Property Is Racist, Boston University Professor Says

A Boston University assistant professor deemed property racist while defending riots in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in a Wednesday video.

Boston University assistant professor Saida Grundy compared looting in the aftermath of George Floyd‘s death to black people “looting themselves” from slavery, according to a video posted by the university. Grundy also urged people not to judge communities’ reactions and to listen to them to address their needs.

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Commentary: The 2023 Congress’ Opportunity to Stop the FBI’s Spying on Americans

The 18-member U.S. intelligence community (IC) has released the Annual Statistical Transparency Report Regarding the Intelligence Community’s Use of National Security Surveillance Authorities. One of the few to pay attention was historian Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and an affiliated scholar at the University of California’s Hastings School of Law.

This government document, the ninth such report to be made public, “provides statistics and contextual information concerning how the Intelligence Community uses the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and certain other national security authorities to accomplish its mission.”

The law authorizes the U.S. government to engage in mass surveillance of foreign targets. As Guariglia discovered, FISA is “still being abused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to spy on Americans without a warrant.” This abuse takes place under Section 702, an amendment to FISA.

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Democrats Worry About Spike in Obamacare Premiums Ahead of Midterms

Obamacare

As Democrats head into the November midterms with historically low approval ratings, another major factor could arise that will further contribute to the shrinking of their already-slim majorities.

As reported by The Hill, the Affordable Care Act – known colloquially as “Obamacare” – could face a significant increase in premiums due to a lapse in special funding provided by the coronavirus aid bill passed last year. That bill, known as the American Rescue Plan, temporarily increased financial assistance for Americans seeking healthcare through Obamacare; the increase was set to expire just one year after the bill’s passage.

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Biden Admin Blocks Yet Another Massive Mining Project, Hobbling Its Own Climate Agenda

The Biden administration proposed stringent clean water restrictions on a watershed in southwest Alaska Wednesday, a potential fatal blow to a planned critical mineral development project.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would review a proposal to prohibit the use of the Bristol Bay watershed as a discharge site for the Pebble Project, a mining project that would produce about 1.5 billion tons of critical minerals, including copper and molybdenum, over 20 years. The rule, which the agency will publish Thursday, would protect Bristol Bay rivers, streams and wetlands that support the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, according to the announcement.

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Congressional Budget Office: Debt to Surpass GDP at Record Level over Next Decade

The Congressional Budget Office released its economic outlook for the next decade and projected record high debt levels compared to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

The CBO projected a decrease in the deficit compared to the major COVID-era spending spree that helped fuel inflation to its current high levels.

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Republicans Launch Counteroffensive Against Latest Woke Corporate Push: ESG Investing

From Congress to the statehouse, Republicans are fighting a growing movement to force investments into funds that make decisions based on environmental, social, governance, or political criteria.

The Environmental Social Governance (ESG) movement has prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission to propose a rule requiring companies to report emissions and other climate risk data, while public pension funds like the Thrift Savings Plan are discussing using ESG metrics to govern investment decisions.

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Green Berets Launch PAC to Put ‘Warrior-Diplomats’ in Congress

Veterans who served in special operations units announced the formation of a new political-action committee (PAC) to elect fellow “warrior-diplomats” to Congress in the wake of last year’s Monday, Fox News reported Monday.

“It is no coincidence that we are launching on Memorial Day, less than a year after we witnessed the Biden administration’s failed leadership contribute to the loss of American lives in Afghanistan,” Jason Bacon, a former Green Beret and previous congressional candidate said, according to Fox News. “It is imperative that we elect real leaders to Congress with the knowledge and experience to prevent this kind of travesty.”

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Larry Sand Commentary: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Needs to Get a Grip

My Dearest Randi,

What is going on! It has been a year since my last missive, and I have not heard a peep from you. This is not the first time you have snubbed me, however. When I tried to say hi to you outside the Supreme Court after the Janus oral arguments in 2018, you refused to even look at me, and then turned to a newsman and launched into a kooky rant, insisting that unions “actually make communities safer and…the right-wing is threatened by that.”

