Minnesota County Fires Election Worker After Republican Spots Ballot Security Lapse in Realtime

Election Ballots

Hennepin County, Minnesota, fired an election worker who left several boxes of mail-in ballots unattended after a local GOP group exposed the alleged negligence, according to a statement from county officials released Friday.

Minnesota Senate District 50 Republicans — the Republican Party’s official political unit for portions of Minnesota cities Edina and Bloomington — snapped a photo outside of Edina City Hall Friday showing a courier vehicle’s “rear door ajar with ballot transfer cases inside.” A review of parking lot surveillance footage found the ballots were not tampered with, and a comparison of the votes with the statewide voter registration system for absentee ballots found a perfect match.

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Recovered Carjacked Vehicle Processing Backed Up Five to Six Weeks, Police Say

The processing for recovered carjacked vehicles is backed up five to six weeks, the police say. Carjackings are happening across the Twin Cities, spilling out into the suburbs. In Golden Valley, Minnesota they experienced five carjackings in a span of 24 hours last weekend.

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Feds Award $928 Million to Build Minnesota’s Green Line Light Rail Extension

The Federal Transit Administration Monday awarded Minnesota’s Green Line Light Rail Extension, also called the Southwest LRT project, a Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) of nearly a billion dollars. 

Southwest LRT is a 14.5-mile line with 16 stations serving Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, Edina, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie.

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Former Obama Official Asks Walz to Reclose All Bars for Indoor Service in Minnesota

One of former President Barack Obama’s top health care officials said he asked Gov. Tim Walz to reclose all bars in Minnesota during a Sunday phone call.

Andy Slavitt, the former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he urged Walz and Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm to close “all of the bars to indoor service across the state of Minnesota” to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

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Edina Realty Fires Agent for Taking Down Black Lives Matter Signs Outside Apartment

Edina Realty fired one of its agents last week after she posted on Facebook about removing Black Lives Matter signs from light poles outside her apartment building.

The real estate agency was informed via a Facebook comment that Babette Gillet Bean, a longtime employee of the company, had “actively participated in the removal of BLM signs that have been posted in her neighborhood.”

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