Republicans Criticize ‘Alarming’ Interpretation of Executive Authority in Letter to Walz and Ellison

The Senate Republican Caucus expressed concern over the governor’s “alarming” interpretation of executive authority in a letter sent this week to Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

“Your interpretation of the scope of the Governor’s authority under Minnesota Statutes, section 12.45, is incorrect and inconsistent with legislative intent and with a more measured reading of the law. Most importantly, it is an infringement on the Legislature’s fundamental and exclusive authority to define and prescribe the punishment for a crime,” states the letter.

Read More

FBI Offered to Pay Christopher Steele ‘Significantly’ to Dig up Dirt on Michael Flynn

An FBI offer to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to collect intelligence on Michael Flynn in the weeks before the 2016 election has been one of the more overlooked revelations in a Justice Department inspector general’s report released in December.

The reference to the FBI proposal, which was made in an Oct. 3, 2016, meeting in an unidentified European city, has received virtually no press attention. But it might have new significance following the recent release of government documents that show that Steele peddled an unfounded rumor that Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman in the United Kingdom.

Read More

Commentary: America’s Youth Experience a Great Awakening, Coronavirus-Style

The Great Awakening.

History books tell us “The Great Awakening” was (according to Wikipedia), “The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its Thirteen Colonies between the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to renew individual piety and religious devotion. The Great Awakening marked the emergence of Anglo-American evangelicalism as a trans-denominational movement within the Protestant churches. In the United States, the term Great Awakening is most often used, while in the United Kingdom, it is referred to as the Evangelical Revival.”

Read More

Michigan AG Bans Trump for Not Wearing a Mask, Calls POTUS a ‘Petulant Child Who Refuses to Follow the Rules’

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she is following through on a threat to keep President Donald Trump out of her state after he did not wear a face mask for part of a tour at a Michigan car plant.

The president is no longer welcome in Michigan, Nessel told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday after saying earlier in the day on CNN that Trump would be asked “not to return” if he did not follow the state’s guidelines. Not following the guidelines on social distancing and mask wearing cannot be tolerated, she added.

Read More

Senate Confirms John Ratcliffe as Director of National Intelligence

The Senate confirmed Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX-04) on Thursday as President Trump’s top intelligence official in a vote straight along party lines.

Ratcliffe became Trump’s second permanent Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in a 49-44 vote, with all Democrats opposed. The vote along party lines was the first since the position was created following the 9/11 attack as generally there are never more than a dozen senators voting against a confirmation for the position, according to CNN.

Read More

House Democrats Urge Trump Admin to Stop Deportations, Release Immigrant Detainees

House Democrats urged the Trump administration Wednesday to stop all deportation flights, arguing that these repatriations contribute to the spread of coronavirus in Latin America.

In a letter sent Wednesday, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf to discontinue deportation flights amid the coronavirus pandemic, and release illegal aliens currently in detention.

Read More

Watchdog Repeatedly Warned About Nursing Home Infections Before Pandemic Struck

Infection prevention and control deficiencies were widespread across most of the country’s nursing homes before the coronavirus outbreak, a watchdog group reported Thursday.

More than 82% of the United States’ 15,500 nursing homes were cited for infection prevention and control deficiencies between 2013 and 2017, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote in a blog post Thursday.

Read More

After Backing Alleged Domestic Abuser Keith Ellison, Minnesota Dems Say State Rep Is ‘Trivializing’ Domestic Abuse

The Minnesota DFL Party, which supported accused domestic abuser Keith Ellison in his run for attorney general, criticized a Republican lawmaker Thursday for “trivializing the severity of domestic abuse.”

Read More