‘Sanctuary state’: Walz signed law making Minnesota destination for transgender therapies for kids
Vice President Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, brings a track record to the Democrat ticket that could help energize the country’s left-wing base along with several progressive transgender policies aimed at children. Walz, a former Army National Guardsman and a former teacher, was one of the first governors to sign into law a bill making Minnesota a “sanctuary state” for children seeking transgender surgical procedures and hormone prescriptions. This laid the groundwork for several of his more progressive LGBTQ policies. The law tells courts in Minnesota not to follow prosecutions from other states against people who come to Minnesota for treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery. Before the law was passed, Walz had already issued an order in May 2023 to prevent criminalization of transgender procedures in the state. MEET KAMALA HARRIS’ RUNNING MATE WHO CALLED REPUBLICANS ‘WEIRD PEOPLE’ As neighboring states like Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota restrict medical providers from performing transgender medical procedures on children, Minnesota’s sanctuary law has turned the state into a key destination for such services. Many individuals and families have reportedly moved from more restrictive states to Minnesota. Currently, 26 states have placed limits on doctors providing gender-affirming treatments to minors, with New Hampshire being the latest to join this list. Walz also signed a controversial bill into law that prevents books, which may include explicit material for children, from being removed from public schools in an effort to clap back at parents who complained about certain LGBTQ+ materials in school libraries. WALZ’S HANDLING OF BLM RIOTS, STRICT COVID RULES UNDER MICROSCOPE AFTER HARRIS VP PICK The bill also made it illegal to remove books written by or about LGBTQ+ and minorities. In 2023, Walz signed a law banning “conversion therapy,” which also included prohibiting counselors from withholding recommendations for transgender surgical procedures or hormonal treatments for individuals experiencing gender dysphoria. Another key component of his transgender policy agenda is a law requiring free menstrual products in all public school bathrooms. Often called the “tampon law” in the media, it mandates that tampons and pads be provided at no cost in public schools for grades 4 through 12 to accommodate transgender students. After Harris tapped Walz as her running mate, former President Trump’s campaign and its supporters began referring to him as “Tampon Tim.” “She actually chose Tampon Tim,” Trump campaign adviser Stephen Miller, posted to X following the announcement. HARRIS LEANING INTO ‘PRO-HAMAS,’ ‘PROGRESSIVE’ WINGS OF DEMOCRAT PARTY WITH WALZ VP PICK: GOP STRATEGIST Walz also opposes the traditional definition of marriage as defined as between one man and one woman, further aligning himself with the progressive flank of the Democratic Party who argue the definition is archaic and discriminatory against non-traditional couples. As a U.S. House representative in 2012, Walz opposed a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage solely as a union between one man and one woman. He argued that restricting rights for any group is unconstitutional, saying, “I think we can do better.” Walz additionally played a crucial role in supporting legislation that recognizes sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories under federal hate crime laws. Harris and Walz are now traveling across several battleground states to court voters this week, as the pair have already begun attacking the Trump-Vance campaign.
Big challenges ahead for Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s new interim leader
Bangladesh’s Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been asked to head the interim government in the wake of the political crisis that saw Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flee the country on Monday. Yunus, 84, who hailed the weeks-long student-led protests that brought down the Hasina government as a “Second Victory Day”, has been a critic of Hasina’s 15 years of iron-fisted rule. The protests began against a job quota, which reserved more than half the posts to particular groups including one-third for the descendants of 1971 war veterans. It was scaled back by the Supreme Court on July 21, but it did not assuage the protesters. “This is our beautiful country with lots of exciting possibilities. We must protect and make it a wonderful country for us and for our future generations,” Yunus told reporters. The economist and entrepreneur takes over the reins of the country after one the deadliest protests in its history, which saw more than 300 killed and thousands arrested. Big challenges lie ahead as he has to establish law and order, revive the economy, and pave the way for free and fair elections. Ahmed Ahsan, a former World Bank economist and a director of the Policy Research Institute in Bangladesh, says Yunus “is the man of the hour, chosen by the students who spearheaded the entire movement”. “He commands enormous respect both in the country and in the world,” Ahsan told Al Jazeera. ‘Banker to the poor’ Yunus, the third of nine children, was born in 1940 in a village near the southern port city of Chittagong in what was then East Pakistan. He graduated from the University of Dhaka in 1961. He joined Vanderbilt University in the United States in 1965 on a Fulbright scholarship