Category: Latest News

DFL Party Statement on the Passing of Former State Senator Bev Scalze

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement on the death of former State Senator Bev Scalze:

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the recent passing of Bev Scalze and my heart goes out to her loved ones. Bev was a close friend and I greatly admired her steadfast commitment to public service. From the city council all the way to the state senate, Bev Scalze spent decades working to improve the lives of her fellow Minnesotans. 

“The Legacy Amendment that Bev co-authored has invested tremendous resources in preserving Minnesota’s pristine natural environment, clean drinking water, and rich cultural heritage for future generations. She also played a key role in writing and passing numerous bonding bills, whose investments created shared prosperity, growth, and good jobs in communities throughout our state.

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Trump and his CFO Allen Weisselberg stay close as prosecutors advance their case

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Trump and his CFO Allen Weisselberg stay close as prosecutors advance their case

NEW YORK — If Donald Trump was looking for some good news on his 75th birthday last Monday, it arrived at 8:15 a.m. by way of a blue Mercedes slipping into Trump Tower’s private garage entrance on West 56th Street.

Behind the wheel was Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s longtime confidant and Trump Organization chief financial officer, whom the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has pressed to turn on the former president as they investigate Trump’s business dealings.

Every day that Weisselberg arrives for work at Trump Tower — as he did that day, steering in from his Upper West Side apartment across town — could be seen as a public signal that he is sticking with Trump and deflecting investigators’ advances. Continue reading.

Rudy Giuliani suspended from practicing law in New York

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Rudy Giuliani has been suspended from practicing law in the state of New York due to his false statements about the 2020 election, according to a court filing.

Driving the news: A New York court ruled that Giuliani made “demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump.”

  • “These false statements were made to improperly bolster respondent’s narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client,” the court wrote. Continue reading.

Pelosi announces select committee to investigate Jan. 6 Capitol riot

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday that she will create a House select committee to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Why it matters: The creation of a single Democratic-controlled special committee, which will consolidate several House investigations, comes after Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have established a bipartisan 9/11-style commission.

  • While Republicans would have had equal control over the blocked 9/11-style investigative commission, it’s unlikely they will have the same leverage over the House select committee investigation. Continue reading.

Trump demolished by conservative paper after new GAO report reveals his border wall failures

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Donald Trump’s record was again torched Saturday with some new Government Accountability Office (GAO) data showing that his administration fell far short of its claims about how much border wall it built — and that it fudged the numbers as well.

But as Trump prepares to tour some of the small amount of wall he did build, perhaps just as humiliating was the rough treatment he got from the conservative Washington Times. His home team newspaper greeted its readers Monday with this large, top-of-Page-1 headline reading:

“Trump’s claims on construction of border wall system undercut by GAO audit.” Continue reading.

Senators say White House aides agreed to infrastructure ‘framework’

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Senators involved in bipartisan negotiations say they and White House officials have agreed to an infrastructure “framework,” and they’ll meet with President Biden Thursday to brief him. 

“Republicans and Democrats have come together, along with the White House, and we’ve agreed on a framework and we’re gonna be heading to the White House tomorrow,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told reporters after a meeting Wednesday. 

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), another member of the group, confirmed the White House officials in the meeting signed off on the framework and that they “came to an agreement.” Continue reading.

Obama: Voting rights bill must pass before next election

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Former President Obama said Monday that Congress needs to pass voting rights legislation before the 2022 midterm elections, or American democracy could be at risk.

“We can’t wait until the next election because if we have the same kinds of shenanigans that brought about Jan. 6, if we have that for a couple more election cycles, we’re going to have real problems in terms of our democracy long-term,” said Obama.

Speaking on a call with grassroots supporters alongside former Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama said debate over the voting rights bill, known as the For the People Act, was worth it for him to engage in political debate, even as a former president. Continue reading.

Proud Boy recruits reveal the group revels in the glorification of rape and murder: report

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In interviews with USA Today’s Will Carless, three men with ties to the Wisconsin chapter of the far-right Proud Boys confessed that they expected something more along the lines of a drinking club when they joined up — only to find the organization riddled with racism, homophobia and some members glorifying murder and rape.

According to 40-year-old Army veteran Daniel Berry, a friend at a Wisconsin VFW recommended the Proud Boys to him by pointing out, “The group was vocal in its support for then-President Donald Trump, whom Berry had voted for. They called themselves ‘Western chauvinists’ and said they welcomed true men. That sounded about right for Berry, who considers himself a dyed-in-the-wool patriot,” so he checked them out and sent them an email.

What he found later — after being invited into a private chatroom — disgusted him. Continue reading.

Reps. Liebling and Schultz announce HHS budget agreement with strong investments in Minnesotans

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, Rep. Jen Schultz (DFL – Duluth), chair of the House Human Services Committee, and Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL – Rochester), chair of the House Health Committee, announced a bipartisan agreement on a compromise Health and Human Services budget with Senate Republicans. The budget includes significant advancements for Minnesotans’ health and wellbeing as the state moves past the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Following a great deal of work to reach agreement on a new biennial budget, we’ve assembled the best HHS bill I’ve worked on during my tenure at the Capitol,” Rep. Schultz said. “I’m particularly proud of our work to expand affordable child care access, make historic investments in home and community-based services to help individuals live independently, increase compensation for Personal Care Attendants (PCAs), and put in place a long-term path to help low-income Minnesotans have greater economic security. The past year has been grueling for many Minnesotans, and this legislation will help them experience a brighter future.”

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Pennsylvania Senate GOP edges toward Arizona-style election audit

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A top Pennsylvania Republican says he supports an audit of the state’s presidential election results similar to a review being conducted in Arizona, raising the potential for other states to spend taxpayer money investigating former President Trump’s false claims of improprieties and fraud.

Pennsylvania state Sen. David Argall (R), who heads the Senate State Government Committee that has oversight of election administration, told reporters he supports another look at the Pennsylvania results.

“It’s a very careful recount, forensic audit, so yeah, I don’t see the danger in it,” Argall said during a forum with reporters from Spotlight PA, a consortium of media companies from across the state. “I just think that it would not be a bad idea at all to proceed with an audit similar to what they’re doing in Arizona.”  Continue reading.