MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports: “Gov. Tim Walz and top public safety officials assured Minnesotans Friday that solid plans are in place to keep the state Capitol safe in the coming days. They also said that despite recent FBI warnings and last week’s assault on the U.S. Capitol, there is currently no credible threat here. ‘We take the threats to our Capitol and to our citizens incredibly seriously,’ said Walz as he and safety officials held a news conference. … Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said Friday a recent FBI bulletin about potential threats to state Capitol buildings across the country is outdated. There is currently no immediate, credible threat in Minnesota, Harrington said.”
In the New York Times, Maggie Haberman writes: “President Trump, isolated and watching the clock count down on his time in the White House, spent a few minutes of it on Friday with the C.E.O. of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, who brought some notes with him. … In photographs captured by Jabin Botsford, a photographer for The Washington Post, Mr. Lindell held notes in his hand as he stood outside the doorway to the West Wing lobby mid-afternoon on Friday. … They were only partially visible, but there was also a suggestion about invoking the Insurrection Act, by which a president can deploy active military troops into the streets, and ‘martial law if necessary.’”
The Washington Post’s Phillip Rucker has this about the Lindell visit: “It’s hard to characterize how bizarre and outrageous this is. From Lindell having a platform in any media to hype his allegations to his being invited into the inner sanctum of American power to apparently argue to the president or his team that there’s a path to rejecting the legitimate election of President-elect Joe Biden? There aren’t sufficient adjectives to explore how far from normal — or reality — this is.”
MPR’s Brandt Williams and the AP report: “The Minneapolis City Council on Friday took steps — again — toward trying to get a proposal on the ballot this year that would allow the city to replace its Police Department with a new public safety agency. The council’s agenda included a notice that a measure similar to the one that failed to make it in front of voters in 2020 will be up for consideration by council members in the coming weeks.”
Ryan Faircloth of the Star Tribune writes: “The University of Minnesota will not accept new students into many of its liberal arts doctoral degree programs this fall, pausing admissions to save money during the pandemic and to focus on supporting current students. English, history, political science, theater arts, and gender, women and sexuality studies are among 12 Ph.D. programs that have temporarily halted admissions. Fifteen additional liberal arts doctoral programs will only accept a limited number of new students this fall. No doctoral programs outside the U’s College of Liberal Arts have paused admissions, according to the university.”
The AP reports: “The chairman of the St. Croix County Republican Party, who had posted online that his members should ‘prepare for war,’ stepped down on Friday. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that members of the St. Croix County Republican Party Executive Committee asked for John Kraft’s resignation. His post, made before the riot last week at the U.S. Capitol, garnered attention after the violence in Washington, D.C. Kraft had refused calls from the state Republican Party to remove the post.”
