Free Republic

Linwood Kaine, the youngest son of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., was charged in St. Paul, Minn., Friday for crimes police say he committed two and a half months ago at a Trump rally.The 24-year-old man was charged with concealing identity in a public space, fleeing on foot and obstructing the legal process by interfering with a peace officer. The obstruction charge alone is a gross misdemeanor and carries up to a year in prison and $3,000 fine.Kaine and five others were originally arrested March 4 on suspicion of second-degree riot following a "March 4 Trump" rally at the Minnesota State...

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has said in recent days that Minnesota is his to win, will make his first public visit to the state Sunday afternoon. “We’re going up to Minnesota which, traditionally has not been Republican at all,” Trump said at a rally in Florida. “And we’re doing phenomenally. We just saw a poll.” The Trump rally will be at 2 p.m. at the Sun Country hangar at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, located at 2005 Cargo Road. Gates will open at 11 a.m. Tickets are required and can be requested on Trump’s website....

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has indicated in recent days that he thinks Minnesota is his to win, will make his first public visit to the state Sunday. “We’re going to Minnesota,” Trump said at a rally in Florida, according to reporters who were there. Trump’s Minnesota campaign confirmed the visit. Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Keith Downey said the rally will be at 2 p.m. at the Sun Country hangar at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, according to initial information from the Trump campaign.

Amir Meshal has a fascinating history. He's originally from New Jersey, but back in 2007 he was detained and interrogated by the FBI in Kenya after escaping from Somalia. Somehow, his travels brought him to Minnesota, and to a mosque in Bloomington, which kicked him out this summer. Friday prayers bring hundreds to the Al-Farooq Youth and Family Center, which is perhaps the largest mosque in the Twin Cities. But not everyone is welcome -- not after Meshal began attending prayer and hanging out earlier this year. In June, the center called police and had Meshal, 31, removed and ticketed...

A local chapter of activist group Black Lives Matter is planning on stopping Twin Cities Marathon runners from crossing the finish line. According to a WCCO report, the protesters will form a physical barrier of people to stop runners in their tracks. Protesters told the station that the marathon is a good place to cause peaceful disruption. Some who plan on running the race said on Facebook that they were angered by the planned protest, saying it might lead to violent encounters. The protest is organized for Oct. 4 at a park about half a mile from the race's finish...

Two weeks after disrupting light rail service on the Vikings’ home opener, Black Lives Matter St. Paul plans to “disrupt” another major event – the Twin Cities Marathon. The protest, dubbed #BlackMarathon, is set to begin at 10 a.m. on Oct. 4 at Boyd Park in St. Paul. The marathon starts at 8 a.m. and is one of the ten largest marathons in the country. Black Lives Matter St. Paul announced their plans Friday in a press release posted to their Facebook page, citing what they describe as the “beating” of 15-year-old Tyree Tucker by a Saint Paul police officer...

Hundreds of people are expected to participate in a protest at a St. Paul Planned Parenthood this weekend.Pro-Life Action Ministries, as well as other pro-life organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens will protest at the St. Paul Planned Parenthood, 671 Vandalia St., Saturday, from 9-11 a.m. The protest is part of a day of protests at Planned Parenthood offices across the country.The planned demonstrations follow the recent release of undercover videos that abortion opponents claim show the trafficking of body parts harvested from aborted children. Last month, hundreds protested outside the St. Paul facility, calling for the government to cut...

Some senior buyers are already gone. Vice presidents, too. But for 13,000 other Target Corp. employees in Minnesota, there's fear that the bull's-eye is on their backs. Target jolted the Twin Cities on Tuesday when it said "several thousand" corporate staffers will be laid off in a cost-cutting move. Executives didn't say who, when or where -- although the buzz is the ax will swing freely next week. Since the news broke, reaction to Target's $2 billion cost-savings plan has been split, especially by street. On Wall Street, analysts mostly liked the plan. Target stock touched an all-time high Wednesday...

A new project from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is using computer simulated training sessions to teach doctors in Minnesota how to talk to fat kids.The nearly $500,000 study using “virtual role play” to coach doctors is the latest attempt by the federal government to combat obesity.“Obesity in the United States is at historically high levels and is an important health problem,” the grant for the project states. “Interventions targeting children are a high priority because children bear the greatest lifetime health risk from overweight and obesity.”“Health professionals in primary care settings are influential in the lives of families,”...

