Category: Minnesota

Minnesota Secretary of State: Election Officials Within Their Rights to Work with Big Tech to Fight ‘Outright Disinformation’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Fresh off a legislative session where Steve Simon was able to check off nearly every item on his election reform “wish list,” the recently re-elected Minnesota secretary of state took some time to speak to both national and local media about how he views the landscape of the upcoming 2024 election, and as he calls it the “democracy business.”

According to Simon, those who intend to suppress the vote with election-related “disinformation” or intimidation may be tripped up by new election-reform laws recently passed by the Democrat trifecta in the Minnesota Legislature. But he told the Washington Post in an interview this week that he doesn’t believe those new voter protections in Minnesota will necessarily deter disinformation efforts come 2024.

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Appeals Court Sides with Minnesota Gov. Walz in Lawsuit Challenging Mask Mandate, Emergency Powers

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Gov. Tim Walz on Monday in a case where a group of citizens had challenged the constitutionality of the governor’s indoor mask mandate that lasted 10 months during 2020 and 2021.

In its decision on Monday, the three-judge panel affirmed a lower court ruling from March 2021 that dismissed the case on the merits. The opinion, written by Judge Michelle Larkin, also noted that Walz was within the authority delegated to him by the legislature to declare a peacetime emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic. That order ran from March 2020 to July 2021.

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Minnesota Department of Education Runs Program to Help Art Teachers Create Anti-Racist Curriculum

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) runs a program to help art teachers create anti-racist curriculum.

“In this three-day long summer 2023 institute, participants will have an opportunity to deepen their understanding of culturally responsive and ant-racist curriculum development in and through the arts as it relates to Ethnic Studies,” MDE explains of an upcoming course that is an optional aspect of a program funded by the U.S. Department of Education and led by MDE’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Center.

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Planned Parenthood in Minnesota Offers $150 Gift Card to Teens to Attend Sex Ed Summer Camp

Susan Berry, PhD

Abortion and transgender hormone giant Planned Parenthood is drawing teens to its “Sex Ed Summer Camp” in late July with the promise of a $150 gift card to those who complete the program.

“Sex Ed Summer Camp is a sexual health peer education certification program,” Planned Parenthood states about its camp for 15-18 year-olds to be held July 24-28 in Mankato, Minnesota. “Participants will use knowledge they learn to educate friends and peers. Topics covered include sexual anatomy, birth control methods, sexually transmitted infections, healthy relationships and consent, and more!”

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Minnesota Lawmakers Pledge to Fix $352M Mistake

The Center Square

Minnesota lawmakers say a $352 million mistake in a recently passed tax bill shouldn’t affect residents, as long as they update the tax bill in the 2024 legislative session.

In 2019, lawmakers doubled the standard deduction and set the amount for a married joint filer at $24,400 and a single filer at $12,200. The law directs the commissioner for each subsequent year to adjust those amounts for inflation. After four years of inflation adjustments, the 2023 standard deduction for a married joint filer is $27,650 and $13,825 for a single filer.

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‘Off-Year’ Minnesota School Board Elections Offer Challenges, Opportunities for New Candidates

Minnesota Sun Staff

Despite the vibe you may be getting from the national media, the presidential election is still more than a year away. But that doesn’t mean voters won’t have a ballot to fill out this November.

The 2023 election cycle in Minnesota won’t be eventful for most voters. There are no legislative seats or congressional or statewide offices on the ballot. But school district communities representing about 1.7 million residents across the state — which combined, steward well over $4 billion in tax dollars — will be holding elections this fall.

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CDC Admits Not Including Diagnostic Codes Showing COVID Vax as ‘Cause’ on Some Death Certificates

Just the News

The CDC’s explanation for leaving certain diagnosis codes off Minnesota death certificates that cite COVID-19 vaccines as a cause of death, allegedly hiding vaccine injuries in federal records, shows “intent to deceive,” according to a person who helped analyze the death certificates for the Brownstone Institute, a think tank that challenges the scientific basis for COVID conventional wisdom and policy.

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Former Minnesota Police Chief Claims City Fired Him Because He’s White

Minnesota Sun Staff

Former interim Golden Valley Police Chief Scott Nadeau, a white male, claims in a federal lawsuit filed last week that he was effectively fired because of his race.

The lawsuit, which seeks at least $75,000 in damages, accuses city leaders of violating the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Nadeau based on race. It also accuses Mayor Shep Harris of defamation because of comments he made during a March 2022 City Council meeting.