for his PhD in economics, which he completed in 1969. He went on to become an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in the US. During the 1971 liberation war against the Pakistani military, Yunus supported efforts to create an independent Bangladesh. He founded a citizens’ committee in the US city of Nashville and helped run the Bangladesh Information Center in Washington, DC, which lobbied the US Congress to stop military aid to Pakistan. In 1972, Yunus returned to an independent Bangladesh, and after a brief spell in the country’s new Planning Commission, joined the economics department of the University of Chittagong. The protests began against a job quota that reserved more than half the posts to particular groups including one-third for the descendants of 1971 war veterans [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters] In 1976, he visited nearby villages in Chittagong that were affected by famines a few years earlier as part of his field work at the university. Yunus lent 42 people in the village $27 and found that each of them paid the money back as scheduled. He found out that small loans or microcredits given to poor villagers made a huge difference. Traditional banks would not lend them money, forcing them to rely on unscrupulous money lenders who charged exorbitant interest rates. This was the beginning of Grameen Bank (village bank) which pioneered the provision of microcredit to poor people to allow them to start up new businesses. Yunus became known as the “banker to the poor” as he helped lift millions out of poverty through his Grameen Bank. Awarded the Nobel Prize In 2006, Yunus and Grameen Bank were together awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to “create economic and social development from below”. By that time, the bank had lent more than $7bn to over seven million borrowers, 97 percent of them women, with a repayment rate of nearly 100 percent. “I see poor people are getting out of poverty every day … we can see that we can create a poverty-free world… where the only place we’ll see poverty will be in the museums, poverty museums,” Yunus said at the time. Yunus is now faced with the rough and tumble of politics beyond the reams of theory. His immediate task will be to restore stability after five weeks of deadly protests, but the larger issue is the economic crisis that has seen the ballooning of food prices and a stagnant private job sector. “The new government will need to stabilise the economy and contain inflation … and stabilise exchange rates,” Ahsan from the Policy Research Institute told Al Jazeera. Jon Danilowicz, a former US diplomat who spent eight years working in Bangladesh, believes that Yunus’s appointment is a good choice as his international profile will help the South Asian nation of 170 million. “His great strength is his credibility and his profile internationally, particularly in the United States. He can tap into the reservoir of goodwill that exists there and the willingness of the United States to do what it can do to help Bangladesh,” Danilowicz told Al Jazeera. The former diplomat, who is a board member of a rights NGO based in Bangladesh, thinks there are three big challenges for the interim government: dealing with the economic issues; unravelling the politicisation of the country’s institutions including the civil service, police and judiciary; and how to deal with the issues of accountability for serious human rights violations. “He must establish civilian control and supremacy early on and make sure that the army goes back to its normal role of supporting the civilian administration,” Danilowicz said. On the diplomatic front, Yunus will have to strike cordial ties with India, which backed the Hasina administration despite her rights violations and repression of opposition voices. Hasina is currently in India. “The new government must have cooperative relations with India as a hostile Indian government could be a spoiler, causing problems for Bangladesh,” Danilowicz said. On Hasina’s target Yunus became the target of Hasina’s ire after he floated the idea of launching a political party in 2007. Yunus’s initial idea of launching the party came against the backdrop of the failure of the two main parties – Hasina’s Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh
Cori Bush loses Democratic primary after huge campaign by pro-Israel groups
Two-term representative defeated in a race that saw pro-Israel campaign contributions help to topple a member of US Congress’s left-wing ‘Squad’. United States Representative Cori Bush, a fierce critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, has lost her Democratic congressional primary, in a race that saw a massive influx of money from pro-Israel groups to defeat a member of Congress’s left-wing “Squad”. Bush, a Congresswoman from Missouri, lost Tuesday’s primary to St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell, who won about 51.2 percent of the vote to her 45.6 percent. “We will stand up for what is right, no matter the cost,” Bush said on Tuesday night in a defiant concession speech posted to social media. “I just hope he [Bell] actually takes time to learn about our Palestinian, our Arab and Muslim community.” Bush’s defeat followed an onslaught by pro-Israel groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its affiliated Super PAC, United Democratic Project (UDP), which together poured about $8.5m to topple her. It was the latest successful effort by the powerful pro-Israel lobbies to knock off lawmakers critical of Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed nearly 40,000 people, mostly women and children, and has triggered numerous allegations of war crimes by Israeli forces, including the systematic use of torture. Bush introduced a resolution in Congress calling for a ceasefire in Gaza just weeks after the start of the war, saying Israel was waging an “ethnic cleansing campaign” in the Palestinian territory. She boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint sitting of Congress last month, saying attending would be celebrating a “war criminal” at the forefront of a “genocide”. In June, fellow progressive Jamal Bowman, also critical of the war in Gaza, was defeated by a pro-Israel primary challenger after UDP spent about $15m on the race. While the defeats of Bowman and Bush show that pro-Israel groups in the US still have the ability to sway important races, they have also been unable to reverse a trend of greater sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians among Democratic voters. A 2023 Gallup poll found an 11-point swing in favour of sympathy with the Palestinians and away from Israel, and numerous progressive lawmakers have called for an end of US support for Israel’s war in Gaza. During the Democratic presidential primaries, the “uncommitted” movement, which urged voters in a series of states to mark “uncommitted” on their ballots in protest against President Joe Biden’s support of the war, consistently outperformed expectations. A pastor and nurse, Bush became a Black Lives Matter activist and led protests after the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. During her concession speech, Bush said she would continue to support “a free Palestine”, to which the crowd responded with chants of “Free, free Palestine”. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Swift response’: UK court delivers first sentences over far-right riots
NewsFeed The Liverpool Crown Court sentenced three men to prison terms ranging from 20 months to three years in the first prosecutions over far-right riots that spread across the UK after three young girls were killed in a stabbing attack. Published On 7 Aug 20247 Aug 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Jewish organizations react to Harris’ Walz pick: ‘Far left nightmare’
Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to tap Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate elicited mixed reactions from Jewish organizations. “This is the same guy who famously said, ‘One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.’ Seriously?” read a X post by the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) on Tuesday. The post came after Harris’ highly anticipated decision, choosing Walz after weeks of speculation about several potential candidates. Harris’ decision reportedly came down to Walz and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a popular governor of a swing state vital to the vice president’s chance of emerging with 270 electoral votes in November. HARRIS TAKES 3-POINT LEAD OVER TRUMP AS SHE GAINS ON KEY ISSUES: POLL But Harris’ decision to pick Walz over Shapiro, the only Jewish candidate under consideration, also brought widespread speculation that the vice president was pressured by members of the Democratic Party more sympathetic to Palestinians as Israel’s war in Gaza continues. Others scolded the “No Genocide Josh” campaign to pressure Harris, arguing that the resistance to the Pennsylvania governor had an “undercurrent of antisemitism.” “Those in the overly online left who are attacking Josh Shapiro’s pro-Israel positions in a different way than they are attacking non-Jewish veep contenders’ positions, they’re just telling on themselves,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., told CNN Monday. “There is a strong undercurrent of antisemitism to that,” he continued. “It’s unacceptable. Every contender’s positions on all policy issues, their track records in elected office, all of that is fair game. That is totally open to be subjected to interrogation and to questioning by the Harris team, by observers, but holding him to a different standard because of his religion just simply isn’t who we are in the Democratic Party.” Harris’ choice of Shapiro has also come as some supporters of Israel have worried that the vice president’s support of the Jewish state has waned in recent months, noting that she was the first administration official to call for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza and her reportedly rocky relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ RAPIDLY EMERGING AS KEY SLOGAN OF ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS IN US The RJC statement also hinted at those fears, pointing out that Harris’ choice of Walz is of “particular concern for the American Jewish community” because of his “embrace of” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., whom the RJC has called “the most vicious anti-Israel and antisemitic Member of Congress.” “This is the same disgraceful Ilhan Omar who has trafficked antisemitic conspiracy theories, falsely accused Israel of genocide and apartheid, and voted against funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system that is currently protecting countless innocent civilians in Israel from terrorist rockets,” the RJC said. But other Jewish organizations had a more optimistic take on the Harris selection, with the Jewish Democratic Council for America (JDCA) praising the pick. “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz align with the vast majority