A sitting DFL legislator plans to continue serving in the Minnesota House despite just being named the new CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, which provides abortions to women in the Upper Midwest.
Rep. Ruth Richardson defended her new position in a statement Wednesday, saying she won’t “oversee political work or lobbying for Planned Parenthood while I hold this legislative seat.”
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Because the state of California is amending its “clean car” emissions standards, Minnesota will be abiding by the old California standards it chose to adopt for only one model year.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) admitted as much in a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by the Minnesota Automobile Dealers Association (MADA). The lawsuit argues the MPCA wrongfully outsourced its legal authority.
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A Minneapolis man has been charged in federal court with possession of machine guns after a search warrant executed at his residence in north Minneapolis discovered several “privately made firearms,” often referred to as ghost guns.
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On a 150-year-old farm in Brewster, Tom Behrends hopes his tell-it-like-it-is style will finally get the attention he believes it deserves in Minnesota’s race for governor.
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A public school district in southeastern Minnesota has banned pork offerings on all of its menus to accommodate Muslim students.
Faribault Public Schools is no longer offering pork in its school cafeterias after a prior board meeting where concerns about the pork offerings were raised by the local chapter of the Minnesota Parent Union.
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A Minnesota Department of Agriculture and University of Minnesota partnership is surveying state businesses that source, distribute or serve food.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program grant funds the three-year Statewide Cooperative Partnership for Local and Regional Markets, which designed the survey.
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Michael Knowles is now speaking out after he was denied the ability to address students at a St. Paul, Minnesota, college.
In the spring 2022 semester, College Republicans at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic institution, attempted to invite The Daily Wire host, a practicing Catholic, to speak. The university denied the request due to Knowles’ past statements related to past comments expressing socially conservative opinions.
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Canadian authorities on Sunday said 10 people have died and at least 15 more have been hospitalized following an apparent stabbing spree in Saskatchewan.
“There could be more injured,” said Saskatchewan Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commanding Officer Rhonda Blackmore.
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Gov. Tim Walz, running for reelection on a promise of “One Minnesota,” once described Republicans as naturally inclined to “demonize” others before mockingly accusing them of using “The Handmaid’s Tale” as an “operator’s manual.”
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University of Minnesota Medical School students took an oath to “promote a culture of anti-racism” during an Aug. 19 white coat ceremony.
White coats, the students said, are themselves a “symbol of power, prestige, and dominance.” Therefore, students will “strive to reclaim their identity as a symbol of responsibility, humility, and loving kindness.”
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Several emails show that the largest teachers union in Minnesota had privileged access to Gov. Tim Walz’s administration during the early days of the COVID pandemic.
Through a public records request, Alpha News obtained email exchanges revealing the true extent of communication between the Walz administration and members of the Education Minnesota teachers union in 2020.
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Minnesota farmers are urging Gov. Tim Walz and state lawmakers to reject California’s new zero-emission standards that will all but prohibit sales of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.
The Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) recently expressed its opposition to any future adoption of California’s new standards for vehicles manufactured in 2026 and beyond, which replace the state’s current “clean car” standards.
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A Hennepin County sheriff’s detective who retired early because of the politicization of the COVID-19 vaccine is “furious” that the county has now dropped its vaccine mandate just five months later.
In an email to select employees last Tuesday, the county’s Human Resources COVID Response Team officially announced an end to weekly testing requirements for unvaccinated employees.
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Alpha News sat down with a former Minneapolis police officer for a candid conversation about the days after George Floyd’s death in 2020. She discussed the riots, the political messaging, and the decisions that were made in the days that followed.
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St. Paul man Shawn Michael Tillman is accused of murdering a nemesis in cold blood on a light rail platform earlier this year.
According to Crime Watch Minneapolis, he was bailed out just three weeks before the murder by Minnesota Freedom Fund, a controversial group with a history of helping violent offenders make bail.
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University of Minnesota Police Chief Matt Clark told a Wednesday night campus safety forum that his patrols are “maxed out” in response to continued campus-area safety concerns as well as off-campus violent crime incidents.
Clark’s comments were part of a 90-minute panel discussion and Q&A hosted by the University of Minnesota’s newly-formed Strategic Safety Advisory Committee. Several students, parents, and community members were present in the live audience, and the forum was also broadcast live on YouTube.
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Nearly 400 public schools throughout Minnesota are set to receive additional support from the state education department as student proficiency scores continue to lag or fall further behind.
The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) announced on Thursday an expansion of its relatively new COMPASS program (Collaborative Minnesota Partnerships to Advance Student Success) to render “various levels of support” to 371 public schools, including “15 entire school districts.”
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The Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB), whose members are appointed by the governor, is revising its “standards of effective practice” for teacher licensure that will apply to all new teachers when adopted.
