Government & Politics
Minneapolis Council Members want to ban fur coat sales
Minneapolis City Council Members Alondra Cano and Cam Gordon announced today they plan to introduce an ordinance that would ban the sale and manufacture of new animal fur products. The proposed fur ban would threaten the business of one of the largest fur retailers in the United States, Ribnick Fur & Leather, which was founded […]
Gazelka’s comments ignite strong reactions
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka’s comments in an interview with Colorado televangelist Andrew Wommack generated strong reaction Thursday from Minnesota’s LGBTQ community and progressives, who pledged to flip the GOP-controlled state Senate. In the hour-long interview, which was reported by the Minnesota Reformer, Gazelka explained why he believes churches and counselors should be free to […]
Presidential primary voting starts in Minnesota today. What do polls and data tell us?
Want to see the maps? Check out our slideshow at the bottom of this story. Minnesotans may not be first in the nation in the presidential race like Iowa, but we will be first to go to the polls. That’s because early voting starts Friday, 46 days before our March 3 presidential primary. Without good […]
The answer to refugee-baiting? Minnesotanness.
I often joke that my graduate studies in anthropology became a life skill when I moved to Minnesota. The classic tools of the discipline — where one is traught to observe, analyze, and come to conclusions about often “exotic” other cultures — prepared me well for Life Among the Minnesotans. Some aspects of Minnesotanness will […]
Minnesota sent 5 newbies to Washington last year. What have they done? Who will return?
WASHINGTON — There’s a new crop of Minnesotans on Capitol Hill, and they’re hoping to stick around for a while. Five of the state’s eight representatives in the U.S. House are freshmen, and at least two of them are likely to face tough reelection races in November. They’ve all spent their first year in office […]
Senate leader tells televangelist he’s in a ‘spiritual battle’
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka used a recent interview with a conservative televangelist to share candid views about his faith and how it shapes his approach to governing. “A lot of my job frankly is stopping the onslaught of the left from continually moving us in a way that we know is contrary to the […]
Beltrami County refugee vote hypocritical, commissioner says
When Beltrami County became the first local government in Minnesota to refuse to accept new refugees under President Donald Trump’s executive order, one county commissioner noted the irony and hypocrisy of the vote. Commissioner Tim Sumner, a member of the Red Lake Nation, told the Star Tribune, “A lot of people that migrated here are […]
Safe injection sites are successful internationally, so why did Minneapolis say no?
In 2019, the city of Minneapolis recorded more than 1,300 drug overdoses, the most in at least a dozen years. At the start of that dismal year, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey rejected proposals to open safe places for addicts to use drugs under medical supervision, which advocates say could have contained the 2019 overdose epidemic. […]
Some prominent Minnesotans want to amend the state constitution for education
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page and Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari want to amend the state’s constitution to say “all children have a fundamental right to a quality public education.” The proposal has garnered mixed reaction, with both the state teachers union and state Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, coming out […]
The story of a school levy and what it means for Minnesota
WORTHINGTON — Before 2016, cheer coach and youth leader Jessica Lee Velasco, a 37-year-old mother of seven, mostly worried about coaching the girls on her squad and shuttling her kids to soccer and hockey practices on time. The south Texas native, who met her husband here, had come to love the small-town life of Worthington, […]
Minnesota Republicans say they’re going to make urban crime an issue. Here’s the data.
Minnesota Republicans are taking a cue from President Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 election by raising an incendiary issue: Urban crime. Although there’s not a single Republican in the state Legislature representing either St. Paul or Minneapolis, GOP leadership are already signaling they will try to leverage fear of urban crime to win support […]