an update on GOP candidates for the Governor’s race; Duluth and Fridley’s lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, and the economic hit to Minneapolis businesses.
Transcript
With today’s headlines, I’m Xan Holston. Two state school districts sue the federal government, and an update on Olympian Lindsey Vonn’s condition. But first, major shake-ups for Republicans in the Governor’s race.
--GOP GOV RACE UPDATE--
Republican candidate Jeff Johnson has suspended his campaign following the death of his daughter in St. Cloud.
Police say Johnson’s daughter was stabbed to death in her apartment, and investigators believe her husband inflicted the wounds before injuring himself.
In a statement, the Republican Party asked for privacy and thanked first responders and the community for their support as his family grieves.
Johnson is a former St. Cloud City Council member — not the former Hennepin County Commissioner and two-time Republican nominee for governor with the same name.
Johnson had been polling far behind the leading Republican candidates, but his exit adds a tragic turn to the race.
Earlier Monday, GOP nominee Scott Jensen had already narrowed the field.
[SCOTT JENSEN: Today I’m announcing that I’m withdrawing from the Governor’s race. Instead, I’m running to be the next State Auditor for Minnesota.]
Jensen says the auditor’s office offers a direct way to challenge how state government operates.
He carried the Republican ticket in 2022 but lost to Governor Tim Walz by nearly 200-thousand votes.
Attorney Chris Madel dropped out last week. Madel ripped into the party for supporting unconstitutional ICE actions in the state, which he called “an unmitigated disaster.”
[CHRIS MADEL: I cannot support the national Republicans' stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.]
Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth remains front runner for her party based on a recent straw poll.
--LIAM CONEJO RAMOS UPDATE--
[NAT: Bad Bunny Song]
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance stirred up a lot of talk on social media.
Viral rumors started spreading that the little boy holding Bad Bunny’s Grammy award was five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos. He was not.
Ramos and his father became the focus of national attention after ICE detained them last month in Minnesota and transferred them to a Texas detention center.
They were released last week, but Ramos’ attorneys say the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, is moving to fast-track their deportation — a move their attorneys called retaliation after a judge’s strongly worded ruling ordered their return to Minnesota.
[DHS SPOKESPERSON: This is standard procedure, and there is nothing retaliatory about enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.]
--DULUTH & FRIDLEY SUE DHS--
Meanwhile, two Minnesota school districts are suing the federal government to keep ICE operations off school property.
Duluth is joining Fridley, a northern suburb of Minneapolis, in the lawsuit.
[JUNE HOIDAL: For decades, federal policy recognized that schools are different.]
June Hoidal, an attorney representing the districts, says the government removed safeguards that restricted immigration enforcement in and around schools without any clear legal process. The lawsuit, she says, seeks…
[JUNE HOIDAL: To restore clear limits around schools, consistent with long-standing policy, so that schools can function as intended.]
The lawsuit names more than a dozen instances of ICE actions in school parking lots and at bus stops, including an incident in January where immigration agents pepper-sprayed and tackled students and teachers at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis.
Fridley Schools Superintendent Brenda Lewis described a recent morning at an elementary school, where six cars full of agents:
[BRENDA LEWIS: Came up and back, up and back, up and back, right outside of our school.]
She says they followed a legal citizen as she dropped her daughter off at school, and that…
[BRENDA LEWIS: Our principal, who is always out at arrival, got yelled at, screamed at, mocked, and photoed.]
The lawsuit alleges ICE’s presence around and on school property creates an atmosphere of fear that’s affecting how schools can function.
A DHS spokesperson said agents aren’t targeting students, but that they’re seeking dangerous criminals who might try to flee into schools, saying:
[DHS SPOKESPERSON: Criminals are no longer able to hide in America’s schools to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense.]
A court date has not been set.
--LINDSEY VONN UPDATE--
A brutal crash has ended Lindsey Vonn’s Olympic comeback.
[NBC ANNOUNCER: The tone is set right here… Oh my goodness! No! Oh. Oh…]
The U.S. skiing legend broke her leg and underwent two surgeries after crashing in her first — and last — run at the Milano-Cortina Games.
The 41-year-old tore her ACL on a test run days earlier.
--MNDOT SNOWPLOW NAMING CONTEST--
And finally, it’s that time of year again to name snowplows.
MnDOT narrowed down nearly seven-thousand submissions to a final 30. For music lovers, there’s “I Got Friends In Snow Places” and “867-530 Brine.”
And for Gen-Alpha, “Six-Sleddin’, Six-Sleddin’” is totally not chopped.
Voting is open through noon on Friday, February 13, on MnDOT’s website.
With the headlines for North Star Stories, I’m Xan Holston.