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Some Illegal Immigrants Will Get Free College Tuition in Minnesota

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Benjamin Rothove   Illegal immigrants in Minnesota will soon get free college tuition if their families are below a certain household income level. The “North Star Promise” program “will create a tuition and fee-free pathway to higher education for eligible Minnesota residents at eligible institutions as a ‘last-dollar’ program…

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Minnesota Abortions Increased Significantly in 2022, Report Says

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Abortions in Minnesota experienced a significant increase of 20% in 2022, as revealed in a report released by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

This sharp rise comes on the heels of new abortion laws passed by lawmakers during the 2023 session, removing restrictions on abortion throughout pregnancy and repealing long-standing abortion laws, including portions of the reporting law that governs the release of the MDH data.

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Minnesota Spent $1,000 of Taxpayer Money on LGBTQ Reel

The Center Square

Minnesota’s tourism arm spent $1,000 to produce an Instagram reel celebrating gay pride month that featured partial nudity. 

“Explore Minnesota did not pay Instagram any money to run this video as an ad,” Senior Business Operations Manager Mike Meyer told The Center Square in an email. “Explore Minnesota paid $1000 for the production of the video.”

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Minnesota Voters Alliance Files Lawsuit Challenging New Felon Voting Rights Restoration Law

Admin

A trio of Minnesota residents, along with a conservative voters rights watchdog organization, have filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new law that restores the right to vote for felons still on probation or parole.

The petitioners in the lawsuit include: the Minnesota Voters Alliance and Anoka County residents Mary Amlaw, Ken Wendling and Tim Kirk. They are being represented by the Upper Midwest Law Center.

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Minnesota Lutheran Church Recites ‘Sparkle Creed,’ Professes Belief in ‘Non-Binary God’

Minnesota Sun Staff

A Lutheran church in Edina stood for the reading of the “sparkle creed” during a church service, according to a livestream available on its YouTube page.

“I believe in a non-binary god, whose pronouns are plural,” Pastor Anna Helgen said during Sunday’s service. “I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads.”

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New Report on Minneapolis’ Southwest Light Rail Project Will Focus on Met Council Oversight of Contractors

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Office of the Legislative Auditor will release the second of two program evaluation reports as part of its 2023 audit of the Southwest light rail project on Wednesday morning.

The heavily scrutinized $2.76 billion extension of the Metropolitan Council’s light rail Green Line will span 14.5 miles between Minneapolis and Eden Prairie. It’s been under the microscope of legislators in both major parties since early 2022, when it was found to be more than $700 million over budget and four years behind its originally scheduled completion.

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Minnesota Moms for Liberty leader Pushes Back on ‘Hate Group’ Label

Admin

A Minnesota parent organization is pushing back after being labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center in its annual “Year in Hate and Extremism Report.”

The center claims Moms for Liberty advances an “anti-student inclusion” and “antigovernment” agenda.

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Mankato Mayo Clinic Workers Vote to Boot Union Officials

The Center Square

The majority of a unit of nursing support, clerical and environmental staff have voted to remove a union’s officials from power at Mankato Mayo Clinic.

Members of the unit signed the petition May 9 to oust American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 1856 union officials, according to a National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation news release. Mankato Mayo employee Melody Morris, with free legal aid from the foundation, filed the petition asking the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union decertification vote at the hospital. The majority of her coworkers supported the petition, the release said.

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Minnesota AG Hints at Using His AG Powers to Ensure Target Keeps Pride Merch on Shelves

Admin

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has co-authored a letter to the CEO of Target that suggests he would use the powers of his office to ensure that Target is not intimidated into “pulling some Pride merchandise from stores.”

In a June 20 letter Ellison and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell wrote to Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO the Minneapolis-based retail titan, they expressed concern over Target’s “choice to pull Pride merchandise,” which Ellison and Campbell said “demonstrates that intentional violence and intimidation can set back the march for social progress and LGBTQIA+ equality which as we have noted is already under intense attack nationwide.”

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University of Minnesota Accused of ‘Genocide,’ Should Pay Native American Reparations: Report

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The University of Minnesota is guilty of “genocide” of Native Americans and should atone for it with reparations forever and the return of land.

The “Towards Recognition and University Tribal-Healing Project,” shortened to “TRUTH Project,” released a 215-page report that accused the Big Ten university of “persistent, systemic mistreatment of Indigenous peoples.”

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Minnesota Police Employees Urged to Wear Pronoun Stickers to Be Leaders in ‘Racial Equity and Inclusion’

Minnesota Sun Staff

An internal email from the St. Louis Park Police Department explains that the agency will be obtaining Pride ribbons, trans visibility ribbons and pronoun stickers for officers to wear.

