Trump takes aim at Somalis as feds prep for Minneapolis operation

(NewsNation) — In its latest immigration crackdown, the Trump administration will head to Minneapolis, targeting Somali immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

The city is home to more than 80,000 people of Somali descent. News of the operation comes as President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against the community, saying he did not want immigrants from Somalia in the U.S. because “they contribute nothing.”

Trump also continued his attacks on Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, [pictured here]  who is of Somali descent, saying during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that Omar is “an incompetent person.”

It also comes as some in the community are under fraud investigations, including allegations that millions of dollars from Minnesota state welfare programs instead went to a terrorist group called al-Shabab in Somalia.

Omar told NewsNation she felt Trump’s comments on the Somali community were “totally irresponsible.”

Chauvin Defense Attorneys Claim Prosecutorial Misconduct

A filing made by the defense attorneys of Derek Chauvin [pictured right] has made allegations that there was prosecutorial misconduct and has gone viral, with many calling for an appeal in the case of Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd.

Over 50 current and former police officers have now countered the testimony of Minnesota Police Department (MPD) Inspector Katie Blackwell made during the trial, who said the restraint used by Chauvin was not standard practice at the MPD. 

The petition, which argues to vacate the conviction or appeal the case, gives the prosecution in Chauvin's case 45 days to respond, alleged that the state attorneys going after Chauvin relied on "video and still frames" to tell "a single story," painting Chauvin as a killer. ...

Two Minnesota State Lawmakers Shot, One Killed, in ‘Politically Motivated’ Attack

Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing

Two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses were shot in their homes early Saturday, in what Gov. Tim Walz [pictured right] called "politically motivated" 

An unspeakable tragedy has unfolded in Minnesota," Walz said at a press briefing later Saturday morning.  " My good friend and colleague, [former] Speaker Melissa Hortman, and her husband Mark, were shot and killed early this morning in what appears to be a politically-motivated assassination."

Hortman and his wife, Yvette, were also “each shot multiple times,” but both were out of surgery as of mid-morning.

“We are cautiously optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt,” Walz said.

Don’t Listen To The Emotional Blackmail Arguments Against Pardoning Derek Chauvin

https://www.dailywire.com/news/dont-listen-to-the-emotional-blackmail-arguments-against-pardoning-derek-chauvin

By Matt Walsh, 03/10/25

A couple of months ago we discussed once again the travesty of justice that was the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin [pictured right] . This was a trial that was conducted just down the street from ground-zero of the BLM riots of 2020, which destroyed Minneapolis’ police precinct, caused $500 million in damage to more than 1,500 businesses, and resulted in several deaths. We’re talking about the single most destructive riot in United States history, after the Los Angeles riots of 1992. And it happened in the same place where Derek Chauvin’s trial was being held. But the judge — who later declared that “every case is about racial justice” in some way — didn’t move the trial to a different venue. Instead, he made sure that Chauvin’s fate was determined by jurors who knew well that their city would burn to the ground if they didn’t convict. They had security fencing and National Guard troops all around the courthouse throughout the trial, just in case that message wasn’t clear.

Pam Bondi Fires Warning Shot Over Women’s Sports

Mary Margaret Olohan, 02/25/25,  DailyWire.com

Attorney General Pam Bondi [pictured right] ... issued letters to officials in Maine, Minnesota, and California following pushback from left-wing lawmakers and state officials who have refused to comply with the president’s executive order banning men from women’s sports and spaces.

“This Department of Justice will defend women and does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law,” Bondi said Tuesday. “We will leverage every legal option necessary to ensure state compliance with federal law and President Trump’s Executive Order protecting women’s sports.”

Her letter reminds these officials that Trump’s executive order states that allowing men and boys to compete in women’s and girls’ sports is “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls.”

“The practice is also illegal under federal law: it denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports, in violation of Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972.”

Warning From a Minneapolis Meeting

The New York Times reported:

 

When 12,000 public health professionals gathered in Minneapolis last week for the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the first administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, issued a pointed warning about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“If R.F.K. has a significant influence on the next administration, that could further erode people’s willingness to get up to date with recommended vaccines,” Dr. Adams said. “I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health, on our nation’s economy, on our global security.”

Now, Mr. Kennedy, a vocal skeptic of vaccines, is in a position to have significant influence, and over a broad range of policy. Mr. Trump’s sweeping electoral victory, with Mr. Kennedy at his side, is — in the eyes of their supporters — not only a mandate but also a repudiation of the public health establishment that has long kept Mr. Kennedy at bay.

Mr. Kennedy’s worldview is embodied in two of his most frequent refrains: “There is nothing more profitable for much of the health care system than a sick child” and “Public health agencies have become sock puppets for the industries they are supposed to regulate.”

