Tag Archives: Minnesota

Under Tim Walz people are forced to testify to beliefs they don’t hold or be banned from teaching in Public schools

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Important Takeaways:

  • Effective July 2025, teacher licensing rules passed last year in Minnesota under Democrat Gov. Tim Walz will ban practicing Christians, Jews, and Muslims from teaching in public schools.
  • …Minnesota agencies controlled by Walz appointees will require teacher license applicants to affirm transgenderism and race Marxism. Without a teaching license, individuals cannot work in Minnesota public schools, nor in the private schools that require such licenses.
  • The latest version of the regulations requires teachers to “affirm” students’ “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” to receive a Minnesota teaching license:
    • The teacher fosters an environment that ensures student identities such as race/ethnicity, national origin, language, sex and gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical/developmental/emotional ability, socioeconomic class, and religious beliefs are historically and socially contextualized, affirmed, and incorporated into a learning environment where students are empowered to learn and contribute as their whole selves (emphasis added).
  • Last spring, administrative law judges finally approved these pending changes The Federalist reported one month before they were finalized. Universities are also affected: starting in 2025, they must either train their teaching students to fulfill these anti-Christian requirements or be banned from offering state licensing — and thus the ticket to the vast majority of teaching jobs — to their students.
  • Since 2020 in Minnesota, teachers renewing their licenses, which is usually required every five to seven years, must demonstrate “cultural competency” similar to the requirements imposed in 2025 on new teaching licensees. Teachers renewing their licensing must “Show[] evidence of self-reflection and discussion of” topics that include “Gender Identity, Including Transgender Students” and “Sexual Orientation.” They must also show they understand “bias” in themselves and their students related to race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other cultural Marxist categories.
  • Doug Seaton, founder and president of the nonprofit Upper Midwest Law Center, located in Minneapolis, said…
  • Minnesota’s teacher requirements therefore force Christians, Muslims, Jews, and adherents to other religions to violate their faith and endanger their hopes of eternal life in order to work in government-run schools.
  • Forcing people to testify to beliefs they don’t hold, often called compelled speech, is clearly unconstitutional, he said: “They’re essentially requiring people to affirm these ideas that they don’t really believe, in many cases, as a condition of being a public-school teacher or being part of a program to be a licensed public-school teacher. You can’t force that kind of speech; you can’t require adherence to ideas that aren’t believed.”

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On Monday, Iowa will enact its ban on most abortions beyond six weeks while neighboring Minnesota welcomes them

Iowa-Abortion-Ban-www.cbsnews.com-minnesota

Important Takeaways:

  • As Iowa prepares to enact one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws, elected officials in Minnesota are ensuring out of state abortion seekers they are welcome to visit and access services.
  • On Thursday, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse toured abortion provider Whole Women’s Health Alliance in Bloomington.
  • “I’m really honored to be here,” Flanagan said after she and others toured the facility. “Sometimes the stigma that is attached to abortion care is just because people don’t know what happens.”
  • The Bloomington clinic provides abortions up to 20 weeks, but Founder and CEO Amy Hagstrom Miller says the hope is to expand to 24 weeks.
  • “One of the cool things about abortion is we get to sit with someone as they choose the course for their lives,” Hagstrom Miller said. “Abortion is a solution to an unplanned pregnancy, and unplanned pregnancy really shines a bright light on people’s lives. It has them examine their hopes and their dreams for their future.”
  • “Let me just be clear. For our friends in Iowa, you are welcome here,” Flanagan said. “There are people who will provide care for you, and we are good neighbors here in Minnesota. So, if you’re afraid, come to Minnesota, we’ve got you.”

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Home by Rapidan Dam collapses into southern Minnesota river

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Important Takeaways:

  • The raging Blue Earth River, which caused an abutment of the 114-year-old Rapidan Dam to partially fail, has now swallowed most of the iconic home that sits on a nearby embankment amid Minnesota’s historic flooding.
  • A nearby store could likely be next, according to the owners.
  • Blue Earth County officials say the collapse occurred on Tuesday evening and they continue to monitor for possible impacts downstream.
  • The river is expected to drop up to 5 feet by Friday. Officials say it’s still cutting away quickly.
  • “It’s very close to the house. We had to evacuate this morning, get as much as we could out. All the freezers and such,” Barnes said. “It’s my childhood. I grew up in the house, I grew up in the dam store. I’ve been there all my life.”
  • “My family is sitting here waiting for their history to be washed away minute by minute,” said Shannon Whittet, whose uncle Jim Hruska bought the store in 1972. “My family has lost their home, they’ve lost their business, their livelihood and their land will be gone. This isn’t a simple situation of something happened, and we will rebuild. The land will be the last thing. And it will be gone.”

