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Minnesota Reformer
Tim Walz isn’t complicated. America is.
I’ve watched with some amusement as coastal, very online lefties have crushed on Gov. Tim Walz, who can ably voice progressive ideas while (authentically) wearing Carhartt. You’d think he were a cat who suddenly started playing a blues guitar. And I get the excitement: A presidential ticket pairing Walz with Vice President Kamala Harris, the […]
The only Spanish-language Mass in St. Cloud got canceled. The congregation is fighting back.
The one place Eylin Sosa felt at home in the U.S. was at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Waite Park. Every Sunday, she walked to St. Joseph’s from her home for the Spanish Mass. There, she worshiped alongside other people from her home country of Nicaragua — and those from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela, […]
Valvoline agrees to drop noncompete agreements in settlement with 6 state attorneys general
Oil change chain Valvoline agreed to drop noncompete agreements with hourly workers as part of a settlement agreement with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and a coalition of five other state attorneys general. Valvoline required its hourly workers to sign noncompete agreements that barred them from performing oil changes for another company within 100 miles […]
Trump insults Harris, makes false claims, quarrels with Black journalists at conference
CHICAGO — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Wednesday underwent questioning from a National Association of Black Journalists panel in a turbulent session during which he falsely claimed Vice President Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black” during her political career. Through the roughly 35-minute combative event, the former president rarely answered questions, lied and exaggerated, attacked […]
How Minnesota changed during Tim Walz’s tenure
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has hit the talk show circuit in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign and is currently on the short list to serve as her running mate, according to media reports. The sudden, intense speculation about Walz has sparked interest in his gubernatorial record, which began in 2019. One way […]
Worried about bird flu mutation, feds seek livestock worker vaccinations
Federal health officials are encouraging farm workers who tend livestock and poultry to get vaccinated for seasonal influenza to help prevent a bird flu mutation that might spark a pandemic in people. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday it would devote up to $5 million to pay for the vaccinations, and […]
Minneapolis Police Department hasn’t published all disciplinary records as required
The Minneapolis Police Department released a batch of nine disciplinary decisions as part of a November public records request, including a suspension of an officer for taking a vehicle home without authorization and driving it thousands of miles.
Study: Undocumented immigrants paid $222 million in Minnesota taxes in 2022
Undocumented workers contributed $97 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022, according to a study released on Tuesday by the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. In Minnesota, undocumented immigrants contributed nearly $222 million in state and local taxes in 2022. The report’s authors estimate these workers’ tax contributions would grow to […]
One idea to curb the invasive Asian carp: Eat them
Midwestern states are spending millions every year to prevent a giant, goggle-eyed fish from invading rivers and lakes. But the Asian carp has firmly established a home in the Mississippi River basin, and experts say they are here to stay. Now, researchers are hoping that creating new markets for the invasive fish could be part […]
JD Vance is making the political debate around parenting weird
JD Vance is getting a lot of attention for his remarks he made a couple of years ago attacking Vice President Kamala Harris as a “childless cat lady,” and questioning why we’d let people without children into positions of power. Let’s skip over the fact that Harris has two stepchildren, that everyone has a stake […]
South Dakota father is leading effort to restore abortion rights in the state
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of conversations about voter-initiated efforts to restore abortion access across the country. Unlike other abortion-rights initiatives across the country, major reproductive rights groups haven’t backed the effort to restore access in South Dakota. But that hasn’t stopped Dakotans for Health — a ballot question committee behind […]
Congress must become a fortuneteller since Supreme Court knocked down Chevron deference
“Deference is appropriate where the relevant language, carefully considered, can yield more than one reasonable interpretation … Chevron is a recognition that the ambiguities in statutes are to be resolved by the agencies charged with implementing them.” — Justice Antonin Scalia (1991) Imagine you were born after July 1, 2024. You are reading this old […]
Iowa’s six-week abortion ban is now in effect
Many patients seeking abortion care in Iowa in the past few weeks were unaware that the state has banned most abortions beginning Monday, Planned Parenthood staff said. More than six years after the Legislature first attempted to pass the law, abortion became illegal in Iowa, with narrow exceptions, at 8 a.m. Monday. Kristina Remus, a […]
Trump hones attacks on Harris at St. Cloud rally as he seeks to flip Minnesota red
ST. CLOUD — Former President Donald Trump had new material on Vice President Kamala Harris for thousands of cheering supporters in St. Cloud on Saturday evening at a rally with his running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D Vance. Trump called Harris — the likely Democratic nominee for president since President Joe Biden ended his reelection […]
Trump hones attacks on Harris at St. Cloud rally as he seeks to flip Minnesota red
ST. CLOUD — Former President Donald Trump had new material on Vice President Kamala Harris for thousands of cheering supporters in St. Cloud on Saturday evening at a rally with his running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance. Trump called Harris — the likely Democratic nominee for president since President Joe Biden ended his reelection […]
Minneapolis parks workers reach tentative agreement, ending three-week-long strike
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and the union representing some 300 arborists, park keepers and other workers reached a tentative agreement Friday on a new labor contract that ends a three-week-long strike, the first in the park system’s 141-year history. “We’re happy to get back to work … It’s been tiring, but I know […]
Nurses union posts major gains in northern Minnesota — and other labor news
Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Minnesota nurses union’s organizing blitz at Essentia; Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board reaches tentative agreement with striking workers; Medical staffing agency required to pay $336,000 to workers charged illegal fees; Unions line up behind Harris for […]
In long-sought change, states must consider tribal rights when crafting water rules
In the 1800s, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa joined other tribes in signing a pair of treaties with the federal government, giving up massive swaths of land in return for the creation of a reservation in eastern Minnesota. The treaties included a guarantee: Tribal members would be able to return in […]
U.S. home prices hit a record high as sales fell. Here’s how housing experts explain the trends
U.S. median home prices hit a record high for the second month in a row as sales continued to fall, according to a report released this week, as potential buyers continue to lie in wait for lower mortgage rates. Existing home sales fell 5.4% in June and median home sales reached its highest level on […]
Children of the slash pile
Last March, they logged under the old railroad trestle where Itasca County’s Scenic Highway 7 meets State Highway 169. Anyone driving between Hibbing and Grand Rapids this summer saw the results. This scene on the western Mesabi Range recalls historical photographs. Dried ruts criss-cross the mud. Bark everywhere. Limbs strewn. Bent and scrubby survivors stand […]
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