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Walz makes top ten on Yale’s 2024 most notable quotes list
The governor’s inclusion on the high-profile list is likely something he’s not all that pleased about.
ST PAUL, Minn. — From “Childless Cat Lady” to “They’re eating the cats,” Yale University’s list of 2024’s most notable quotations delves into the worlds of presidential politics, entertainment and conspiracy theories while saving room for sports, business and protests against the war in Gaza.
And in a development that can’t make Governor Tim Walz all that happy, he is included in Yale’s list for something he said during October’s vice presidential debate.
Pop superstar Taylor Swift topped this year’s list by signing an Instagram post in September as “Taylor Swift Childless Cat Lady” while endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris for president.
The remark was a reference to three-year-old comments made by JD Vance, now the Republican vice president-elect, as he described Democrats as beholden to “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump took the next two spots on the list. Biden came in at No. 2 with his recent announcement that he was pardoning his son Hunter. Trump followed with his false claim that, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats” during his September debate against Harris.
Trump’s comment about Springfield, Ohio, amplified false rumors that Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating pets, repeating inflammatory and anti-immigrant rhetoric he promoted throughout his campaigns.
Trump also came in at No. 5 with “Fight! Fight! Fight!” after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The notable quotations list, compiled each year by Fred Shapiro, an associate director at the Yale Law Library, is a supplement to The New Yale Book of Quotations, which is edited by Shapiro and published by Yale University Press.
“Please note that the items on this list are not necessarily eloquent or admirable quotations, rather they have been picked because they are famous or important or particularly revealing of the spirit of our times,” Shapiro said.
So with no further adieu… here is Yale’s Top Ten.
1. “Taylor Swift Childless Cat Lady” — Taylor Swift, signing off on an Instagram post, Sept. 10, 2024.
2. “Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter.” — President Joe Biden, official statement, Dec. 1, 2024.
3. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats.” — President-elect Donald Trump, presidential debate, Sept. 10, 2024, repeating a debunked conspiracy about Haitian immigrants in Ohio.
4. “I’ve become friends with school shooters.” — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, vice presidential debate, Oct. 1, 2024, misspeaking while referring to befriending shooting survivors.
5. “Fight! Fight! Fight!” — Trump after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
6. “Yes they can control the weather.” — Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, posting on the social media platform X, Oct. 2, 2024, endorsing a conspiracy theory that the government used weather control technology to aim Hurricane Helene at Republican voters.
7. “Some of you (women) may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.” — Kansas City Chiefs football player Harrison Butker, commencement address at Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas, May 11, 2024.
8. “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules on bullying and harassment?” — New York U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, House of Representatives Education and Workforce Committee hearing, Dec. 5, 2023, questioning now-former Harvard President Claudine Gay on how the university responded to instances of antisemitism on campus.
9. “OMG.” — New York Mets baseball player José Iglesias, title of song released in 2024.
10. “The court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist.” — U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2024, ruling in an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department against Google.
The U.S. Army says 19-year-old William E. Colby was reported missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950. His remains were identified just this year using DNA technology.
MINNEAPOLIS — Nearly 74 years to the day since he was officially deemed Missing in Action during the Korean war, a Minneapolis soldier finally reached his final resting place.
The burial at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, which came with full military honors, brought closure to the family of Army Corporal William Colby, but it couldn’t bring back the family – and memories – that have long since passed.
“I was little,” said Jinny Bouvette, Corporal Colby’s cousin, who is also among the few surviving family members who ever met him. “We were about nine years difference when he joined the service, I was ten.”
For years, Bouvette says her memories of her cousin Billy, were always clouded by sadness by what happened just months after he deployed to fight in the Korean War.
Colby was just 19 years old and serving in the Korean War when he was declared missing in action on Dec. 2, 1950, after his unit was attacked by the Chinese People’s Army as they attempted to withdraw from the Chosin Reservoir.
“They figure that’s where Billy was,” Bouvette said, pointing to a green circle on a printed map of the Chosin Reservoir. “That’s where he was the last time that he was reported (alive).”