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A breached dam outside Mankato Minnesota is in “imminent failure condition.”

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Important Takeaways:

  • Minnesota dam at risk of total failure amid “historic” flooding
  • Threat level: Recent heavy rain, including a foot-and-a-half in southern Minnesota, has already closed roads, caused serious damage, and left some communities under feet of water.
  • The latest: Blue Earth County officials warned Monday that a breached dam outside Mankato is in “imminent failure condition.”
  • Those alarms came as the state deployed 46 National Guard soldiers to Waterville in Le Sueur County in response to what local officials say is the worst flooding in its history.
  • By the numbers: The governor said while the $26.4 million currently in the account is “probably not” enough to cover the damages, the federal aid that would flow from a disaster declaration could help fill the gap.
  • Another $50 million is already set to be transferred to the account in August, per KARE 11.

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Another Train derails in Minnesota carrying hazardous materials

Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’

Important Takeaways:

  • Fiery train derailment in Minnesota prompts evacuations
  • The train “had numerous rail cars derail” and several caught fire, Tollefson said. Homes in an area 1/2 mile (0.8 kilometers) around the site were evacuated, according to Tollefson, and residents were taken to a shelter in nearby Prinsburg.
  • The BNSF train derailed in the town of Raymond, roughly 100 miles (161 kilometers) west of Minneapolis,
  • U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN that about 14 cars were carrying hazardous materials, including ethanol.

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Storm in Minnesota leaves 75,000 without power

Revelation 16:9 “They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Minnesota storms knock out power to 75,000 customers
  • Severe storms knocked out power to as many as 75,000 customers across Minnesota where power poles were toppled and winds gusted as high as 81 mph in the state’s southern region.
  • The largest power outages were west of the Twin Cities and by Wednesday morning service had been restored to about half of those who lost power, according to Xcel Energy.
  • Winds Tuesday night gusted as high as 81 mph near Hector in Renville County in southern Minnesota.

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Bird Flu has been confirmed in Minnesota 14.6 million have died or culled to reduce spread

Revelations 6:8 “And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.”

Important Takeaways:

  • BIRD FLU FOUND IN FLOCK IN NO. 1 TURKEY STATE
  • Avian Flu confirmed in Minnesota, the top turkey-producing state in the nation, said agricultural officials over the weekend. Some 14.6 million birds in domestic flocks have died of HPAI or in culling of infected herds to reduce the spread of the viral disease this year.
  • Minnesota was the 18th state with an outbreak of HPAI. Four other outbreaks were reported over the weekend, three on turkey and egg farms in South Dakota and one at an upland game farm in New York State

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Drought spreads in key U.S. crop states

By Karl Plume

(Reuters) – A harsh drought grew more severe across major parts of the U.S. farm belt this week, threatening recently planted corn, soybean and spring wheat crops in Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas, meteorologists and climatologists said on Thursday.

Rains forecast for the northern Midwest and Great Plains this weekend and next week will bring relief to some areas. But the severe moisture deficits suggest crop yields in key U.S. production areas remain at risk.

Drought has already scorched much of the U.S. West, prompting farmers in California to leave fields fallow and triggering water and energy rationing in several states.

Crop development in the central U.S. is highly watched this year as grain and oilseed prices hover around the highest in a nearly a decade and global supplies tighten.

“It’s certainly causing some stress there, especially to the spring wheat,” said Don Keeney, senior agricultural meteorologist with Maxar Technologies.

About 41% of Iowa, the nation’s top corn producer and No. 2 soybean state, was under severe drought as of Tuesday, up from less than 10% a week earlier, according to the weekly U.S. drought monitor published on Thursday.

Cooler weather this weekend and some rain through next week will bring some relief to crops in the western Corn Belt, although far northern areas may see less rain.

“Montana, Nebraska, Minnesota and even northern Iowa would still be a little shortchanged, especially the Dakotas,” Keeney said.

Conditions in North Dakota, the top producer of high-protein spring wheat that is used in bread and pizza dough, remained dire, with about two-thirds of the state under extreme or exceptional drought, the most severe categories.

October to April was the driest stretch in North Dakota history since record keeping began 127 years ago, Gov. Doug Burgum told a town hall meeting in Washburn, North Dakota, on Wednesday.

“We know that we’ve got a full-blown crisis in the state,” Burgum told the meeting.

More than 100,000 acres, or 156 square miles, of North Dakota have already burned in wildfires this year, up from about 12,000 for the entire fire season last year, Burgum said.

