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Scott Jensen, a one-term state senator and family doctor who became a nationally known critic of COVID-19 restrictions, is the endorsed Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota. In a dramatic state GOP convention, the Chaska resident ended up winning 65 percent of the vote of 2,200 delegates meeting at Rochester’s...

Republicans at the GOP state party convention in Rochester did most of what they planned to do Friday — and avoided some hurdles along the way. After defeating moves to require paper balloting instead of using electronic counting and heading off a move to deny delegates to party affiliate groups — including gay Republicans — the 2,200 delegates endorsed candidates for auditor, secretary of state and attorney general.

That a Minneapolis family is claiming the Minneapolis police took DNA samples from their child without their consent. They allege that reports of gunfire at Phelps Park led to the teen and two others being detained. The teen was not charged with a crime, but his DNA was taken without parental consent. Now, members of the Unity in Community Mediation Team and its Young People’s Task Force want answers.

In 11 days, Minnesota First Congressional District primary voters will pick the Republican and Democrat they want to see on the ballot in the Aug. 9 special election to succeed Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died in February. In the absence of independent polling, we don’t have a great picture of...

MinnPost is excited to announce Ana Radelat is joining our newsroom as the organization’s D.C. Bureau correspondent. Radelat comes to MinnPost with more than 20 years of experience covering D.C. politics, most recently for the Connecticut Mirror, a nonprofit online publication similar in mission to MinnPost. A decorated journalist, Radelat has been honored by the Associated Press, the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists and Gannett.

In 2020, residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities accounted for 23% of Minnesota’s total COVID-19 cases and experienced 81% of total COVID-19-related deaths. More than $150 million has been spent in emergency health response at LTC facilities in Minnesota. It’s been just over two years since the pandemic. The omicron variant is still hitting long-term care facilities, with many reported cases in these facilities.

I beg permission to rant (once again) against the Electoral College: to explain at least one of the reasons Republicans love it so much); to mention (again) an elegant fix for its problems that aren’t making much progress; and to suggest one (antidemocratic) reason why Republicans may oppose it.

At some point in the late morning, a DJ hit “play” at the corner of 23rd Avenue South and East 31st Street and the Hues Corporation jam, “Rock the Boat,” blasted out into the sunshine. In the shadow of the new B-Side apartment building in the Corcoran neighborhood, the row of booths marked the first time that the Midtown Farmers Market was back to its old location on what for years had been a vacant parking lot.

It is a nearly 500-page bill that contains dozens of issues related to social and health services in Minnesota. Many issues have bipartisan support. But if there is not an agreement between Senate Republicans and House DFLers on the big issues in what is known as the Health and Human Services omnibus bill, many of those smaller agreements are at risk.

It is refreshing when our elected officials stand together and work towards good public policy in a bi-partisan manner. The Minnesota Legislature is currently doing just that as they consider legislation that would ensure boaters are responsible and educated on safety, operational and conservation best practices. Introduced as SF3392 and HF3787, the language is now included in the House Environment and Natural Resources omnibus bill (SF 4062).

After three and a half months of work, what did the State Legislature actually get done — and what can we expect moving forward from the state’s uniquely divided government? To explore those questions and more, join MinnPost writers Peter Callaghan and Walker Orenstein for MinnPost Social: 2022 Legislative Recap on Wednesday, Jun. 1, from 5:30 – 7 p.m. at Elsie’s in northeast Minneapolis.

Hello and welcome back to the D.C. Memo. This week you can find me finally saying a full goodbye to you all. That’s right, MinnPost has finally selected a new Washington correspondent to take my place and take over the Memo! This is of course a bittersweet moment — your new D.C. reporter has deep experience on the Hill and will do an incredible job of keeping you all up to date on the news you need to know about from Washington. Thank you for all the support you’ve shown during my time at MinnPost, and thank you for all of the emails — the nice and the not-so-nice — that always kept me on my toes. With that, I’ll say it one last time. Here’s what happened in Washington this week: Continued fallout from the SCOTUS leaked draft, some big endorsements for congressional districts and Emmer tries to protect freedom of speech.

WCCO-TV’s Erin Hassanzadeh reports : “A second night of dangerous weather has turned deadly. The National Weather Service says a grain bin fell on a car just before 7 p.m. Thursday in Blomkest in Kandiyohi County, killing a passenger inside. A possible tornado also touched down two hours north of there in Pillager. Around that time, strong storms blew into towns like Murdock near Willmar. …Winds also blew semis off the road in Alexandria. Parts of eastbound Interstate 94 are blocked late Thursday night while crews work to help the drivers.”

The Associated Press is reporting the U.S. House’s Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis report reveals meat companies pushed to keep their plants open even though they knew workers were at high risk of catching the virus. Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, who leads the subcommittee, said USDA officials and the industry prioritized production and profits over the health of workers and communities as at least 59,000 workers caught the virus and 269 workers died.

Jordan Ortiz loves to fly. But Ortiz, 18, a senior at Minneapolis’ North Community High School, is not content to sit in just any seat on the plane. There’s one seat she has her sights set on … the captain’s seat. But the odds looked long...

Art can heal. It’s not the same kind of healing you get in a hospital, but there is a certain power in the kind of healing you get from a piece of theater that rejuvenates you, from musicians that bring life to your spirit and from works that take difficult subjects and find moments of redemption and rejuvenation through the journey.

“Brittney Griner told me her fear of being alone and forgotten. Don’t let it come true,” The Guardian. Call it foreshadowing. Writer Melissa Johnson documented WNBA superstar (and United States Olympic gold medalist) Brittney Griner’s first trip to foreign soil for the wages ($600,000 in China compared to $45,000 in the WNBA) she couldn’t earn here in the states. That was 2014 in communist China, but it is 2022 in Russia where Griner finds herself locked away – facing 10 years in prison – for the most minor of “crimes.” Johnson brings the story full circle in her piece for the Guardian. —Harry Colbert, Jr., managing editor.

This weekend, Minnesota anglers will be packing tackle, towing boats and heading up highways 35 and 169 toward the state’s premiere fishing lakes for the walleye opener. As they pile into fishing boats and push off for this rite of spring, some of them will likely be singing the opening bars to the same song, “Walleye,” which starts, “Trollin’, trollin’, trollin’.”

Not long after she graduated high school, Vivian Anugwom and her mother began traveling to their family homeland of Nigeria to do medical mission work, taking health care supplies to rural parts of the country. The experience was formative. “Seeing folks not having access to basic health care and realizing...

Over the last week, we’ve been looking at individual sessions from MinnPost Festival 2022, which was held virtually and in person from April 25-28. As a final wrap-up, I want to share a bit about how the Festival went and how an event like this helps fuel MinnPost’s public-service journalism.