Star Tribune
Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed
But in an example of how the conservative movement might proceed with or without Trump, anti-abortion activists note that the GOP platform still asserts that a fetus should have due process protections under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. That constitutional argument is a roadmap for conservatives to seek a national abortion ban through federal courts.
Trump’s tax policies broadly tilt toward corporations and wealthier Americans. That’s mostly due to his promise to extend his 2017 tax overhaul, with a few notable changes that include lowering the corporate income tax rate to 15% from the current 21%. That also involves rolling back Democratic President Joe Biden’s income tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans and scrapping Inflation Reduction Act levies that finance energy measures intended to combat climate change.
Those policies notwithstanding, Trump has put more emphasis on new proposals aimed at working- and middle class Americans: exempting earned tips, Social Security wages and overtime wages from income taxes. It’s noteworthy, however, that his proposal on tips, depending on how Congress might write it, could give a back-door tax break to top wage earners by allowing them to reclassify some of their pay as tip income — a prospect that at its most extreme could see hedge-fund managers or top-flight attorneys taking advantage of a policy that Trump frames as being designed for restaurant servers, bartenders and other service workers.
Trump’s posture on international trade is to distrust world markets as harmful to American interests. He proposes tariffs of 10% to 20% on foreign goods — and in some speeches has mentioned even higher percentages. He promises to reinstitute an August 2020 executive order requiring that the Food and Drug Administration buy ”essential” medications only from U.S. companies. He pledges to block purchases of ”any vital infrastructure” in the U.S. by Chinese buyers.
The next time St. Paul voters cast their votes for the White House, they will select the city’s elected leadership as well. With 60% voting yes, St. Paul voters Tuesday opted to move city elections from odd-year elections to coinciding with electing the next U.S. president.
Proponents of the plan said it will increase voter turnout for city races. In 2016, more than 140,000 St. Paul residents cast votes. And in 2020, more than 150,000 voted. Those numbers were about three times greater than the people who decided St. Paul’s mayor and City Council elections in 2021 and 2023.
In transition, all seven members of the St. Paul City Council, who were elected in 2023, will now serve 5-year terms.
Then, on Nov. 4, 2025, St. Paul voters will vote for mayor to serve a one-time, 3-year term.
Voters will select the mayor and all seven members of the City Council at the same time they vote for president and vice president.
How will the city ballot, which uses ranked-choice voting and provides for an unlimited number of initial candidates, be merged with the ballot for president and other federal, state and local elections? In Portland, Ore., which blends ranked choice-voting with more standard ballots for state and federal races, voters receive two ballots — one with local candidates and one for president, federal and state offices.
Star Tribune
Jackson Gatlin pleads guilty to sexually assaulting teenage girl in Vineyard Church youth group
DULUTH – Jackson Gatlin, dressed in a dark suit with his hands cuffed behind his back, was led by authorities from the courtroom Wednesday morning after pleading guilty to felony-level criminal sexual conduct in a case where numerous women have come forward with similar stories of being sexually assaulted as girls when he was their youth leader here at The Vineyard Church.
As part of a deal, Gatlin pleaded guilty to one count and on four others entered an Alford plea — in which he maintains innocence, but admits there is sufficient evidence for him to be found guilty during a trial. The third-floor courtroom at the St. Louis County courthouse was at capacity for the hearing, with several of his victims sitting together in a row. Gatlin, 36, will be sentenced during separate hearings November 25-26, with all the impact statements during the first.
He will likely serve 13 years in prison and have to register as a sex offender.
Civil charges are expected to be filed soon against Gatlin — in addition to his father Michael Gatlin, who was a senior pastor at the church, his mother Brenda who was also in a position of power, The Vineyard Church in Duluth and Vineyard USA, according to Spencer Kuvin, a Florida-based attorney who has represented victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Cosby. There will be 10 complaints against each entity, nine from victims and one from a mother whose daughter died by suicide.
“The church should be a place where people feel secure — a sanctuary to find God, practice your faith and find support within your community,” Kuvin said during a press conference after the hearing, sitting alongside the victims in a conference room at a downtown law office. “Unfortunately, the church became a living hell for these young girls.”
Neither of Gatlin’s parents were in the courtroom on Wednesday.
As part of the Alford plea, the prosecutors went through each victim’s allegations and the testimony that would have occurred during a trial. It showed a pattern of Gatlin, then in his early 20s, establishing closeness with 11 to 16 year old girls that extended beyond just the church.
His text messages went from friendly to flirty to sexual. He brought them to his bedroom in his family home or drove them in his car or made them sit next to him on a bus ride. He touched them or made them touch him. He bound their wrists or otherwise restrained them. He raped them and at least in one case laughed when they told him to stop.
Two Minnesota House races won by Democrats by narrow margins are close enough to trigger automatic recounts.
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