Politics

The Minnesota Senate is poised to pass a $100 million Metro Surge business loan fund to help businesses harmed by an immigration crackdown, lawmakers and reporting said. Minnesota Reformer coverage says the measure is on track for passage.

On Monday, April 27, 2026, DFL lawmakers introduced a bill to cut state aid to Minnesota cities that stop flying the new state flag, as the Inver Grove Heights City Council voted to revert to the 1983 design. bill Inver Grove Heights

Minnesota senators approved partial veteran status and some benefits for Hmong fighters who served with the CIA in Laos. The state Senate voted to grant burial privileges at Minnesota state veterans cemeteries and veterans' preference in state hiring and promotion decisions.

A new state survey finds a sharp drop in marijuana use among Minnesota youth in 2025, state health officials reported. The findings were reported by FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul and released this year. The survey did not provide detailed demographic breakdowns or percentages in that report, but characterized the overall trend as a notable decline.

A Minneapolis City Council meeting devolved into a public shouting match Thursday as members debated a resolution urging European financial institutions to divest from companies that enable the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, along with a separate resolution calling on the Trump administration to end an executive order on Cuba. The clash began while Council Member Elizabeth Shaffer had the floor, with Council Members Aurin Chowdhury and LaTrisha Vetaw arguing off-mic before Vetaw openly challenged Council President Elliot Payne's handling of the meeting and accused colleagues of "tantrums" because votes weren't going their way. Chowdhury later said she'd been called a "f--king child" while chairing a previous meeting and accused other members of bullying her, prompting Payne to call a recess. After the break, Council Member Pearl Walker delivered an emotional speech criticizing colleagues for focusing on ICE and Cuba while gun violence continues in North Minneapolis, saying she has been "ICE'd [her] whole damn life." Despite the infighting and questions about why the council is weighing in on international issues with Minneapolis facing its own crises, both resolutions ultimately passed, underscoring deep rifts over decorum, priorities, and how the body engages with federal immigration policy in the wake of Metro Surge.

As the Minnesota Legislature gavels in for 2026 and lawmakers prepare to honor slain Rep. Hortman, Sen. John Hoffman made an emotional return to the Capitol — walking up the steps to a standing ovation and escorted by the same state troopers who guarded him — after months of hospitalization and recovery from the June 14, 2025 attack in which he and his wife were shot multiple times. Hoffman called the incident an "attempted assassination," praised Mercy Hospital staff, first responders and colleagues, credited his daughter Yvette with calling 911 after a gun was pointed at her, and urged politics to "fade" so lawmakers can "rise above the noise" and show that democracy is stronger than fear.

FOX 9 reports that Minneapolis resident Daye Gottsche and a friend inadvertently became central to a downtown confrontation when far-right influencer Jake Lang — recently pardoned by President Trump for allegedly assaulting officers on Jan. 6 — jumped, bleeding, into their car at a red light as counterprotesters chased and struck him. Gottsche says protesters surrounded the vehicle, opened the rear doors, kicked Lang and damaged the taillight before some in the crowd ultimately cleared a path so they could drive away; she confronted Lang, who offered little beyond praising Trump and calling himself "a bad boy," and the women dropped him a couple blocks away, where he got into another vehicle. Gottsche told FOX 9 she opposes Lang's politics but believes the street attack was wrong and played into a narrative the federal government could use to justify invoking the Insurrection Act in Minnesota. The piece folds this incident into a larger backdrop: Trump has publicly threatened to deploy the military here if state leaders don't "crack down" on anti-ICE protests, and the Pentagon has put cold-weather troops on prepare-to-deploy orders for Minnesota. The story underscores how out-of-town extremists and local counterprotesters are colliding on Minneapolis streets, dragging ordinary residents into volatile, politically charged confrontations just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After the federal shutdown prompted USDA to pause SNAP disbursements and initially push a roughly 65% partial-payment plan, a coalition of states sued and district judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts ordered USDA to use contingency and other funds to provide full November benefits. The 1st Circuit upheld the lower-court order requiring full funding (after a brief Supreme Court stay), leaving some states that already issued full payments in limbo as the Supreme Court prepares to decide whether the administration may enforce the 65% cap.