John Kelly Provides Written Testimony Opposing Assisted Suicide

John Kelly, Boston Globe Photo

There is no way to contain eligibility to a narrow set of people. Especially when thousands of disabled Americans now live with conditions that in some states are seen as “worse than death.” Anorexia nervosa and diabetes can now qualify as terminal conditions. Once death is accepted as a positive outcome of medical care, it inevitably gets offered to more and more people.

The problem for us disabled people is that we are already treated badly in the medical system. As medicine has focused increasingly on patient “quality-of-life” as a barometer of life-worthiness, death has been re-characterized as a benefit to an ill or disabled individual. Most physicians (82%,  a 2020 Harvard study found) view our “quality-of-life” as worse than non-disabled people.

Jesse Bethke Gomez Regarding Physician Assisted Suicide

In my healthcare career in service to people with apparent, and non-apparent disabilities and to older adults, I am deeply concerned about why legislation to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Minnesota is especially harmful to people with disabilities and also to older adults. The proposed bill would exacerbate many complex problems in healthcare, and would result in the devaluation of people with disabilities and older adults.

Physician-assisted suicide is opposed by the National Council on Independent Living, the National Council on Disability and the American Medical Association. In my role as Executive Director of Metropolitan Center for Independent Living, we provide services to people with apparent and nonapparent disabilities in advancing independent living. I join these national organizations and the Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare in opposition to this harmful legislation that has the potential to place in great risk people with disabilities and older adults.

Assisted Suicide Is a Danger to Us All

https://www.postbulletin.com/opinion/letters/6734352-Letter-Assisted-suicide-is-a-danger-to-us-all

Proposed legislation to legalize assisted suicide lacks safeguards.

Written By: Paul Stark | 10:30 am, Mar. 9, 2021

Arne Carlson says that Minnesota should legalize assisted suicide (“Medically assisted death is not a partisan issue,” March 2). He says the proposed bill to do so contains adequate safeguards. He’s wrong.

The legislation includes no safeguards once the lethal drug has been dispensed. And it doesn’t guard against the pressure insurers may exert if they offer to cover suicide but not  life-extending treatment. That’s happened in some states that already have assisted suicide laws.

Bills Seek to Legalize Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Three bills were introduced in the 2019-2020 Minnesota Legislative Session, seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined. The bills are HF 2152, SF 2286 and SF 2487. For more information, see bill histories here, here and here.

On September 11, 2019, there was an informational meeting in the House Committee on Health and Human Services regarding HF 2152.

For information about similar bills in prior years, click here and here.

Reject Legislation Seeking to Legalize Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia (HF 1885 & SF 1572)

Golden Quadriga,

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

To view as a pdf, click here: index, memo and appendix. For a handout, click here.

I.   INTRODUCTION

I am an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal,[1] Our law is based on a similar law in Oregon. Both laws are similar to HF 1885 and SF 1572, which seek to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined.[2]

The bills are sold as a promotion of patient choice and control, which is not true: The bills are stacked against the patient and a recipe for elder abuse.

The bills also apply to persons with years or decades to live. Passage will encourage such persons to throw away their lives. I urge you to reject HF 1885 and SF 1572.

Senator Withdraws Euthanasia Bill

Today, Senator Chris Eaton withdrew Bill SF 1880, which had sought to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in Minnesota. This was after it became clear that she did not have the votes to pass the bill out of committee.

Margaret Dore 

Dore Memo Opposing SF 1880 (Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia)

SF 1880 seeks to legalize physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined. The bill calls these practices, “aid in dying.” The bill does not, however, require that a patient be dying. Indeed, “eligible” patients may have years or even decades to live.

The bill also legalizes undue influence as that term is traditionally defined. The bill is otherwise stacked against the individual and a recipe for elder abuse. I urge you to vote “No” on SF 1880. Don’t be fooled.

To view the full memo, click here.  To view the attachments, click here.

Press Release: Final Exit Network, Inc. Sentenced in Assisting with Suicide.

8/24/15 

Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom announced that Final Exit Network, Inc. (FEN) was sentenced today by Judge Christian Wilton to a stay of execution of 21 months in prison (while a corporate entity cannot be sent to prison, under Minnesota law this sanction establishes that the offense is a felony) and 15 years of probation, and ordered to pay a fine of $30,000 and approximately $3,000 in restitution in connection with assisting Doreen Dunn in committing suicide on May 30, 2007, at her home in Apple Valley.  FEN will remain on probation until the fine and restitution is paid.  On May 14, 2015, a Dakota County Jury found Final Exit Network, Inc. guilty of Assisting Another to Commit Suicide and Interference with a Dead Body or Death Scene.

Final Exit Network Receives Maximum Sentence for Assisting Suicide

http://www.startribune.com/final-exit-network-fined-30-000-for-assisting-apple-valley-woman-s-suicide/322700141/

A Dakota County judge on Monday ordered Final Exit Network, a national right-to-die group, to pay a $30,000 fine and nearly $3,000 in funeral costs for assisting an Apple Valley woman’s 2007 suicide.

