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EXCLUSIVE: Walz Administration To Hold Racially Segregated Retreat For ‘BIPOC’ Librarians

September 26, 2024/in Commentary, Culture War, Elections, News, Politics, Queers and pedophiles, Social Issues, Socialism, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

Minnesota State Library Services, part of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s administration, plans to use public funds to pay for a retreat intended exclusively for “BIPOC” librarians, according to documents obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Walz administration describes the event, which will take place in October, as “a day of professional development and network-building designed specifically for BIPOC library workers of Minnesota,” according to a registration page. Minnesota will use public funds to cover hotel lodging, meals and other fees for those attending the program, state documents show.

“BIPOC” stands for “black, indigenous and people of color.”

A sign-up form for the event allows those seeking to attend the program to select from an assortment of races and sexualities to describe themselves but “heterosexual” and “white” are notably missing from the options available.

Nicole Cooke, a professor of library and information science at the University of South Carolina, is booked as a keynote speaker for the event, according to an agenda obtained by the DCNF.

Cooke has argued that it is “tantamount to malpractice” to allow students to enter the workforce without first being educated on diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice. In 2017, she received a grant to study “racial microaggressions in libraries,” according to a press release.

The professor has a long history of giving presentations on the importance of center racial justice and diversity when managing libraries, according to her personal website. In 2020, she created an “anti-racism resources for all ages” project which includes a number of materials intended to introduce children to the topic.

“Anti-racism” is part of a framework first coined by left-wing academic Ibram X. Kendi that holds anyone not actively resisting what he defines to be racism is a racist. It is impossible to be neutral on the issue of racism, according to Kendi.

Minnesota State Library Services is directed by Tamara Lee who, according to her LinkedIn profile, is “passionate about early literacy and racial equity in libraries” and has expressed support for Kendi’s idea of anti-racism.

Lee co-authored a 2021 piece in Information Today where she argued that “niceness” is a “tool of white supremacy” because she believes it can be used by racists to absolve themselves of wrongdoing. She argued that librarians must take an active role in educating children on racial activism.

“Children are often aware of race long before we think they are,” Lee wrote. “Starting open and honest conversations with them about race early on can prepare them to be anti-racism practitioners their whole lives.”

The state librarian also wrote a paper in 2016 that advocated for making children’s story time “racially diverse, equitable and inclusive.”

Lee is listed as one of the primary points of contact on documents sharing details about the BIPOC exclusive librarian program. She was also involved in planning the event.

Walz is no stranger to using public resources to hold racially segregated events. His Department of Education held “restorative justice” teacher trainings in 2022 that white educators were explicitly barred from attending. The Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs also held trainings intended to alleviate homelessness among veterans but only invited white people to participate if they were willing to serve as a “stakeholder or ally” to non-white and LGBT veterans.

Lee, the Harris campaign, the Minnesota governor’s office and the Minnesota State Library Service did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

Robert Schmad

Contributor.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

EXCLUSIVE: Tim Walz Appointed Member Of Political Party ‘loyal’ To Chinese Communists To State Board

September 14, 2024/in Culture War, Elections, Hot Topics, Marxism, National Security, News, Policy, Politics/by The Daily Caller

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, appointed a member of a political faction that has pledged loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to a state board that advises the government on Asian-American affairs, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Walz first appointed Chang Wang, a Minnesota-based attorney, to the Council On Asian Pacific Minnesotans in May 2020. Wang now serves as the “interim chair” of the Council On Asian Pacific Minnesotans, which advises the governor, legislature and other state agencies by promoting the “economic, social, legal and political equality of Asian Pacific Minnesotans,” according to its website. Wang’s term is up in January 2025.

The council spent more than half a million dollars of taxpayer funding in 2023, according to its annual report.

But for over a decade, Wang has also been affiliated with the China Association For Promoting Democracy (CAPD), the DCNF found through a review of Chinese government announcements, archived University of Minnesota records and Chinese-language publications written by Wang himself.

CAPD is one of the handful of alternative Chinese political parties allowed to operate in the communist nation. Like China’s other minor parties, CAPD is “loyal” to the CCP and continues “to function within the structure of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),” which is the country’s top political advisory body, according to the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress.

CAPD is allowed to operate in China based upon their organization’s stated promise to “rally closely around” the CCP’s Central Committee and play a role as advisors and assistants to the CCP, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

Since joining the Minnesota state council, records show that Wang has been recognized by the Chinese government on multiple occasions, including granting him a title and even accepting a policy research proposal he submitted.

“My elderly parents are my only ties to China,” Wang told the DCNF by email, when asked about his relationship with CAPD. Wang’s profile on the University of Minnesota’s website does not currently mention his CAPD affiliation, though an archived version does.

Wang previously told the outlet China Insight his parents were “senior scientists” at “Academia Sinica,” which is the historic name for the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). CAS reports directly to China’s State Council, with “much of its work contributing to products for military use,” according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

CAS is a “privileged institution” that’s “tightly monitored” by the CCP, said Steve Yates, China Policy Initiative chair at the America First Policy Institute and former Chinese language analyst for the National Security Agency.

“For someone to have two parents in that entity, it basically is the equivalent of being not just a made man, but a made family,” Yates told the DCNF.

Wang has also previously said he works as a senior associate professor of law at the Beijing-based China University of Political Science and Law, whose website still lists him as faculty.

Neither Walz’s office nor the Harris-Walz campaign responded to multiple requests for comment.

Walz’s close relationship with China and its political mechanisms have come under intense scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, like Kentucky Rep. James Comer, who recently sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting information pertaining to “any Chinese entity or individual with whom Mr. Walz may have engaged or partnered.”

Walz has traveled to China approximately 30 times and even worked for Macau Polytechnic University while serving in Congress, Comer’s letter says. Media reports have also dug up past comments from Walz where he appears to lavish praise on Chinese communism — for instance, Walz reportedly told high school students in 1991 that communism “means that everyone is the same and everyone shares.”

More recently, the DCNF reported that Walz has attended numerous events organized by members of a Minnesota nonprofit affiliated with a CCP influence and intelligence agency. Among other examples, members of the nonprofit and related organizations held a fundraiser for Walz’s gubernatorial reelection in 2022, the DCNF found.

“@GovTimWalz could explain away 1 or 2 facts, but he can’t explain away the pattern & the @DailyCaller just dropped an investigation a day or so ago, which showed Walz maintaining regular contact w/ Communist Party front organizations in MN.

So, we go back to the 1990s we have… pic.twitter.com/SSeuTVA9in

— Philip Lenczycki 蔡岳 (@LenczyckiPhilip) August 29, 2024

“You would think that there would be some screening,” Yates said of Walz’s appointment of Wang.

“Of what possible value-add is someone with ties to that entity in China to the citizens of the United States or to Minnesota, and why would a governor with a generation of experience coming and going to the People’s Republic of China want someone from that world having privileged access to advise leaders in Minnesota on any issue?” Yates told the DCNF.

‘Not Really About Democracy’

While the word “democracy” appears in its name, CAPD describes itself as “a political party that accepts the leadership of the CCP and cooperates with the CCP as a participant in socialism with Chinese characteristics.” CAPD also says its members are mainly intellectuals working in academia, science, media and related fields.

“When you are engaging entities from communist countries that have the word ‘democracy’ in them, you have a near 100% chance that they’re not really about democracy,” Yates told the DCNF. “You’re talking about organizations that are meant to interact with people and groups in the Free World on behalf of the ultimate authority in the PRC: the CCP.”

John Dotson, deputy director of the Global Taiwan Institute, told the DCNF that CAPD is “one of what the CCP calls the ‘eight democratic parties’ that operate alongside the ruling CCP, in the effort to provide a veneer of pluralism to the [Chinese] system.”

“Anyone who is a member of one of the ‘eight democratic parties’ should be understood as a CCP member, subject to Party directives, etcetera,” said Dotson, a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer.

The DCNF determined Wang’s CAPD membership through a review of multiple archived English and Chinese-language profiles.

For instance, an archived version of Wang’s 2022 bio on the University of Minnesota’s China Center website identified him as “one of the twenty-five members serving on the Central Civil and Judiciary Committee of China Association For Promoting Democracy, the third largest political party in mainland China.”

At some point between January and July 2023, Wang’s membership in the Chinese political party was removed from his China Center bio.

The China Center did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

CAPD’s Chinese-language website still names Wang as a member of its Central Civil and Judiciary Committee, and also identifies Wang as a professor of the Institute of Comparative Law at China University of Political Science and Law.

