Minnesota
January 5, 2018 — Scott Johnson
With a little encouragement from a faithful Power Line reader in St. Paul, I posted “A modest request for help” for Jason Gatrell on Christmas. Readers may recall that Jason was working the afternoon shift with his younger brother, Jordan, at the Midway-Hamline SuperAmerica on Snelling in St. Paul when Jason jumped in to protect Jordan from an armed robber. In the ensuing melee Jason was shot in the neck.
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January 3, 2018 — Scott Johnson
As I predicted on January 1, Professor Stephen Carter and others to the contrary notwithstanding, (now former) Minnesota Senator Al Franken resigned from office effective noon yesterday. He submitted his resignation to Governor Mark Dayton. Dayton has appointed Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith — another flaky urban liberal — to take Franken’s place. Ms. Smith goes to Washington (or went there yesterday). She will be sworn in within the hour. Back
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January 1, 2018 — Scott Johnson
In the voice of her intriguing narrator in Middlemarch, George Eliot observes: “Among all forms of mistake, prophecy is the most gratuitous.” It is an insight from which we can learn a lot. Mistake comes in many forms, both gratuitous and otherwise somehow inherent in human nature. Of the gratuitous forms, prediction takes the cake. I think the last time I offered up a full set of predictions for the
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December 27, 2017 — Scott Johnson
This morning I only want to thank the hundreds of Power Line readers who contributed to the GoFundMe campaign to support Jason Gatrell. From the moment we noted Jason’s story on Christmas day, the contributions started pouring in. By the following morning, the campaign had reached its initial goal of $25,000 (now raised to $35,000). As of this moment, the contributions total $27,060. Many of you even took the time
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December 25, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Last week a reader and lifelong resident of St. Paul wrote us. He is a regular customer of the busy SuperAmerica outlet on Snelling Avenue just north of Highway 94 in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood. On Thanksgiving Jason Gatrell was working the afternoon shift with his younger brother when Jason jumped in to protect his brother from an armed robber. In the ensuing melee Jason was shot in the neck. The
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December 14, 2017 — Scott Johnson
On Sunday I noted that we are awaiting the charging decision of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman in the July 15 shooting of Justine Damond by Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor. Three months ago the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension turned over its file in the case to Freeman. Freeman has vowed to make the charging decision himself rather than submit the case to a grand jury. He promised to
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December 13, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Governor Dayton will announce this morning that he has chosen Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith to succeed Al Franken in the Senate upon Franken’s resignation. Franken has stated his intention to resign but left the timing vague. Once Dayton makes his announcement this morning I trust that Franken’s departure will follow in due course. Exit the clown. Star Tribune reporter Patrick Coolican notes Smith served as Dayton’s first chief of
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December 10, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Three months ago the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension turned over its file in the July 15 shooting of Justine Damond by Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. Freeman has vowed to make the prosecutorial decision himself rather than submit the case to a grand jury. We therefore await Freeman’s charging decision in this apparently outrageous case. It’s an important case. Justice is due the
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December 6, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Democratic support for the tenure of Minnesota Senator Al Franken in office died on the vine today. First Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stepped forward to call for Franken’s resignation. Her call was followed by other Democratic women senators with the exception of his colleague Amy Klobuchar, whose help was unnecessary to the task at hand. However, she had been among the first Senators to call for Franken’s case to be remitted
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December 4, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Eric Eskola and Cathy Wurzer host the weekly news review Almanac on our local PBS affiliate. This past Friday night they invited John’s and my congressman — Minnesota Second District Rep. Jason Lewis — to discuss the tax bill he had voted for. In the land of Lake Wobegon, Eric and Cathy are above average Minnesota journalists. They nevertheless carry on their discussion with Jason at a low level, I
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December 3, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Al Franken is not just a national story. He is a major Minnesota story. Sometimes it feels like everything’s happening here, that we’re at ground zero of the suicide of the West. If not exactly at ground zero, we are in the vicinity of the intersection of liberal media, liberal governance, liberal social policy, liberal fatuity and liberal preening. It is suffocating. Al Franken is a major Minnesota story not
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November 30, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Emerging today from the “crowded and chaotic situations” in Al Franken’s past is Stephanie Kemplin’s story, related by CNN’s MJ Lee. It involves another grope by Franken while he and Kemplin posed for a photograph on a USO tour in December 2003. The photograph itself is innocent. Kemplin says the grope took place just before the photograph was snapped. Lee reached out to Franken’s spokesman for comment. I think I
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November 28, 2017 — Scott Johnson
A stringer for 5 Eyewitness News in the Twin Cities caught up with Al Franken on his apology tour yesterday. It looks like the interview was conducted on outside the house of Franken’s daughter, where he had been holed up over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I have embedded the whole thing below (about 7 minutes). The quality of the interview pales in comparison to that conducted by Esme Murphy on
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November 27, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Last night CBS Minnesota broadcast excerpts of the interview Al Franken gave to anchor/reporter Esme Murphy at his daughter’s home in Washington, where he rode out the storm over the long Thanksgiving weekend during which he issued laughable and inconsistent statements on his misconduct. CBS Minnesota has posted the broadcast report (video below, about six minutes) and a companion summary here. It has also posted the entire 33-minute interview. If
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November 26, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Senator Al Franken has not yet emerged from the bunker in which he is hiding somewhere in Washington. He will emerge tomorrow when he returns to work to take care of the business at hand, so to speak. Today, however, Franken made himself available to talk to trusted media outlets, such as the Star Tribune. Franken told the Star Tribune’s Jennifer Brooks that the sexual misconduct of which he
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November 26, 2017 — Scott Johnson
When we checked in most recently on the ongoing cage match between Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton and the Republican-majority legislative bodies, the Minnesota Supreme Court had decided that DFL Governor Mark Dayton had the constitutional authority to zero out the legislature’s funding, as Dayton did at the conclusion of the legislative session this past June. The court’s 29-page opinion affirmed the governor’s authority to veto the legislature’s funding so as
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November 25, 2017 — Scott Johnson
The Thanksgiving statement issued by Minnesota Senator Al Franken on ventures in grope and grin photographs poses a test for Minnesota voters and Minnesota media. It is a sort of intelligence test. How stupid are you? Franken is betting that we are on par with the vegetable kingdom’s cabbage and potato. In the annals of false apology, this must set a new record: I’ve met tens of thousands of people
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