The sentence was the maximum Judge Christian S. Wilton could impose on the corporation for assisting a suicide.

Melchert-Dinkel Convicted

http://www.startribune.com/local/274484921.html

Minnesota judge convicts ex-nurse of assisting suicide of English man he encouraged online

• Article by: STEVE KARNOWSKI , Associated Press
• Updated: September 9, 2014 - 4:25 PM 

MINNEAPOLIS - An ex-nurse who admitted going online and encouraging people to kill themselves was convicted Tuesday of assisting the suicide of an English man and attempting to assist in the suicide of a Canadian woman, following a legal battle that has spanned more than four years and led to the reversal of part of a Minnesota law that outlaws the practice.

Minnesota prosecutors try to prove man's online chats assisted in suicides of depressed people

http://www.startribune.com/local/270494691.htm

By Associated Press, Updated: August 8, 2014 - 2:20 PM

Nadia Kajouji,

FARIBAULT, Minn. — Prosecutors in Minnesota argued Friday that a former nurse should be convicted of assisting suicide for sending emails and other online communications in which he urged two people to kill themselves and gave them information on how to do it.

William Melchert-Dinkel, 52, of Faribault, was back in court more than three years after he was convicted of encouraging suicides. The Minnesota Supreme Court earlier this year reversed those convictions, saying the state's law against encouraging or advising suicides was too broad.

State Supreme Court To Hear Assisted Suicide Case

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/10/19/state-supreme-court-to-hear-assisted-suicide-case/

October 19, 2012,

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The state’s highest court has agreed to hear the appeal of a former nurse whw was convicted of searching out suicidal people in online chat rooms and encouraging them to kill themselves.

William Melchert-Dinkel of Faribault was convicted in 2011. He argues he was merely practicing “free speech.” The Minnesota Supreme Court will review his appeal, but it hasn’t set a date.

Melchert-Dinkel was convicted in the deaths of a 32-year-old man from England and an 18-year-old student from Ontario. He faces about a year in jail unless his conviction is overturned.

Melchert-Dinkel Decision

The syllabus from the decision affirming Melchert-Dinkel's conviction is set forth below.  To view the entire decision, click here.  

"1. Minnesota Statutes section 609.215, subdivision 1, which criminalizes advising, encouraging, or assisting another to commit suicide, is not unconstitutionally overbroad under the First Amendment.

2. The First Amendment does not bar the state from prosecuting a person for advising, encouraging, or assisting another to commit suicide by sending coercive messages to suicide-contemplating Internet users instructing them how to kill themselves and coaxing them to do so." 

Melchert-Dinkel Conviction Upheld!

Appeals Court upholds nurse's aiding suicide conviction

by Amy Forliti, Associated Press 

July 17, 2012

[To for more information, charging document click here]

[To link to Nadia's Light, click here]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed the convictions of a former nurse who scanned online chat rooms for suicidal people then, feigning compassion, gave a British man and a young woman in Canada instructions on how to kill themselves. 


William Melchert-Dinkel, 49, of Faribault, acknowledged that what he did was morally wrong but argued he had merely exercised his right to free speech and that the Minnesota law used to convict him in 2011 of aiding suicide was unconstitutional. 

The appeals court disagreed, saying the First Amendment does not bar the state from prosecuting someone for "instructing (suicidal people on) how to kill themselves and coaxing them to do so." 

Melchert-Dinkel's attorney, Terry Watkins, was not immediately available for comment. 

Court documents show Melchert-Dinkel searched online for depressed people then, posing as a female nurse, offered step-by-step instructions on how they could kill themselves. 

Melchert-Dinkel was convicted last year of two counts of aiding suicide in the deaths of 32-year-old Mark Drybrough, of Coventry, England, who hanged himself in 2005; and 18-year-old Nadia Kajouji, of Brampton, Ontario, who jumped into a frozen river in 2008. 

He was sentenced to more than six years in prison but the terms of his parole meant he would only be imprisoned for about a year. His sentence was postponed pending his appeal, but at the time of sentencing, he was told that if his convictions were upheld, he'd have seven days to report to jail. 

In arguing to overturn the conviction, Watkins said his client didn't talk anyone into suicide but instead offered emotional support to two people who had already decided to take their lives. 

Assistant Rice County Attorney Benjamin Bejar had argued that Melchert-Dinkel wasn't advocating suicide in general, but had a targeted plan to lure people to kill themselves. Prosecutors have said he convinced his victims to do something they might not have done without him. 

Bejar said Tuesday that prosecutors were pleased with the decision. 

In a statement read at his sentencing last year, Melchert-Dinkel said he was sorry for his role in the suicides and that he realized he had rejected a unique opportunity to talk his victims out of killing themselves. 

Melchert-Dinkel's nursing license was revoked in 2009