of Jewish voters on every key issue, and we’re confident that overwhelming support from Jewish American voters will make the difference in ensuring their victory in November,” JDCA CEO Halie Soifer said in a press release. ‘SHE DID THAT’: HARRIS HIT WITH BLISTERING 7-FIGURE AD TARGETING HER ON KEY ISSUES HAUNTING VP TENURE “Vice President Harris has made an exceptional choice by selecting Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. We deeply admire Gov. Walz’s impassioned defense of our values, including reproductive rights and defending our democracy, especially as they both are under attack by MAGA Republicans led by Donald Trump,” added JDCA Chair Ron Klein. “Having been elected at the same time and served in Congress with Tim Walz, I can attest to the fact that Tim. Walz has taken on Republican extremists before and won, and we’re confident that he and Vice President Harris will do so again this November with the strong support of Jewish American voters.” The move was also lauded by Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, an organization that describes itself as “building a multiracial, multiethnic, intergenerational movement of Jews and allies all across the country who are rising up to build an American future free from white supremacy, antisemitism, and racism.” “By choosing Walz, a Governor who broke records investing in public education, infrastructure, paid leave, free college and cutting childhood and elder poverty, Harris sent a clear message to voters: we confront those threatening our safety and freedom for an economy of fear and division with those who invested in them for a care economy,” Bend the Arc CEO Jamie Beran said in a press release. The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Wife of Harris’ VP pick sets social media ablaze with ‘bizarre’ admission about 2020 riots
The wife of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate set social media ablaze Tuesday after an unearthed clip of her describing her actions during the 2020 Minneapolis riots went viral. Gwen Walz is Minnesota’s first lady and the wife of Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was picked by Vice President Harris to be her running mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket. A pivotal part of Walz’s gubernatorial record was his handling of the death of George Floyd in the state in 2020. Floyd’s death sparked nationwide protests about race and police brutality. TIM WALZ, KAMALA HARRIS’ NEW RIGHT-HAND MAN, ECHOES LEFT-WING CRIME POLICIES “Again we had more sleepless nights during the riots,” Walz’s wife told KSTP in July 2020. “I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing. And I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.” Conservative commentators expressed astonishment at Gwen Walz’s remarks after the clip started going viral on social media. “What might you call this? Bizarre? Abnormal? Peculiar? Eccentric? Offbeat? Quirky?” Noah Rothman, a senior writer at the National Review Online, said. “Gotta be a word that describes reveling in the catharsis represented by the torching of other people’s property.” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk described the comments as “weird.” “Profoundly disturbing,” journalist Abigail Shrier said. “We’re going to need to learn a lot more about the Walzes.” Dustin Grage, the president of a conservative Minnesota-based consulting firm, said the comments were “bizarre,” adding, “Her daughter also coordinated with rioters to let them know that the National Guard would not be activated one night.” “Everything you need to know about leftist elites can be found in this short clip,” Daily Wire host Matt Walsh said on X. “Tim Walz’s wife sat by the window enjoying the smell of poor neighborhoods burning during the Floyd riots. She did everything but pull out a fiddle.” Gov. Walz was criticized for his handling of the riots. Conservatives accused him of sitting on his hands as the state was engulfed by riots. As a result of the delayed action, hundreds of businesses across Minneapolis and St. Paul were devastated by the destruction and had to ask their local government for help recovering on top of what they lost during pandemic-related closures. First lady Walz said she was aware Minnesota was under national scrutiny at the time. “With COVID-19, the entire state was watching what Tim did,” Ms. Walz said. “But with Mr. Floyd’s death, it was the entire country and the whole world looking at and watching what we did here in Minnesota in response to that.” RIOTING, LOOTING LINKED TO GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS LEAVES TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION ACROSS AMERICAN CITIES That record is now again under scrutiny as Walz is catapulted into the national spotlight, with Republican critics taking aim at how both Walz and Harris handled the 2020 crisis. “Minnesota was ground zero for the BLM riots of 2020,” Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “Harris egged it on, and Walz sat by and let Minneapolis burn.” Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate and running mate of former President Trump, poked at Walz’s 2020 record Tuesday, calling his addition to the Democratic ticket “an interesting tag team.” “If we remember the rioting in the summer of 2020, Tim Walz was the guy who let rioters burn down Minneapolis,” he said of the riots that began in Minnesota in response to the death of Floyd while being arrested in Minneapolis. “And then Kamala Harris was the one who bailed the rioters out of jail.”
