Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) was forced to reexamine his budget proposal “line by line” after the state’s budget forecast came up $492 million short of November’s estimated $1.5 billion surplus. But his recently released revised budget recommendations still include a 20-cent gas-tax hike. “The governor recommends the state commit to…
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter Tuesday after he indirectly singled her out during his televised address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington. Omar faced significant backlash for her February criticisms of AIPAC when she said…
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A trending online petition calls on U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Special Envoy for Antisemitism Elan Carr to investigate Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) and their ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The petition, which had more than 12,000 signatures at the time of…
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) spoke Saturday at a fundraiser for the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) while hundreds of protesters gathered outside the event. Omar was the keynote speaker for CAIR’s Fourth Annual Valley Banquet in Los Angeles focused on “advancing justice” and “empowering Valley Muslims,” according to an…
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Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development, or DEED, released its monthly jobs report Thursday, and the results weren’t good for Gov. Tim Walz’s first full month in office. According to the report, Minnesota lost 8,800 seasonally adjusted jobs in February, and the unemployment rate climbed from 3 percent to…
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A Republican-backed bill in the Minnesota House that would expand criminal penalties for female genital mutilation has yet to receive so much as a committee hearing. The bill was introduced January 24 by Rep. Mary Franson (R-Alexandria) and has 17 Republican cosponsors, but not a single Democratic cosponsor. As The…
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Minnesota’s “mainstream media professionals” gathered for a two-day conference this week at Hamline University to discuss the “impact that racial narratives have on individuals, communities, and trust in media—and how they can collaborate to change it.” The conference, called “Truth and Transformation: Changing Racial Narratives in Media,” was made possible…
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is polling worse than former Secretary of State John Kerry, who hasn’t even declared candidacy, according to a new CNN poll. The poll, conducted between March 14 and March 17, had Klobuchar at three percent among likely voters, while Kerry received four percent. Just 14 percent…
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A shocking new report from the Center of the American Experiment found that a 50 percent renewable energy mandate would cost $80.2 billion in Minnesota alone by the year 2050. Minnesota’s current renewable energy mandate, or REM, requires that 25 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by…
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by Molly Prince Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar blamed President Donald Trump on Sunday after reports members of the Minnesota Democratic Party are considering removing her from congressional office for her repeated anti-Semitic statements. I am sorry Mr. @realDonaldTrump 🎶 I am for real, you can’t #MuslimBan us from…
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Department of Human Services Inspector General Carolyn Ham confirmed Monday that she was placed on “investigative leave” following the Office of the Legislative Auditor’s report on fraud in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). Ham is the only inspector general in Minnesota, and her office is housed under the Department…
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A Minnesota College Republicans chapter recently caught several vandals in the act after installing a hidden security camera near their club advertisements. Tayler Lehmann, president of the University of Minnesota, Morris College Republicans, told The College Fix that he’s complained to the university about his club’s ads disappearing in the…
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2020 Democratic contenders descended upon Iowa over the weekend, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who made stops in Dubuque, Waterloo, and Independence. “I followed the Mississippi River down from our snowy announcement and ended up in Dubuque! Great conversations with Iowans who are looking forward to 2020,” the Minnesota senator…
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Two Minneapolis House Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 for local elections. The bill, House File 2423, proposes an amendment to the State Constitution that would allow a “county, municipality, or school district” to “lower the voting age to 16 years of…
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Minnesota House Republicans made multiple attempts this week to subpoena Department of Human Services Inspector General Carolyn Ham to discuss the fraudulent activity in the state’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), but those efforts were repeatedly thwarted. On Wednesday, the Office of the Legislative Auditor released its long-awaited report on…
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Minnesota State Sen. Michelle Benson’s (R-Ham Lake) bill to protect unborn children capable of feeling pain from abortions received its first hearing Thursday, but Planned Parenthood and its allied activists in the state are doing everything they can to kill the bill. Senate File (SF) 1609 was introduced February 21…
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The Minnesota State Senate Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly voted to kill a bill that would have legalized recreational marijuana throughout the state Monday. Senate Bill, SF 619, would have made it legal for individuals “21 years of age or older to cultivate, consume, use, and possess cannabis, cannabis products, and cannabis accessories,” as…
