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Hegseth Thinks Additional $70B Should Reverse Course in Iran War
At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Tuesday, colossally embarrassing Forest Lake, Minnesota, native Pete Hegseth admitted to lawmakers that the failing Iran war misadventure comes at a price tag of $37.5 billion, up $12 billion from his April estimate.
Alongside President Trump, the potentially shitfaced (we simply don't know!) defense secretary is asking for $70 billion in emergency military spending to explode our way back to an open Strait of Hormuz. This proposed spending comes in addition to the $1.5 trillion the Pentagon wants as part of the next defense budget.
“This is a new request based on new realities of a world we face, stepping up to meet that moment,” Hegseth said Tuesday. To which Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) responded, "The problem is not a lack of money, but poor planning. So I’ll be blunt. The truth is, your request does not make a lot of sense."
In a show of his genius planning ability, Trump told supporters Wednesday that "We don't need the Hormuz Strait but we do it because we have to do it, because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon." Right...
Anyway, as the billion- and trillion-dollar figures fly like so many expensive bombs, note how easily money appears in this country for frivolous violence, and how tight government purse strings become when someone proposes, say, Medicare for All.
Other Hegseth news: He's planning to win the war by testing troops for low testosterone, even as his Pentagon lies about how many troops are being injured in that war.
Why Did the City of Minneapolis Fire Darley Herrera?
Here's a deeply infuriating story (gift link) from the Star Tribune's Susan Du: Darley Herrera, a garbage-truck driver with Minneapolis Public Works, was fired from his job at the end of March because he supposedly failed to maintain his commercial driver’s license.
But... Herrera has maintained his CDL. There's been no lapse, according to his union, Laborers Local 363. His family, his union—everyone is confused. Du writes that Herrera can think of only one explanation: "Earlier this year, he told coworkers that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services erroneously left off a portion of his four-part legal name when he tried to get documents for his REAL ID application. He took time off to get it fixed."
Laborers Local 363 has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state, and since losing his job with the city Herrera has been working part-time as an interpreter in hospitals. The city, and its, ahem, leader, Mayor Jacob Frey? They declined to comment to the Strib regarding Herrera's case.
“Given the horrible trauma our immigrant neighbors have endured in recent months from DHS ICE operations in our state, the city should be taking every possible step to protect immigrant workers,” Local 363 business manager AJ Lange tells the Strib. “All we’ve seen from the city in response to this issue is callous indifference, empty words, and feigned sympathy.”
A Deep Dive Into That Strib Story Retraction
On June 22, the Star Tribune ran a piece about a boating accident that injured KARE 11 anchor Julie Nelson and her husband. The next day, the newspaper of record removed the story, written by prolific daily news journalist Paul Walsh, and issued a retraction, stating that the “reporting that did not meet Star Tribune standards” due to misattribution of quotes and inaccurate paraphrasing.
That all sounds very bad! But, when former City Pages journalist Molly Priesmeyer decided to take a deeper look into what went wrong, she found a treasure trove of disappointment, including confusing data requests from Walsh, emails from other local media trying to verify incorrect details from Walsh’s story, and mass emails from the Wisconsin DNR seeking corrections.
There’s more …
Since 2020, publicly available Star Tribune corrections show at least 19 Walsh-bylined or co-bylined stories corrected or retracted. That number alone does not prove an unusual error rate for a reporter with Walsh’s volume of reporting. But the pattern is relevant because several corrections involve the same kind of reporting failure at issue in the Balsam Lake retraction: Official information in public-safety stories being published, attributed, or framed without adequate verification. And they often involve cops as main sources.
And there’s also this …
In December 2024, Violence Free Minnesota criticized the Star Tribune for publishing what it called “irresponsible, inaccurate, and damaging” language in a Walsh-bylined story involving alleged child sexual abuse. In January 2025, the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault made the same point directly involving another Walsh story: The issue was “not sex, a relationship, or a romance.” It was abuse and sexual violence.
Yikes. You can read Priesmeyer's full report, which also includes a timeline of the last retraction, via her website. Also, since the internet is forever, you can read Walsh’s retracted article here.
Should Duluth Become Fargo?
We love obsessing over the vitality (or lack thereof) of certain Minneapolis neighborhoods, particularly that one that used to have a Gap and an Apple Store. Duluthians are no different, it seems.
In a delightfully TV-newsy TV news segment headlined "Down Town," Northern News Now dug into the problems plaguing downtown Duluth and nearby tourist hotspot Canal Park—drug use, public safety, lack of investment. Things take a twist when reporter Dan Wolfe eyes a model that could save the area: downtown Fargo, North Dakota.
Back in 1999, Fargo began prioritizing Renaissance Zoning to boost its aging downtown, which roughly translates as tax breaks for developers. Those incentives have reportedly led to 1,000 new units of housing over 20 years, though Wolfe acknowledges that Fargo also struggles with homelessness and drug use.
Then the report takes another wild swerve by acknowledging there's "no such thing as Renaissance Zoning in Duluth," so instead we hear from nonprofit guys, politicians, and business owners about a completely different plan to revitalize the neighborhood. If nothing else, the segment allows a buncha people to wonder out loud what's going on with downtown Duluth. And, for some reason, we learn a little more about Fargo.
