After snow, more snow on the way for Minnesota

MPR reports: “The Twin Cities metro area is included in a winter storm watch from 6 p.m. Monday to 6 p.m. Tuesday. It’s for the possibility of 5 to 8 inches of snow. A winter storm watch starts at 3 p.m Monday in portions of south-central and southeastern Minnesota.  The winter storm watch starts at 9 p.m. Monday in Chisago and Pine counties, plus northwestern Wisconsin and west-central Wisconsin.”

Klobuchar announcement reax, part 1: For The New York Times, Mitch Smith and Lisa Lerer say, “On a snow-covered stage in Minneapolis along the banks of the Mississippi River, with the temperature barely above single digits, Ms. Klobuchar said that as president she would ‘focus on getting things done’ and reverse some of President Trump’s signature policies. On her first day in office, she said, the United States would rejoin the Paris climate agreement.”

Part 2: For The Huffington Post Marina Fang and Jesselyn Cook write, “In addition to serving as a foil to Trump, Klobuchar hopes to capitalize on her Midwestern roots as an asset, given how Trump’s 2016 victory hinged on narrow victories in nearby states like Michigan and Wisconsin. ‘She’s the woman for the job,’ said Minneapolis resident Brenda Kivi, who attended Sunday’s rally with her husband, Bruce. ‘She’s got a lot of heart and compassion for others. There’s too much divisiveness right now; we need someone to bring people together.’”

Part 3: For Vox, Tara Golshan says, “She’s good at retail politics — a skill that’s served many candidates well in early caucus and primary states. She visits all 87 Minnesota counties every year, a fact she is quick to tell reporters. And she can fundraise; she famously once got her ex-boyfriend to donate $17,000 to her campaign. But she also faces challenges. On the issues that that the Democratic Party’s base are prioritizing — Medicare-for-all, tuition-free college, a $15 minimum wage — Klobuchar is notably quiet. While other 2020 hopefuls like Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) have made a point to sign on to major progressive legislation around health care and inequality, Klobuchar hasn’t.”

Part 4: For PowerLine, John Hinderaker writes, “Klobuchar’s all-things-to-all-people approach has served her well in Minnesota. She is good at constituent service and gets quite a bit of support from the business community. In the Senate, she has focused mostly on uncontroversial small-ball–product safety and the like–and she is personally pleasant toward local conservatives. I don’t know her well, but she is cordial when I run into her, as, most recently, when I testified before the Joint Economic Committee, of which she is a member. Coincidentally, her husband worked for me quite a few years ago. I get along fine with him, too.”

Guess who was watching? For FoxNews, Samuel Chamberlain says, “President Trump poked fun at Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sunday for vowing to tackle climate change as she kicked off her 2020 presidential campaign in a snowy, freezing Minneapolis park. ‘Well, it happened again,’ Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday evening. ‘Amy Klobuchar announced that she is running for President, talking proudly of fighting global warming while standing in a virtual blizzard of snow, ice and freezing temperatures. Bad timing. By the end of her speech she looked like a Snowman(woman)’!”

IRS was suspicious of a 57-year-old millennial. The Star Tribune’s Brandon Stahl writes:  “After getting out of federal prison for fraud in 2000, Scott Phillip Flynn didn’t wait long to start his next criminal venture. From 2005 to 2015, he hid about $50 million from the IRS through shell companies and filing false tax returns.… He made many of his millions off illegal stock deals, and for most of that time, he lived in luxury while telling the IRS he lived with his parents. Flynn, 57, was sentenced to about seven years in prison and ordered to pay more than $5 million in restitution on Jan. 24 after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and one count of tax evasion.”

Just hoping to be herd. The Pioneer Press’ Deanna Weniger reports: “Should Dakota County be home for bison to roam? That is the question of a feasibility study recently approved by the Dakota County board. The study will look at the costs and maintenance required to bring a herd of bison to a Dakota County park. It will look for external funding sources and partnerships, and activities for visitors that focus on the bison.”