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Elite High School Ends Merit-Based Admissions

Students at San Francisco’s Lowell High School received significantly more failing grades at the end of the fall 2021 semester following the school board’s decision to end merit-based admissions.

The San Francisco Board of Education voted to end merit-based admissions in February 2021 and switched to a lottery-based admission system at the beginning of the fall 2021 semester. Lowell High freshmen admitted through the lottery program received three times the amount of Ds and Fs than those of the previous two years, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

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Tyler Kistner Within Striking Distance of Ousting Incumbent Democrat Rep. Angie Craig in MN-2: Poll

Voters in Minnesota’s Second Congressional District favor Republicans to Democrats by a 46-44% margin, according to internal polling obtained by Alpha News.

This is good news for Republican Tyler Kistner and bad news for incumbent Democrat Rep. Angie Craig.

Kistner is a former Marine Raider turned congressional hopeful. He nearly won in 2020, losing by just over 2%. This time around, a top GOP polling firm suggests the race will be even harder for Craig amid a wave of anti-Democrat sentiment as Americans recoil against President Joe Biden’s unpopular administration (40% approval).

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Universities Reinstate Mask Mandates Around the Country

As the school year draws to an end, American universities around the country are reinstating mask mandates.

The University of California Los Angeles sent out an email to its students on May 26, stating that its mask mandate “will go back into effect beginning Friday, May 27 and remain in place through Wednesday, June 15.”

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Commentary: Memorial Day Is About Remembering Those Who Sacrificed for Our Freedom

On this Memorial Day, we honor and remember military service members who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving the United States of America. 

Memorial Day is a day in which we commemorate the men and women who died while fighting against the evils of tyranny, radical terrorism, slavery, and religious persecution. Yet it is also a day in which we are grateful for what their sacrifices have meant for our nation and our people.

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Commentary: No Duty to Protect

The May 24 massacre in Uvalde, Texas outrages the conscience, though not for the facile and stupid reasons spewed by every prominent Democratic Party politician, half-witted newspaper columnist, and vapid television talking-head. 

Liberals and other simpering dunderheads make fetishes of objects, focusing on the tool rather than the tool’s misuser. “Nobody needs an AR-15,” goes the refrain, when need has nothing and right has everything to do with it. “But the tool is so easy to misuse and abuse!” comes the ovine rebuttal, when we know as a matter of fact the tool is used in a small fraction of violent crimes.  

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Music Spotlight: Scott Stevens

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Once my friend told me about a tribute that Scott Stevens had written about his grandfather and uncle, I knew I had found the perfect song to share on Memorial Day.

Scott Stevens is a country music singer/songwriter from East Tennessee who recently released the single “Missin’ You” to country radio off his debut country record Every Hat Is A Cowboy Hat. He is also a Civil Rights attorney and lawyer.

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Commentary: The Left’s ‘They’ Obsession Is Ruining the English Language

My old friend Quin Hillyer made an excellent point in a recent Washington Examiner op-ed. Today’s gender confusion — from female “actors” to male “expectant mothers” — has set heads spinning, and not just for the physical impossibility of that which the Left now calls commonplace. (Sorry, but no matter how hard the Human Rights Campaign screams, males cannot ovulate, and females cannot sport erections.) Even for those who capsize things that were commonplace just three years ago, the gender-fluid crowd’s war on the English language torpedoes clear communications.

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Dem-Appointed New York Judge Unravels Liberal Plot to Racialize School Admissions

A New York judge tossed out a lawsuit Wednesday that alleged New York City schools’ Gifted and Talented programs created a racial caste system.

Integrate NYC along with 13 high school students brought the lawsuit against New York City in March 2021, seeking to eliminate the city’s Gifted and Talented programs as well as current middle high school admission screens, according to court documents. The lawsuit argued that the city’s Gifted and Talented programs were ” discriminatory gatekeeping mechanisms” and contributed to an “educational caste system.”

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‘If Abortion Isn’t Safe, You Aren’t Either’: Vandal Attacks Pregnancy Center

A suspect vandalized a Washington state crisis pregnancy center by breaking the building’s windows and spray-painting the property early Wednesday morning.

