student who was named homecoming queen last week. President Roy Saigo says Fue Khang has received threatening messages. In a letter to the university's faculty and staff, Saigo asks them to offset any prejudice and intimidation the homecoming royalty may have faced.