Free Republic

The owner of a wine and beer bar who openly flouted Gov. Tim Walz's executive orders to shut down last winter during the COVID-19 pandemic was found guilty of six criminal misdemeanor counts Thursday by a Freeborn County jury. A jury of three women and three men took only an hour of deliberation to convict Lisa Hanson, the 57-year-old bar owner, after a three-day trial punctuated by Hanson's repeated attempts to argue that Walz's orders were unconstitutional. Judge Joseph Bueltel followed the reading of the verdict with a scathing denunciation of Hanson's behavior, explaining why the governor's orders were legal....

For his wife this Valentine’s Day, a farmer has created a half-mile wide arrow-pierced heart recognizable from the sky about 12 miles southwest of Albert Lea. Following plans he jotted on scratch paper, Bruce Andersland drove his tractor and manure spreader earlier this week in the special shape for his wife, Beth.

ALBERT LEA, Minn. -- A few evergreen trees partially conceal the stone Ten Commandments monument in this southern Minnesota town's Central Park. It might be hard to find, but it's nearly identical to a monument that has caused citywide controversy in Duluth. They are both on city-owned land. Duluth city council members recently voted to remove their monument after the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a lawsuit claiming the monument was an unconstitutional violation of church and state. There no similar lawsuits planned for the Albert Lea monument because no plaintiffs nor attorneys have been lined up by...