According to the Center of the American Experiment, the changes will impact teacher licensure programs and “require aspiring educators to ‘demonstrate’ ideologically driven content in their coursework to obtain their teaching license.” This goes for educators who end up teaching at private schools, too.
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Minneapolis Public Schools was sued Tuesday over a clause in its teachers contract that calls for laying off white teachers first.
The contract was agreed to by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and the school district at the conclusion of a three-week teachers strike in March. The Minneapolis Board of Education approved the new contract in May.
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Three residents of Bloomington are suing the city over its rejection of a ballot measure looking to repeal ranked-choice voting (RCV).
The lawsuit was filed last Thursday, according to a press release from the Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC), the legal group representing the three residents. The lawsuit challenges the Bloomington City Council’s unanimous rejection of a charter amendment on the November ballot to overturn the 2020 implementation of RCV.
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The Minneapolis teachers union defended a policy that calls for laying off white teachers first, saying it “doesn’t go far enough.”
At the conclusion of a three-week teachers strike in March, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Minneapolis Public Schools agreed to contract language that provides protections for “educators of color.”
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Gov. Tim Walz’s very first executive order, issued on his second day in office, established the “One Minnesota Council on Inclusion and Equity.”
This is not to be confused with the “Governor’s Community Council on Inclusion and Equity,” established at a later date to advise the first council.
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Following national coverage of the Minneapolis school district’s race-based employment policies, Liz Collin Reports hosted a retired Los Angeles teacher who saw the same thing happen in his district over 15 years ago.
Phil Pearson worked as a special-ed teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest district in California and second largest in the country, when a similar rule to move teachers based on race was put into place.
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The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development will give $4.3 million of taxpayer money to five private businesses through the Minnesota Job Creation Fund and the Minnesota Investment Fund.
The state says these projects will create 321 jobs over the next three years and will eventually boost the local tax base.
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U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Andrew Luger headed a press conference on Friday to give updates on a joint violent crime strategy which has been in place in Minnesota and the Twin Cities since spring.
Luger said several arrests have recently been made of high-risk violent offenders, including a sweep that took place on Thursday in Minneapolis and St. Paul that netted five offenders and involved a specialized team of ATF agents.
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Assaults on Minnesota police officers reached a record high for a second year in a row last year, according to a new state report.
At the same time, use-of-force incidents decreased, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s annual “Uniform Crime Report” shows.
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A Minnesota family physician who accused Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen of “unethical” and “non-evidence based” medical practices believes children should have access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Dr. Rose Marie Leslie, who was identified in December 2020 as the “number one most impactful content creator” on TikTok, posted on the platform a video openly supporting “gender transitions” for children, according to a recent tweet from Libs of TikTok.
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In a brief Star Tribune commentary from nearly three decades ago, current Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison trashed capitalism for its “exploitation of labor” and accused the paper of contributing to “white hysteria.”
Alpha News obtained a photocopy of the Star Tribune edition printed on Saturday, Aug. 7, 1993. In the “counterpoint” section of commentary, the paper published a brief article by Ellison, a then-litigator who was identified as a participant in that year’s urban peace summit in St. Paul from July 14-18. One of the summit’s speakers appears to have been notorious anti-white racist and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Ellison’s piece responded to what he perceive
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is declining to participate in additional debates, Republican challenger Dr. Scott Jensen said in a press release Monday.
Walz and Jensen have only debated once so far this campaign season, meeting for the first time at FarmFest in early August. Since then, the governor has declined to participate in four additional debates, one at the Minnesota State Fair, another at Game Fair, a third with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, and a fourth on TPT Almanac, according to Jensen.
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The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s 2021 Uniform Crime Report shows a 21.6% increase in violent crime in the state.
Local law enforcement agencies submit the crime summary data to meet state and federal reporting requirements. A BCA crime data tool explores crime trends.
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The city of Bloomington’s second annual “Pride Celebration” — billed as a family-friendly event — saw drag queens receiving cash tips from young children and a giveaway of condoms and “Plan B” pills.
Minnesota photojournalist Rebecca Brannon posted to Twitter several pictures from the Saturday event, including three pictures showing kids tipping drag performers with cash.
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A Minneapolis teachers union contract stipulates that white teachers will be laid off or reassigned before “educators of color” in the event Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) needs to reduce staff.
After the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) and MPS struck a deal on March 25 to end a 14-day teacher strike, the two sides drew up and ratified a new collective bargaining agreement complete with various proposals.
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Gov. Tim Walz’s administration waited until nearly 4 p.m. on a Friday afternoon to release a report showing violent crime has soared in Minnesota in back-to-back years.
In its annual uniform crime report for 2021, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) said violent crime increased by 21.6 percent last year, a bigger jump than the 16.6 percent increase seen in 2020.