The email, obtained by Alpha News, says the stickers and ribbons were provided by the city’s LGTBQ Employee Resource Group (ERG).

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Minnesota Police Union Says Biden DOJ’s Report ‘Condemns an Entire Agency’ Based on ‘Anecdotes’

Minnesota Sun Staff

While acknowledging that it “can always strive to be better,” the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis criticized a recent U.S. Department of Justice report because it “condemns an entire agency and its employees based on anecdotes.”

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was in Minneapolis Friday to announce the findings of the federal government’s “pattern or practice” investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.

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School Boards Can Now Circumvent Voters in Renewing Minnesota Property Tax Levies

Admin

School boards just gained more control over your property taxes, thanks to a new law that took effect across Minnesota last month.

In May, Gov. Tim Walz signed the state’s largest ever education bill that increases spending for K-12 education by 10.2 percent, or about $2.26 billion, over the next two years — for a total of $23.2 billion.

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Biden DOJ Says Minneapolis Police Engaged in Unconstitutional, Racist Practices

Admin

The Department of Justice  (DOJ) announced the results of a years-long probe Friday finding that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) repetitively violated the rights of residents prior to the death of George Floyd.

“The Department of Justice has reasonable cause to believe that the City of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of their rights under the Constitution and federal law,” the DOJ wrote in its report.

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Minnesota Agrees to Pause PSEO Law That Excludes Religious Schools amid Lawsuit

Minnesota Sun Staff

In response to a recent lawsuit filed by Christian families and schools, the state of Minnesota has agreed to not enforce a new law that restricts some faith-based schools from offering Post Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) to high school students.

“It’s not every day that a state asks a federal court to tie its hands to prevent it from enforcing its own anti-religious law — but Minnesota has done just that,” said Diana Thompson, senior counsel at Becket, the legal firm representing the families and schools.

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Minnesota DFL Legislators Posed for Picture with Members of Anti-Catholic Hate Group

Minnesota Sun Staff

Several DFL legislators posed for a picture in April with members of an organization that has been widely condemned as an “anti-Catholic hate group.”

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, whose roleplaying as Catholic nuns has been described by some as “religious blackface,” are at the center of a national controversy that began when the Los Angeles Dodgers announced plans to present them with a “community hero” award.

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Minnesota Democrats on State House Committee Vote Themselves a Per Diem Pay Bump

Admin

The 2023 Minnesota legislative session wrapped up about three weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean lawmakers have stopped working.

Democrats in a state House legislative committee voted themselves a pay raise last week that allows legislators in the House of Representatives to retroactively receive a per diem increase of about $20 per day they served during the 2023 legislative session.

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Teachers Union Tells Minnesota Members to Toss Letter on Opting Out ‘In the Garbage’

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The St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) is encouraging teachers to ignore a letter from the Freedom Foundation notifying them of their right to opt out of Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union.

Caitlin Reid, lead organizer for SPFE, sent an email with an “anti-union postcard alert” telling members to toss the letter from the Freedom Foundation “in the garbage” and let their building organizers know if they received it, according to a copy of the email obtained by Alpha News. Reid did not respond to a request for comment.

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Nearly Half of Minnesota Small Businesses Were Delinquent on Rent in May

The Center Square

Minnesota has the third-highest small business rent delinquency rate, according to a new report.

Alignable.com, a referral network for small businesses in North America that has more than 8 million members, released the state-by-state report this week. The network surveyed 4,424 randomly selected small businesses from May 6 to 30.

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Minnesota Drag Brunch Advertisement Says Kids as Young as Four Should Bring Cash Tips

Admin

A St. Cloud Pride drag brunch, advertised for kids as young as 4 years old, tells attendees to bring cash tips.

“Bring plenty of dollar bills so you can tip the performers,” the Eventbrite page states. “They work hard to create these characters for you — show them your appreciation by tipping!”

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Dr. Scott Jensen Sues Minnesota Medical Board, AG Ellison

Minnesota Sun Staff

Former gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen is suing the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice and Attorney General Keith Ellison in connection with multiple instances over the last three years where the board conducted investigations of his medical license.

The Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) is representing Jensen in both claims, which were filed Tuesday in two separate actions. One is a First Amendment constitutional claim filed in federal court, and the other a Data Practices Act-related claim filed in Carver County state district court.

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Minnesota Teachers Union Boycotting Annual Education Conference

Minnesota Sun Staff

St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) is boycotting the National Education Association’s (NEA) annual meeting, which will be held in Florida, claiming Florida is hostile towards minority and LGBTQ communities.

