Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman, husband and dog to lie in state as suspected killer is in court
Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman will lie in the Minnesota Capitol rotunda on Friday as her suspected killer is scheduled to appear in court.
Hortman and her husband were killed in what authorities described as a " politically motivated assassination" at their Brooklyn Park home on June 14. Hortman, a Democrat, will be the first woman to receive the honor in the state's Capitol building. She and her husband will be lying with their golden retriever Gilbert, who was wounded in the attack before being euthanized.
They will be on display to the public in the Capitol rotunda Friday afternoon, where thousands are expected to attend and pay their respects.
About an hour before the Hortmans will receive the rare honor, the man who was charged in connection with their killings, Vance Boelter, 57, will appear in court. A judge will determine if he will be allowed bail before trial.
In addition to the Hortmans' slayings, Boelter was also charged in connection with a nearby shooting that wounded Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, that day. The pair were shot multiple times and hospitalized, but survived the encounter.
Boelter has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of second-degree intentional murder and attempted murder. He is being represented by a public defender, lawyers who do not issue statements or comment on pending cases to the media.
Authorities said that Boelter impersonated law enforcement in order to gain access to the lawmakers' homes. He wore a vest, a blue long-sleeve shirt and what appeared to be a badge on the day of the shootings, according to officials.
Boelter was found two days after the shootings, armed and crawling in a field in a sparsely populated stretch of Minnesota, according to officials
The manhunt was the largest in state history, with nearly 200 law enforcement officers, including members of 20 regional and local SWAT teams, deployed in eastern Sibley County, about an hour outside Minneapolis, according to officials.
Officials said they found a notebook that belonged to Boelter with a hit list of other politicians, particularly those who have vocally supported abortion. The list included politicians from Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska and Iowa, according to authorities.
Boelter's wife spoke out for the first time since the shootings on Thursday, calling the attack "a betrayal." In a statement issued through her attorneys, she said that she and her children wanted to express their "deepest sympathies" to the Hortman and Hoffman families.
"We are absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided," she said. "This violence does not at all align with our beliefs as a family. It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian Faith. We are appalled and horrified by what occurred, and our hearts are incredibly heavy for the victims of the unfathomable tragedy."
The Hortmans' adult children, Sophie and Colin Hortman, said in a statement that they are "devastated" by the loss of their parents.
"They were the bright lights at the center of our lives, and we can't believe they are gone," the pair said. "Their love for us was boundless. We miss them so much."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Detroit's mayor tries to capitalize on voter disdain for both parties with independent run for governor
With well over a year until the 2026 midterm elections, Democrats and Republicans are already gearing up for expensive fights in House, Senate and governor's races across the country. Enter Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who is betting that there is a path to becoming Michigan's next governor without embracing either of those party labels. Duggan, a longtime Democrat who has served for over a decade as Detroit's mayor, announced in December that he would run an independent campaign to succeed Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who cannot run for a third term next year. It's an audacious bet, in one of the nation's most tightly divided swing states, that voters who say they are fed up with both parties are ready to back another choice. But while some of the political conditions seem ripe, recent independents running in three-way elections haven't been able to push that sentiment to victory. 'Every place I go, the depth of anger at the two parties runs deep,' Duggan told NBC News in an interview. He said he decided to run as an independent to escape the political expectations that come with serving one party or the other in Lansing, describing the current environment in the state capital as 'toxic.' Michigan currently has a divided state Legislature, with Democrats narrowly controlling the state Senate (and the governorship) while Republicans control the state House after wresting it back from Democrats in 2024. 'Every single conversation in Lansing was, 'Will this bill help me keep the majority?' 'Will this bill help me get the majority?' And nobody was solving any problems,' Duggan said. 'They wanted to create a moment that they could [use to] send out fundraising appeals off of some type of conflict.' Opportunity — and an uphill climb — for independent candidates Across the country, the appetite for third-party candidates is growing. A recent NBC News analysis found that Americans are increasingly registering to vote as unaffiliated voters, opting not to identify with a political party. Voters hold negative views of both parties, and the Democratic Party earlier this year notched its lowest ratings in 35 years of NBC News polling. Some prominent political figures have sought out a third option, away from both major parties. In the past three years, two former senators — Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — left the Democratic Party and registered as independents. More recently, Elon Musk, a tech mogul and former adviser to President Donald Trump who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help him in 2024, posted on X amid a feud with Trump about the appetite for 'a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle,' though it's unclear how serious Musk was. (Duggan wrote in response to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, 'Now you've got my attention…' alongside a smiley emoji.) That sentiment aside, turning the broad idea of unhappiness with the two parties into actual statewide victory for an independent candidate is difficult, as recent years of elections show. In Oregon, former state Sen. Betsy Johnson mounted a well-funded independent campaign for governor in 2022, at times receiving almost 20% of voters' support in public polling. But on Election Day, Johnson received under 9% of the vote, with Democrat Tina Kotek winning the race. Last year in Nebraska, Navy veteran Dan Osborn ran an independent campaign for Senate that gained national attention. Democrats didn't field a candidate in the race and Osborn lost to incumbent Sen. Deb Fischer, a Republican, by over 6 points, though he held Fischer well below Trump's margin in the state. In Michigan, Duggan insists that he's received support from voters on both sides of the aisle, saying he's simply offering them a choice outside of the traditional two-party binary. 'This whole evenly divided, Republican and Democrat 'attack each other every two years in an election cycle' isn't working for Michigan, and maybe I give the voters a different choice,' Duggan said. A big race in a key state Duggan's presence adds another layer of complexity as both parties gear up for a competitive race. Though Whitmer won her second term by more than 10 points, Michigan is typically a tightly balanced battleground. In 2024, the state backed Trump for president by less than 2 points and Democrat Elissa Slotkin for Senate by an even slimmer margin. Four years earlier, Biden defeated Trump in the Great Lakes State by nearly 3 points. But Democrats and Republicans still have to sort out who their nominees for governor will be, and voters don't head to the polls in the state's primary until August of next year. On the Democratic side, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson have launched campaigns to succeed Whitmer. Republican Rep. John James, state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, former state House Speaker Tom Leonard and former state Attorney General Mike Cox have all jumped into the GOP primary. '[Duggan] announced right at the beginning of the year, which gives him a full two years with no primary to get around the state and tell his story,' Jason Roe, a Republican strategist in Michigan who is not currently working for any gubernatorial candidate, told NBC News. With Democrats and Republicans focused on their own primaries, 'there's really no reward to any of those candidates to attack him,' Roe said, adding: 'And so I think he gets to go around, you know, talking about rainbows and unicorns' without getting attacked. Democrats have targeted Duggan recently, if not in a way many voters would have seen, accusing him of corruption in one digital ad funded by the Democratic Governors Association's Victory Fund in May. 'Duggan is running a self-serving campaign that has no path to victory,' DGA communications director Sam Newton told NBC News in a statement, adding: 'The DGA has beaten attention-grabbing third-party candidates before — and we're confident that we'll do it again in Michigan in 2026.' Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel also slammed Duggan, telling NBC News that the mayor is only running as an independent because he didn't want to run in the Democratic primary. 'I think most of this is about Mike's ego. It was bruised by the fact that he couldn't actually win a Democratic primary,' Hertel said. 'He has very thin skin.' On the other side of the aisle, Republicans haven't yet engaged in formal campaigning against Duggan. But one national Republican strategist noted that the Michigan race is going to be competitive — and expensive — next fall whether Duggan is drawing significant support or not. Roe noted Duggan's popularity in and around Detroit, adding that he's well-liked by Michigan's business leaders. 'People see the business community, the organized business community, migrating to him,' he said. Roe, who lives in the suburban Detroit area, said that Republicans in his area seem particularly attracted to Duggan's campaign as well. But he cautioned against drawing conclusions about Duggan's popularity among partisans until after next year's primary. 'There's a big but here. They don't have a binary choice. They don't know who the Republicans are. They don't know who Democrats are,' he said. Hertel compared Duggan's support now to that of early support for previous independent candidates elsewhere. 'What we've seen, a lot of times, with these independent candidates, is, you know, they get a lot of attention at first, but when we get closer to election time, people make different decisions,' Hertel said. 'Right now it's, 'Well, I know Duggan, and I feel Duggan has done some great stuff in Detroit. No clue about these other people,' right?' Roe said. 'Once there's nominees, and you have three people to choose from, that will likely change.'
