Star Tribune
Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. JD Vance debate a clash of Midwestern visions
Now, I grew up in the part of Ohio that’s actually Appalachia. Zanesville, home of the Y Bridge, where you can only hope a stranger comes along asking for directions, so you can tell them to go to the middle of the bridge and turn right. My first home in Ohio was a little house built in the back yard of another house, up the hill from a soon-to-be-shuttered Armco plant.
It was a great place to grow up. How many towns have weathered not one but two tiger escape events? Tons of kids in the neighborhood. Considerate steel plant workers who swerved out of the way when we careened down the hill, out of control, butt-first on a skateboard. By dint of avoiding both car wheels and the foamy orange runoff that spilled out of the factory and into the creek where we played as kids, I am here to tell you: Ohio is pretty great. It would not kill JD Vance to say something nice about Ohio in general and Zanesville in particular.
Lord knows he’s not going to say anything nice about Minnesota. The Minnesota he and his running mate, former president Donald Trump, describe in their speeches is a crater still smoldering from 2020′s mask mandates and the murder of George Floyd. They burned Minneapolis to the ground, they lie. They burned Minneapolis to the ground.
Walz advised not lying. Not to your dog, when it’s time to go to the vet. Not to your parents, if you’re a kid making the case for a family pet. Tell the truth. Dad is probably going to be the one emptying the litter box, but you can promise to love that cat with all your heart. The dog is going to the vet, not the dog park, but you can go for a pup cone afterward, promise.
Dogs, Walz said, bring out the best in us.
A new federal lawsuit alleges that a Woodbury man sustained a traumatic brain injury after being shot with a rubber bullet by Minneapolis police while peacefully protesting the killing of George Floyd outside the Third Precinct in 2020.
The ordeal left Mason Hermann, of Woodbury, with short-term memory loss, headaches and fatigue, the lawsuit contends.
Attorney Jeff Storms filed the 29-page lawsuit in court last week. It seeks unspecified damages from the city of Minneapolis for violating Hermann’s First Amendment rights.
Minneapolis has paid nearly $50 million to settle claims of police brutality or officer misconduct since Floyd’s murder. Many hefty payouts went to journalists and bystanders injured by law enforcement officials during the unrest, actions that have since been described as a pattern of unconstitutional behavior by the U.S. Department of Justice.
City spokesman Allen Henry acknowledged that the city has been served with the lawsuit, but declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Hermann, then 20, joined a growing crowd of protesters on Lake Street on May 27, 2020, to criticize MPD’s actions. No curfew restrictions were in place at that time.
Officers in tactical gear were perched on the Third Precinct’s roof and outside its barricaded entrance for hours, where some armed with 40-mm “less lethal” rounds fired upon the crowd. At approximately 6:50 p.m., according to the lawsuit, a rubber bullet struck the left side of Hermann’s head, without warning or provocation. No commands were given prior to that use of force.
The unidentified officer “shot Hermann with the projectile in retaliation for and to chill Hermann’s further speech,” the lawsuit says, adding that Hermann “never displayed any aggression” toward police.
The St. Paul nonprofit drew from successes in the Chicago area, including a Living Room in suburban La Grange, Ill., where operators reported that they prevented 218 ER visits in their first year. That saved an estimated $550,000 for the state of Illinois because many of the visitors otherwise would have used state-funded Medicaid insurance for ER visits.
But Vance has been doing debate prep sessions where he’s been joined by his wife, Usha Vance, Miller, senior Vance aides, and Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., who has played Walz, according to a person familiar with his preparations who requested anonymity to discuss strategy. Moderating their mock debates was Monica Crowley, who served in the Trump administration, hosts a podcast and contributed to Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for remaking government that Trump claims he knows ” nothing about.”
”JD Vance is prepared to wipe the floor with Tim Walz and expose him for the radical liberal he is,” Emmer told reporters on Monday.
Walz’s debate prep has included sessions hunkered down in a Minneapolis hotel, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg standing in for Vance, according to a person familiar with the process who requested anonymity to discuss the campaign’s internal dynamics. Others helping in the preparations include Rob Friedlander and Zayn Siddique, who helped Harris prepare for her debate with Trump, along with other aides to Walz and the campaign.
Klobuchar said Walz will show the American people ”a real person” who brings ”buoyancy” and positivity to the debate stage that will contrast with Vance, but ”he is not going to be shy about pointing out the problems.”
”Just because he’s an optimistic, positive person doesn’t mean he’s a pushover,” she said.