The young soldier could not be recovered following the battle, and the U.S. Army issued a presumptive finding of death on Dec. 31, 1953.
“We never thought of him as being killed in action, we always thought of him as just missing,” Bouvette said. “My aunt, she always thought he was alive somewhere.”
His fate was finally confirmed for family members by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on May 2, 2024, after Colby’s remains were identified from 55 boxes of remains returned to the U.S. by the North Korean government in 2018.
The process required a DNA analysis of his remains and a sample from a living relative before it could be matched and verified.
Bouvette says representatives initially tried to reach her, but it wasn’t until learning that her aunt and cousin had submitted those DNA samples that she realized what was happening.
“At first I thought they were just people trying to scam old people, and I wouldn’t answer them,” she said, with a laugh. “But eventually, that’s how I found out that he was really, really gone.”
Just a few months later, the Army’s Past Conflict Repatriations Branch helped return his remains, along with a jacket adorned with a full accounting of his honors.
“He didn’t get them when he was alive,” Bouvette said. “So I told them to put them in the casket with him, so he’s got them now.”
She did decide to hold on to one of his awards for herself, Colby’s Purple Heart.
“I just can’t tell you what it feels like,” she said, looking at the military medal in her hand. “It fills your heart right up. It just fills your heart right up.”
Yet it can’t quite compare to seeing his procession finally reach its end.
“My heart is so full… it is overflowing,” she said. “I just can’t… I have no words. I’m just glad that he’s here, and to know he’s home now. He’s home.”
JayCee Cooper filed a lawsuit against USA Powerlifting after the organization banned her from participating in women’s competitions.
SAINT PAUL, Minn. — The conversation inside the Minnesota State Capitol on Tuesday was focused on sports, but a different type of competition was taking place inside the court chambers. Two opposing sides are vying for the Minnesota Supreme Court to rule in their favor in the case of Cooper v. USA Powerlifting.
Transgender woman and athlete JayCee Cooper filed discrimination charges with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights in 2019 after USA Powerlifting banned her from participating in women’s competitions. In 2021, Cooper filed a lawsuit against USA Powerlifting.
The lawsuit claims USA Powerlifting’s ban on transgender women is “an outlier among international, national and local sports organizations,” pointing to the International Olympic Committee’s framework regarding inclusion of athletes and their gender identities.
The case made its way through the state’s courts over several years before landing in the hands of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Oral arguments took place Tuesday morning, in which Cooper was represented by Gender Justice attorney Christy Hall and USA Powerlifting was represented by attorney Ansis Viksnins.
Gender Justice is a legal nonprofit organization based in St. Paul. In a press conference Tuesday morning, the organization’s legal director Jess Braverman said USA Powerlifting is violating Cooper’s rights under the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
“Every Minnesotan deserves the freedom to pursue their dreams without fear of exclusion or discrimination,” Braverman said. “Ms. Cooper was denied that right, solely because she is transgender.”
Viksnins, the attorney representing USA Powerlifting, said Cooper was excluded from women’s competitions due to her biological sex, not gender identity. “It’s not discrimination based on gender identity. That’s the problem for Ms. Cooper’s case: that the differentiation here was because of her biological sex, not for gender identity.”
In 2021, USA Powerlifting launched its MX category, providing a separate division for athletes of all gender identities. “It doesn’t solve the problem of transgender women being barred from women’s competitions, which is the issue here,” Braverman said.
There is no clear timeline as to when the Supreme Court will makes its decision on the case.
The portion of the Kellogg-Third Street Bridge over I-94 is coming down.
ST PAUL, Minn. — The portion of the Kellogg-Third Street Bridge over I-94 is coming down this weekend.
Demolition started in August but they’ve been doing one section at a time. MnDOT says to expect jackhammering around the clock.
City engineers first noticed cracks in its supports in 2014 and limited its capacity. But it’s taken 10 years for the city to come up with the $91 million it will take to build a new one, and it won’t be finished until 2027.
I-94 will be closed this weekend between 35E and Highway 61 in St. Paul.