Wang is currently listed as faculty on the website of China University of Political Science and Law and his position at the school is noted in several online bios, including his Barnes & Noble author bio, as well as in a 2019 interview on his law firm’s website.

Wang also taught at São Paulo Law School in Brazil, where his online bio says “[s]ince 2007, he has been a member of Central Civil and Judiciary Committee of China Association for Promoting Democracy (CAPD), the fourth largest political party in China.” Wang’s affiliation with the Brazilian law school are noted in social media posts from China University of Political Science and Law.

Indeed, Wang’s current bio on the University of Minnesota’s website states he “holds adjunct and visiting professorships at law schools and business schools in the U.S., China, Austria, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, and Brazil.” The bio, however, does not specify any particular schools with which he is associated.

[Screenshots of websites of University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans]

‘National Advanced Information Worker’

The Chinese government has recognized Wang’s contributions on at least two occasions, the DCNF found.

CAPD awarded Wang the title “National Advanced Information Worker For Reflecting Societal Sentiments And The People’s Opinion” in November 2021 — more than a year after Walz first appointed Wang to the state Asian American affairs council in May 2020.

The list of award recipients appears to have been drafted in December 2020, but officially announced in 2021, according to a review of CAPD’s website.

CAPD created the award in order to commend “outstanding achievements and contributions” related to a 2021 CCP Central Committee memo directing China’s eight “democratic parties” to expand their implementation of “Xi Jinping Thought On Socialism With Chinese Characteristics For A New Era.”

The U.S. Department of Defense describes “Xi Jinping Thought” as the Chinese dictator’s “namesake ideology.”

In July 2021, the Chinese government’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced the selection of Wang’s legal research proposal on international cybercrime as a research project to underwrite. The announcement lists Wang by his CAPD membership and his faculty position at China University Of Political Science And Law.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate offers selected research projects an approximately $7,000 Chinese government subsidy, the department’s website states.

The Procuratorate is responsible for legal supervision and prosecution in China, according to the Chinese government.

“What this entity in China does has some functions that touch upon the prosecution of people inside the Chinese system, and oversight of what would be rule-of-law type issues generally,” Yates told the DCNF.

Wang did not respond to the DCNF’s questions about the Procuratorate accepting his research proposal or the apparent award that went along with it.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has appeared at several events hosted by the Council of Asian Pacific Minnesotans, including its 2022 Asian Pacific Minnesotans Leadership Awards Dinner, during which the governor was photographed with Chang Wang and others. [Image created by the DCNF with photo from CAPM’s Facebook]

‘Adjuncts Of The CCP’

In addition to cooperating with the CCP, CAPD also has several other Chinese government affiliations, such as serving as a “member of the patriotic United Front,” according to its website.

The United Front is a “unique blend of engagement, influence activities, and intelligence operations” that the CCP uses to “shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward [China] and to gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

CAPD members also serve as delegates to another Chinese government United Front agency called the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to the CPPCC’s website. The CPPCC’s English-language charter states its delegates must “uphold the leadership” of the CCP “and the socialist cause,” “take advantage of the CPPCC as a United Front organization,” and “keep state secrets.”

“In reality, these eight nominal political parties are simply adjuncts of the CCP, and serve as window dressing in fora such as the CPPCC,” Dotson said.

China expert and author Gordon Chang told the DCNF that Walz’s travels through China and his history associating with CCP-tied individuals raises the question of why the governor appointed a member of a CCP-approved political party to serve in Minnesota’s executive branch.

“Walz appointing a Chinese Communist stooge doesn’t automatically make him a Chinese Communist supporter,” Chang said, “but who other than a Chinese Communist supporter would do that?”

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Investigative reporter.

RELATED INFOGRAPHIC: Chinese-owned land near U.S. military bases in America.

EXCLUSIVE: Tim Walz Has A History Of Rubbing Elbows With Nonprofit Linked To Chinese Intel And Influence Agency

August 28, 2024/in Chinese influence, Culture War, Elections, Hot Topics, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics/by The Daily Caller

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, has a long history of attending events organized by members of a nonprofit with connections to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and intelligence agency, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Since 2018, Walz has attended multiple events hosted by members of the Chinese American Association of Minnesota (CAAM) and related organizations, including one 2022 fundraiser for his gubernatorial campaign, according to a DCNF review of dozens of Chinese government announcements, Chinese-language news reports and social media posts.

Other media have detailed self-declared progressive Walz’s long-standing relationships with entities connected to Islamic extremism as well.

Since 2016, CAAM and another local nonprofit have been hosting the St. Paul branch of the “Overseas Chinese Service Center” (OCSC) program, which is a global network of institutions overseen by the Chinese government’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), the DCNF previously reported.

Among other things, the UFWD “collects intelligence, exerts control over overseas Chinese-language media outlets, seeks to influence Chinese diaspora groups, facilitates illicit technology transfer, and interferes in politics in other countries,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

On at least one occasion, a member of the St. Paul, Minnesota OCSC also took part in meetings and training sessions organized by China’s national police authority, the DCNF found. The DCNF has reported on other Chinese government-linked operations, including a June 2024 investigation detailing how an online network run by a self-identified Chinese “cyber police” officer provides Chinese illegal immigrants with resources to get into the U.S. and evade border authorities.

CAAM did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee’s dozens of trips to China as an educator have come under intense scrutiny from China hawks and Republican lawmakers like Kentucky Rep. James Comer, who recently sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting information pertaining to “any Chinese entity or individual with whom Mr. Walz may have engaged or partnered.”

“Tim Walz is exactly the sort of unscrupulous, China-friendly politician who the UFWD would target,” Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks told the DCNF.

“He took several trips to China, likely while holding an active security clearance, and House Republicans should join me in investigating whether he violated foreign travel disclosure requirements,” said Banks, who is a member of the House Select Committee on the CCP.

Both Walz’s office and the Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘Affects Every State’

The Minnesota OCSC branch is one of approximately 60 around the globe that the Chinese government’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office set up between 2014 and 2017. The DCNF previously identified six other OCSC branches located in California, Texas, Utah, North Carolina, Nebraska and Missouri.

Chinese government documents reveal that in 2018 the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office was reorganized under the UFWD, which the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has described as a Chinese “intelligence service” that conducts influence operations.

In light of its ties to the Chinese government, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey recently subpoenaed the St. Louis OCSC, telling the DCNF that he believes it is “high time that federal law enforcement, and the FBI specifically, take this threat seriously.”

“We have reason to believe the communist government of China is attempting to establish a network of outposts from which to project influence and target individuals who formerly lived in China,” Bailey said. “Public reports indicate that the threat of communist Chinese influence operations affects every state.”

‘The Chinese American Association of Minnesota’

In June 2022, individuals affiliated with the St. Paul OCSC attended a fundraiser for Walz’s gubernatorial reelection, according to an article published by Minnesota Chinese World, a Chinese-language media outlet that posts articles directly to the Chinese social media app WeChat, which is monitored and controlled by the CCP.

Chinese state media has identified Minnesota Chinese World as a news outlet that has “cooperated” with the UFWD to learn how to “tell China’s story well.” That specific phrasing is CCP terminology that often refers to “external propaganda work,” according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

China’s Foreign Ministry identified Minnesota Chinese World’s editor-in-chief as the “propaganda chief” of the St. Paul OCSC in a 2017 press release.

Minnesota Chinese World reported that the June 2022 Walz fundraiser was organized by CAAM’s former president, who remains active in the group, according to the nonprofit’s records. A photo from the event shows Walz sitting in the grass surrounded by a group of approximately 50 people, many of whom are members of CAAM and the St. Paul OCSC, the DCNF found.

Among those pictured are the St. Paul OCSC propaganda chief as well as CAAM’s current president and multiple former presidents, including one who the Chinese government has identified as a “person in charge” of the St. Paul OCSC.

Founded in 1951, CAAM bills itself as the “oldest and largest Chinese American community organization in Minnesota” and defines its mission as promoting Chinese culture and improving the quality of life for Chinese Minnesotans.

Nearly every year since 2005, the Minnesota State Arts Board has awarded taxpayer grants to CAAM’s dance troupe, government records show. The nonprofit got $15,000 in 2018, when Walz was elected governor, which grew to nearly $50,000 in 2025, according to the State Arts Board. The board’s members are appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the state senate.

The Chicago Chinese Consulate Consul General Hong Lei appointed CAAM and a related nonprofit to host the OCSC in St. Paul in 2016, according to state media reports.

Additionally, a prominent St. Paul OCSC member was part of an OCSC delegation that met with Ministry of Public Security officials during a 2018 trip to China, a DCNF analysis found. The DCNF compared profile pictures on CAAM’s website and photos from the 2018 meeting published by the Chinese government and state media outlets.

