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Governor Tim Walz expected to make appearance at MN State Fair
“To try to bring somebody in with all the resources and assets that have to come with that Secret Service umbrella is pretty challenging,” Mike Olson said.
SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Governor and Democrat VP nominee Tim Walz is expected to make an appearance at the Minnesota State Fair. Walz announced the visit at a rally in Virginia Friday.
“To try to bring somebody in with all the resources and assets that have to come with that Secret Service umbrella is pretty challenging,” Mike Olson, a former Secret Service senior special agent, said.
Those challenges mixed with the record high attendance figures – Friday drew 225,521 people – and security will be difficult.
“They’ll establish some, some level of a temporary perimeter with the resources they have, that’s going to be the hardest challenge,” Olson said. “And I would predict they’re not going to be able to stay there very long.”
Olson’s prediction comes with a history of his own – he worked Dick Cheney’s visit to the fairgrounds in 2004.
“I can tell you just from that experience back then, it was very challenging to even try to get the motorcade close to where they wanted to go,” Olson said.
Olson also says don’t expect an official announcement as the campaign tries to draw as little attention before their visit.
“The off-the-record move is more favorable in an environment like that because then you’re popping in, people don’t know, so you have that element of surprise,” he said. “You have people on the other side of the fairgrounds that are going to have no clue that the person was there.”
The Minnesota State Fair declined to comment on Walz’s trip the great Minnesota get-together. The Saint Paul Police Department also declined to comment, instead pointing us to the Secret Service.
“Keep things tight in something as expansive as the state fairgrounds, you don’t want to spend a lot of time there,” Olson said.
The city has received national attention since Monday when it was maliciously distorted by false rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two separate hospitals in Springfield, Ohio were placed under a brief lockdown Saturday morning after receiving bomb threats.
Security members at Kettering Health Springfield were notified of a bomb threat at approximately 6:50 a.m. and locked down the facility. Officers with the Springfield Police Department were then called in to search the premises with the security team.
Nothing suspicious was found and the lockdown was lifted around 7:15 a.m., a hospital spokesperson told 10TV.
According to CBS affiliate WHIO’s website, Mercy Health-Springfield Regional Medical Center also received a bomb threat just after 6 a.m.
“Mercy Health immediately put the hospital on lockdown while local authorities conducted a thorough search of the facility, in conjunction with our onsite security team,” a spokesperson for the hospital said.
Nothing was found at Springfield Regional Medical Center and the threat was determined to be not credible, the spokesperson told WHIO.
The city has received several other threats this week, including threats that bombs had been placed in the homes of Springfield’s mayor and other city officials, City Hall, a high school, middle school, two elementary schools and the local office of the state motor vehicles bureau.
The city has received national attention since Monday when it was maliciously distorted by false rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets. The claims were brought up by former President Donald Trump during Tuesday’s debate.
Officials in Springfield have tried to tamp down the misinformation by saying there have been no credible or detailed reports of any pets being abducted or eaten. State leaders are trying to help address some of the real challenges facing the city.
Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday he would add more law enforcement and health care resources to an aid package the state has already provided to Springfield.
Changes are coming to Minnesota’s automatic voter registration system after finding some potentially problematic entries.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Elections officials are making changes to Minnesota’s automatic voter registration system after finding some potentially problematic entries, but they say they are not aware of anyone ineligible who has been registered to vote via the system.
The Secretary of State’s Office said this week that more than 90,000 people have been registered or pre-registered since April, when Minnesota’s new system went live. Residents who apply for and receive state-issued IDs such as driver’s licenses are now automatically registered to vote without having to opt in if they meet legal criteria. And 16- and 17-year-olds can pre-register to vote once they turn 18.
Around 1 percent of those automatic registrations have been flagged for potential problems, said Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson, whose department issues driver’s licenses and other official identification cards, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
Secretary of State Steve Simon said those roughly 1,000 voter registrations will be kept “inactive” until the names, addresses and citizenship status are confirmed. He also said additional checks will be made to ensure that voters registered through the system meet the eligibility criteria. Flagged individuals will be notified that, if they are eligible, they will need to register online, at their local election office, or in person at their polling place on Election Day.
Republican legislators raised questions about the automatic voter registration system earlier this month. Jacobson told them in a letter on Thursday that he is not aware of any instances of Minnesotans being registered to vote who are ineligible to cast a ballot, but that the process improvements they are making will strengthen the verification system.
Republicans House and Senate leaders responded Friday saying they still have questions. They said 1 percent of registrants could work out to around 1,000 people. They asked for the actual number and pressed for confirmation on whether any were allowed to vote in the August primary election.
“The election is 52 days away, and early voting begins on September 20. Minnesotans want to trust our elections are secure and fair,” they said in a statement.
While Minnesota grants driver’s licenses to residents regardless of immigration status, officials say the identification document requirements provide sufficient safeguards against illegal voting.
In Oregon, which has a similar automatic registration system, officials acknowledged Friday that the state has mistakenly registered more than 300 non-citizens as voters since 2021 in what they described as a “data entry issue” that happened when people applied for driver’s licenses.
An initial analysis by the Oregon Department of Transportation revealed that 306 non-citizens were registered to vote, spokesperson Kevin Glenn said. Of those, two have voted in elections since 2021. State and federal laws prohibit non-citizens from voting in national and local elections.
Firefighters were able to enter the manhole and put oxygen on the man before removing him from the confined space.
FARIBAULT, Minn. — The Faribault Fire and Police Departments launched an investigation after they found a man in a manhole who later died.
The two agencies and an ambulance initially responded to the 1900 block of Second Avenue NW just after 7:30 a.m. on Saturday for reports of an unresponsive man in a manhole, according to a statement.
Upon arrival, the firefighters tested and verified the presence of “extremely high levels” of hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide, with low levels of oxygen, according to the fire department.
Firefighters were able to enter the manhole and placed oxygen on the man before removing him from the confined space.
The man was air-lifted to a hospital but did not survive.
“This is a tragic event and our hearts go out to the family and friends of the individual,” said Fire Chief Dustin Dienst, in a social media post.
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Ohio police dispute new allegations immigrants are eating pets in Dayton