New! Join us for 2nd Saturday 2A Coffee & Chat! Saturday, January 12, 2013, 10:30 a.m. (metro location, see info below) A great chance to meet other like-minded people in a casual setting once per month. We meet up on the second Saturday of each month at a Twin Cities metro area coffee shop, restaurant or gathering spot. Open carry is welcomed, but not required**. This is NOT an "event" or "rally" or "protest." It's simply friends and new friends meeting for coffee. Period. LOCATION: (metro suburban location just minutes NE of DT Mpls) Given the current climate of discrimination...

Nearly one in three people with Somali ancestry in the United States live in Minnesota, although some activists claim there are more. The 1 in 3 estimate comes from new survey data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The bureau's American Community Survey says there are about 25,000 people with Somali ancestry in Minnesota and about 85,700 in the United States. The other states with large Somali populations are Ohio, Washington and California, but their communities are much smaller than Minnesota's.

Target Corp. said Monday it won't give money to gay-friendly causes to quiet the uproar over a $150,000 donation that helped support a Minnesota governor candidate who opposes gay marriage. The discount retailing giant said it was "best to wait" given the controversy stirred by its donation, which prompted Facebook calls for a boycott and scattered protests outside stores. An anti-boycott site also popped up on Facebook from conservatives supporting Target. "We believe that it is impossible to avoid turning any further actions into a political issue and will use the benefit of time to make thoughtful, careful decisions on...

A Somali man is fighting extradition to the United States where authorities suspect him of supporting terrorism in his homeland from a base in Minneapolis. Mohamud Said Omar, 44, has appeared in an open session of a Dutch court for the first time since his arrest at an asylum-seeker's center here last fall. Lawyer Bart Stapert argues that Omar is innocent and the crimes he is accused of would not be punishable under Dutch law.

You’ve probably never heard of Brandon Darby. The former community organizer who saved American lives by undermining a left-wing terrorist plot at the 2008 Republican convention used to be a proud member of the radical left. He called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. He hated cops. He consorted with eco-terrorist tree-spikers, radical feminists and black nationalists. He was approached to rob an armored car and asked to commit arson to fight gentrification. He mouthed politically correct slogans about the Bush administration. Government didn’t care about people, and he thought the botched response to Katrina proved it. When he...

Law enforcement sources have confirmed to WCCO-TV that there is a lockdown at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Officials are evaluating security concerns and a partial evacuation of Lindbergh Terminal is underway. The bomb squad from the Bloomington Police Department has also been called to the airport.

The Islamic Circle of North America has been named in "a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends" by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is bent on waging "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions." They say they want to encourage dialogue via these billboards. Great. I'll start. The billboard says that Islam is "the way of life of Adam, Noah, Abraham,...

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (WCCO) ― Sarah Palin is bringing her book tour for "Going Rogue" to Minnesota. The former Vice Presidential Candidate and former Alaska Governor will sign copies of her new book at the Mall of America. Palin burst onto the national political stage last year after giving a speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Now Palin brings hundreds of her admirers out to get a glimpse of this maverick of a politician. The excitement surrounding her book tour hits the Twin Cities on Monday. "She seems more real world ... not an average politician," said Jason...

A south Minneapolis travel agency owner who is accused of swindling travelers out of airline tickets, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Hennepin County Court. Ali Mohamud, 35, is charged with six felony counts of theft by swindle. Mohamud owns Amana Travel Agency, located at 1841 Nicollet Ave. S. Mohamud is accused of taking approximately $40,000 from at least a dozen travelers by either failing to purchase their airline tickets or canceling them and keeping the cash. The FBI is also looking into Mohamud. In August, agents searched his business as part of an investigation into Somali men missing from the...

Note: Photo included. http://images.publicradio.org/content/2009/09/11/20090911_troykastigar_39.JPG # SNIPPET: "St. Paul, Minn. — A sixth Minnesota man is feared dead in Somalia after joining an Islamic extremist group there. But Troy Kastigar stood out from his fellow recruits, because the Minneapolis man was not Somali. Kastigar, 28, was a Muslim convert who apparently had no personal ties to the lawless east African country. Troy Kastigar's family received reports of his death within the past week, according to friends of the family. The circumstances of his reported death aren't clear, and the information could not be confirmed by the FBI."

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ― The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for the counties that include Minneapolis and St. Paul, and says it has received a report of a tornado just north of downtown. The weather services say it received reports of the tornado at 2:11 p.m. Wednesday. Radar shows the storm is moving north at about 20 mph. It reportedly damaged a downtown church. The tornado warning covers central Anoka County, northeastern Hennepin County and western Ramsey County. It remains in effect until 2:45 p.m. Electric Fetus reported on their Twitter page that their building sustained damage and...