Judge dismisses most claims in federal lawsuit filed by Black Texas student punished over hairstyle
Though the ruling was a victory for the Barbers Hill school district, the judge questioned whether its dress-code rule causes more harm than good.
‘Feel betrayed’: Top conservative group blasts vulnerable Dems on inflation in multimillion-dollar ad blitz
FIRST ON FOX: Americans for Prosperity Action, the political wing of the Koch Brothers’ powerful conservative network, is launching a multi-million dollar ad blitz across battleground states targeting vulnerable incumbent Senate Democrats and boosting their Republican opponents ahead of the November election. The influential conservative group is spending $5.75 million on ads across Wisconsin, Montana, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Tim Sheehy, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Montana, will get $1 million in ads in support of his bid, as will Sam Brown, the Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada. Republican candidates Bernie Moreno in Ohio, Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania and Eric Hovde in Wisconsin will each get $1.25 million in ads supporting them. The digital ads will also air on TV in the pivotal battleground states. ‘NEVER HEARD OF HIM’: HARRIS VP PICK WALZ HAS LITTLE NOTORIETY AMONG TRUMP-VANCE VOTERS IN PA The buy is part of AFP Action’s “firewall strategy” to support candidates to prevent “One Party Progressive rule.” There are 10 different video ads featured in the ad campaign, two for each state. In one Wisconsin ad, “Betrayed,” residents detail how the Inflation Reduction Act passed under President Biden has failed them. “Tammy Baldwin spent a trillion dollars in an Inflation Reduction Act. It did not help us,” Jackie B. said in a testimonial. “They put a fancy name on spending money,” Dale G. added in the video. Bobbie S. claimed, “Things have definitely gotten worse. It makes me feel betrayed.” The spot will debut in Wisconsin, targeting Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and boosting her opponent, Republican businessman Eric Hovde. TRUMP-ENDORSED MIKE ROGERS WINS REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY IN MICHIGAN In a statement on the multi-state ad buy, AFP Action Director Nathan Nascimento said, “Voters are tired of Washington doubling down on failed policy and then handing them the bill. But that’s what every incumbent senator has done during their time in office — some of them for decades. The pain is very real for Americans still deciding who to vote for in November, but when you look at their record, it’s very clear that senators Brown, Baldwin, Casey, Rosen and Tester can’t be trusted to vote the right way when it comes to reducing inflationary spending or securing the border. “Any one of these senators were the deciding vote to push the Biden-Harris administration’s massive influx of spending forward, forcing inflation into overdrive – and every single one put their party ahead of their constituents. Americans across the country are paying the price. The last thing our country can afford is to send these senators back to Washington for more of the same failed policies.” In a Montana video against Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., David D. claimed, “After 35 years in politics, we are worse off than we were when you started.” DEMOCRAT REP ELISSA SLOTKIN WINS SENATE PRIMARY IN MICHIGAN “Ohio families are struggling, and, after three decades, Sherrod Brown’s failed policies caught up with us,” a narrator told viewers in a spot against Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. “Bernie Moreno and his special interest allies are attacking Sherrod to distract from Moreno’s record of refusing to pay his own workers the overtime wages they earned and then shredding evidence that a judge ordered him to keep to get out of it,” Brown campaign spokesperson Matt Keyes told Fox News Digital in a statement. “While Sherrod is fighting to lower costs for Ohio workers, Bernie Moreno can’t be trusted and only looks out for himself.” ‘HIS RECORD IS A JOKE’: VANCE TEARS INTO HARRIS VP PICK WALZ AT PHILADELPHIA COUNTER-RALLY “Career politician” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., is slammed in one of the Nevada ads, with footage of her touting the IRA and claiming “help is on the way.” A Pennsylvania ad similarly targets Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., for his vote in favor of the IRA, with a narrator saying, “Bob Casey isn’t working for Pennsylvania families.” “Bob Casey lowered the cost of insulin and is leading the charge against corporate greed and greedflation, while David McCormick defends corporations that are raking in profits while raising prices on middle-class families,” Casey spokesperson Maddy McDaniel told Fox News Digital. “David McCormick has the support of the Koch family and his Wall Street billionaire backers, but Bob Casey has the support of working people in Pennsylvania.” The ads also tout the Republican contenders for each Senate seat, promoting each of them as a better solution for struggling families in their respective states. Campaigns for Tester, Baldwin and Rosen did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital. According to AFP Action, it has reached out to more than 7.5 million voters to date this election cycle. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Walz waited until legislative session wrapped to demand resignation from Dem lawmaker accused of burglary
Vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz waited to call on an embattled Democratic state lawmaker charged with burglary to resign until after the Minnesota legislative session ended in May and her critical vote was no longer needed. State Sen. Nicole Mitchell of Woodbury was arrested at her stepmother’s home on April 22 and is charged with felony first-degree burglary for allegedly breaking in to get her late father’s ashes and some of his personal belongings. Mitchell has denied the allegations and sought to have her charges dismissed. The arrest prompted the Minnesota Senate to remove Mitchell from her committee assignments and caucus meetings. Republicans were quick to demand that she immediately resign, but Democratic leaders, including Walz, did not follow suit until after the legislative session ended nearly a month later, on May 19. GOP leaders say the episode demonstrated how Walz did what was politically expedient as governor rather than what was right. DEMOCRATIC MINNESOTA STATE SENATOR’S OWN PARTY CALLING FOR HER RESIGNATION AFTER BURGLARY CHARGE “Democrats in Minnesota turned a blind eye to the criminal actions of their colleagues for one simple reason: to maintain power,” Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Just like when he passed off blame for nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer money being lost to fraud, Tim Walz will pass the buck on doing what’s right unless it benefits him and his far-left agenda. He has no business being VP and will put his own agenda and reckless pursuit of power over the needs of Americans if he makes it to Washington.” Democrats held a 34-33 majority at the time, making Mitchell’s vote crucial to enacting key legislation. Minnesota Democratic-Farmor-Labor Party Chairman acknowledged as much in his statement calling for Mitchell to resign, which noted her constituents “had full representation through the end of the legislative session.” “The Minnesota DFL believes that all elected officials should be held accountable, including members of our own party. While Sen. Mitchell is entitled to her day in court, her continued refusal to take responsibility for her actions is beneath her office and has become a distraction for her district and the Legislature,” Martin said in a May 30 statement, ten days after the session closed. “Now that her constituents have had full representation through the end of the legislative session, it is time for her to resign to focus on the personal and legal challenges she faces.” 911 CALL TRANSCRIPT DETAILS DEMOCRATIC MINNESOTA STATE SENATOR’S ALLEGED BURGLARY AT STEPMOTHER’S HOME Walz told FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul he agreed with Martin’s statement and that Mitchell should resign. In comments to MPR News, the governor called the allegations facing Mitchell “disturbing” and said that “public servants need to be held to a higher standard.” Republicans slammed the delayed response from Democratic leaders at the time. “Without new evidence or information in the accusations against Sen. Mitchell, this statement from DFL Chair Ken Martin is a clear admission Democrats were so desperate to pass their highly partisan agenda they were willing to use votes of an alleged burglar to do it,” Johnson said in response to Martin’s statement. DEMOCRATIC MINNESOTA STATE SENATOR CLAIMS SHE WAS CHECKING IN ON ILL LOVED ONE DURING ALLEGED BURGLARY “Democrats abused their political majority and embraced Sen. Mitchell because it served their political purposes instead of working in a bipartisan way for Minnesotans. Anyone paying attention could see this coming – now that they no longer need her vote, they are ready to cast her aside. “This shameless pursuit of political power is not what Minnesotans deserve from their elected leaders.” The Harris-Walz campaign and the office of Gov. Walz did not respond to requests for comment. According to a criminal complaint, Mitchell acknowledged that she entered through a window and told investigators she was trying to get her late father’s ashes, photos, a flannel shirt and other items of sentimental value, claiming her stepmother had stopped speaking to her after her father’s death and refused to give her the items. Mitchell appeared in front of an ethics panel on May 7, but invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and refused to speak. Mitchell, of Woodbury, Minnesota, has represented District 47 since she was elected to the state Senate in 2022. She was previously a meteorologist for KSTP-TV and Minnesota Public Radio and serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. A hearing for Mitchell’s case has been delayed to Aug. 30 in Becker County District Court, the Detroit Lakes Tribune reported. Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
Haryana: Internet, bulk SMS services suspended in Sirsa due to…
The notice further stated that bulk SMS services for banking and mobile recharge services and only voice calls would still be operable in the district.