The suspect targeted the Next Step Pregnancy Center in Lynwood, Washington, Next Step Pregnancy Center Director Heather Vasquez told KTTH talk radio host Jason Rantz. The center stayed open despite the vandalism and police have opened an investigation into the matter.

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Supreme Court Hands Biden Admin Major Win for Climate Agenda

The Supreme Court denied a petition from 10 Republican-led states Thursday requesting it to block a key Biden administration climate policy.

The decision ensures that President Joe Biden’s so-called “social cost” of carbon policy — which assigns an estimated dollar value or cost to every ton of carbon emissions, according to the Government Accountability Office — can remain in place and be used for future federal permitting processes. The high court rejected states’ April 27 petition without giving a reason or listing which justices opposed it, according to a one-page filing published on the Supreme Court docket.

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Dems Try Third Party ‘MAGA’ Name Change to Trick GOP Voters: ‘We Don’t Give a S**t If It’s Unfair’

Minnesota Democrats apparently tried to launch a scheme to intentionally deceive Republican voters in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

Minnesota has long been host to a party called the Grassroots Legalize Cannabis Party. However, conniving activists want to change the party’s name in an attempt to split the GOP vote.

A slew of DFL operatives attended a recent meeting to plan the name change including DFL Rep. Aisha Gomez, House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler’s chief of staff Paul Cumings and Sen. Erin Murphy’s campaign manager Daniel Cox.

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U.S. Birth Rate Increases for the First Time in Seven Years

The U.S. birthrate in 2021 increased for the first time since 2014, with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions potentially causing the jump.

The U.S. birthrate saw a 1% increase over the course of 2021 with 3.66 million babies being born throughout the year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics. All age groups of women over 25 contributed to the jump in birthrates, with some experts suggesting that a lengthening COVID-19 pandemic might have contributed to the bump, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Commentary: The Left Is Chaos Incarnate

In our celebrity-crazed culture, too often a person’s capacity to garner attention exceeds his talent in his chosen field. This applies to politics, too. A politician’s well-manicured image obfuscates the policies he espouses, especially during a campaign. Consequently, if elected, the ramifications of a politician’s policies that were neglected, amidst the consultant-crafted images our campaigns have become, suddenly manifest themselves in the most unpleasant ways.

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Sheila Qualls Commentary: Is Racism Today’s Wolf?

In the Aesop’s fable “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” a shepherd boy repeatedly cries “wolf” to trick villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking the sheep. After a great deal of false alarms, the boy’s cries lose significance to the townsfolk. One day when a wolf really does appear and the boy cries out for help, the villagers ignore him. The boy had sounded a false alarm so many times, his true cries for help had no relevance.

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Hoffman on Arizona: ‘We Are a Much Redder State than People Give Us Credit For’

Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed Republican state Rep. Jake Hoffman (AZ-12), the founder of the Arizona Freedom Caucus in the state’s House of Representatives, about the state of play for conservatives in the Copper State.

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Commentary: Bitcoin Could Spark a Cheap Energy Boom

People who have a problem with how much energy it takes to mine Bitcoin should take a more long term view of the situation and realize Bitcoin´s energy requirements are a feature, not a bug. Bitcoin mining provides a powerful market incentive for energy producers worldwide to increase the production of cheap energy, which could potentially drive down global energy prices. That’s great news for everyone, but it’s especially good for the least well-off in society, as they’ll be the ones who benefit the most from cheaper energy.

Bitcoin relies on a consensus mechanism called Proof-of-Work (PoW) which requires energy to issue new tokens into existence. PoW is a complex computing process performed with specialized machines that consume a lot of energy. Thanks to this technological innovation, today we all have access to a new form of money that exists in the digital world. Therefore, Bitcoin can be seen as both an “energy currency” and a “digital currency.”

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Commentary: The Rainbow Fish Generation

Perhaps the most risible, widely acclaimed children’s book in the history of children’s books is The Rainbow Fish. This book, featuring a beautiful fish with shiny scales on the cover, made it into home libraries of children everywhere. It tells the story of a fish who is special because his scales are shiny and brightly colored. Every other boring, no-talent, plainly scaled fish envies the lovely and gifted Rainbow Fish and harasses him. The solution? The Rainbow Fish gives away all that made him special in order to earn their friendship and now these little commie crappies each have one scale but remain ugly, envious redistributionists.

