Latest news with #MinnesotaReformer
Hindustan Times
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Vance Boelter's alleged hit list: Lawmakers who were targeted – Shri Thanedar to Ann Rest
Several Democratic lawmakers from across the Midwest have revealed that they were named on the alleged target list of accused Minnesota assassin Vance Luther Boelter. The alleged shooter is accused of killing former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and injuring Sen. John Hoffman and his wife in their Champlin home. He is facing murder charges after being arrested near his Green Isle home. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.) told Axios that the Capitol Police informed him that he was named in a list found in Boelter's car. There were papers that also named Ohio Reps. Joyce Beatty and Marcy Kaptur, their offices told the outlet. After the revelation, Beatty's security was boosted, according to her spokesperson. Several others revealed that they were targeted too, including Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and Reps. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas). In fact, Scholten said she has decided to cancel her town hall "out of an abundance of caution and to not divert additional law enforcement resources away from protecting the broader public." Some others, including Pocan and Dingell, have planned to go ahead with their scheduled events. Various other Minnesota Democrats and pro-abortion advocates' names were found on Boelter's list, according to law enforcement. These names include Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.). A spokesperson for Rep. Kelly Morrison (D-Minn. Told Axios that she "was named on Vance Boelter's list," and that they are "coordinating with U.S. Capitol Police on appropriate security measures." Democratic senator Ann Rest said that Boelter had recently parked near her home. She added that law enforcement officers' "quick action" saved her life. 'I have been made aware that the shooting suspect was parked near my home early Saturday morning. I am so grateful for the heroic work of the New Hope Police Department and its officers. Their quick action saved my life,' Rest said. According to federal authorities, Boelter visited other Democrats' homes in the early hours of Saturday. He drove to a home in Maple Grove belonging to a state representative after shooting the Hoffmans. Wearing a mask and a fake law enforcement uniform, he knocked on the door and said, 'This is the police. Open the door,' according to surveillance footage from the home that has been referenced in federal charging documents, according to the Minnesota Reformer. At the time, no one was at home to answer the door. Authorities have not named the representative who lived at the house. However, Maple Grove is split into two House districts, one of which is represented by Republican Rep. Kristin Robbins, and the other by DFL Rep. Kristin Bahner. Boelter reportedly carried out surveillance missions, and even took notes on the people and homes he targeted, acting US Attorney Joseph Thompson said. "It is no exaggeration to say that his crimes are the stuff of nightmares," he said. Thompson revealed that Boelter had several notebooks full of plans, according to One notebook had a list of internet-based people search engines, court records show. Thompson said that no writings were found to "clearly identify what motivated him,' adding that all the politicians he named were Democrats, including more than 45 state and federal officials in Minnesota. Elected leaders in other Midwest states have also revealed that Boelter had mentioned them in their writings. However, Thompson added that it was too early to speculate on any political ideology.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Minnesota House Democratic leader dead after targeted shooting; Democratic senator also shot
Speaker emeritus Rep. Melissa Hartman talks to colleagues during a special legislative session Monday, June 9, 2025 at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) House Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus leader Melissa Hortman, who was among the most influential Minnesota elected officials of the past decade, died on Saturday morning after a man impersonating a police officer shot her in her Brooklyn Park home, Gov. Tim Walz said. Hortman's husband was also shot and killed, the governor said. Walz, appearing emotional at a press conference in the north metro, said they were killed in an apparent 'politically motivated assassination.' 'Our state lost a great leader, and I lost the dearest of friends,' Walz said. '(Hortman) was a formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota.' Democratic Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot multiple times earlier in the evening in their Champlin home. Walz said they were out of surgery, and that he's 'cautiously optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt.' Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said Champlin law enforcement received a call at about 2 a.m. that a person shot Hoffman and his wife. Brooklyn Park Police Department Chief Mark Bruley said his officers assisted with the Champlin shooting; a sergeant suggested checking in on Hortman's home. They live about five to eight miles away from each other. When Brooklyn Park police officers arrived at Hortman's home, they encountered a person who was dressed like a police officer who 'immediately fired at them,' Evans said. Police exchanged gunfire with the person, but they were able to escape. The shooter is still at large, and Brooklyn Park is under a shelter-in-place order. Hundreds of police officers and SWAT teams are conducting a manhunt for the person, officials said. Bruley said that when they arrived at Hortman's home, they saw a police SUV with its lights on and saw the suspect was impersonating a police officer. In the SUV, police found a 'manifesto,' with a list of lawmakers and other officials on it. Hortman and Hoffman were on the list. Hortman, who has two adult children, was first elected to the Legislature 2004 and served as House Speaker from 2019-2024. She lost two elections before winning, which she said gave her an understanding of what it takes to win swing seats and hold them. Her speakership will be remembered as among the most consequential in recent Minnesota political history. With Walz and Senate GOP Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, she guided the state through the pandemic before helping Democrats achieve a trifecta in the 2022 election. During the 2023 legislative session, she helped bridge the wide gulf between moderates and progressives in her caucus to achieve a historic legislative agenda. Democrats codified abortion rights in law; invested in education, including universal schools meals, as well as transportation and housing; created paid family leave; legalized cannabis; and passed gun control laws. The encomiums poured in Saturday. 'There is no greater champion for Minnesota's working people than Melissa Hortman,' said Joel Smith, President and Business Manager of LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota, the laborers union. Hoffman was elected in 2012 and is known for his work on human services. The Reformer sat down with Hortman at the Capitol on Thursday to discuss the 2025 session, which ended on Monday. During his remarks Saturday, Walz denounced political violence and said the people involved in the shooting would be caught and held responsible. 'This was an act of targeted political violence. Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We don't settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint,' Walz said. House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, who worked closely with Hortman in the Legislature to negotiate a state budget this year, said she was horrified by Hortman's murder. 'I am horrified by the evil attack that took place overnight, and heartbroken beyond words by the loss of Speaker-Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark,' Demuth said in a statement.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Here's how the House GOP's proposed Medicaid cuts could impact Minnesota
Thousands of protestors gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol as part of the nationwide "Hands Off" protests condemning several actions of the Trump administration Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) Minnesota could lose up the half a billion dollars annually if a GOP-backed tax bill becomes federal law, Minnesota's Medicaid director warned Thursday. That could mean fewer services or tighter restrictions on eligibility, affecting health care for hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans and the hospitals and other providers that treat them. The bill, which has already passed the U.S. House on a 215-214 vote, is still far off from becoming law; Senate Republicans are drafting their own version, and the GOP remains deeply split over how to pay for tax cuts, which is their ultimate goal. For now, the House legislation is the most detailed public plan for how Republicans will fund an extension of President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, plus a bunch more. The tax cuts passed by the House would decrease federal revenue by about $3.7 trillion over the next ten years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. To offset the loss of income, Republicans want to cut spending by $1.3 trillion, mostly by targeting Medicaid and SNAP, which helps low-income people buy food. (The $2.4 trillion gap between the revenue and spending cuts would be added to the federal debt, which will in turn increase what taxpayers must shell out in interest payments, which have surpassed $1 trillion annually.) Medicaid pays for health care for the elderly, low-income and disabled. The cost is shared between states and the federal government; last year, Minnesota spent $18 billion on Medical Assistance, which is Minnesota's version of Medicaid. The federal government covered $11 billion of that. More than 1.2 million Minnesotans rely on Medical Assistance, and deep cuts would cause 'serious harm' to Minnesotans, said John Connolly, Minnesota's Medicaid director. 'Our position at the Minnesota Department of Human Services is that the bill currently on the table is inefficient, ineffective and fundamentally unfair,' Connolly said during a press briefing. Minnesota is already grappling with how to pay for care for an aging population as health care costs continue to rise. The state Legislature made $270 million in cuts to Medical Assistance this year, as spending on the program has risen faster than tax revenues. DHS estimates that if the U.S. House tax bill were to become law, the state would lose out on $500 million per year. The bill would cause between 152,000 and 253,000 Minnesotans to lose health insurance, according to Kaiser Family Foundation. It would also push costs onto state and local governments, Connolly said, by requiring county and tribal governments to verify participants' eligibility twice as often as they do now, and increasing the administrative burden for the state. The largest chunk of the possible cuts to Minnesota comes from a provision that would reduce Medicaid reimbursements for states that subsidize health insurance for undocumented people. The