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
How a small Ohio town became the 'center of gravity' in the GOP's realignment
The effort to save the mill, or to at least ensure a new employer can take it over as quickly as possible, hit a snag this month. H.I.G. and Pixelle reneged on an agreement to pause the shutdown timeline and keep the factory open through the end of the year — a reprieve that would have bought time to identify a new tenant or use for the property. It had been the one shred of good news Moreno delivered at his April rally. 'Bernie has been the face of this,' said Jai Chabria, a longtime Republican strategist in Ohio. 'Whether he's successful or not is not the measure of where we are. If you look back at the Republican Party of 20 years ago, this is certainly not where a wealthy Republican senator would be expected to lead. Bernie has really embraced where the party has gone.' Even so, Katie Seewer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party, faulted Republicans for 'the latest in a long streak of bad economic news' in the state, noting that Moreno had raised hopes that the mill's closure wouldn't happen this year. 'Republicans own these failures and many others that have created an economy that isn't working for Ohio,' Seewer added. Pixelle is scheduled to end all Chillicothe operations by Aug. 10. The workers there — many of them second- and third-generation paper mill employees — are now waiting to see how much of the tough talk from Moreno and his colleagues leads to action. 'Bernie's railing against private equity,' said Scott Wiesman, who has worked at the mill for 30 years. 'But if you Google it, he's invested in private equity. So how evil is it, Bernie?' Mayor Luke Feeney, a Democrat, gives Moreno more credit. 'My hope and belief is that his efforts have been genuine and sincere,' Feeney said. 'All of those guys that got up there and on that stage said, 'We will sue them if they do this to you' — I hope they stick to it, and until they don't, I'm good with it.' But, Feeney added, 'if it turns out that it was just a dog-and-pony show, then I'll be pretty frustrated, because we're left with the aftermath here.' 'We were Mead kids' Chillicothe, about an hour's drive south of Columbus, has a proud history as Ohio's first state capital. Today, it has a population of roughly 22,000, a promising tourist economy boosted by the nearby Hopewell earthworks and mounds, and a redeveloped downtown that Feeney holds up as a small-town success story. Less than a mile from Pixelle, bustling Paint Street features two craft breweries, a boba house and other trendy businesses tucked into tidily restored storefronts. The name of a hip cafe, Paper City Coffee, pays tribute to one of the town's top employers. (Countywide, the mill is the third-largest source of jobs, behind the regional hospital system and a Kenworth Trucks plant.) The mill is 'as much a part of the scenery as the hills and everything else around here,' said Michael Throne, the head of the Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce, who recalled his first glimpse of the smokestack when driving to town for a job interview years ago. 'I'd seen smokestacks before,' Throne said. 'But nothing that towered over the landscape of the city.' Chillicothe's papermaking days date to 1812. For more than 100 years, the city was a hub for Mead, a company that would become a household name in school and office supplies. 'The paper mill really supported southeast Ohio,' said Jeff Allen, president of the United Steelworkers Local 731, which represents Pixelle workers. 'They used to tell us that for every job in the mill, there were three outside the mill.' Over time, Mead's name slowly disappeared. Market forces — a world less reliant on paper, a tangle of mergers and acquisitions — kept bouncing the old mill into new investment portfolios. In 2022, H.I.G. purchased what four years earlier had been rebranded as Pixelle. 'We were Mead kids. Our kids were Mead kids,' said Tim Jenkins, a mill employee for 38 years. 'With the strike in '75, you walked through the lunch line, you could get a free lunch when you said, 'I'm a Mead kid.'' 'Little things like that you never forget.'
The Herald Scotland
4 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Obamacare Supreme Court decision: What it means for RFK Jr.
The suit started in Texas where two Christian owned business and individuals argued that health insurance plans they buy shouldn't have to cover medical tests and drugs they object to on religious grounds, such as the HIV-prevention drug PrEP. But the legal issue at the heart of the Supreme Court case was whether USPSTF is so powerful that, under the Constitution, its members must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the 6-3 majority that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can remove task force members at will and can review their recommendations before they take effect. "The Task Force members are removable at will by the Secretary of HHS, and their recommendations are reviewable by the Secretary before they take effect," he wrote. "So Task Force members are supervised and directed by the Secretary, who in turn answers to the President preserving the chain of command." The Health and Human Services Secretary has always appointed USPSTF members and ratified their recommendations, said MaryBeth Musumeci, teaching associate professor of health policy and management at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health. But the ruling expanded on that authority by clarifying that the secretary could also remove members and block recommendations, she said. Given that Kennedy had recently fired all 17 original members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, another expert panel that issues health recommendations, Musumeci said "there is reason to be worried." The secretary has never removed access to preventive services that have been proven to help people stay healthy nor have they "sought to shape the membership of our expert panel in any way," USPSTF chair Dr. Michael Silverstein said in a statement emailed to USA TODAY. "While the HHS Secretary has long had authority over the USPSTF, historically they have only acted to increase access to preventive care, occasionally going beyond the evidence to secure enhanced coverage for preventive services," he said. "Given our shared focus on preventing cancer and chronic disease, we certainly hope that the Secretary will allow our current work to continue unimpeded, as it has thus far." Surprise move? RFK Jr.'s vaccine committee votes to recommend RSV shot for infants Katherine Hempstead, senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a health nonprofit, praised the SCOTUS decision because it meant that millions of Americans still have access to preventive care such as mental health screenings, cancer screenings, STI testing and important medications. But she also called the ruling both an "ending and a beginning." "It's the ending of the challenge but now it's the beginning of something that's going to unfold where we're going to see someone exercise control over this expert panel that has very strong opinions about... many aspects of medical care," she said. More details: Supreme Court rejects conservative challenge to Obamacare health coverage If Kennedy plans to target USPSTF, it's unclear what preventive services could be at risk, Musumeci said. But insurance companies ultimately have the final decision. Even if the secretary vetoes a new recommendation or revokes an existing one, insurance companies can still decide to cover the preventive service. America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade association representing health insurance companies, plans to closely monitor the ongoing legal process but affirms that the SCOTUS ruling will not impact any existing coverage, according to an emailed statement sent to USA TODAY. Contributing: Maureen Groppe and Bart Jansen, USA TODAY; Reuters. Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@