The result? Equity. Everyone felt better because no one was great. A bunch of mediocre fishes swim around with pink hair or a nose ring and a big chip on their no-talent shoulders.

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Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey Leaves Company’s Board of Directors

Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey has exited the social media company’s board of directors.

The planned departure comes as Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk continues his attempt to purchase the company. The company initially announced last November that Dorsey would leave the board when his term expired at the company’s 2022 shareholder meeting, which took place Wednesday.

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San Diego City Council Passes Resolution to Become First ‘Safe Haven’ for Abortion

The San Diego City Council passed a resolution Tuesday declaring itself a “safe city” for abortion after a leaked draft opinion indicated the Supreme Court may be overturning Roe v. Wade.

The resolution passed 8-0 in the San Diego City Council, with members arguing the city has a responsibility to show it is a safe place for reproductive freedom, according to a press release.  The declaration is not law and abortions will likely remain legal in California in the event Roe v. Wade is overturned, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

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‘Like a Roller Coaster’: Natural Gas Prices Surge, Inventories Drained Following Biden’s EU Deal

U.S. natural gas prices have skyrocketed nearly 150% this year while inventory levels have shrunk, signaling more consumer pain ahead of the summer season.

The Henry Hub natural gas spot price, an indicator of nationwide prices, stormed past $9.30 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) Thursday, up from its early January price of $3.74 per MMBtu and the highest level since 2008, according to government data. U.S. natural gas inventories have been drained in recent months, declining 17.6% year-over-year and down 15.3% relative to their 2017-2021 average, additional data released Thursday showed.

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FDA Claims Whistleblower Report on Baby Formula Shortage Got Lost in Mailroom

An official with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims that the reason the agency didn’t find a shocking whistleblower’s report on the baby formula shortage because the report was lost in the mailroom for at least four months.

The New York Post reports that the 34-page document had been sent to the FDA back in October, claiming that an Abbott Nutrition plant in Sturgis, Michigan was experiencing a shortage in product primarily due to increasingly unsanitary conditions. The FDA’s Frank Yiannas, Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, admits he didn’t actually see the report until February.

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Minneapolis Police Department Loosens Standards for Case Investigator Applicants

The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is recruiting civilians who would like to do investigation work.

According to a job posting, the MPD is looking for a case investigator able to do both office and field work. The required qualifications are at least two years of “investigative experience including actual interviewing” and “post-secondary education in Criminal Justice, Sociology or Psychology or equivalent.”

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Hoffman: Ducey Is Blocking My Anti-Grooming in Schools Bill

Neil W. McCabe, the national political director of The Star News Network, interviewed GOP state Rep. Jake Hoffman (AZ-12), the founder of the Arizona Freedom Caucus and a candidate for state Senate, about his bill to prevent teachers from sexualizing instruction and grooming students into non-mainstream lifestyles.

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Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt Signs Bill Banning Nearly All Abortions

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) signed a bill into law Wednesday that bans nearly all abortions in the state and allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” a woman seeking an abortion.

According to HB4327, abortions are prohibited in Oklahoma unless it is “necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency,” or the pregnancy “is the result of rape, sexual assault, or incest that has been reported to law enforcement.”

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Sen. Chuck Schumer Rejects Sen. Ron Johnson’s School Safety Bill: ‘We Will Vote on Gun Legislation’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rejected a school safety bill proposed by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) Wednesday, one that had been promoted by several of the parents of victims of the 2018 Parkland school shooting.

Schumer dismissed the legislation, first introduced in 2019, on which the Parkland victims’ parents had collaborated, claiming the bill “could see more guns in schools” and touting, “I blocked it.”

