Minnesota

The Fall of Minneapolis: A preview

Featured image Alpha News has just released a preview of its upcoming documentary The Fall of Minneapolis. Alpha’s fearless and Emmy Award-winning reporter Liz Collin wrote and produced the documentary. Dr. J.C. Chaix directed it. Alpha News reports: The documentary exposes the holes in the prevailing narrative surrounding George Floyd’s death, the trial of Derek Chauvin, and the fallout that both wrought on the city of Minneapolis. The documentary features dozens of »

We’re number 49

Featured image I think the gist of recent Star Tribune coverage is that downtown Minneapolis is coming back — from Covid, from crime, from office closures, and so on. One-party Democratic misrule doesn’t factor into the Star Tribune’s equation of municipal challenges, but it should. For context, see Neal St. Anthony’s February 2022 column “St. Anthony: Downtown Minneapolis comeback still iffy proposition but better bet than last month.” As for the generally »

Proof That Law Enforcement Does Not Discriminate Against Blacks

Featured image In May 2020, the world was turned upside down when a massively-overdosed George Floyd died on a Minneapolis street while waiting for an ambulance that could have saved his life. The narrative that Minnesota’s criminal justice system was biased against blacks immediately took hold, encouraged by Minnesota’s own state and local officials. In response to that narrative, states and local jurisdictions across America, and even around the world, enacted “reforms” »

Triggered

Featured image There I was, placidly reading Michael Barone’s excellent column “The Proximal Origin of a Scientific Fraud.” Referring to the recently released emails that reveal the “Proximal Origins” deceit, Barone concludes: I found the cynicism revealed in these emails shocking, even though I have written critically, in July 2021 and March 2023, about government scientists’ attempts to discredit the lab leak theory. I note that statistics guru Nate Silver, not a »

From the Saborit file: A bitter postscript

Featured image I did a lot of digging to report on the case of Alexis Saborit, the illegal alien who beheaded America Thayer in Shakopee, Minnesota on July 28, 2021. I focused on Saborit’s status as an illegal immigrant because the Star Tribune has kept this aspect of the case a deep secret. (By contrast, Crime Watch MN/Alpha News has led with it.) America was murdered in broad daylight in Shakopee. At »

Next time I see Matt Birk

Featured image I was standing at the back of a long line at our local Coldstone Creamery a few weeks ago when former Minnesota Viking Matt Birk walked in with two of his eight kids. When he left the Vikings after ten or eleven seasons he moved on to the Baltimore Ravens, with whom he won a Super Bowl ring. As he took the spot in line immediately behind me, I introduced »

In the Chauvin case, MN Sup Ct takes a pass

Featured image Derek Chauvin petitioned the Minnesota Supreme Court for discretionary review of the Court of Appeals decision affirming his conviction for the murder of George Floyd. The Minnesota Supreme Court has now denied review. My friend Bill Mohrman represents Chauvin. Bill has forwarded the following statement: We are obviously disappointed that the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to review the criminal trial against Mr. Chauvin. The most significant issue on which we »

Garland of thorns for MPD revisited

Featured image Attorney General Merrick Garland came to town on June 16 to indict the Minneapolis Police Department for racism, find it guilty, and announce the terms to which municipal authorities have agreed. The Department of Justice press release is here, Garland’s remarks at the press conference here, the DoJ’s 89-page report here, and the parties’ settlement in principle here. The report stems from a DoJ investigation launched in the wake of »

Minnesota Whines

Featured image Minnesota’s Department of Human Rights released a statement on the Supreme Court’s 303 Creative decision, which I wrote about here. First the statement, then some comments on it: So, what exactly has the Supreme Court done that the State of Minnesota think is a blow to gay people’s civil rights? If a gay couple is getting married and they go to a web designer to set up a page to »

Don’t forgive this!

Featured image FOX 9 is the Twin Cities Fox affiliate. Via Twitter, I see that it has gone deep on the Supreme Court case holding that President Biden lacked the authority to forgive some $430 billion in student debt with the wave of a pen. FOX 9’s Corin Hoggard covers the “story” “Burden of student debt heavier for minorities after Supreme Court ruling.” Hoggard overlooks the constitutional issue addressed by the Court »

Trans Tourism, the Key to Economic Development?

Featured image Minnesota is not thriving. The state consistently loses residents to states with lower taxes, like Florida and South Dakota. The exodus is especially alarming with regard to Minnesota’s most productive citizens, i.e., those with incomes over $50,000. What to do? Governor Tim Walz and his minions have suggested that Minnesota’s newfound status as a state that permits abortion up to and beyond the moment of birth, and as a “trans »

With Jon Justice, thinking about Drew Lee

Featured image I’m joining Jon Justice in the studio tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. (Central) Minneapolis’s KTLK AM 1130 and FM 103.5. The channel can be live streamed here. Please tune in and call producer Robbie Rosenhaus to chime in on the studio line: (651) 989-5855. Jon paid tribute to his late colleague Drew Lee on Twitter over the weekend. Drew died unexpectedly on Saturday, June 25, 2022. Jon and Drew had »

As Minneapolis rolls

Featured image Municipal authorities seek to reduce car trips in the city by increasing the use of public transit, biking, walking and rolling. By 2030, they want 60 percent of all such trips to avoid use of cars. They have vowed to achieve a modal shift. It’s an ambitious goal. Me, I’m going with the rolling option. Roll me another one, just like the other one. Hey, it’s all good and legal, »

A Painter passing through, Senate edition

Featured image University of Minnesota Law School Professor Richard Painter holds himself out as an ethics guru. During the Trump administration, for his numerous appearances on MSNBC, Painter also held himself out as a Republican critic of Trump. When he undertook a campaign for the United States Senate in 2018, however, he challenged incumbent appointee Tina Smith as a Democrat in the DFL primary. Indeed, he ran to Smith’s left. Painter is »

We Are In the Very Best of Hands

Featured image The City of Minneapolis is circling the drain, but its Boy Mayor, Jacob Frey, remains ebullient. He celebrated Juneteenth by showing off some dance moves. He’s really good: Mayor Jacob Frey celebrates Juneteenth in Minneapolis: pic.twitter.com/jYGIJZlPkp — Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) June 21, 2023 We’ve come a long way from, say, Mayor Daley. Or Minneapolis’s own Charles Stenvig, a former police officer who was elected in the wake of riots and »

Why Do We Tolerate Crime?

Featured image I wrote yesterday about the appalling murder–call it what it was–of five young Somali women by a career criminal named Derrick Thompson. Derrick is the son of John Thompson, a former DFL legislator who is best known as an anti-police activist, and who also has a considerable criminal record, largely related to traffic violations. Derrick Thompson was clocked at 95 to 100 mph on Highway 35W, probably the Twin Cities’ »

Color him father

Featured image I wrote this on Father’s Day in 2010. It is a post that struck a chord with at least a few readers. I amplified it in 2020 and am taking the liberty of reposting these reflections in honor of the day. My father was a thoughtful man in his own way. In the last years of his life he recited for me the things for which he was most grateful. »