Star Tribune
DFL state senator’s consulting firm raises ethical questions
Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman prominently touted his political status on his personal consulting firm’s website as recently as a week ago, prompting government ethics experts to question whether he was promoting his official position for personal gain.
“Book Senator Hoffman to speak,” a tab at the top of his Hoffman Strategic Advisors website read. The website’s homepage featured a posed photo of Hoffman inside the Minnesota State Capitol.
“Imagine the dynamic synergy of industry expertise and political acumen. Senator John Hoffman, alongside Hoffman Strategic Advisors, brings a unique blend of public service insights and strategic business brilliance. When you book our speaker duo, you’re not just hosting an event; you’re orchestrating an unforgettable experience,” read a blurb on Hoffman’s consulting website.
But after the Star Tribune questioned him about it late last week, Hoffman scrubbed most mentions of his Senate status and the Capitol photo from the website. He said in an interview that he always considers himself a senator and that he hadn’t thought about the optics of promoting his position on his personal website. But, Hoffman said, “I see what you’re saying,” in regard to the concerns being raised.
Hamline University political science Prof. David Schultz reviewed Hoffman’s website and said he thought it looked like the senator was “using his official position for the purposes of potential personal financial gain.”
Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota, a nonprofit that advocates for government transparency, also had concerns. She said, “Sen. Hoffman’s use of this title for marketing his consulting business as ‘senator’, along with the use of pictures taken while at the Capitol campus, can arguably be seen as him leveraging his public role for private gain.”
Hoffman told the Star Tribune his consulting firm hasn’t had any paying clients to date, despite listing Hoffman Strategic Advisors as a source of income on his economic disclosure with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board.
The senator said he’s always disclosed his associated businesses even if he didn’t make money from them.
Hoffman did not appear to have violated any laws or rules by promoting his Senate status on his private business website. But Schultz and Belladonna-Carrera noted that if Hoffman were a member of the executive branch, his website might have violated an ethics statute.
The executive branch’s code of ethics considers the following a conflict of interest: “The use for private gain or advantage of state time, facilities, equipment or supplies or badge, uniform, prestige or influence of state office or employment.”
Belladonna-Carrera suggested the legislative branch could benefit from having clearer rules for lawmakers.
“This branch of government — I would argue the most public facing and accountable to the people particularly because of what it does and who it is supposed to be working for — is once again the one with the least accountability and transparency,” she said.
Staff writer Rochelle Olson contributed to this report.
Star Tribune
Trump wanted generals like Hitler’s and said Nazi leader ‘did some good things,’ John Kelly claims
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff is warning that the Republican presidential nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office, Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ”did some good things.”
The comments from John Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, came in interviews with both The New York Times and The Atlantic. They build on a a growing series of warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final weeks.
Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat ”suckers” and ”losers.” Still, his new warnings came just two weeks before Election Day, as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers ”enemies from within.”
”He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,”’ Kelly recalled to The Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying ”nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but that Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again.
In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing ”German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant ”Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the former chancellor of the German Reich who oversaw the unification of Germany. ”Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, ”Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.”
Trump’s campaign denied these stories on Tuesday, with Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, arguing Kelly has ”beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated.”
Polls show the race is tight in a string of swing states, and both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the sliver of undecided voters.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate who served 24 years in various units and jobs in the Army National Guard, quickly used the interviews to assail Trump on Tuesday night.
Star Tribune
Officials await word on whose remains were found in camper that burned in Aitkin County
Officials are awaiting word on whose remains were found in a camper that burned overnight this week in northern Minnesota.
The Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office said it was alerted about 8:15 a.m. Monday by a caller about the camper having caught fire roughly 10 miles north of McGregor at a residence in Shamrock Township.
Law enforcement showed up and found the remains inside, the sheriff’s office said. They have since been sent to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office for identification.
The State Fire Marshal is heading the investigation into what led to the fire.
You hear a lot of women saying they’d rather be alone in the woods with a bear, not a man, because they considered the man to be more dangerous.
I always chose the man, because my interactions with men have generally been positive, and a man wandering through the woods seemed likely to be a hunter or a naturalist or just someone out enjoying nature. Someone reasonable. Someone more likely to harbor a save-the-maiden fantasy than a desire to harm. Bears, on the other hand, if they have it in their head to attack, there is little you could do but try to survive.
A recent visit to Ely’s North American Bear Center changed my mind. Not that I think less of men, but that I think more of bears. Black bears, at least.
The Bear Center provides refuge to three black bears, at least one of whom would have been otherwise euthanized. There’s Lucky, abandoned or orphaned as a cub, who was begging for food near Madison, Wis., and who came within an hour of being put down before a rescuer whisked him off to Ely. There’s Tasha, fat, sleek, and gorgeous, discovered in 2015 in Kentucky trying to nurse on her dead mother, who was believed to have been hit by a vehicle. And Holly, separated from her mother during an Arkansas fire, and who had slipped off to hibernate before our visit.
The bears were fascinating, delicately lipping up cranberries and shelling out nuts with their back teeth during our visit. We learned that their sense of smell is seven times stronger than that of a bloodhound, and that they can smell through an organ on the roof of their mouths.
In fact, sometimes they’ll stand erect and open their mouths – which looks threatening, but it’s really just to get a better sense of their surroundings, said Spencer Peter, assistant director and biologist at the center.
Hollywood trains them to stand like that for movies, he said. “But they’ll dub in the sound.”
