Data and Research Manager , CD3 DFL

Tuskegee relatives promote COVID-19 vaccines in ad campaign

Tuskegee is the one-word answer some people give as a reason they’re avoiding COVID-19 vaccines. A new ad campaign launched Wednesday with relatives of men who unwittingly became part of the infamous experiment wants to change minds.

Neal said he agreed to appear in the national campaign after doing research to gain confidence in the vaccines. Continue reading.

DFL Party Statement On The Signing of Minnesota’s COVID-19 Recovery Budget

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, following Governor Walz’s signing of Minnesota’s COVID-19 Recovery Budget, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin
released the following statement:

“Thanks to the hard work of Governor Walz, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan, and the DFL members of our legislature, Minnesotans can rest easy knowing that this budget will help our state build our economy back stronger than it was before this crisis. This budget provides historic investments in our students and educators, in our frontline workers, in our state’s economic recovery, and will ensure our small businesses have the support they need to thrive. Under impossible circumstances, Governor Walz and our DFL leaders in the legislature have stepped up to protect our state and now they have ensured our state can rebuild better than ever.”

Some of the budget highlights include:

It’s a failure’: Arizona audit appears to be backfiring on Republicans – and could haunt them at the ballot box

A new poll shows that a partisan audit of votes cast in the 2020 presidential election could ultimately backfire on Republicans who appear on future ballots in Arizona, especially if they express support for the bogus effort.

Sean Noble, a top GOP operative in the state, told Politicoof the controversial recount in Maricopa County, “it’s a failure, it’s a joke,” adding that Republicans in other states should “avoid it. The election is long over, time to look forward.”

Fernand Amandi, whose firm conducted the poll, said: “As bloody red meat for the MAGA Republican base, the audit is manna from heaven, but the problem is that Arizona is not a red state anymore. It’s a swing state. The audit may be serving two interests: firing up the MAGA base but giving Democrats the opportunity to make the case to Arizona voters to stick with them.” Continue reading.

Supreme Court leaves CDC eviction moratorium intact

The Supreme Court on Tuesday left intact a nationwide pause on evictions put in place amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The 5-4 vote rejected an emergency request from a group of landlords asking the court to effectively end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium, which is set to run through July.

The landlord group had asked the justices to lift the stay on a ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that the moratorium amounted to an unlawful government overreach. Continue reading.

‘There is a God’: Trump brutally mocked after he’s denied permit for July 4th weekend rally

According to a report from AL.com, Donald Trump’s plan to hold a July 4th weekend rally at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park on the western shore of Mobile Bay has been shot down by park commissioners over concerns about its possible content.

In a statement chairman of the commission, Bill Tunnell explained the board thought Trump’s rally “…was going to be a partisan political event, rather than just a patriotic event planned for that evening,” which is why they denied the permit.

“Tunnell says commissioners sought an opinion from the attorney general’s office in late May. NBC 15 News obtained Attorney General Steve Marshall’s response which stated there was little time for a formal opinion to be rendered but did note the park may be used for political events provided access is ‘available for all political parties and candidates on an equal basis,'” NBC 15 News reported. Continue reading.

Rep. Phillips (CD3) secures $30.8 million for Minnesota projects in infrastructure bill

Long-awaited Bottineau light rail project would receive $20 million

WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) announced that he successfully secured $30.8 in federal funding for Minnesota infrastructure projects in the INVEST in America Act, which passed the House today.

“Americans expect their leaders to pursue common ground for the common good,”said Phillips. “Investing in 21^st century infrastructure is a rare opportunity to bring more federal tax dollars back our state, create jobs, and build more sustainable, resilient communities. It’s time to start shoveling dirt and stop slinging mud.”

Phillips went to bat for several infrastructure projects in Minnesota’s Third District, successfully securing funding for three important endeavors:

Fox News to pay a fine for ‘a pattern of violating’ human rights laws: report

In 2021, Fox News’ legal troubles have included not only a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, but also, a human rights lawsuit. And Fox News, journalist Lloyd Grove reports in the Daily Beast, has agreed to pay a $1 million fine to settle that lawsuit.

Grove explains, “Despite Fox News’ claims to have repaired the company’s toxic workplace culture since the firing of founder and chairman Roger Ailes in July 2016, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has effectively admitted to ongoing misconduct that includes sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation against victimized employees, and has agreed to pay a million-dollar fine for what New York City’s Commission on Human Rights called ‘a pattern of violating of the NYC Human Rights Law.'”

According to Grove, “The settlement agreement, reached last week with the Human Rights Commission, contains the largest-ever financial penalty assessed in the agency’s six-decade history, and also requires Fox News to remove mandatory confidential arbitration clauses from the contracts of on-air talent along with other employees and contributors for a period of four years when they file legal claims under the city’s human-rights law outside of the company’s internal process.” Continue reading.

Trump ‘exploded’ at Birx for making him feel ‘depressed’ because she wouldn’t whitewash COVID dangers: authors

The authors of a new book about former President Donald Trump’s handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic told CNN’s Erica Hill on Tuesday that Trump last year angrily chewed out Drs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci for making him feel “depressed” about the novel coronavirus pandemic.

While appearing on CNN, Washington Post reporters Damian Paletta and Yasmine Abutaleb explained the delicate balance that Birx and other public health officials had to strike in trying to get Trump to back public health measures aimed at containing the virus.

All the same, Paletta said, no amount of flattery delivered by Birx could help her escape Trump’s wrath. Continue reading.

In the Know: July 1, 2021

Governor Tim Walz
Walz: $132M in federal funding to support student recovery, KSTP

Minnesota Legislature
Lawmakers give final approval to $52 billion budget, averting state government shutdown, MN Reformer
Government shutdown avoided as Minnesota House and Senate pass budget bills, WCCO

Minnesota News
Minneapolis Council members agree to withdraw proposal to replace police department, Star Tribune
Mayo Clinic faces lawsuits over nude patient image snooping, Star Tribune
MN’s COVID state of emergency officially ends Thursday, Pioneer Press
Frost. Then blistering heat. Drought. And now the bugs. Minnesota immigrant farmers are struggling with the effects of climate change in their fields., Sahan Journal

Pelosi rebuffs McConnell on infrastructure

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday amplified her plans to link a bipartisan infrastructure agreement to a second package of Democratic economic priorities, rebuffing an appeal from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to decouple the two bills.

In a closed-door meeting with her caucus in the Capitol, Pelosi said her initial strategy — to withhold a House infrastructure vote until the Senate passes a larger, partisan families plan — remains unchanged, according to lawmakers in attendance.

“What the Speaker has said, and I totally agree with her, is that we’re not going to vote on one until the Senate sends us both,” Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters after the meeting. “That’s not changed.” Continue reading.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: