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Remembering Melissa Hortman, 6 Months After Her Death
You've probably already seen it floating around your various social media feeds, but Stephen Rodrick's profile of slain Minnesota Speaker Melissa Hortman really is worth your time today. Rodrick spoke with Hortman's colleagues, family members, and closest friends to bring us a moving portrait of the politician, who "owns every issue of Chocolatier Magazine" and "loves The Great British Bake Off" and "arrives at caucus meetings, her blond hair still wet, and, well, always a little late."
(Owns and loves and arrives because, as he writes, "Not one of the dozens of family, friends, and colleagues I interviewed can bear to refer to Hortman in the past tense.")
The story begins at John’s Auto Parts in Blaine, the junkyard owned by Hortman's parents. It takes us to Sen. John Kerry’s office, where she'd meet her husband, Mark Hortman, who was killed alongside her this summer in their Brooklyn Park home. Rodrick outlines Hortman's many accomplishments in office—2023’s Minnesota Miracle, of course, and her fight for environmental reforms—but we learn a lot about Hortman the person, too, from her "obsession" with door knocking to her "creatively profane streak."
It's a powerful remembrance of a strong, brave woman, one who loves dogs and gardening and who often gets brunch at Fat Nat's. You can read it here.
ACLU vs. ICE
The ACLU of Minnesota is suing federal immigration agencies on behalf of six Minnesotans who were detained while observing ICE actions in the Twin Cities, reports Madison McVan at the Minnesota Reformer.
Probably the most publicized incident was that of Susan Tincher, who arrived at an ICE raid in north Minneapolis on December 9 and was soon thrown face down in the snow by the agents cuffing her.
“The agents took Tincher to the Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling; shackled her legs; cut off her wedding ring, bra and boot laces; and held her in a cell for five hours before releasing her,” McVan reports.
The ACLU alleges that immigration officials are using license plate numbers to learn observers’ home addresses.
“This threat and intimidation tactic is straight out of organized crime and has an obvious chilling effect on observers’ and protesters’ exercise of their First Amendment rights,” the lawsuit states.
How Much Foraging Is Too Much Foraging?
Does Minnesota need to take a closer look at its foraging laws? As Cleo Krejci reports for MinnPost, state Sen. Susan Pha (DFL-Brooklyn Park) certainly thinks so.
Pha, who chairs the Sustainable Foraging Task Force, has long gathered Solomon’s seal, fiddlehead fern, and stinging nettle, a practice her parents passed on to her. She wants to ensure that the state strikes a balance between necessary preservation measures and the rights of people to forage. Her task force will submit recommendations to the DNR and the Legislature at the end of February 2026.
“We’re hoping that in the end, we’ll be able to create those clear, simple, and fair rules and recommendations for foraging on our state lands, and that we’ll be able to give people access—more access—but at the same time protect our natural resources, our state lands, for many generations,” Pha tells MinnPost.
We've Got Yet Another GOP Senate Candidate
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) isn't seeking reelection in 2026, and folks, we’ve got another GOPer throwing his red MAGA hat in the ring to replace the Democratic lawmaker: David Hann, the former chair of the Minnesota Republican Party.
Hann has already pledged fealty to Trump. “I'm going to go to Washington to work with the president, work with his administration, and try to make sure that Minnesota can make progress and not just be obstructionist to the president,” he tells Peter Cox and Dana Ferguson at MPR News. He says that includes helping Trump further immigration policies.
He’ll be up against a lot of competition, even within his own party. So far Tom Weiler, Adam Schwarze, and local crackpot Royce White are running. (It’s unclear if former sideline reporter Michele Tafoya has made it past 90% sureness yet.) On the Dem side we’ve got Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and U.S. Rep. Angie Craig.
