Search Results for: media access in one state
November 13, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday President Biden nominated Andrew Luger to serve as United States Attorney for Minnesota. The Star Tribune reported in early September that the FBI was conducting its final background check on Luger prior to his nomination. Something must have held it up. With Luger’s formal nomination, I am restating what I wrote this past September. This would be Luger’s second tour. He also served as United States Attorney under President
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June 6, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I want to add more notes to our coverage of Winston Boogie Smith, the target of a North Star Fugitive Task Force arrest operation that cornered him at the top of the parking ramp adjacent to Uptown’s Seven Points (better known as Calhoun Square). Smith appears to have engaged in a gun battle with members of the task force when they sought to arrest him on an outstanding warrant this
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May 8, 2021 — John Hinderaker
The shutdowns that state governments foolishly imposed in a futile, as I think, effort to stop the COVID-19 virus disproportionately impacted young people, who had hardly any vulnerability to the virus. Most significantly, young people were deprived of a year or more of effective education, along with the opportunity to interact with their friends and participate in school-related activities. The effects will be with us for a generation. At AmericanExperiment.org,
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February 25, 2021 — Scott Johnson
In the words of John Lennon, war is over (if you want it) — the war in this case being the war on COVID-19. The public health emergency is over and yet governors such as Minnesota’s egregious Tim Walz continue to control the “dials” of our lives, as the authorities here refer to them. They have us fighting on like Japanese soldiers who haven’t heard that the Emperor surrendered. Kevin
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January 5, 2021 — Scott Johnson
When I obtained evidence making out the illegality of the Minnesota Department of Health’s exclusion of me from regular press briefings, I retained Dorsey and Whitney’s Theresa Bevilacqua to represent me in a lawsuit against MDH Commissioner Jan Malcolm and MDH press flack Michael Schommer in federal district court. The case was assigned to Judge Donovan Frank, who promptly denied MDH’s motion to dismiss my lawsuit. Malcolm and Schommer then
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December 2, 2020 — Scott Johnson
As I noted yesterday in part 132, the authorities reported a single day record number of deaths on November 25 (reported on November 27). The number was 101. As always, these fatalities swept up the infirm elderly in nursing homes and elsewhere. Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm nevertheless refrained from express mention of this fact in her special November 27 statement: Thanksgiving Weekend is a sad time to
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December 1, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz took over Monday’s regularly scheduled Department of Health press briefing yesterday. He advertised it as a “deep dive” on the data that is now to become a feature of Monday briefings with Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, who performed the “deep dive” with slides that mostly do not appear in the video I have embedded below. (The cited data are accessible at the MDH Situation Update,
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November 24, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz convened yet another COVID-19 press conference yesterday afternoon (video below). The verbiage flowed in the usual torrent. His performance made me wonder if the Emmy Foundation gave Walz a fair shot before it chose to recognize New York Governor Andrew Cuomo with an Emmy for his press conferences. Like Cuomo, Walz deserves some kind of recognition for what he has wrought in his press conferences. Indeed, Walz’s failure
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November 21, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Governor Walz’s most recent shutdown order became effective overnight. He seized control of the public relations this week by taking over each of the press briefings usually run by the Minnesota Department of Health. He concluded with a bang yesterday, convening a briefing on mental health issues exacerbated by the shutdown and related restrictions. He also hosted several guests from mental health services along with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and
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November 18, 2020 — Scott Johnson
My friends at Justice and Drew on Twin Cities News Talk AM 1130 invited me to discuss the resolution of my First Amendment press access lawsuit against Minnesota Department of Health officials this morning. Drew Lee kindly clipped the audio at my request (below). I would like to note the comments of unqualified support by Fluence Media’s Blois Olson and the Minnesota Reformer‘s Patrick Coolican on the resolution of the
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November 14, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I would like faithful readers of this series to know that I have reached an agreement to settle my lawsuit against Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm and MDH Communications Director Michael Schommer. I am awaiting only their execution of the agreement. Although it has attracted roughly no attention beyond my own coverage on Power Line, the lawsuit vindicates the First Amendment in the context of the MDH press
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August 26, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Drew Lee has clipped the audio of my segment with him and guest host Max Rymer on Justice & Drew this morning (audio below, rest of the show available in podcast form here). Drew invited me to discuss my lawsuit seeking access to the regular Minnesota Department of Health COVID-19 press briefings from which I have been excluded since April 27. See the related post earlier today here. Unfortunately, Drew
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July 16, 2020 — Scott Johnson
The authorities attributed 8 new deaths to COVID-19 yesterday. One of the decedents was in his 100’s. I have yet to see a story profiling one of the centenarians lost to the disease. I think a story or two along these lines would be useful (more on this below). The total of all decedents has reached 1,518. Five of the 8 new deaths occurred among residents of long-term care facilities.
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June 24, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued his first significant COVID-19 shutdown order on March 16. The order was subsequently continued and extended on March 25 with the ensuing loss of some 795,00 jobs. I wondered if Walz took any account of the economic devastation he was causing before he promulgated his shutdown orders. On April 23 I submitted a Minnesota Data Practices Act request to Governor Walz seeking “all economic data
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June 22, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz issued his first significant COVID-19 shutdown order on March 16. The order was subsequently continued and extended on March 25 with the ensuing loss of some 795,00 jobs. I wondered if Walz took any account of the economic devastation he was causing before he promulgated his shutdown orders. On April 23 I submitted a Minnesota Data Practices Act request to Governor Walz seeking “all economic data
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May 29, 2020 — Scott Johnson
KSTP TV’s Tom Hauser made it onto the Minnesota Department of Health’s daily press briefing and got picked from the queue to ask a good question yesterday. His Twitter rant serve him well. Tom asked about the nursing home crisis that has remained the locus of the risk of fatality posed by the COVID-19 epidemic in Minnesota. Tom posed his question at about 18:00 of the briefing audio (below). Tom
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May 23, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday brought the news that this year’s edition of the Minnesota State Fair is canceled. Dating back to our territorial days, the fair was last canceled in 1948 as a result of the polio epidemic. The cancelation is only the fifth time in the fair’s history. State authorities advised the fair board that COVID-19 “would still be with us at dangerous levels” at the end of August, according to Health
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