Minneapolis' economy circles the bowl at a $203 million loss

Minneapolis city officials just dropped a bombshell preliminary report, claiming the feds' massive immigration crackdown (Operation Metro Surge) slammed the local economy with an estimated $203 million hit in January 2026 alone (and spilling into the roughly 11-week operation overall).

Leftist Mayor Jacob Frey called the damage "staggering" and firing off a direct challenge: "Was this operation, that has inflicted so much damage on our city that we can indeed calculate in real dollars, was it worth it?" 
Frey and other incompetent leaders are now begging for federal and state cash to bail them out, insisting the totals are likely lowball estimates and don't capture the full pain.

Breaking down the city's math on the wreckage: Small businesses and restaurants got hammered hardest, bleeding $81 million (some accounts nudge it to $82 million) in lost revenue. Fear kept customers away, foot traffic tanked, and entire stretches of the city turned into ghost towns.
Workers, illegal aliens and citizens alike, stayed home scared, costing $47 million in lost wages.
Throw in extras like $4.7 million+ in hotel cancellations stretching into summer, plus spikes in social services demands, police overtime, and other ripple effects, and you hit that eye-popping $203.1 million "impact" figure.
Congrats Dems; you really know how to make your screw ups hit record proportions.
Frey hammered the point home: "Families were torn apart, small businesses lost millions and students had their learning disrupted." He framed the whole surge, with up to 3,000 federal agents flooding neighborhoods, as something that "stoked fear and ultimately chaos in the communities that we love," adding, "The damage caused by this operation doesn’t disappear just because the operation is ending."
This fresh mess surfaced in mid-February 2026, straight from the city's own preliminary assessment, and got splashed across local media like the Star Tribune, KSTP, FOX 9, and more. 

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Important note: These are estimated economic damages from reduced activity, not a straight punch to the city's budget or tax haul, though it obviously drags those down indirectly. And no, this has zero connection to the 2020 George Floyd riots (which racked up far bigger regional damage numbers in the hundreds of millions to over half a billion). 

This one's tied squarely to the 2025-2026 ICE operation and its fallout in immigrant-heavy communities.

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MN manhunt is over: who's the assassin who shot lawmakers?

The double murder of Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman has left the Land of 10,000 Lakes reeling, and the arrest of Vance Luther Boelter, the prime suspect, only deepens the mystery. This is a tragedy and a political lightning rod. 

The details coming out about Boelter are raising more questions than answers.

Boelter, 57, was nabbed after a two-day manhunt, accused of gunning down the Hortmans and attempting to kill State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. According to Democrat possibly gay Gov. Tim Walz and law enforcement, this wasn’t random; it was political. Boelter allegedly had a hit list targeting Democratic politicians and abortion rights activists, including groups like Planned Parenthood. Not surprisingly, the intended murders would not have stopped the murdering of the unborn, but Boelter is probably mentally ill and unable to make that analysis.

So, who is this guy? Boelter’s a Minnesota native from Green Isle, a small farming town of about 600 souls, according to the Star Tribune. 

He has a background that sounds like it could’ve come from a Norman Rockwell painting with a twist: evangelical Christian college in Dallas, degree in practical theology (1990), followed by a bachelor’s in elective studies from St. Cloud State (1996). Boelter was ordained as a minister in 1993, and spent time as a missionary in central Africa, teaching farming in the Democratic Republic of Congo “on my own dime,” as he put it. 

He and his loving wife Jenny, who runs their small security firm, Praetorian Guard Security Services, LLC, raised four daughters and a son. Neighbors called the alleged killer friendly but private, and one said they “would have never expected anything like this.” Isn’t that always the way--it's always the quiet ones, right?

But here’s where it gets murky. Boelter allegedly used a company vehicle and uniform to pose as a cop during the shootings. His wife was detained after being found with a wad of cash and passports. 

Then there’s his political footprint. 

