Minnesota
February 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson
We went to see the current touring production of Les Misérables at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Minneapolis last night. The tickets were a birthday gift to my wife — it was her third time seeing various productions of the show. She wanted to see it again. Last night it played to a packed house of 2,600 in the conclusion of its six-day run in town. I identified with the
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February 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker
On issue after issue, the Democrats are staking out bizarrely radical positions. Everything relating to gender is in this category. Here in Minnesota, the DFL Party is perhaps the nation’s most left-wing. Thus, on all issues relating to gender, state policy is dictated by Leigh Finke, a man (XY chromosomes) who wears dresses. Here, Finke explains why he opposes a proposed law that would require age verification for pornographic web
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February 21, 2026 — Bill Glahn
From the Associated Press (AP), How a defendant in Minnesota went free because of Justice Department turmoil. The AP wants you to be angry at Donald Trump for enforcing immigration laws. AP reports, As far as I can piece together, Mr. McKay’s dozen previous felony convictions all were acquired in state courts. Yet, not a single state prosecutor, not a single state judge thought to put Mr. McKay behind bars.
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February 21, 2026 — Bill Glahn
The latest weapon in the Democrats’ war against ICE and the enforcement of immigration laws is judicial contempt of court filings, including cash fines and threats of imprisonment for government employees as they inevitably fall short of the impossible and contradictory demands of federal judges and the “immigration bar.” I’ve documented the practice before in conjunction with the overuse of the habeas corpus petitions. Private lawyers file such petition to
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February 20, 2026 — John Hinderaker
My friend Walter Hudson is a Republican member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Yesterday, Walter took the floor in the House chamber and told Democrats the truth about their insurrection against the Supremacy Clause and the Constitution. What he says about Renee Good and Alex Pretti is particularly on point. The Democrats couldn’t deal with it. Note that the DFL posted Walter’s remarks, but completely misrepresented them, because they
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February 19, 2026 — Bill Glahn
Minnesota-based federal district Judge Laura Provinzino (Biden appointee) has found a government lawyer in contempt of court, imposing a $500-a-day fine, for not returning an illegal alien’s ID to him fast enough for her satisfaction. There is not one bit of hyperbole or exaggeration in the above sentence. The case involves an apparent illegal alien, Rigoberto Soto-Jiminez, at one time held in ICE custody, and the subject of a successful
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February 19, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Bill Melugin calls this a “wild one.” Melugin posts this February 18 press release to tell the story of a Minnesota correctional officer and AWOL National Guard member masquerading as a an American citizen despite having no legal status in the United States. The serial fraudster was identified as part of the major enforcement operation that targeted suspected immigration fraud — where else? — in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area last
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February 18, 2026 — Bill Glahn
Fahima Egeh Mahamud became the 79th defendant charged in the sprawling Feeding Our Future fraud case, and the first to be charged in 2026. She is currently being held in the federal lockup at the Sherburne County (MN) jail. According to court filings in the case, Mahamud operated a food distribution site under the name Future Leaders Early Learning Center under the sponsorship of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. According
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February 17, 2026 — Bill Glahn
Metaphors. Last Friday, from the New York Post, This sexually transmitted fungus causes ringworm in some very unfortunate places — and there’s an outbreak. And you’ll never guess where. The Post reports, Cases of TMVII have been on the rise in Europe for the past several years, especially among men who have sex with men. In 2024, an NYC man became the first reported US case of TMVII, and it
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February 17, 2026 — John Hinderaker
For a generation or more, the great rivalry among states was between New York and California. New York was the traditional center of business and finance, California the upstart home of the entertainment industry, followed by technology. But California and New York are now dying. Individuals and companies are fleeing both for greener pastures. Palantir is the latest California-born tech company to move to Florida, although it stopped off briefly
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February 17, 2026 — Scott Johnson
In “The cornerstone 2026” I noted the case of Junior de Jesus Herrera Berrios, the “Burnsville man” (according to the Star Tribune) who was tackled and detained by ICE agents in the Hennepin County Government Center. He was apprehended when he sought to run away from the agents following a state court hearing on drug charges. The drug charges derive from a traffic stop resulting in the discovery of 57
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February 15, 2026 — Scott Johnson
This past week the Wall Street Journal’s Free Expression site published two excellent columns on the crumbling consensus on “gender-affirming care” — one by Louise Perry and one by James Meigs. Perry called her column “Gender-Affirming Care Needs a Lobotomy.” Even though the columns are behind the Journal’s paywall, the video below gives you the gist of what they have to say (after the advertisement). Tim Walz and his fellow
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February 14, 2026 — Bill Glahn
Day 1 of the latest government shutdown has already claimed its first victims. From The Hill newspaper, Johnson’s delegation cancellation upends lawmakers’ travel to critical global summit Following “shutdown” protocols, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson cancelled the official Congressional delegation to the Munich Security Conference. I can’t recall of hearing of this “critical” conference before today. But, maybe that’s just me. As for the ongoing shutdown, The Hill tells us
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February 14, 2026 — Bill Glahn
The purpose of a system is what it does. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Why is Minnesota so vulnerable to Medicaid fraud? Everyone already knows the answer: because the people in charge of Minnesota prefer it that way. But the Star Tribune spends 49 paragraphs pretending to seek an alternative explanation. In the world of journalism, an article like this used to be known as a “thumb-sucker.” I’m not kidding.
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February 14, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The two immigration officers involved in the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis last month have been suspended and are facing a criminal investigation into whether they lied under oath about the shooting. Charges in the case alleged that two men rushed from their home to assault an ICE officer with a broom and a snow shovel while the officers attempted to detain a third person after a January
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February 13, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The drumbeat of opposition to the Trump administration and all its manifestations continues with boring regularity. One of today’s installments comes in the form of an open letter signed by eight former United States Attorneys for Minnesota (three of them Acting). They have joined together to condemn what they call the “ongoing damage” to local law enforcement efforts by Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Trump administration. The former United
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February 12, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison testified this morning before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It did not go well for Ellison, although as usual, the hearing consisted mostly of speeches, not questions and answers. Josh Hawley went after Ellison on the Minnesota fraud scandal: The Minnesota Attorney General just PERJURED himself when I asked why he took campaign donations from the crooks who defrauded the US taxpayer
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