Legislature voted this week to remove eligibility of undocumented adults for MinnesotaCare, a state- and federally-funded health insurance program for the working poor that is separate from Medical Assistance. As long as undocumented children remain eligible for MinnesotaCare — and if the House language becomes law — Minnesota would still have its federal funding cut by about $330 million, according to DHS. Senate Republicans are wary of deep Medicaid cuts, and are instead expected to target SNAP, the New York Times reported Thursday. The Senate has not yet introduced its version of the tax bill. A proposal to shift 25% of federal SNAP benefit costs onto states would shift up to $220 million annual cost to Minnesota, according to the state Department of Youth and Family Services. More than 440,000 Minnesotans rely on SNAP benefits, according to DCYF. More than one-third are children, 18% are seniors and 14% are adults with a disability. If these federal cost shifts and cuts become law, the Minnesota Legislature would likely be forced to return to St. Paul for a special session to either raise taxes, cut services or move money around to fulfill lawmakers' constitutional obligation to balance the budget.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Legislature maintains support for education, but future is cloudier
A student exits a school bus as they arrive to Creative Arts Secondary School on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Saint Paul, Minn. (Ellen Schmidt/Minnesota Reformer) Democratic legislators and Gov. Tim Walz played defense on education funding this year, trying to preserve as many of their 2023 legislative gains as possible without pursuing bold new goals. The K-12 education bill, passed Monday, includes $25.7 billion for schools during the next two years, an increase of 4.8% over the current biennium. Although spending on education will increase in aggregate, the bill includes cuts to special education and libraries, as well as social workers, nurses and counselors. Overall, the 2025 Legislature passed a mostly status quo budget. With dark clouds on state government's fiscal horizon, the future of public schools, educators and students will be determined to a great extent by the 2026 election. Special education aid is shouldering the largest portion of cuts to the education budget. The state will reduce the amount it reimburses school districts for special education transportation services by $15 million next school year and $28 million the following school year. Walz was first to propose the cuts. Federal law protects services to special education students from cuts. The reductions in state aid means school districts will have to make cuts outside of special education — or find new local revenue — to make up for the lost state aid. The budget agreement also creates a commission to explore ways to cut state spending on special education in the next biennium. The bill sets a target of $250 million per year in cuts for fiscal years 2028 and 2029. But that comes after the next election — and the potential for a different balance of power. The next Legislature won't be bound by this one and can ignore the plan to cut special education funding. Legislation approved in 2023 finally began chipping away at the nearly $800 million gap that school districts faced each year in funding for special education. That gap is commonly referred to as the 'cross-subsidy' because districts pull money from their general per-pupil formula money to cover their unreimbursed costs for special education services. On average, districts were spending 12% of their general per-pupil aid to cover unreimbursed special education costs, with the amount varying from less than 5% to more than 20% in some districts. The cuts to special education funding come at the same time that districts face uncertainty about the future of federal aid for special education. Minnesota school districts can continue to expect an annual increase of at least 2% in basic per-pupil aid. The education bill preserves a provision enacted in 2023 that indexes the formula to inflation, with a minimum annual increase of 2% and a maximum of 3%. The per-pupil formula accounts for about two-thirds of all state funding for K-12 education. For the upcoming fiscal year, the basic formula is $7,481 per pupil, a 2.7% increase from the current year. In fiscal year 2027, the amount will increase to $7,705. The state will spend $17.2 billion on general formula aid in the 2026-2027 biennium. Overall, state funding makes up 64% of education spending in Minnesota, with federal funding providing 8%, and the balance made up by local funding. The state will also continue to provide funding for universal school meals. The cost is expected to grow from $584 million in the 2024-2025 biennium to $659 million in 2026-2027, or 13%. Hourly school workers, like paraprofessionals, bus drivers and culinary workers, will continue to be eligible to collect unemployment insurance during the summer. Minnesota was the first state in the nation to provide this benefit when it was enacted in 2023. House Republicans pushed to eliminate the program, while unions representing the workers, including SEIU and Education Minnesota, lobbied their DFL allies to preserve the program. The state expects to have paid out $102 million from the initial $135 million set aside in 2023 to fund the program by the end of the fiscal year. Walz proposed adding another $40 million to the program. At the end of the regular session, the Legislature approved an additional $100 million to fund the benefit by canceling funding for the Northern Lights express train to Duluth. This sets up a conundrum in the future, with