The SPFE urged the NEA to cancel the 2023 Representative Assembly (RA) or convert to a virtual format. The RA is where delegates annually vote on issues that will nationally impact education and the teachers unions.

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Minnesota Secretary of State Dodges Question over Voting Rights of Incarcerated

Admin

Everything was rolling along smoothly at a press conference in St. Paul on Thursday morning where Secretary of State Steve Simon gathered with felon voting rights restoration activists and a handful of legislators to celebrate the June 1 enactment of a new law that restores voting rights to an estimated 55,000-plus Minnesotans serving probation or parole for a felony crime.

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Minnesota to Move Biological Male Inmate to All-Female Facility, Pay for Vaginoplasty

Admin

Under a settlement reached this week, the Minnesota Department of Corrections has agreed to transfer a biological male inmate who identifies as a woman to an all-female facility and will allow him to pursue a vaginoplasty procedure.

Left-wing legal group Gender Justice announced the settlement agreement Thursday, saying its client Christina Lusk will also receive $495,000 in monetary compensation, about half of which will go towards legal fees.

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Minnesota to Provide Illegal Immigrants with Free College Tuition

Admin

Illegal immigrants will be eligible for free college tuition in the state of Minnesota, according to Axios.

Under Minnesota’s free tuition program, dubbed the “North Star Promise,” illegal immigrants will have their full tuition paid for if they enroll in a two or four-year program within the University of Minnesota or Minnesota State systems and come from a household with an income of $80,000 0r less, according to Axios. To be eligible for the free tuition, applicants must have either graduated from a Minnesota high school or have lived in the state for a year without being enrolled in a college for six months.

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DFL Party Bans Minneapolis City Council Candidate After Endorsing Convention Melee

Minnesota Sun Staff

The DFL has officially banned a Minneapolis City Council candidate from seeking future endorsement from the political party, two weeks after his supporters were allegedly involved in starting a melee that broke out at a local endorsing convention.

On Tuesday evening, longtime DFL Party Chair Ken Martin released a statement announcing the organization had utilized a pair of newly-approved bylaws that allowed its state central committee to ban Nasri Warsame, a Minneapolis resident, from “seeking the DFL Party endorsement for any office.”

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Minnesota Democrat State Senator Faces Ethics Complaint for Suggesting GOP Colleagues Look Like Terrorists

Minnesota Sun Staff

Democratic Sen. Omar Fateh is facing another ethics complaint, this time for making disparaging comments about his Republican colleagues and allegedly misrepresenting their views.

The complaint was filed in April but wasn’t made public until earlier this month. The Minnesota Senate’s subcommittee on ethical conduct is scheduled to discuss the complaint at a June 15 meeting.

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Minnesota DFL to Push ‘Gender-Affirming Rights Act’ in 2024 Session

Admin

Celebrating their “undeniable force” at the Minnesota Capitol, members of the DFL’s “Queer Caucus” said they plan to pursue legislation next session to grant “everyone” a “fundamental right” to gender transition procedures.

This language appears to mirror that of the radical “Protect Reproductive Options Act,” which grants all Minnesotans a “fundamental right” to abortion and was criticized by Republicans for, among other concerns, its lack of clear age restrictions.

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Minnesota State Lawmaker Promoting Child Sex Changes Gets ‘Children’s Health’ Award

Admin

The Children’s Minnesota Hospital system gave Democratic Minnesota State Rep. Leigh Finke an award Tuesday for her work in children’s health after she authored a bill designed to protect child sex changes.

Finke, who is transgender, was the chief author of HF146, Minnesota’s “trans refuge” legislation, which would prevent the enforcement of out-of-state laws that would remove a child from their parent’s home for receiving transgender medical interventions, such as hormones or puberty blockers. Finke received the “Children’s Health Hero” award from the Minnesota hospital system for her work on the bill, according to a release from Children’s Minnesota.

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Minnesota Lawmakers End Session with $2.6 Billion Bonding and ‘Cash Only’ Capital Investment Package

Minnesota Sun Staff

It’s not a bonding year at the legislature, but that didn’t stop lawmakers — every Democrat and a number of Republicans — at the Minnesota Capitol from giving the green light to about $2.6 billion worth of bonding and “cash-only” capital investment projects across the state before time ran out on the 2023 session.

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Legislators Finalize HHS Bill That Expands MinnesotaCare to Illegal Immigrants

Admin

Minnesota is poised to become the second state in the nation to allow illegal immigrants to enroll in a state health insurance program for low-income earners.