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A group of Somali workers at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Shakopee organized another walkout during an overnight shift Friday. In a Facebook post, the Awood Center, a local non-profit seeking to build “East African worker power,” said that a “majority of workers in the STOW department at Amazon’s MSP1 facility…
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City Pages, a subsidiary of The Star Tribune, recently published a story titled: “Minnesota Sun: A Republican mega-donor site masquerading as ‘local news.’” The article was based on a Snopes “investigation” of Star News Digital Media, Inc., the parent company of The Minnesota Sun as well as The Ohio Star,…
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has been accused of domestic abuse twice, spoke Friday at a press conference to celebrate International Women’s Day. “This International Women’s Day 2019 we celebrate the passage of the ERA in the Minnesota House. Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect regardless of…
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Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN-03) hosted a town hall Saturday in Minnesota where he joked about giving a guest a piece of “chocolate cake” in the “spirit of celebrating diversity.” The town hall was called to discuss HR 1, or the For the People Act, a radical election-reform package introduced by…
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Ramin Parsa, a Christian pastor who was arrested at the Mall of America in August and charged with trespassing, was cleared of all charges during a court hearing Thursday. “Praise the Lord! The prosecution is suspended, no more criminal charges, pleaded not guilty. Thank you so much for your prayers.…
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The University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota prohibited a conservative club from hosting prominent pro-life speaker Star Parker for an on-campus event. The campus Young America’s Foundation (YAF) chapter invited Parker to speak on campus, but administrators alerted the group in a February 20 email that “there were quite…
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The Minnesota Department of Human Rights and Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit Thursday against CSL Plasma for turning away a transgender donor. According to a press release, Alice James, a biological male, began donating plasma in 2011 at the company’s collection center in Duluth, but was required to…
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed Wednesday that a 23-year-old man accused of sexually abusing a resident of a St. Cloud senior center is in the country illegally. ICE issued an immigration detainer and administrative arrest warrant against Jesus Manzanilla-Alvarado after responding to a call from St. Benedict’s Center…
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A group of Minnesotans gathered at the State Capitol Wednesday night to host a prayer rally for Pastor Ramin Parsa, who was arrested at the Mall of America in August on charges of misdemeanor trespassing. As The Minnesota Sun reported in November, Parsa visited Minnesota in August and was invited…
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has joined another multi-state lawsuit against the Trump administration over its revisions to the Title X family-planning grant program. In late February, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced changes to the Title X program and now requires “clear financial and physical separation…
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Democratic lawmakers are preparing to formally denounce Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN-05) anti-Semitic comments in a House resolution set to be voted on Wednesday. Omar once again found herself at the center of a controversy after video leaked of her making anti-Semitic comments at a Washington, D.C. coffee shop. “I want…
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A representative from Moms Demand Action sat down with Esme Murphy on WCCO Sunday morning where she repeatedly claimed that the gun-control group is “nonpartisan.” Moms Demand Action is a national organization with chapters in states all across the country that are pushing for gun-control measures, such as the red-flag…
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Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) announced a proposal to make Minnesota a 100 percent clean energy state by 2050 at a press conference Monday morning. “Today I’m excited to be here to propose our One Minnesota path to clean energy—a set of policy proposals that will lead Minnesota to 100 percent…
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A new bill in the Minnesota House would require any business that contracts with the state government to demonstrate that it has affirmative-action policies in place. “For all contracts for good and services in excess of $100,000, no department or agency of the state shall accept any bid or proposal…
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) spoke Saturday night at the esteemed Gridiron Club dinner in Washington D.C. where she attempted to joke about the recent stories detailing her abusive behavior towards her staffers. The New York Times reported February 22 that, in one instance, Klobuchar berated a staff member who forgot…
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The Minnesota House Education Policy Committee held its first hearing Friday for a bill that would require public-school teachers to discuss “healthy relationships, including relationships involving diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in the classroom.” Rep. Todd Lippert (D-Northfield), a freshman House member and lead sponsor of the bill, said…
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Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) budget proposal calls for a one-time payment of $350,000 and $200,000 each year thereafter to implement gun control measures that are currently being considered by the Minnesota Legislature. As The Minnesota Sun reported Friday, both a “red flag” bill and a universal background checks bill cleared…
