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Sit Down, Don. Ms. Rachel Has Spoken.
President Donald Trump really hates Somali-Americans. Whether his racism is opportunistic or genuine is beside the point (probably a little of both, if there’s even a difference between the two when it comes to Trump). In the past, he’s lashed out at Somalia as a country, Somalis as a people, and Somali-born U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in language not worth repeating here. (For her part, Omar has more than held her own against him.)
This past weekend Trump took time out from losing a war, trashing the world economy, and being unable to throw a party to stick it to some kindergarteners. Trump shared a post on Truth Social, the social media site he is somehow allowed to own because we don’t enforce laws against powerful people anymore, originally posted by the account End Wokeness. The post captioned a graduation photo of hijab-clad kids at St. Paul’s Gateway STEM Academy with, “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab… in kindergarten.”
Everyone from CAIR to Gov. Tim Walz to People magazine decried Trump’s latest attempt to drum up anti-Somali hatred. But the most important response came from the unelected ruler of American’s children, Ms. Rachel, who shared this message “to the kindergarteners in Minnesota.”
“No matter what we wear, we all belong,” Ms. Rachel wrote. “No one’s hurtful words can take away our worth and our value! Just because someone says something does not mean it’s true!” To which I’ll just add, there are some people who, when they say something, you know it’s not true.
You Can’t Spell “Retaliate” Without “AI”
A former Mayo Clinic employee is suing the internationally renowned Rochester hospital, saying she was fired while on medical leave for disclosing what her attorney calls “the hospital’s rush to incorporate AI into their operations" which "put patient care and privacy at risk while manipulating data critical in the institution’s medical research.”
Traci Tamiko Eto, Mayo’s former director of research operations, is the employee in question. According to the lawsuit, she repeatedly raised concerns with the ways in which the hospital was integrating AI into its operations. When those went unaddressed, she went to the legal department. In response, her supervisor told her to resign, saying that otherwise she would become “unemployable,” according to the suit, which was filed Monday in federal court. Bad if true!
St. Paul Right to Repair Petition in Peril
Last year, Duluth managed to pass a right to repair ordinance that allowed renters to set aside a portion of their rent to pay for repairs that landlords had delayed in making. It was an uphill climb, with a petition circulated to get the measure on the ballot, but voters overwhelmingly supported it.
An attempt to get a similar ordinance on the books in St. Paul, however, is in jeopardy after a submitted petition was found to be 300 signatures short, Frederick Melo of the Pioneer Press reports. Safe Homes St. Paul, the group behind the push, submitted 8,000 signatures to Ramsey County Elections, far in excess of the 5,342 required, but more than 2,900 of those signatures could not be verified. The group does have until July 25 to make up the difference.
The ordinance proposed would allow tenants to use the greater of $500 or half their rent toward “necessary housing improvements,” and then to deduct that from their rent.
The New York Times Is Local Now?
As savvy journalism insiders, we’ve known for a while here at Racket that the famously non-Minnesota-based New York Times was planning to launch a local Twin Cities-centered newsletter. But the official announcement didn’t go up till Wednesday. It’s even called The Local, and as a newsletter with that name had damn well better be, it’s partially peopled with Minnesotans: Shadi Bushra, formerly of MinnPost, and Jay Gabler, formerly of the Duluth News Tribune.
Gabler was City Pages' main theater critic for a number of years and an early contributor to Racket, and we’ve often linked to Bushra’s stories in The Flyover, so clearly we approve of these hires. Soon they will begin the hard work of writing stories worthy of Flyover inclusion for the NYT. We believe in you, fellas!
