Star Tribune
Why have several elected officials been censured in the north metro?
The last time the Blaine City Council voted to censure a member was in 1988. The Robbinsdale school board didn’t have any record of a member being censured in the past two decades. And Brooklyn Park had never placed a censure on a council member.
But that has now changed. Across the north metro in recent months, all of those governing bodies took the usually rare action and officially reprimanded members of their boards.
And in Lino Lakes, the council in September voted to censure Council Member Chris Lyden for applauding an email with anti-Muslim comments. He argued he did not deserve the action. Before that, the last time a council member was censured in the city was in 2017.
“I’ve been in government for a long time, and it’s a very rare thing. It’s a serious thing,” Jim Scheibel, a former St. Paul mayor and adjunct professor at Hamline University, said of the string of censures. “It can be very appropriate, also. We’re in a time of very heightened tension in government at all levels, at the federal level and, this is an indication, at the local government level.”
Scheibel and others who keep an eye on local politics said many residents are unfamiliar with what the public reprimand means. There’s also been confusion among some elected officials on their options for taking such a vote-of-no-confidence, as it is not spelled out in many municipal codes.
“I would guess most people don’t know what a censure means or what it does,” said Amber Eisenschenk, research manager with the League of Minnesota Cities.
Brooklyn Park did not have specific rules for how to censure an official until 2017, when the City Council was starkly divided and embroiled with controversy.
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in both parties on Thursday called on a congressional panel to release the results of an investigation into alleged misconduct by former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., demanding to see its report about sexual misconduct and other charges against President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the attorney general.
Gaetz abruptly resigned Wednesday after Trump announced he was the pick to lead the Justice Department, shocking many members of Congress who see him as unqualified and unfit for the post. His rapid exit effectively ended the ethics panel’s investigation into him two days before members had planned to vote on whether to release their long-awaited findings.
Since the spring of 2021, the House Ethics Committee has been investigating claims that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use and accepted impermissible gifts under House rules, among other charges.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Judiciary Committee, which would have jurisdiction over confirming an attorney general, on Thursday called on the House panel to preserve and share its conclusions.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report,” Durbin said in a statement. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the chair of the Ethics Committee, suggested in comments to reporters that he was not inclined to release the investigative findings now that Gaetz has resigned.
“Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued,” Guest said.
That raised the possibility of a constitutional clash between the Senate, which is charged with vetting and confirming presidential nominees, and the House at the start of Trump’s second term. Trump has already threatened to circumvent the Senate and unilaterally appoint people to his administration during a recess, short-circuiting the normal process.
The dominance Becker High’s football team showed all season was evident in the Class 4A state semifinals Thursday at U.S. Bank Stadium as the No. 1-ranked Bulldogs controlled the game from the outset in a 28-7 victory over Marshall.
Beck will face the winner of the Orono-Totino Grace semifinal in the championship game Nov. 22 at 1 p.m.
Becker finished the game with 322 total yards compared to Marshall’s 202. Becker never let Marshall gain momentum.
Sawyer Brown both threw a touchdown pass and caught a touchdown pass for Becker, which remains undefeated at 12-0.
Marshall ends the season with a record of 10-2.
Star Tribune
Trump expected to choose vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, AP sources say
NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity.
HHS is a massive Cabinet agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.
Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.
He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.
The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday.
