June 19, 2020 - The Minnesota Sun

Oklahoma’s Supreme Court Rules Saturday’s Trump Rally in Tulsa May Proceed as Planned

June 19, 2020September 14, 2020 The Associated Press

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request to require everyone attending President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa this weekend to wear a face mask and maintain social distancing inside the arena to guard against the spread of the coronavirus.

The court ruled that the two local residents who asked that the thousands expected at Saturday night’s rally be required to take the precautions couldn’t establish that they had a clear legal right to the relief they sought. Oklahoma has had a recent spike in coronavirus cases, but in a concurring opinion, two justices noted that the state’s plan to reopen its economy is “permissive, suggestive and discretionary.”

Enthusiasm for President Trump and America Still Strong in Tulsa on Eve of Rally

June 19, 2020September 14, 2020 Laura Baigert

The on-the-ground evidence in Tulsa is that the enthusiasm for the country and President Trump is still strong, despite or perhaps because of the events in recent months related to the COVID-19 shutdowns since March followed by the unrest going on across the country over the past few weeks.

Once President Trump announced on June 10 his first rally since the “invisible enemy” changed life around the world, people started camping out two days later to hold their place in line at Tulsa’s BOK Center for the event.

Senior Tennessee Star Reporter Laura Baigert Gives First Hand Account in Tulsa, Oklahoma Ahead of Trump Rally

June 19, 2020June 19, 2020 Julie Carr

Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Star Senior Reporter Laura Baigert to the newsmakers line.

During the second hour, Baigert described the scene in Tulsa, Oklahoma where President Trump plans to hold his first post-coronavirus rally at the BOK. She noted that there was an air of camaraderie among the people waiting in line hanging their Trump and American flags.

Minnesota Waives Absentee Ballot Witness Signature Requirement

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 The Associated Press

Minnesota will waive its witness requirements for absentee ballots for the statewide primary election in August under the settlement of two lawsuits sparked by the health threat from the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuits were filed by political arms of the League of Women Voters of Minnesota and the Minnesota Alliance for Retired Americans. A Ramsey County judge signed off on the consent decree with the retirees Wednesday while a federal judge scheduled a hearing for Thursday on the league’s case.

Newt Gingrich Commentary: Three Generations of Brainwashing Pays Off for the Left

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

As we watch radicals tear down statues, deface monuments, intimidate people who want to stand for the National Anthem, demand the firing of people who write or say something deemed inappropriate to the Leftist Anti-American Theology, it is utterly clear that many Americans today hate America.

People ask me how we’ve gotten to this point. All of this is the result of three generations of brainwashing going back at least to Herbert Marcuse, the German-born University of California, San Diego professor who taught young Americans the philosophical foundation of Marxism in the 1960s. As early as 1972, Theodore White was warning that the liberal ideology was becoming a liberal theology and dissent was less and less acceptable to the left.

Injunction Extended Against Removing Lee Statue in Virginia

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 The Associated Press

A judge on Thursday indefinitely extended an injunction preventing the Virginia governor from removing a historic statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee from a famed avenue in the former capital of the Confederacy.

Richmond Circuit Court Judge Bradley Cavedo made the decision after hearing from attorneys for the state and for the plaintiff in a lawsuit against Gov. Ralph Northam. Earlier this month, Cavedo had issued a 10-day injunction barring Northam from removing the bronze equestrian statue of the Confederate hero from Monument Avenue.

Commentary: How Beijing Buys Influence

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Chinese Communist Party is waging information warfare to shape American public opinion and influence our economic and government policy to their benefit.

The CCP doesn’t shape public opinion by buying billboards and TV ads. That kind of persuasion is far too American for them.

Target, Best Buy Declare Juneteenth Company Holiday, GOP Senator Moves to Make Federal Holiday

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 Anthony Gockowski

Both Target and Best Buy have announced plans to make Juneteenth a company-wide holiday, an idea that Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) wants to institute on the federal level.

“One of the most defining days in our nation’s history was when President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, finally freeing all slaves in Confederate territory. But slaves in Texas wouldn’t learn this life-altering news for two and a half years,” Cornyn said during a Senate floor speech Thursday.

Commentary: The Destruction of Marriage and Family-Building Is the Destruction of Civilization Itself

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

Marriage and families are the cornerstone of not only civilization but of nature itself, without which humans would have never survived as wandering nomads and early farmers, let alone building cities, an economy and governments to represent the people in state-to-state relations.

Without families as a basic building block, children are not nurtured, educated and empowered to raise and sustain families themselves, and the human race could not continue, always being but one generation away from extinction.

28 Congressional Democrats Sign Letter Demanding Department Of Education Allow Biological Males in Girls’ Sports

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

Twenty-eight congressional Democrats signed a letter Wednesday condemning the Department of Education for ruling that public schools that allow biological males who identify as transgender to play girls’ sports are violating Title IX civil rights legislation.

Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal joined 27 House Democrats in signing the letter, which charged that the department’s order “discriminates against transgender youth” by restricting girls’ sports to biological females.

Pelosi Orders Removal of Confederate Portraits from Capitol

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 The Associated Press

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she is ordering the removal from the Capitol of portraits honoring four previous House speakers who served in the Confederacy.

In a letter to the House clerk, Pelosi directed the immediate removal of portraits depicting the former speakers: Robert Hunter of Virginia, James Orr of South Carolina and Howell Cobb and Charles Crisp, both of Georgia. The portraits were to be removed later Thursday.

Facebook Removes President Trump Campaign Ads Alleging the Use of ‘Symbols of Hateful Ideology’

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 Anthony Gockowski

Facebook has removed ads for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign because they featured an upside-down red triangle.

The tech giant said the ads were removed because the symbol was once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners, but Trump’s campaign has noted that the symbol is widely used by Antifa, which is why it was included in the ad.

1.5 Million Workers File New Unemployment Claims

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

More than 1.5 million American workers filed new unemployment claims last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, even as state restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 are easing.

More than 45 million claims have been filed in the three months since state and local governments started restrictions that closed businesses deemed nonessential, but millions of those workers have since gone back to work as states began reopening their economies.

Minnesota’s New Unemployment Claims Dip Slightly from Previous Week

June 19, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

Minnesota residents filed 25,549 new unemployment claims during the week ending June 13, down 2,762 new claims from the prior week.

The total number of unemployed Minnesota residents is 416,729.

Three More Charged in Minneapolis Arson Cases, ATF Offers $70K Reward for Additional Information

June 19, 2020June 18, 2020 Anthony Gockowski

At least three more Minnesotans were charged this week for their involvement in the destruction of Minneapolis.

On Monday, U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald announced that 25-year-old Montez Terrill Lee of Rochester was charged with arson for starting a pawn shop on fire. According to a criminal complaint, surveillance video showed a masked man, later identified as Lee, pouring liquid from a metal container throughout the pawn shop on the night of May 28.