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, had some harsh words for Rep. Ilhan Omar after she narrowly escaped defeat in a Tuesday primary against Frey’s preferred candidate.
Frey said the “massive” 20-point shift should send a message to Omar, who defeated Don Samuels by just two points. In 2020, Omar won the Fifth District’s Democratic primary by 20 points.
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Political newcomer Jim Schultz defeated Doug Wardlow in the Republican primary for Minnesota attorney general Tuesday night.
Schultz was endorsed by the state party and has the backing of police, but Wardlow’s name recognition from his 2018 bid for the position and support from national figures like Steve Bannon and Mike Lindell had some insiders concerned the base would rally to his side.
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Some results for Minnesota’s primary election show clear winners, while other races are not yet complete.
Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, will face Republican Scott Jensen, a physician and former state lawmaker.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison claims Florida’s new law preventing teacher discussions of gender ideology and sexuality with young children is “extreme” and “discriminatory” toward “LGBTQ+ students.”
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A Minnesota county attorney is stepping in following Attorney General Keith Ellison’s refusal to appeal a court ruling that dispenses with several abortion restrictions.
On Thursday, Traverse County Attorney Matthew Franzese filed an intervening motion in Ramsey County District Court, almost four weeks after Judge Thomas Gilligan tossed out numerous longstanding abortion restrictions as “unconstitutional.”
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The Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber Foundation is one of 32 organization splitting $500 million in the Good Jobs Challenge.
The Ignite Initiative Regional Workforce Training System is receiving $9.6 million. It focuses on training underserved communities in the border region of North Dakota and Minnesota that include people of color, veterans, immigrants and formerly incarcerated individuals, according to a release from the foundation. The training is for positions in the agriculture, manufacturing and technology industries.
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Minnesotans will head to the polls Tuesday to pick their preferred candidates for the general election. Every seat (201) in the Minnesota Legislature is up for grabs this November because of redistricting.
The Minnesota GOP maintains control of the Minnesota Senate and could take back the House from Democrats.
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Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is planning to spend over $2 million on a new math curriculum that emphasizes “ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity.”
First reported by the Washington Free Beacon, a Minneapolis school board meeting in mid-June included a presentation on the new K-5 math curriculum for the upcoming 2022-23 school year.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar’s reelection campaign has fractured the Minnesota DFL, with one of the party’s most prominent officials endorsing Omar’s opponent in Tuesday’s primary.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, whose city Omar represents in Congress, announced his support Thursday of Don Samuels, a former Minneapolis City Council member running against Omar in Minnesota’s Fifth District.
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A crisis pregnancy center in St. Paul was vandalized this week, marking the fourth attack on a pro-life group in Minnesota this summer.
Abria Pregnancy Resource Center in St. Paul was vandalized in the early morning hours Aug. 1, its executive director announced in an email to supporters.
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Hundreds of health care workers throughout Minnesota have recently voted to cut ties with unions.
Since mid-July at least four groups of health care workers across the state have either filed union decertification petitions or successfully voted in favor of decertification.
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Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Meijer, who supported impeaching then-President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, lost his primary to Trump-endorsed challenger John Gibbs.
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Charred rubble and shells of burned homes are what’s left of three properties on 14th Avenue South in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Neighbors suspect the July 20 fires were connected to a nearby homeless encampment, but that is unconfirmed and the case remains under investigation.
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Video obtained by Alpha News appears to show Republican state House candidate Bob Loonan soliciting campaign donations through one of the continuing education courses he teaches.
Loonan, a former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives looking to recapture his old seat, offers insurance and real estate courses through Loonan & Loonan’s Consulting. The courses fulfill credit requirements for continuing-education students.
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A Northfield crisis pregnancy center was attacked last Monday night between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., according to the executive director at Northfield Women’s Center.
Executive Director Teresa Edwards told Alpha News the front of the building was tagged with “Fake Clinic ACAB Not Safe.” ACAB is an acronym for “all cops are bastards.”
“The front of the center was bashed in,” Edwards said. “Although it appears it was hit with something and nothing was actually thrown through the window.”
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As the issue of abortion remains a hot topic throughout the midterm campaign season, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen has released a comprehensive plan on how he would support Minnesota women and children.
“You and I are both pro-life, but I think there’s some misconceptions out there about what that actually means. It means a lot more than just not liking abortion and it’s not about jamming legislation down people’s throats,” Matt Birk, Jensen’s running mate, said in a video discussing the plan.
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In a stunning admission Thursday, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, a Democrat, said he doesn’t think President Joe Biden should run for reelection in 2024.
Phillips made the revelation in an interview with WCCO Radio’s Chad Hartman, who noted that 75% of Democratic voters want someone new.
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