Farmer and North Dakota Grain Growers Association Director Cale Neshem called the heat and dryness a “double whammy” that will slash his wheat harvest.

“There’s not going to be much there,” he said.

Drought in the western Corn Belt has already likely trimmed the U.S. corn yield average by 2 to 4 bushels per acre, said Dan Basse, president of AgResource Co in Chicago.

However, conditions in July and August, critical months for corn and soybeans, respectively, will determine the extent of yield losses and the price response, he said.

Grain and soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell sharply on Thursday as rain in the near-term forecast triggered risk-off selling.

“If we don’t get the rain, it’s going to be something to behold on the upside (for prices) because the yields will fall off the table,” Basse said.

(Reporting by Karl Plume, Tom Polansek and Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Minnesota judge finds aggravating factors in George Floyd murder

(Reuters) – A Minnesota judge has ruled that aggravating factors were involved in the death of George Floyd, opening the possibility of a longer sentence for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Chauvin, a white former officer convicted in a Minnesota state court of murdering Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during an arrest last May, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25.

In a six-page ruling dated Tuesday, District Court Judge Peter Cahill found that prosecutors had proven Chauvin abused his position of trust and authority, treated Floyd with particular cruelty, committed the crime as a group and did so with children present, all aggravating factors.

“The slow death of George Floyd occurring over approximately six minutes of his positional asphyxia was particularly cruel in that Mr. Floyd was begging for his life and obviously terrified by the knowledge that he was likely to die but during which the defendant objectively remained indifferent to Mr. Floyd’s pleas,” Cahill wrote.

A jury convicted Chauvin, 45, of second- and third-degree murder and manslaughter on April 20 after hearing three weeks of testimony in a highly publicized trial.

Floyd’s death after he was handcuffed on a Minneapolis street with Chauvin’s knee on his neck for more than nine minutes prompted massive protests against racism and police brutality in many U.S. cities and other countries last summer.

Three other former officers who were at the scene have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death and are set to go on trial on Aug. 23.

Cahill, who presided over the trial, will also sentence Chauvin, who technically faces a combined maximum 75 years in prison if the sentences run consecutively. State guidelines, however, give judges leeway to impose sentences that are far less harsh.

Prosecutors on April 30 asked Cahill to consider several aggravating circumstances in Floyd’s death so that he could make “an upward sentencing departure” in the case.

While Cahill accepted most of the prosecutors’ arguments that aggravating circumstances were present, he rejected one of them, finding that they had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Floyd was “particularly vulnerable.”

Also pending before Cahill is a May 4 request for a new trial in which Chauvin’s lawyer argued that his client was deprived of a fair trial because of prosecutorial and jury misconduct, errors of law at trial and that the verdict was contrary to the law.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in Maplewood, New Jersey and Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Aurora Ellis and Howard Goller)

Minnesota, Virginia join U.S. states easing COVID-19 restrictions

By Barbara Goldberg

(Reuters) – The governors of two more U.S. states said on Thursday they were lifting most restrictions that were put in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus after sharp drops in infection rates and deaths.

Both Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam unveiled plans for easing or even completely erasing limits, saying all changes were hinged on vaccination numbers going up, which has helped to diminish COVID-19 case numbers.

Northam said Virginia would lift all restrictions on June 15, except for a mask mandate.

“If our COVID case numbers keep trending down and our vaccination numbers keep going up, we plan to lift our mitigation measures, capacity restrictions and social distancing requirements,” Northam told a news conference.

Walz unveiled a timeline to end all COVID-19 restrictions, saying limits on seating at entertainment venues, including outdoor stadiums, could be gone by Memorial Day weekend at the end of this month.

All limits will end by July 1, or sooner if 70% of Minnesota residents older than 16 get vaccinated, Walz said.

The increased freedoms in Minnesota and Virginia were disclosed just days after New York, New Jersey and Connecticut revealed on Monday that the tri-state area on May 19 would start lifting most coronavirus capacity restrictions on businesses, including retail stores, food services and gyms.

In sharing the good news, all of the governors stressed that a spike in COVID-19 cases could upend those plans. Infections have been declining in the United States as more people get vaccinated.

With 47,166 daily new infections reported on average, the United States is now 19% below a Jan 7 peak, according to data compiled by Reuters.

“Vaccines are working. They’re helping reduce the spread of this disease,” Northam said. “Fewer people e getting sick, fewer people are going into the hospital.”

Virginia’s face mask mandate was part of a state of emergency declared during the pandemic. It is due to expire on June 30, although Northam could extend it if there is a COVID-19 surge, officials said.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)