That’s according to a provision found inside an 844-page omnibus health and human services conference report that passed in the DFL-controlled House and Senate on Monday afternoon, during the final hours of the 2023 legislative session. The House passed the bill on a mostly party-line 69-64 vote. Rep. Dave Lislegard, of Aurora, was the lone Democrat who voted against the bill. The Senate voted to pass on party lines.

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University of Minnesota Scrubs Information on Racially Segregated Event After Federal Complaint

Admin

The University of Minnesota recently held an event just for “BIPOC students” considering grad school, prompting a complaint to be filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights alleging racial discrimination.

As the feds review the complaint’s merits, the university scrubbed the event page and wiped information about the gathering from its website.

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DFL-Controlled Legislature Hands $8 Billion Transportation Bill to Walz for Signature

Admin

A nearly $8 billion finalized transportation bill has cleared the House and Senate and is on its way to the desk of Gov. Tim Walz to be signed into law.

On Sunday, the DFL-controlled House and Senate voted along party lines to pass the conference committee report for HF2887. That omnibus transportation finance bill includes nearly $1 billion in new taxes and fees dedicated to transit and roads that will come from three sources: a new metropolitan area sales tax increase of 0.75 percent, a 50-cent fee for all deliveries of retail goods over $100 and a gas tax increase indexed to inflation. An increase in fees for automobile registrations and a sales tax increase for purchase of automobiles will also add more than $340 million in new revenues for transportation expenditures over the next two years.

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Legislature Passes Broad Bill Package Increasing State Government Operations by 40 Percent

Admin

Is HF1830 a bill that funds state government operations? Or is it an “elections bill?”

It depends who you ask.

Rep. Ginny Klevorn, DFL-Plymouth, who carried the bill in the House, says it’s maybe a little bit of both.

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Analysis: Minnesota Estimated Lifetime Earnings Losses Exceed $23.7 Billion

The Center Square

Learning losses for Minnesota students during the COVID-19 pandemic could result in a combined lifetime income loss exceeding $23.7 billion, according to research from Harvard and Stanford universities.

The Education Recovery Scorecard was released this week by Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research and the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford. The scorecard measures learning loss in 40 states between 2019 and 2022, and estimates how much earnings will be subtracted from students’ lifetime earnings.

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Minnesota Legislature Repass Paid Family and Medical Leave with 2026 Implementation Date

Admin

The House and Senate voted this week to pass a conference report amending HF2, the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, that will tax employers and employees to help fund a new, state-run paid leave insurance program.

As amended by a DFL-only conference committee, the version of the bill that will head to Gov. Tim Walz for signature now includes a provision agreed upon by conferees to implement payroll taxes for the program on Jan. 1, 2026. Conferees also agreed to dedicate nearly $650 million in existing state revenue in 2024 as “seed money” for the program so that the state can begin providing those benefits in 2026.

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Minnesota HOA Fines Retired Cop for Flying Pro-Police Flag

Minnesota Sun Staff

A retired St. Paul police officer has been fined by his homeowners association for flying a thin blue line flag in support of police outside his home, he told Alpha News.

“I will give you one hour to take that down,” Archie Smith, a police officer of over 30 years, alleges was the message delivered to him via a phone call from the Orleans Terrace Homeowners Association.

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Charges: Minneapolis School Employee Brought Guns to Elementary School

Minnesota Sun Staff

A Minneapolis Public Schools employee has been charged after a student found a bag containing two loaded guns inside Loring Elementary School on the city’s north side.

Charges say Derrick Lee Lind, 20, brought a backpack into the school on April 23, 2023, that contained a stolen gun and another gun with a “switch” that modifies a gun to fire automatically.

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Minnesota Democrats Remove Sales Tax Exemption for Baby Products from Tax Bill

Admin

Republicans are speaking out against the DFL majority’s decision to remove a bipartisan proposal to expand the sales tax exemption for baby products from an omnibus tax bill.

“Who was against this?” asked Sen. Julia Coleman, R-Waconia, during a Monday press conference. “It passed with unanimous bipartisan support. It has a relatively small fiscal impact. So where was the controversy?”

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Catholic University in Minnesota Doesn’t Tell Girls If They’re Assigned to Room with Biological Male

Admin

A new O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) video shows University of St. Thomas Associate Director of Residence Life Zoe Chang stating that the school allows biological males who identify as women to share living spaces with females.

This, according to Chang, is done as discreetly as possible in order to avoid upsetting parents. The video, OMG said in an email, documents the “mountain of rule changes and preferential treatment provided to trans students when it comes to their housing accommodations.”

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