During that meeting, Ministry of Public Security officials demonstrated how OCSCs facilitate so-called “cross-border remote justice services,” the DCNF previously reported.

In 2023, the FBI arrested the head of a Manhattan Chinese nonprofit called America Changle Association, which allegedly operated a Ministry of Public Security “overseas police station” in New York City, according to the Department of Justice.

While there is no evidence any U.S. OCSCs operate police stations on behalf of the Ministry of Public Security, the DCNF previously reported that some OCSC branches in other countries have opened “Overseas Chinese Police Contact Points.”

China expert and author Gordon Chang described China’s influence and intelligence operations as “comprehensive beyond belief.”

“The Communist Party of China uses all points of contact to subvert the U.S. Almost no American organization is too small to infiltrate, and if there is no organization to take over, China’s communists create one,” Chang told the DCNF.

Image created by the DCNF with pic from Chicago Chinese Consulate

‘Unbreakable Bond’

Minnesota Chinese World’s August 2024 article — which was apparently deleted after the DCNF reached out for comment — details Walz’s attendance at several other events organized by members of CAAM and the St. Paul OCSC.

“Walz has formed an unbreakable bond with our Minnesota Twin Cities Overseas Chinese community,” Minnesota Chinese World writes, “he often attends our Chinese community’s public interest activities as a specially invited VIP guest.”

In addition to the 2022 fundraiser, Walz sent video greetings to events organized by the St. Paul OCSC’s propaganda chief in 2022, 2023, and 2024, the article reads. Minnesota Chinese World did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

Additionally, CAAM’s records reveal its former president also organized a June 2018 fundraiser for another local nonprofit called Global Minnesota, which Walz and St. Paul OCSC leaders, including the center’s propaganda chief, attended based on an analysis of photos from the event.

A social media post made by the Chicago Chinese Consulate shows Consul General Hong Lei delivered a speech at the June 2018 fundraiser, and another photo pictures him speaking one-on-one with then-Minnesota Rep. Walz.

The Chinese Consulate did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

‘The All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese’

Three months after the Global Minnesota fundraiser, Walz, St. Paul OCSC leaders and Chicago Chinese Consulate personnel met again at a University of Minnesota Chinese ballet performance in September 2018, Minnesota Chinese World’s article reports.

In the article, St. Paul OCSC’s propaganda chief claims to have organized the event. However, the performance was sponsored by the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), a detail first reported by Seamus Bruner of the Government Accountability Institute.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission characterizes ACFROC as a “United Front” organization serving as a “point of contact and coordination” between Chinese living abroad and the CCP.

Photos from the September 2018 ballet performance show Walz on stage with the two St. Paul OCSC officials, a Chinese deputy consul general, former Minnesota Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen and the secretary general of Sichuan’s provincial ACFROC branch.

“U.S. Congressman Waltz commented that 30 years ago, he celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival for the first time in Foshan, Guangdong,” reads a Chicago Chinese Consulate account of the event. “As Mid-Autumn Festival stands out in Chinese culture as a special day of family reunion, it was his pleasure to enjoy this performance with everyone together.”

Walz’s speech allegedly “won warm applause” from the audience, according to Minnesota Chinese World.

Chinese-language news outlet Guancha later characterized Walz’s speech as “a textbook example of American political ethnic lobbying,” and claimed it significantly contributed to Walz’s popularity with the Chinese community. The article also claims his support in areas with larger ethnic Chinese populations contributed to his 2018 electoral success.

Natalie Winters, who recently discovered documents listing Walz as a speaker alongside a United Front affiliate at a 2019 event, told the DCNF that the UFWD is “the tip of the spear in the CCP’s robust network of foreign influence operations.”

“Whether dealing in blackmail, lucrative business deals, or free trips to China, the effort weaponizes American leaders against their own people by pushing them to advocate for policies favored by the CCP,” said Winters, co-host of the Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Daily Caller News Foundation investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

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Tim Walz Went To War On Zyn While Pushing Free Needles, Legalizing Pot

August 21, 2024/in Elections, Healthcare, Hot Topics, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics, Science, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

Tim Walz has legalized pot, pushed free needles and is open to psychedelic drug legalization, all while taxing nicotine pouches at a 95 percent clip during his tenure as Minnesota’s Governor.

Democrats are attempting to sell Walz as a friend to the working class, praising his “Midwestern values.” His policy history, however, indicates a Walz-Harris Administration may be in favor of crushing the vices of blue collar and traditional America.

Walz, who Vice President Kamala Harris tapped in early August to be her running mate, amended the state’s Tobacco Tax law in May to categorize tobacco-free nicotine products like Zyn as “moist snuff,” rendering it eligible for a 95 percent tax rate.

Use of adult smokeless tobacco, which includes Zyn nicotine pouches, skew heavily towards midwestern, low-income men living in rural areas, according to data from the CDC and the UK’s National Institute of Health (NIH).

Zyn has also become a popular emblem among proponents of traditional masculinity, with popular voices like Joe Rogan and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson championing them.

The product also became an unlikely political battleground after Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a federal crackdown on the pouches.

The left’s war on Zyn has prompted backlash from prominent Republican lawmakers.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are more concerned with policing working class vices like Zyn than dealing with the crisis on the border, Republican Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville told the Daily Caller.

“Democrats would rather exert more government authority over Americans instead of addressing the surge of deadly drugs pouring into our country,” Tuberville said.

Besides adding tobacco-free pouches like Zyn to the state’s Tobacco Tax, Walz also attempted to further increase the 95 percent tax on vape devices in 2021, according to Americans for Tax Reform.

He also presided over a number of policies seemingly geared towards legalizing and decriminalizing illicit drug use.

Walz signed a bill in May 2023 legalizing the recreational use of cannabis in the state. The bill mandates a ten percent tax rate on the retail sales of cannabis.

A few days later he signed the House Omnibus Judiciary and Public Safety Finance appropriations bill, a bill that expanded access to “harm reduction” services and bolstered the state’s Syringe Services Program (SSP).

The program, funded through the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), provides sterile syringes and supplies, containers for safe disposal of used syringes and overdose drugs like Naloxone at no cost to users.

While removing all language criminalizing the possession of syringes, the bill also legalized the possession of all drug paraphernalia, even that which contained residue.

In May 2024, Walz announced his plans for grants providing $100 million for combatting homelessness. One recipient of the grant was Southside Harm Reduction Services, an organization whose services include “syringe exchange, naloxone distribution, education, rapid HIV testing and referrals to social services including housing,” according to the announcement.

Walz’s pro-drug policies follow a left-wing trend of decriminalizing and legalizing drugs at the state level that are federally illegal under The Controlled Substances Act.

After Oregon became the first state to decriminalize possession of all drugs in 2020, the state’s Democratic Governor Tina Kotek reversed course, signing a bill that re-criminalized the possession of hard drugs in April 2024.

Citizens who voted yes on the bill to decriminalize drugs quickly changed their mind. In 2020, 58.46 percent of voters supported Oregon’s Measure 110, a referendum bill which made the maximum penalty for possession of drugs for personal use $100. But in 2023, 56 percent of voters believed it should be repealed as the state’s largest city, Portland, saw a surge in overdoses. The number of people who died of overdoses jumped from 610 in 2019 to nearly 1200 in 2022, according to KOIN 6 News.

Drug overdose deaths across the country have risen at a prodigious rate, jumping from 52,404 in 2015 to 107,941 in 2022, according to data from the National Institute for Drug Abuse.

While some analysts argue the decriminalization of hard drugs like heroin can drive revenue that can be used for education and rehabilitation programs, others say the costs of decriminalization far outweigh the benefits.

Widespread availability of illicit drugs is “the mother of use,” former United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph A. Califano Jr. argued in a U.K. National Institute of Health head to head.

Califano referenced Switzerland’s “needle park,” a government initiative meant to restrict heroin users to a small area. The project “turned into a grotesque tourist attraction of 20,000 addicts and had to be closed before it infected the entire city of Zurich.”

He also noted that Italy, which decriminalized possession of small doses of drugs like heroin, has one of the highest rates of heroin addiction in Europe.

In addition to legalizing pot and making it easier for citizens to use needles, Walz green-lit a Psychedelic Medicine Task Force to study the effects of psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA and LSD.

“The task force is mandated to explore both the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics and the legal pathways by which Minnesota’s government can help patients successfully navigate the labyrinth of federal laws and regulations in order to get access to these potential medicines,” Kurtis Hanna, a drug law reform lobbyist, told Marijuana Moment.

The bill calls for $338,000 of appropriations in 2024 and another $171,000 to fund the task force in 2025. It calls for “statutory changes necessary for the legalization of psychedelic medicine” and “state and local regulation of psychedelic medicine.”

Walz signing the bill cleared the way for other leaders in his state to follow suit. In June 2023, Minneapolis’ Democratic mayor Jacob Frey ordered law enforcement to deprioritize the use of city resources to enforce laws that criminalize buying psychedelics.

Frey’s executive order stated “that the investigation and arrest of persons for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, or possessing Entheogenic Plants or plant compounds which are on the federal Schedule 1 list shall be the lowest law enforcement priority for the City of Minneapolis.”

The psychedelics task force will deliver a final report to the state with findings and recommendations by January 1, 2025, according to the bill. Advocates believe that these steps are clearing a path for the legalization of all psychedelic substances in Minnesota.

“If—and hopefully when—I’m re-elected and this task force gives their final report..my hope is to bring that legislation in that session,” Democratic State Rep. Andy Smith told Marijuana Movement.

AUTHOR

Robert McGreevy

Reporter.

9 Facts about Tim Walz’s Church

August 10, 2024/in Commentary, Elections, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Religion, Social Issues/by Family Research Council

Vice President Kamala Harris selected Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.) as her running mate on Tuesday, and many Americans are naturally curious to know more about him, including his religious beliefs. Walz does not often discuss his faith, but he occasionally mentions that he attends Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minn. (both instances are from 2020). Here are nine facts about Walz’s church.

Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), a liberal offshoot of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS).

In 1976, Pilgrim Lutheran left the LCMS to join what would become the ELCA over “views on the inerrancy of the Bible,” the church explains on its website. “The Missouri Synod was quite firm in the belief that the Bible was without error. Others — pastors, scholars, and lay persons — felt that the Bible, while inspired, had portions where informed people could have differing opinions.”

The lead pastor of Pilgrim Lutheran Church is Jen Rome.

According to the church website, Jen Rome (“she/her”) “received her Masters of Divinity Princeton Theological Seminary in 2000” and “has 17 years of experience in bringing people of all generations to deeply experience and creatively connect with God, the world, and each other.” She is married with two daughters, and the family lives “inter-generationally” in a duplex with her in-laws.

On Sunday, August 4, Rome delivered a homily based on a reading from John 6, in which, after feeding the 5,000, Jesus teaches that he is the bread of life. “Jesus goes on and on forever, it seems,” said Rome, but “what Jesus is talking about is setting aside or being healed from what causes you and the ones around to perish, to receive what is life-giving.”

Drawing an object lesson from a fictional, young-adult book series in which a young girl studies dragon science in defiance of societal expectations, Rome urged all her hearers to free themselves from the “garbage” of societal norms. She discussed her struggle with aging, saying her body no longer attains what she believes society expects from the female figure, adding that “it is amazing garbage that can go through this feminist’s head.”

“We humans love to make systems or hierarchies, whether that’s government, or religion, or gender, or race. We just live in all that stuff. We breathe it in, and the dynamics just circulate around in ourselves,” she said. But she imagined that Jesus would deliver quite a different message: “You, with the sick body, you are important. You, who do something for a living that others don’t appreciate, you are my child. You, who have been excluded by society for simply being who you are, whatever shape your body took, you are God’s child.”

Pilgrim Lutheran Church pursues a ‘varied and creative’ liturgy, particularly at evening services

“Evening worship at Pilgrim is varied and creative, focusing particularly on contemplation and a sense of calm mindfulness, most notably in the music, readings, use of silences, and lighting,” the website explains. “There is no sermon, so the Celtic Contemplative Communion and Contemplative Prayer from Nordic and Other Lands services use a unique style of ‘Word Weavings.’” The church website lists multiple staff experienced in Celtic and Nordic music, led by Composer-in-Residence Dick Hensold (“he/him”).

The church’s “word weaving” aims to “combine scripture and poetry in a way that is inspired by the ancient practice of ‘Lectio Divina.’ These ‘weavings’ juxtapose phrases from the readings in new ways to inspire deeper experience with the texts.”

While most deliberate in its evening services, Pilgrim Lutheran also embraces an open-ended worship liturgy in its Sunday morning gatherings. In the most recent service on August 4, for example, Pastor Rome announced a “U-pick hymn sing” after the conclusion of her homily and prayer, inviting attendees to select their favorite hymns out of the hymnal.

At Pilgrim Lutheran Church, anyone may partake in the Lord’s supper.

“All people are ALWAYS welcome to receive Holy Communion,” announced the church newsletter. Rome confirmed this at the most recent service, declaring, “You are all welcome at this table. Whatever your age, wherever you are at in your life of doubt and faith … you are welcome at Christ’s table.”

This differs from the practice of many churches that restrict the Lord’s table to baptized believers, based on Paul’s warning to the Corinthians:

“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Corinthians 11:27-30).

Pilgrim Lutheran Church recites a modified version of the Lord’s prayer.

After reciting Jesus’ instructions about the Lord’s supper from Matthew 26:26-28, Rome led the congregation in a modified version of the Lord’s prayer. “And now,” she said, “we pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying, ‘our guardian, our mother, our father in heaven, hallowed by thy name …’”

According to the gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name …’” (Matthew 6:9). The gospel of Luke contains a similar, but slightly abbreviated, teaching, in which Jesus says, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name …’” (Luke 11:2).

Pilgrim Lutheran Church welcomes and affirms people who identify as LGBT+ and follow those lifestyles.

“Pilgrim is a Reconciling in Christ church,” their website states, “which includes a partnership with Reconciling Works, a ministry devoted to welcoming, celebrating, and advocating for the full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals in Lutheran faith communities.”

“Reconciling Works advocates for the acceptance, full participation, and liberation of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions within the Lutheran Church,” according to their website.

Reconciling Works offers trainings with titles such as “Lutheran Introduction to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, & Gender Expression [SOGIE]” and “Let’s talk SOGIE.” It directs youth and families to PFLAG, an LGBT activist group that lobbies for explicit books in school libraries and against legislation to protect minors from gender transition procedures.

All six members of the Reconciling Works Board of Directors identity as LGBT, not including their non-binary chaplain. The current chair of the board has three children, two of whom (ages nine and 14) also identify as LGBT, while she considers the youngest, age four, to be “he/him until otherwise declared).

In addition to their partnership with Reconciling Works, Pilgrim Lutheran also incorporates LGBT-inclusivity throughout their church culture. Their staff page lists the preferred pronouns of every team member, including one, a Kindergarten teacher, who identifies as “she/they.” The church also hosts a trans-friendly, monthly event for mothers, advertising, “All those who identify themselves as mamas from Pilgrim are invited to a Pilgrim Mamas get together approximately once a month in the later evening.”

Pilgrim Lutheran Church promotes at least five anti-racism initiatives.

On its “ministries” page, Pilgrim Lutheran Church lists an Advocates for Racial Equity (ARE) team, which works “to overcome white supremacy by aligning with Pilgrim’s ‘Mission of Outreach and Welcome’ and ‘Doing Justice’ as we live out the counterculture values of the gospel through education, relationship building and advocacy.”

The ARE team developed a land acknowledgement statement “to acknowledge the traditional Indigenous inhabitants of the land we are on, inspiring us towards ongoing awareness and action. The full land acknowledgment is below (the ARE team also approved a shortened version that omits the bracketed material):

“This land is not just this address. From time immemorial the Dakota people’s lives and stories have been woven together with this land. [They were forcibly exiled from their land starting with the treaties of 1837 and 1851 and were nearly exterminated after the 1862 US Dakota war. We acknowledge the Dakota people, past and present, for their ongoing story and care of this land. We condemn and lament the way colonialism pillaged both the land and the Dakota way of life. Pilgrim Lutheran Church commits to ongoing efforts to recognize, support, and advocate for the Dakota and other Indigenous peoples.] Let us take a moment of silence to honor the Dakota people, their heritage and resiliency.”

Additionally, Pilgrim Lutheran Church maintains a reparations fund “directed specifically to respond to inequities in homeownership for BIPOC families.” The ARE team has led the church in a “process of making reparations for its tacit participation in the system of housing segregation.”

Pilgrim Lutheran Church also participates in a Joint Church Anti-Racism Team (JCART), “a collaborative effort of study and action” of four local mainline churches. JCART studies varied topics and is currently engaged in studying “Indigenous/Native understanding and issues.”

Most broadly, Pilgrim Lutheran Church participates in “a multi-racial, state-wide, nonpartisan coalition” called ISAIAH, which is “fighting for racial and economic justice in Minnesota” through “activism, organizing, and political action.” ISAIAH celebrated the “bold, progressive agenda” that passed the Minnesota legislature in 2023 and laid out its 2024 legislative priorities: expansion of green energy, publicly-funded daycare, publicly-funded health care, rent control, and trimming down voting requirements.

Pilgrim Lutheran Church also offers a Pilgrims Caring for Creation group, which aims “to reduce material and energy waste on our church campus” and sponsors “education and public events on issues of environmental justice.” The Environmental Justice Movement battles “environmental racism” by working “to improve and maintain a clean and healthful environment, especially for communities of color.” Pilgrim Lutheran has been designated a “Caring for Creation” Congregation by Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light.

Pilgrim Lutheran Church emphasizes social issues in its prayer requests.

On the penultimate page of its church newsletter, Pilgrim Lutheran Church lists concerns for prayer. The lower half of the page lists ongoing health concerns, those mourning the loss of loved ones, and ministry partners. The upper half of the page reads as follows:

“We pray for God’s loving presence for these Pilgrims who need healing, hope, comfort, and care:

“We pray for the people of areas torn by war and violence, including Gaza and Ukraine, for peace and safety. We also pray for those who are refugees fleeing violence seeking help and hope.

“We pray for the loved ones and communities of all victims of gun violence across our country.

“We pray for our governor and all elected officials and public servants. Guide them and support them in their work to care for our cities, our state, and our nation.

“We pray for those whose lives are altered by climate events. We pray for creation and for an increased will to care for it.

“We pray for all in the LGBTQIA+ community who face bias, rejection, and violence. We pray that we may all grow in acceptance and each become a voice for acceptance, advocacy, and support as an expression of Pilgrim’s status as a Reconciling in Christ community of faith.

“We keep in prayer our Native, Asian, Latino, and Black siblings who continue to face the legacy of racism. We pray for change in systems of oppression and injustice, and that we all may learn to follow the path of anti-racism, and each become a voice for inclusion, equity, and justice.

“We pray for our Muslim and Jewish siblings, as well as our siblings of other religions, in our country, state, and community facing prejudice, threats, and destruction of their places of worship.”

Pilgrim Lutheran Church maintains a partnership with a Lutheran Congregation in Tanzania.

Pilgrim Lutheran has maintained a partnership with the Luganga Lutheran congregation, of the Iringa Diocese of Tanzania, since 2002. Luganga Lutheran is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT).

In contrast to its mainline American counterpart, the ELCT prominently displays on its website its mission “To make people know Jesus Christ and have life in [his] fullness by bringing to them the Good News through words and deeds based on the Word of God as it is in the Bible and the Lutheran teachings guided by the ELCT Constitution.”

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: A Walz to the White House?

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Trump Recalls ‘Only’ Interaction With Tim Walz On ‘Fox & Friends’

August 9, 2024/in Elections, Featured, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Social Issues/by The Daily Caller

Former President Donald Trump reflected Wednesday morning on his “only” interaction with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Trump told “Fox and Friends” co-hosts in his first televised interview since Harris tapped Walz to join the ticket Tuesday that the Minnesota governor called him “very concerned” during the intersection of Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots and COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. Trump expressed that he “can’t believe” Harris chose Walz.

“I know him a little bit,” Trump said. “I helped him very much during the riots because his house was surrounded by people that were waving an American flag. Doesn’t sound like very bad people. And he called me, and he was very concerned. Very, very concerned that it was going to get out of control.”

On April 17, 2020, dozens of protesters gathered outside Walz’s governor’s mansion in St. Paul for a second day, demanding he end Minnesota’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order, according to CBS News. The demonstrators, consisting of frustrated business owners holding signs and waving American flags, referred to themselves as “Liberate Minnesota.”

Walz issued multiple COVID-19 executive orders April 17, 2020, extending his emergency order for another month. While the Minnesota governor loosened restrictions on outdoor recreation, a six-foot distance was still required for those in separate households. Minnesotans who could “work at home” were required to continue.

Trump said Walz’s mansion only had “one guard” and that the Minnesota governor called him for help. Trump said the anti-lockdown protesters “left” after he “put out the word” about Walz.

“They only had one guard, I guess it was at the mansion or had his house in some form. And he called me, and I said, ‘What do you want me to do about it?’ I was in the White House. He said, ‘If you would put out the word that I’m a good person,’ and I did, I put out the word. I said, ‘he’s a good person. I hope everything’s good.’ And everybody put down their flags and took their flags with them. But they took the American flags and their MAGA flags and they left. It was thousands of people,” Trump said Wednesday on Fox News.

“And that was the first time I said, ‘Wow, that’s very interesting.’ And he called me back and he thanked me very much. That’s my only thing I ever had to do with him,” Trump continued. “He’s a very, very liberal man, and he’s a shocking pick. And I’m, I’m thrilled. I could not be more thrilled.”

In April 2020, similar anti-lockdown protests occurred in states including Ohio, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan, according to NBC News. Trump sent three tweets April 17, 2020, the same day Walz’s mansion was mobbed by demonstrators, saying, “LIBERATE VIRGINIA,” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!”

At the time, Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee accused Trump of “fomenting domestic rebellion” and that he was “putting millions of people in danger of contracting COVID-19.” A Twitter spokesperson rebutted that claim, stating that Trump’s rhetoric was too vague and did not violate the website’s COVID-19 policies, NBC News noted at the time.

On April 20, 2020, Trump tweeted that he “received a very nice call” from Walz and that his administration was working “fast” to help fulfill the Minnesota governor’s needs.

The Star Tribune reported that Walz said Trump “expressed great desire to work with us” following their 10-minute phone call April 18, 2020. The Minnesota governor made clear his disinterest in “adjudicating why we don’t have these things now” and emphasized his interest “in how we get them.”

AUTHOR

Julianna Frieman

Contributor

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Tim Walz’s Admin Spearheaded Efforts To Cut Most Age Requirements For Genital Surgeries On Kids

August 9, 2024/in Culture War, Elections, Featured, Healthcare, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Social Issues, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’ administration opened the door to state-funded sex genital surgeries for minors last year when it removed age restrictions on most transgender procedures from the state’s healthcare policy.

Walz, who is now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate, instructed Minnesota’s Department of Human Services (DHS) to ensure “up-to-date, medically necessary gender affirming treatments are covered” for reimbursement by the state’s health care program in a March 2023 executive order. Later that month, the Health Services Advisory Council (HSAC), a 14-member council appointed by the DHS commissioner, took up the issue of reforming the policy over the course of five meetings beginning in March, according to meeting minutes and other public records.

The HSAC ultimately voted not to add age criteria for breast removal and recommended following “WPATH standards” for a range of other procedures. Based on the council’s recommendations, the DHS updated the coverage policy in September 2023 to “remove most age restrictions,” except for a requirement to be over 18 for phalloplasty.

HSAC members are paid $200 per meeting, according to the DHS website.

Previously, Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) policy required members to be over 18 to receive coverage for any genital surgery, according to an April 2023 meeting agenda.

WPATH Standards of Care Version 8 (SoC 8) guidelines released in September 2022, which HSAC considered when making its recommendations, also removed age limits for procedures like cross-sex hormones and surgeries. WPATH allowed its updated guidelines to be influenced by pressure to advance litigation and policy goals, including pressure from the Biden administration, court documents unsealed in June revealed.

Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine pressured WPATH to remove minimum age recommendations, according to court documents.

Before making their decision, the HSAC heard presentations from multiple transgender activists, including co-chair of WPATH SOC-8 Eli Coleman and Children’s Minnesota Gender Health Program medical director Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd.

In a document SOC-8 leadership created to defend their recommendations, Coleman identified “academics and scientists who are naturally skeptical” and “continuing pressure in health care to provide evidence-based care” as sources of the “attack” on trans healthcare, according to court documents from a case challenging Alabama’s ban on sex change procedures for children.

Goepferd’s clinic offers children over 10 years old an opportunity to “meet individually” to discuss their gender identity and “possible treatment options” through its Gender Health Program, according to the clinic’s website.

Goepferd testified in favor of Minnesota’s “Trans Refuge” bill passed last year. In 2020, Goepferd gave a TEDx talk in 2020 titled, “The revolutionary truth about kids and gender identity.”

Since MHCP coverage for transgender procedures began in 2017, the state has provided reimbursements for a total of 1,609 procedures for patients of unspecified ages, including 632 mastectomies and 559 genital surgeries, according to a March 2023 presentation.

Walz’s All-Of-Government Push

While the HSAC was looking into insurance policy changes, Walz signed the legislature’s “Trans Refuge” bill into law. The bill, which protects children who travel to Minnesota for transgender procedures from the law in other states, also gives state courts “temporary emergency jurisdiction” when a child has been “unable to obtain gender-affirming health care.”

Walz’ sought to set Minnesota up as an example as other states were restricting sex change surgeries for minors.

“In Minnesota, we value LGBTQIA+ community members, we safeguard their rights,” he wrote in the March executive order. “We are committed to protecting access to gender affirming health care services.”

In a November 2023 memo to insurance companies and medical centers, the Minnesota Department of Health also warned that it would use “its powers, authorities, and duties to the fullest extent possible to take all appropriate actions to protect Minnesotans’ access to gender affirming health care services.” (RELATED: Harris ‘Loved’ Walz’s Record Despite ‘Abject Failure’ On 2020 Riots, Stringent Covid Policies And More)

“Importantly, MDHR will investigate charges, file complaints or civil actions, and/or seek injunctive relief when MDHR receives a charge of discrimination or has reason to believe that discrimination is occurring on the basis of a person’s sex and/or gender identity,” the memo stated.

Minnesota’s DHS and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

AUTHORS

Katelynn Richardson and Megan Brock

Contributors.

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Tim Walz’s Church Doesn’t Like To Call God ‘Him,’ Supports Reparations And Pride Parades

August 9, 2024/in Elections, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Religion/by The Daily Caller

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz attends a church that preaches beliefs related to gender, race and sexuality that many Christian denominations strongly oppose.

Walz, who is the governor of Minnesota, identified Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul as his parish during a 2020 briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials published by Pilgrim Lutheran Church instruct parishioners not to refer to God using male pronouns, push congregants to support reparation funds, encourage them to celebrate Ramadan and include a modified gender-neutral version of the Lord’s Prayer, among other liberal practices.

Pilgrim Lutheran Church is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), a mainline protestant denomination that has been criticized by some conservative Christians for ordaining transgender and lesbian bishops as well as for its embrace of LGBT ideology.

“The ELCA is, broadly speaking, a liberal American mainline Protestant denomination,” Jonah Wendt, a policy adviser for Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom and a member of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They reject the inerrancy of scripture, ordain women to the pastoral office [and] hold what many would believe to be unbiblical views on abortion and homosexual behavior.”

Pilgrim Lutheran Church in 2015 approved “guidelines for language in worship” wherein the congregation asserted that “a patriarchal culture gave birth to the writing of scripture and the selection of the canon” and, to rectify the purported injustice, committed to using gender-neutral language to describe God. Members of the church, for instance, are encouraged to “choose non-anthropomorphic language” like “hen” or “baker” to refer to God, and urged “not to limit these by following them with male or female pronouns.”

The guidelines instruct parishioners to refer to God using titles that signal actions but don’t imply gender, like “advocate” or “healer.” Walz’s church also uses a modified version of the Lord’s Prayer, beginning with “Our Guardian, Our Mother, Our Father in heaven” instead of the traditional “Our Father who art in heaven.”

“This approach certainly runs contrary to scripture,” Wendt told the DCNF. “Throughout the Bible, God chooses to use male pronouns and we should take God at his word. I’d hope that any Christian, Lutheran or not, would flee from a pastor or church body that decides to change how they represent who God is to fit their own political agenda.”

During the racial unrest following the death of George Floyd in 2020, Walz’s church encouraged its parishioners to hit the streets and protest for racial justice, according to a social media post from Pilgrim Lutheran. The church directed its members to vigils and marches to protest the death of Floyd as well as to “come hear community updates on uprising/riots, how we can support our neighbors and how to pray particularly for our neighborhood.”

Walz faced criticism over his handling of the Floyd riots as he failed to deploy the Minnesota National Guard to Minneapolis the day its mayor and police chief requested help to quell the intensifying looting and arson that was racking the city, the New York Times reported. Damages in Minneapolis from the riot totaled $107 million, with over 1,000 buildings being burned or damaged, according to the Minnesota Reformer.

“It was obvious to me that he froze under pressure, under a calamity, as people’s properties were being burned down,” Republican Minnesota State Senator Warren Limmer recently told the NYT.

Racial justice is a major focus of Pilgrim Lutheran Church, with the congregation also pushing its members to donate to a reparation fund housed by a local nonprofit to provide housing stipends to black residents in St. Paul so that the predominantly white congregation could “atone” for their role in systemic racism.

“We white citizens and congregants have been complicit in the systematic exclusion of Black, Indigenous, Immigrant and other People of Color from full participation in and benefit from the common good,” a statement from the church reads. “We lament the suffering caused by our racism. We endeavor to live more fully a Gospel commitment to love our neighbors as ourselves by listening well, changing our hearts and partnering with our neighbors in building an antiracist community of justice where all may thrive.”

Walz signed a bill in 2023 that sent money to communities purportedly harmed by marijuana criminalization, the Star Tribune reported. A Democratic state legislator who sponsored the bill called it “a form of reparation.”

The Pilgrim Advocates for Racial Equity team was responsible for drafting the church’s reparations program. A similar team, the Pilgrim Racial Justice Task Force, hosted a two-part forum on “white privilege” in October 2019, according to a social media post.

Walz’s church has also promoted dozens of pieces of leftist literature to help its parishioners become “antiracist.” The 1619 Project, which teaches that America is fundamentally racist, was among the titles highlighted.

Pilgrim Lutheran Church also takes a liberal stance on issues of sexuality and gender by sending its members to march at gay pride parades, working to amplify the “voices of women and nonbinary/gender non-conforming individuals,” having gender-neutral restrooms and celebrating “coming out day,” among other initiatives.

Walz signed a bill in April 2023 that empowered the state of Minnesota to revoke custody from parents who deny their children sex changes, hormone replacement or cosmetic surgeries, among other interventions.

Pilgrim Lutheran Church, much like Walz himself, positions itself as an ally of the Islamic community by encouraging its congregants through its now-defunct Twitter account to attend meals celebrating the Muslim holy day of Ramadan and by providing them signs to paste in their windows wishing those around them a “Blessed Ramadan.”

Walz regularly attends Muslim religious meals and has spoken at events hosted by local chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

“Satan wants to do everything in his power to separate Christians from the one true faith,” Wendt said. “Many mainline protestant denominations in America have fallen prey to the spirit of the age and are willing to make any concession necessary to stay in line with an ever changing culture.”

Walz’s office, the Harris campaign and Pilgrim Lutheran Church did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

Robert Schmad

Contributor.

Supporting Sanctuary Cities And Giving Driver’s Licenses To Illegal Migrants: Tim Walz’s Record On Immigration

August 7, 2024/in Culture War, Elections, Hot Topics, Immigration, Must Read, National Security, News, Policy, Politics, Social Issues, Taxes, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice for a running mate has a history of far-left positions and actions on immigration issues, a review of his record reveals.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is the Democratic vice presidential nominee for the 2024 ticket, Harris announced in an X post on Tuesday morning. The newly-minted running mate has opposed border enforcement and supported pro-illegal immigration policies while serving as governor and as a congressman, attracting the ire of immigration hawks.

Walz signed into law state legislation in March 2023 allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, opening the door for an estimated 81,000 undocumented aliens in Minnesota to apply for licenses. The Democratic governor said in a press release at the time that giving licenses to foreign nationals living in the state illegally would make “our roads safer.”

WATCH: Tim Walz Grants Driver’s Licenses For Illegals

During his successful 2018 gubernatorial run, Walz publicly declared his support for “sanctuary” policies in Minnesota, according to CBS News.

“Here’s what I believe: Congress has given federal agencies the authority to enforce immigration laws in Minnesota, and I support their doing so,” the then-gubernatorial candidate said in 2018. “Congress has not given local law enforcement that same authority.”

“The role of law enforcement is to enforce state and local laws, not federal immigration laws, and I strongly believe that they should not do so,” his statement continued.

The statement largely reflected what sanctuary city advocates support: Noncooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. Sanctuary jurisdictions typically decline to enforce detainer requests for criminal illegal migrants who are arrested, allowing them back into the community when they are released from local custody.

Walz additionally signed into law legislation that gives state-funded healthcare and free college tuition to illegal immigrants while governor.

Before being elected as governor, Walz served in Congress from 2007 to 2019. NumbersUSA, a group that supports stricter border enforcement, awarded his congressional career with a “D” rating on immigration issues, listing a slate of bills he co-sponsored that, according to the group, undermines border security.

Also as a representative, Walz publicly called then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to build a border wall “ridiculous“.

“Governor Walz supports measures that promote illegal immigration, including policies that allow undocumented migrants to obtain drivers licenses,” John Fabbricatore, a retired Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office director, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“His initiatives in Minnesota magnetize illegal immigration and dismiss the foundation of immigration law,” he continued.

AUTHOR

Jason Hopkins

Immigration reporter.

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ROOKE: Kamala Kowtows To Far Left In First Major Campaign Decision

August 7, 2024/in Culture War, Elections, Hot Topics, Must Read, News, Policy, Politics, Science, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her pick for Vice President, exposing her fidelity to the far-left wing of the Democratic party.

While Harris spent the July flip-flopping on important issues to make her look less like a left-wing puppet and more like a “leader for all Americans,” her choice for running mate negates any of that work.

Walz is the poster child for what not to do when governing for all Americans. During the 2020 George Floyd riots, Walz directed his anger not toward the rioters but to local law enforcement and ordinary Americans who had nothing to do with it. His leadership helped set the stage for national race riots that claimed American lives, destroyed American communities, and resulted in billions of dollars of damage. He added fuel to the fire of racial tension that consumed national conversations.

WATCH: VP candidate Tim Walz replaced the Minnesota state flag with one that resembles the Somali flag

While excusing the actions of thousands of Black Lives Matter rioters, he ramped up draconian COVID policies like instituting snitch lines where neighbors could participate in turning each other in for breaking his mandatory stay-at-home orders.

His justice system ensured that while rioters went free, Walz’s executive orders were to be followed or else. Judge Joseph Bueltel sentenced 57-year-old bar and bistro owner Lisa Hanson to 90 days in jail and a $1000 fine for keeping her business open during the lockdowns. The judge said he used Hanson’s sentence as a message to people who violate executive orders.

Just two days before Hanson’s conviction, the state dismissed the criminal case against Mike Forcia, the man responsible for orchestrating the mob that tore down the statue of Christopher Columbus that used to sit outside the state Capitol. He got off after completing some community service requirements.

Walz apparently knew the statue was at risk of a mob attack, but law enforcement was not instructed to do anything to protect it. They sat back as the mob destroyed American heritage so that the governor could appease the far-left rioters.

Covid executive orders are the only examples of Walz’s radical policies. In March 2023, he signed Executive Order 23-03, safeguarding child sex change surgeries and other treatments considered “gender-affirming healthcare.”

“Gender-affirming care” is a euphemism proponents use to describe the use of irreversible hormone suppression and hormone treatments that can lead to chemical castration, as well as surgeries like mastectomy, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty. Walz made his state a sanctuary for this barbarism without the people’s approval, just the stroke of a pen.

On this same path, at the end of the 2023 state legislative session, he signed 72 radical bills into law, including no-limit abortions into the state constitution and deleting specific language that would prevent pedophiles from seeking anti-discrimination protections. Walz also signed a bill that required school districts to stock male bathrooms with period products. He raised taxes, ushered in red-flag gun laws, and gave illegal immigrants driver’s licenses.

These policies aren’t even left of center; they are as far-left as one can possibly get. There is no mistaking what Harris wants for her party and America. It’s not to bring everyone together or govern the country in a way that uplifts all Americans. She wants to usher in a new America where policing is demonized and criminals run free, where healthcare is classified as murder and mutilation, and illegal immigration is the law of the land.

Harris could have chosen a more moderate (at least on the outside) candidate like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, but she didn’t because the far left wing of her party felt like he was a risky choice. Her message is loud and clear. If she gets into office, the radical left-wing will control every aspect of her policy-making and cackle at the sounds of your displeasure. American values will be discarded. Together, they’ll create a new America that erases the American Dream with Socialism and Communism.

AUTHOR

Mary Rooke

Commentary and analysis writer.

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Trump Pulling Close To Even In Blue State That Hasn’t Voted Republican In Half A Century

June 22, 2024/in Elections, Featured, Hot Topics, News, Policy, Politics, Social Issues/by The Daily Caller

Former President Donald Trump is closing in on President Joe Biden in Minnesota, a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican president in over 50 years, according to several recent polls.

Trump is tied with Biden at 45% in Minnesota, according to an Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll released earlier this week, while other recent polls have shown him within the margin of error in the historically Democratic state. The last time the North Star State voted for a Republican candidate was in 1972 for former President Richard Nixon.

“While Minnesota hasn’t voted Republican at the presidential level in a long time, it was decided by fewer than 45,000 votes in 2016, and by fewer than 100,000 votes in 2004,” Jon McHenry, GOP polling analyst and vice president at North Star Opinion Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s certainly in play this time around.”

Other polls have Biden leading in Minnesota, but by an increasingly narrow margin. Biden was shown leading Trump by four points, according to Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy findings from June. In May, Biden was also leading in Minnesota by a slim two point margin, according to a KSTP/SurveyUSA poll.

In 2020, Biden won Minnesota with a 7.2% margin, which was on track with historical trends. In 2016, former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won the state with a 1.5% margin. Former President Barack Obama also won Minnesota in 2012 and 2008, with a 7.7% and 10.2% margin, respectively.

“The reason Donald Trump can run so close in Minnesota is the general level of dissatisfaction with Joe Biden’s presidency, especially in his handling of the economy and illegal immigration,” McHenry told DCNF. “Unless voters change their minds about the economy, states that narrowly voted for President Biden in 2020 are going to flip, and states that gave him a more solid margin like Minnesota are going to be very close.”

Trump and Biden were also tied in Virginia, according to a Roanoke College Poll, which has not voted for a Republican since former President George W. Bush in 2004.

According to RealClearPolitics polling averages, Trump currently leads in all swing states.

Trump is leading in Arizona by 4.6 points and in Nevada by 5.7 points. In the Rust Belt, Trump is leading in Wisconsin by 0.3 points, in Michigan by 0.2 points and in Pennsylvania by 2.3 points. In the South, Trump is leading in North Carolina by 5.3 points and in Georgia by 5 points.

“In the swing states we’ve polled, majorities of voters say they were better off financially under Donald Trump, so the Trump campaign is probably three-quarters of the way there,” McHenry told the DCNF.

In a five-way race with Trump, Biden, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent candidate Cornel West, Trump’s odds improve, including in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, according to RealClearPolitics averages.

The Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll sampled 1,000 registered voters from Jun. 13 through Jun. 18 with a margin of error of 3%.

AUTHOR

REBEKA ZELJKO

Contributor.

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CAIR Executive-Director: There Are 9 Million American Muslims Who Can Tip The Balance In Michigan, Minnesota, Washington State, Wisconsin

June 21, 2024/in Culture War, Elections, Must Read, National Security, News, Policy, Politics, Religion, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Middle East Media Research Institute

Nihad Awad, the executive-director of CAIR — the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in an April 26, 2024 sermon at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia that there are nine million Muslims in the United States, but that they were unable to “stand up to the lies” of the U.S. government and prevent the invasion and destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, nor were they able to stop the “genocide” that is currently taking place in Gaza, and he warned that in India, “the Modi government and the Hindutva party are planning and getting the Muslim community to face the destiny of other communities who have been exterminated.”

Dr. Awad said that the Muslim-American community must be politically active, because even though they are a minority, they are having a political impact, as has been seen in key states like Michigan, Georgia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, and elsewhere. He also prayed to Allah to grant victory to the people of Gaza.

To view the clip of CAIR Executive-Director Dr. Nihad Awad, click here or below:

In The Past, American Muslims Could Not Stand Up To The Lies Of The U.S. Government, Which Were Put Forth To Invade And Destroy Afghanistan And Iraq, And Kill Millions Of People

Nihad Awad: “According to my organization and the most reputable organizations in the country, the Muslim community is at least nine million people in the United States.

[…]

“We have not, and could not, stand up to the lies of our government [which were] put forth to invade and destroy Afghanistan and Iraq and kill millions of people.

[…]

“We could not prevent the massacre, the genocide in Gaza from happening.

[…]

“If you think you are powerless more massacres will happen. More genocides will happen. Do you know what’s in the pipeline in addition to Gaza? India. The Modi government and the Hindutva party are planning and getting the Muslim community to face the destiny of other communities who have been exterminated.

[…]

“And we are a minority, like in Mecca. And also, we are like in Medina, because we are also well established. We have resources we have voices and people are taking note of the Muslim community.

Millions Of American Muslims Can Tip The Balance In Michigan, Georgia, Minnesota, Washington State, Wisconsin

“And if you don’t know that, just watch what happened in Michigan, in Georgia, in Minnesota, in Washington state, in Wisconsin. The uncommitted. The millions of people who are voting and sending a clear message to this administration that they are going to hold them accountable in November.

[…]

“You have to be politically involved, because the ummah is waiting for you.

[…]

“In the swing states, you may not be the margin of victory, but you can tip the balance.

[…]

“We ask you Allah to empower us to give us the victory with the people of Gaza.”

‘There Are Terror Threats Coming Across The … Border’: DCNF Reporter Discusses Al-Shabaab Member Caught In Minnesota

February 4, 2024/in Courts & Law, Elections, Hot Topics, Immigration, National Security, News, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

A Daily Caller News Foundation reporter warned “terror threats” have crossed the U.S. border during a Saturday morning appearance on Newsmax.

A member of al-Shabaab, a radical Islamic terrorist group based out of Somalia, was captured in Minnesota in January after being released into the United States following an initial detention at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a memo obtained by the DCNF. DCNF Investigative Reporter Jennie Taer discussed the memo with “Wake Up America” weekend hosts Sarah Williamson and Michael Graham.

“We exclusively reported earlier this week that an al-Shabaab terrorist had made their way through the southern border, was caught by Border Patrol in March, was actually released after they determined he was a mismatch which was completely incorrect,” Taer told Williamson and Graham.

WATCH:

“He was not a mismatch on the terror watch list and ICE found that out in January and they just a few days ago nabbed this guy in Minnesota. So, absolutely there are terror threats coming across the southern border and Border Patrol was also warned in a memo that we obtained earlier after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that there could be Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah terrorists crossing,” Taer continued.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota demanded an explanation about the incident Friday from Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

Taer previously reported that CBP’s San Diego Field Office Intelligence Division sent out a memo in October warning that the radical Islamic terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad could enter the United States via the U.S.-Mexico border.

United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported over 302,000 illegal immigrants came across the U.S.-Mexico border in December after nearly 380,000 illegal immigrants have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border during the first two months fiscal year 2024, which started Oct. 1, according to data released by the agency. CBP also reported 2,045,838 encounters in fiscal year 2023, 2,206,436 in fiscal year 2022 and 1,659,206 in fiscal year 2021.

AUTHOR

HAROLD HUTCHISON

Reporter.

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pic.twitter.com/9BFtc4hWDO

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 4, 2024

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“So I just had a conversation with a… pic.twitter.com/xrMOl398yT

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Terrorist Caught Illegally Crossing The Border Was Allowed To Roam Free For Nearly A Year, Memo Says

January 29, 2024/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Elections, Hot Topics, Immigration, National Security, News, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Caller

Federal authorities caught a terrorist at the U.S. southern border and released him into the country, where he roamed freely for nearly a year before being arrested in Minnesota just days ago, according to an internal federal memo exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The unnamed individual, who the memo only identifies as a member of the Somali terror group al-Shabaab, was released shortly after being caught illegally crossing the southern border near San Ysidro, California on March 13, 2023, according to the memo, which the DCNF is not publishing in order to protect the identity of a confidential source. The Terrorist Screening Center “deemed him a ‘mismatch’” after running his name through the terror watchlist, according to the memo, which was sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

However, on January 18, 2024, the Terrorist Screening Center “made a redetermination” that the individual was “a confirmed member of al-Shabaab” and was involved in the use, manufacture or transport of explosives or firearms, the memo states. Two days later, ICE nabbed the al-Shabaab member in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Border Patrol caught 172 terror watchlist suspects attempting to enter the U.S. illegally during fiscal year 2023. Former homeland security officials say the constant deluge of illegal immigrants hitting the southern border is making it easier for bad actors to slip into the country.

“Many within the Biden administration, including Secretary Mayorkas, have repeatedly assured us that the vetting process at the border is comprehensive and complete,” John Fabbricatore, a retired ICE field director who now sits on the National Immigration Center for Enforcement’s (NICE) board, told the DCNF. “However, we continue to witness alarming instances where terrorists are able to freely roam the United States for months after being released at the border before their criminal and terrorist histories come to light.”

The number of suspected terrorists caught trying to illegally cross the southern border continues to grow. Border Patrol agents apprehended 50 illegal immigrants on the terror watchlist between October and December of last year, according to federal data. For comparison, there were a total of 30 such encounters between fiscal years 2017 and 2020.

“This situation is greatly endangering our nation, and it is clear that our safety is dependent on enforcing our immigration laws and securing the border,” said Fabbricatore, who’s also running for Congress.

Mass releases of illegal migrants under the Biden administration have placed immense pressure on federal authorities to move people through the system quickly.

“People have been released prior to completed records checks being returned on a subject. Which would not allow proper processing and placement of a potential terrorist once those results were known,” an ICE official, who previously served as a Border Patrol agent, told the DCNF on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Border Patrol can only hold migrants in custody for up to 72 hours, but it often takes much longer to receive information from background checks, Fabbricatore said.

“The overburdening of the Border Patrol with the excessive amounts of illegal border crossers has forced faster processing times, which doesn’t allow for a more vigorous initial investigation into a migrants background. The background checks currently being run only initially search out criminal history in the United States, not outside its borders. It could take days, weeks, or months to connect derogatory information coming from other databases,” Fabbricatore said.

There were 860,000 individuals who are known to have snuck into the country illegally without apprehension in 2023.

“Many within the Biden administration, including Secretary Mayorkas, have repeatedly assured us that the vetting process at the border is comprehensive and complete,” Fabbricatore, who is also running for Congress, said. “However, we continue to witness alarming instances where terrorists are able to freely roam the United States for months after being released at the border before their criminal and terrorist histories come to light. This situation is greatly endangering our nation, and it is clear that our safety is dependent on enforcing our immigration laws and securing the border,” Fabbricatore said.

The U.S. government has considered Al-Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization since 2008. The terrorist group operates in Somalia and has also committed attacks in Kenya and Uganda, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

U.S. forces killed three al-Shabaab terrorists in a self defense air strike on Jan. 21 at the request of the Somali government

Al-Shabaab has carried out bombings, including suicide attacks, and the group has assassinated Somali peace activists, international aid workers, journalists and numerous civil society figures, according to the National Counterterrorism Center. The terror group carried out a 2013 attack on Westgate mall in Nairobi, killing 67 people, and in 2017 killed hundreds of civilians in Mogadishu through two suicide attacks.

After Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, federal authorities warned Border Patrol to be on alert for Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah terrorists attempting to illegally cross the southern border, according to an internal memo exclusively obtained by the DCNF at the time.

“It is clear that our safety is dependent on enforcing our immigration laws and securing the border,” Fabbricatore said.

ICE didn’t respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JENNIE TAER

Investigative reporter.

WATCH: United States Invasion Route Exposed | ENTIRE ILLEGAL ALIEN PIPELINE REVEALED | Muckraker Report

POST ON X:

Senate Republican leadership’s deal with the Democrats is dead on arrival in the House.

The border package doesn’t even come close to securing the border.

We ought to have enough sense not to provide fig leaves for the Democrats and Joe Biden — they caused this crisis. pic.twitter.com/WXIG6J4jpU

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 28, 2024

Somali Muslim Gets Probation for School Arson During BLM Riots

February 7, 2022/in Courts & Law, Culture War, Immigration, National Security, News, Policy, Politics, Religion, Social Issues/by Jihad Watch

The Feds are really throwing the book at these folks.

United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald today announced a federal criminal complaint against MOHAMED HUSSEIN ABDI, 19, charging him with arson. ABDI, who was arrested on June, 29, 2020, made his initial appearance earlier today before Magistrate Judge Hildy Bowbeer in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota.

According to the allegations in the complaint, on May 28, 2020, the Gordon Parks High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, suffered damage due to fire and vandalism. Surveillance cameras inside the school captured footage of ABDI and another individual intentionally setting a fire in the cafeteria. The footage shows ABDI reaching through a broken glass door and pouring a clear liquid from a white container on the floor of the cafeteria. ABDI then entered the cafeteria and poured more clear liquid onto the floor and into a trashcan. ABDI ignited a fire in the trashcan using a liquid-soaked garment. The footage shows ABDI running from the building as flames and black smoke erupt from the trashcan.

That was the summer of 2020 during the Trump administration. He entered a guilty plea last spring. Now he ended up with… probation.

Mohamed Hussein Abdi, 20, was handed the probation sentence in a U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, Thursday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit arson, according to court documents obtained by Fox News.

Abdi was also ordered to pay just over $34,000 in restitution to Gordon Parks High School in St. Paul.

I wonder what the penalty for arson in Somali might be.

COLUMN BY

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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