Minnesota
June 22, 2023 — Scott Johnson
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
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June 21, 2023 — John Hinderaker
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
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June 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
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’
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June 18, 2023 — Scott Johnson
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.
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June 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Attorney General Merrick Garland came to town yesterday 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 results from a DoJ investigation launched in the wake of Derek Chauvin’s
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June 14, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Minnesota’s DFL Party is being held up by leftists around the country as a paragon of success, so Governor Tim Walz is making the rounds. On Sunday Walz appeared on MSNBC, interviewed by Jonathan Capehart. In his typically low-class way, Walz took the opportunity to smear governors of nearby states, including South Dakota: [T]he Minnesota governor blasted his Republican counterpart in South Dakota, [Kristi] Noem, for her criticism of Target
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June 12, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Liberals across the country are congratulating Minnesota’s Democrats on the state’s just-concluded legislative session. Barack Obama cited the DFL’s “accomplishments” as evidence that elections have consequences. He is right, for once, even when an election flips a state’s Senate by just one seat and 321 votes. The Democrats’ margin may have been vanishingly slim, but the election’s consequences are indeed far-reaching. Minnesota Democrats legalized abortion up to the moment of
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June 9, 2023 — Scott Johnson
City Journal has posted my essay/review of Keith Ellison’s Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence. I am grateful to managing editor Paul Beston for letting me have my say under the auspices of City Journal and for giving me permission to cross-post my review on Power Line today. Please see the review as published with links here at City Journal. Having covered Ellison’s career on Power Line
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June 8, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The Star Tribune is offering “a gift for graduates,” as editorial editor and vice president Scott Gillespie put it in his daily newsletter yesterday (link omitted): “The Star Tribune is offering every high school grad in the state a free one-year subscription. Use this link to sign up for the subscription, which will not automatically renew. Congrats and good reading, graduates.” Woo hoo! It’s got a good sports section. I’ll
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June 4, 2023 — Scott Johnson
This should be the last part of my series of notes on Keith Ellison’s memoir of the Chauvin prosecution for the death of George Floyd — Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence. The series has let me take my eye off the news while I read the book and wrote a review that may see light in some form some time in the next week or two.
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June 3, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Since retiring from the practice of law at the end of 2015, I have devoted my life to trying to save the state of Minnesota. Of course, as I often say, I am not just fighting for Minnesota: I am fighting for America. You can give up on Minnesota, and many have. But you can’t give up on America; if we lose our country, there is nowhere left to run.
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June 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Keith Ellison’s Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence posits the death of George Floyd in the custody of the Minneapolis police as representative of the murderous rampage of law enforcement authorities against black Americans. Yesterday I noted that Ellison fails to cite any statistical analysis or study of deadly force police encounters to support the premise that the “cycle of police violence” exists. He also fails to
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June 1, 2023 — Scott Johnson
United States District Judge Patrick Schiltz supervised the Blue Grand Jury that indicted Derek Chauvin et al. on federal civil rights charges following Chauvin’s conviction in state court for the murder of George Floyd. The indictment was sealed, but someone leaked news of the sealed indictment to Star Tribune reporter Andy Mannix. Mannix’s story was dated April 29, 2021, a few days in advance of the unsealing of the federal
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May 31, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I’m still working my way through Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s just-published memoir Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence. I hope to write a formal book review that administers justice to the book. In the meantime, I want to post a series of notes on the book. This is Ellison’s second memoir and it shares certain traits in common with the first, My Country, Tis of Thee:
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May 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I’m slowly working my way through Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s just-published memoir Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence. I hope to write a formal book review. I’m taking my time reading the book, compiling notes on it, and doing research on related points. I want to post a series of brief comments on the book on Power Line while I am working my way through it.
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May 28, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Fourth District Rep. Betty McCollum is a malicious nobody and pre-Squad Israel hater. She has stayed around long enough to become the ranking Democratic member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. As such, she attended President Biden’s announcement this past Thursday of his intent to nominate General Charles Q. Brown, the Air Force chief of staff, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The
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May 25, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I covered the Supreme Court oral argument in Geraldine Tyler v. Hennepin County last month in “Geraldine Tyler’s day in court.” The following week I stepped back for a broader view of the case in “Argumentum interruptum — live on FOX News!” In the latter post I wrote (link omitted): Ms. Tyler lost in the district court and on appeal because the courts felt bound to apply the 1956 Supreme
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