The Associated Press is reporting former Sen. Al Franken has signed a deal with SiriusXM for a weekly talk show: “‘I miss the Senate a lot but I’m not there so I want to be a voice,’ he said in an interview. Of the public’s acceptance, he said ‘a lot of that will depend on me and whether folks think what I’m saying is important and fun at the same time.’ The one-hour interview show with figures from politics, entertainment and other fields will air Saturdays at 10 a.m. ET on the Sirius Progress channel, with replays available on demand.”
WCCO-TV has footage of Tuesday night’s storms and their aftermath: “Spotters reported a tornado in the area around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. A video posted on social media appears to show a tornado’s silhouette backlit by frequent lightning strikes. The sunrise Wednesday revealed that several homes and trailers had been destroyed in the storm. The debris from the rubble sat atop vehicles and downed trees blocked traffic on area roads.”
Also from the Associated Press, a judge has sentenced an Iranian in Minnesota for her role in an alleged conspiracy to illegally export restricted technology: “Prosecutors say Ghodskani and others established a front company in Malaysia to illegally obtain restricted communications circuitry from companies in Minnesota and Massachusetts to ship to a company that supplies the government-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting company. She was indicted in 2015 in Minnesota and arrested in Australia in 2017.”
The AP is also reporting on a Minnesota connection to the Robert Mueller probe: “The Justice Department recently informed lawyers for Tony Podesta and former Rep. Vin Weber that they had ended the investigation into unregistered lobbying for pro-Russia Ukrainian interests. That work had come under scrutiny first by Mueller and later by federal prosecutors in New York, which late last year reached out to lawyers for potential witnesses in a sign of investigative activity. ‘I have been notified that the investigation relating to Vin Weber is over,’ Robert Trout, a lawyer for Weber, said in a statement Tuesday.”
In other news…
Dreams do come true: “Key ramp to I-35W from downtown Minneapolis set to open Thursday” [Star Tribune]
Bringing it all back home: “Fargo film set sees former area residents return from Los Angeles, Minneapolis” [Fargo Forum]
Far North: “Highway 61 Revisited, With Jessica Lange” [New York Times]
RIP: “Once a hub of Minneapolis art scene, Soap Factory calls it quits” [Star Tribune]