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Commentary: Red Flag Laws and Unintended Consequences

The senseless murder of 19 children and two teachers at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas is leading to calls for more gun control. To some, “red flag” laws, also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders, seem like the obvious solution. These laws allow judges to seize a person’s guns without a trial, based solely on a written complaint that the person might be a danger to themselves or others. All a judge needs is “reasonable suspicion.”

“We know that we can show we can be united to protect our children,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, a famously moderate West Virginia Democrat.

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Questions Swirl Around Law Enforcement’s Response to Uvalde Shooting; AP: SRO Driving Nearby, Not at Campus

The director of the southern section of the Texas Department of Public Safety cut short his Thursday press conference as reporters shouted questions at him about why local law enforcement was ineffective for the hour after Tuesday’s spree shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School as gunshot victims languished inside. The crisis ended when Border Patrol Tactical officers arrived, engaged shooter Salvador Ramos, and killed him.

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Uvalde Police Face Criticism over Response to Texas School Shooting

Law enforcement authorities in Uvalde, Texas are facing questions and criticism over how much time elapsed during the elementary school shooting Tuesday, before a U.S. Border Patrol team burst in and shot the gunman to death, the Associated Press reported.

There were conflicting reports on Thursday regarding the timeline of events, with some eyewitnesses saying police hesitated outside the building as the gunman, Salvador Ramos, was inside shooting schoolkids, while officials say the police engaged immediately.

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Texas School Shooter May Have Been Arrested Four Years Ago for Threatening to Shoot Up the High School When He Turned 18

Salvador Ramos, the teenage gunman behind the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, may have been arrested four years ago for threatening to shoot up the Uvalde High School when he turned 18-years-old, according to Texas lawmaker.

Texas Representative Tony Gonzales, whose congressional district includes Uvalde, told Fox News that he found out on Thursday night that “the shooter was arrested years ago—four years ago—for having this plan for basically saying, for saying, you know, when I’m a senior in 2022, I am going to shoot up a school.”

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Public University Evicts, Disciplines Student for Telling Others It Gave Her Vaccine Exemption

A Michigan public university retaliated against a Russian immigrant for telling others how she got a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, evicting her from campus housing and putting a disciplinary record in her student file, according to her lawyers.

After Inara Ramazanova posted her requested and received exemption in a private Facebook group for similarly situated people nationwide, Oakland University deemed this “collusion or conspiracy” to help others evade its rules, the First Liberty Institute wrote to OU in a pre-lawsuit warning letter Thursday.

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Commentary: Stolen Elections, a Tale of Two D.C. Courtrooms

The Elijah Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, D.C. is center stage this month to two competing tales of stolen presidential elections.

In the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper, federal prosecutors have presented a detailed account of the greatest scandal in U.S. political history: the conspiracy of the country’s most powerful interests to fabricate the Trump-Russia collusion hoax in order to sabotage Donald Trump before the 2016 election.

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Biden Set to Unveil Massive Student Loan Forgiveness: Report

President Joe Biden is planning to forgive $10,000 of student loan debt per borrower, according to a Friday report from The Washington Post.

Biden intended to announce the new student debt forgiveness plan at the University of Delaware’s graduation ceremony Saturday but postponed the decision after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, unnamed sources familiar with the issue told The Washington Post. The newest debt forgiveness plan would apply to Americans who in the year prior made under $150,000 and to married Americans who made under $300,000 in joint filings.

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Commentary: The Long, Slow Death of ESPN

So our readers will know, for the near entirety of your author’s life, pro and college sports have been an obsession.

Looking back on it, probably an unhealthy one. Age and maturity and the vicissitudes of 21st-century life are sharply curtailing the fever, though I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully quit LSU and the Saints (though a possible change in geography might do it; I used to be a Lakers and Yankees fan as a kid and couldn’t give a tinker’s damn about either team now).

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Minnesota Democratic State Senator Faces Ethics Complaint for Attempting to Enrich Friendly Nonprofit

Minnesota Senate Republicans have filed an ethics complaint against a Democratic colleague over a bill to enrich a nonprofit that endorsed his candidacy.

Seven GOP state senators signed a Sunday letter to the chamber’s subcommittee on ethical conduct, which asked for a review of two concerns about Sen. Omar Fateh.

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