Democratic lawmakers seeking to stand with the workers — and the unions that represent them — while also confronting rising costs for school districts or the state or some combination. Unlike for salaried school workers, like principals and teachers, the current law does not allow districts to directly levy local taxpayers for the cost of the unemployment benefits for hourly workers. The state will delay for one more year changes to how it calculates what's known as compensatory revenue, a form of state aid linked to the number and concentration of low-income students under federal poverty guidelines. For next school year, compensatory revenue sent to school districts will receive a boost of $55 million. Under current law, the state was supposed to eliminate the use of paper forms for counting qualifying students, starting next school year. Instead of paper forms, the state would use enrollment in other government programs — like Medical Assistance and SNAP — to determine if a child is low income and thus qualifies their school district for more help. But going away from paper forms would mean that some students who meet the qualifications, but don't participate in programs like SNAP or Medicaid, wouldn't be included in the funding formula. The Legislature will also form a task force to make recommendations about how to change the low income student formula in the future. The state will cut nearly $20 million of aid to schools that support libraries, and an additional $29 million in aid for social workers, school nurses and counselors. The cuts roll back some of the increases in funding the Democratic trifecta made in 2023. School library aid was first enacted in 2023, providing districts with $16.11 per pupil or $40,000 per year, whichever is greater. Starting next year, library aid will be reduced by 34% per pupil, and the minimum amount of aid per school district will be cut in half, from $40,000 per year to $20,000 per year. The 2023 education law would have almost tripled the per-pupil amount next year for nurses, counselors and social workers. Instead, the per-pupil funding will only double to $34.32. Smaller school districts will continue to receive a minimum of $40,000 per year in aid.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Feds: South Minneapolis law enforcement action was related to seizure of 900 pounds of meth
A demonstrator watches while an officer sprays mace following a raid at Las Cuatro Milpas in Minneapolis, Minnesota Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer) Law enforcement officers found 900 pounds of methamphetamine in a Burnsville storage locker recently, which led them to raid eight Twin Cities metro locations seeking evidence related to the drug find, as well as evidence of bank fraud, illegal guns and human trafficking, according to a federal court filings. The details of the raid were revealed in a federal indictment announced on Tuesday against a 27-year St. Paul woman for 'assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers' during a protest at one of the search locations, Las Cuatro Milpas in south Minneapolis. The indictment is filled with details that would seem to be tangentially related to the alleged assault on an officer, but shed light on the larger operation. The attempt to execute a search warrant in south Minneapolis led to a contentious confrontation last week between a bevy of law enforcement agencies and demonstrators, who feared an ICE raid amid the agency's increasingly militarized tactics. The indictment also confirms that the operation was not related to immigration per se but was an ongoing investigation of major drug trafficking. Federal officials say they found the meth — valued between $22-25 million — in Burnsville and were then granted eight search warrants for locations in Bloomington, Inver Grove Heights, Northfield, Burnsville and Minneapolis. They found two gold-plated guns, documents, digital evidence and images from the Brian De Palma film, 'Scarface,' which is a common homage of narco-traffickers, according to the indictment. At Las Cuatro Milpas on East Lake Street last week, officers showed up to serve the warrant wearing the uniforms of ICE, DEA, FBI, the criminal investigation arm of the IRS. The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office was also present as was the Minneapolis Police Department, though only for crowd control. An ICE spokesperson said the 'groundbreaking' operation was Minnesota's first under President Donald Trump's Homeland Security Task Force, which he established via executive order on the first day of his second term. The overwhelming show of force motivated people in the community — fearing an immigration raid — to protest. The demonstration led to clashes with police A slew of local elected officials questioned the effectiveness and purpose of the law enforcement operation. Gov. Tim Walz called it 'chaotic.' Attorney General Keith Ellison said 'it seemed like the point was to inflict terror and fear into the community.' Minneapolis City Councilman Jason Chavez told MPR's Cathy Wurzer that the operation was intended to intimidate residents. 'It felt like a very tactical decision to escalate, cause pain and trauma, to the people that live here in the heart of south Minneapolis, and it felt like an intentional decision to unfortunately scare the people that live here.' Despite the new information on the south Minneapolis operation, federal law enforcement is still likely to face skepticism in the Twin Cities following the raid, especially given the Trump administration's escalation of immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, which now includes use of the U.S. military.