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The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission called the heads of the state’s energy and electric companies to a hearing Thursday to discuss their shortfalls during January’s polar vortex. Representatives from Xcel Energy, Centerpoint Energy, and Great Plains Gas were all in attendance. Of particular concern was Xcel’s request that its 460,000…
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DFL lawmakers are closer than ever before to passing multiple gun-control bills in Minnesota as a Republican-controlled Senate stands in the way. A universal background checks bill and a “red flag” law both advanced out of committee this week. The former was approved by the House Public Safety Committee late…
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Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) will have to reexamine his budget proposal “line by line” after Thursday’s budget forecast came up $492 million short of November’s estimated $1.5 billion surplus. It’s only been nine days since Walz unveiled his first budget proposal for the 2020-2021 biennium, which capped out at $49.5…
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is now suggesting that she’s been accused of anti-Semitism “because I’m Muslim.” As was widely reported, Omar faced significant backlash earlier this month after she suggested that Jewish money is influencing bipartisan support of Israel—a variation of a common anti-Semitic trope. She eventually issued an apology,…
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A bill introduced in the Minnesota House Wednesday calls for $8 million in funding to assist with installing “public electric vehicle supply equipment” across the state. As The Minnesota Sun previously reported, the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council recently approved $4 million in funding for a shared electric-car program set to…
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The taxpayer-funded Minnesota State Arts Board shelled out $10,000 to a local artist who used the money to paint a seven-foot-tall picture of President Donald Trump groping Lady Justice. As part of the Minnesota State Arts Board FY 2018 grants program, Shafer artist Jim Denomie created a series “of large…
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Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), a former Planned Parenthood executive, is proudly defending her vote against a bill that would protect babies who survive botched abortions. “Colleagues, that’s what this bill does. It would give the politicians in this room the power to make medical decisions for women and their families.…
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Minnesota House and Senate Democrats unveiled a set of companion bills to ban private prisons in the state at a press conference Tuesday. The legislation comes in response to talks of reopening Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota, which is owned by CoreCivic and has been closed since 2010. House…
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Google wants 20 years’ worth of future tax breaks with a value of up to $15 million for a data center the tech giant plans to build in central Minnesota. Google plans to build the $600 million data center in Sherburne County on 300 acres owned by Xcel Energy. According…
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota announced Monday that it has filed suit against Anoka-Hennipen School District 11 for preventing a transgender student from using the boys’ locker room. At a press conference Monday hosted by Gender Justice, who’s partnering with the ACLU on the case, ACLU Staff…
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A DFL-backed bill on “sexual health education” in the Minnesota House would require public-school teachers to discuss “healthy relationships, including relationships involving diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.” House File (HF) 1414 was introduced February 21 and referred to the Education Policy Committee. It would mandate that the commissioner of…
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There are currently 690 bills in the Minnesota House that have been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, whose Democratic chairman can move bills between subcommittees with just his signature. As The Minnesota Sun previously reported, the Democratic-controlled House kicked off the 2019 session by passing a set…
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Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN-02) hosted her second town hall Saturday in Red Wing, Minnesota, where she was asked about a number of issues, including universal health care and abortion. “The other thing that I wanted to ask you about is we’ve seen states recently that passed laws that legalized abortions…
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The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus hosted a rally at the State Capitol Saturday to “defend the Second Amendment” and take a stand against gun-control legislation making its way through the House. “Michael Bloomberg’s out-of-state gun control agenda is already out in full force during the 2019 legislative session after spending…
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Several pieces of pro-life legislation have been introduced by Republicans in both the Minnesota House and Senate. While they all face uphill battles against a Democratic-controlled House and a progressive in the Governor’s Mansion, pro-life leaders think that at least some of the measures should attract bipartisan support. Senate File…
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Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) proposed budget for the 2020-2021 biennium calls for a $700,000 increase in funding for his own office to help with “outreach and engagement efforts.” “The Office of Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan recommends a $700,000 FY 2020-2021 biennial General Fund increase to fund…
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