Former Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, appointed Boelter to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board in 2016, a position Tampon Tim Walz re-upped in 2019. These are unpaid roles, and a board member defensively noted in the spirit of Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes, that he “did not interact with the governor on a regular basis.” 

In a 2020 state report, Boelter claimed “no party preference,” but friends paint a different picture: a “Devout Christian,” [except for the murder part] conservative, and Trump rally regular who registered as a Republican in Oklahoma back in 2004.

David Carlson, a friend of over 50 years, said Boelter was “staunchly against abortion” and “thought it [abortion] was murder,” sort of like what he did to the lawmakers.

A 2023 sermon video shows him lamenting that the U.S. is in a “bad place” spiritually because “people don’t know what sex they are” and churches aren’t vocal enough against abortion. Minnesota AG Keith Ellison confirmed Boelter’s writings named him and other Democrats, though the full manifesto hasn’t been made public. Carlson also pegged him as an ardent Trump supporter, so somehow the shootings are going to be President Trump's fault, not the mentally ill alleged shooter.

Connect the dots, and you’ve got a guy with strong ideological leanings, but the why and how of his alleged rampage are still fuzzy.

The morning of the shootings, Boelter sent chilling texts to friends: “I love you guys, I made some choices… I’m going to be gone for a while. May be dead shortly.” He added, “I wish it hadn’t gone this way.” 

To his fabulous wife, he texted, “Words are not going to explain how sorry I am for this situation.” 

He presciently paid four months’ rent in advance, suggesting he knew the endgame, whether that meant death or capture. After fleeing, he left a confession letter to the FBI in his vehicle, admitting he was “the shooter at large in Minnesota.” 

That’s not exactly the work of a mastermind covering his tracks. When you consider that he apparently holds human life sacred, as we see with his anti-abortion stance, he took two lives and attempted to take many more. That's sick.

Boelter is now in federal custody after a brief stint in Hennepin County jail on $5 million bail, with a public defender appointed. Early speculation ran wild as some thought he was a Democrat angry over votes on healthcare for illegal immigrants (Hortman voted for it, Hoffman against repealing it). That theory’s looking shaky, given the hit list and his conservative bent. 

For now, law enforcement says he acted alone, but they’re digging for possible accomplices, while Democrats are probably preparing impeachment documentation against Trump for his role in the shootings.

This case is a powder keg. A Trump-supporting, anti-abortion ex-missionary with a security company and a hit list? It’s the kind of story that fuels endless X threads and cable news shouting matches. 

But let’s stick to what we know: two people are dead, two more narrowly escaped, and Boelter’s motives, while politically tinged, are still a puzzle. Was he a lone wolf driven by ideology, or is there more to this? The maximum sentence if guilty is the death penalty. Stay tuned, because this story’s far from over.

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Ilhan Omar's creds questioned by her hometown paper

Frick and Frack the Comedy Act

Did she marry her brother or didn't she? Did she get him into the USA under false pretenses, which is a crime? Are her anti-Semitic tropes because she hates Jews or is she just kidding around? What does her hairdresser really know about her hair? Why doesn't she protest her home country's anti-gay laws? Why did she laugh when talking about terrorist groups and why does she want lighter sentences for ISIS terrorists?

Yes, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is facing lots of questions and criticism and on Wednesday was the recipient of a blistering editorial in the Star Tribune, a Minnesota newspaper. All of this comes in the wake of her recent campaign finance violations -- with the paper suggesting that it was just the latest "misstep by the first-term congresswoman."

"U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is back in the news again, and not in a good way," the editorial began. "The former state representative who won a seat in Congress last fall continues to be dogged by past missteps, this time eight violations of Minnesota campaign-finance law that will cost her nearly $3,500 in reimbursements and civil penalties."

And because she is clearly as guilty as Hillary and her magic server, she will pay back the money.

Minnesota campaign finance officials ruled last week that the lovely and talented anti-Semite owed her campaign committee almost $3,500, as well as a $500 civil penalty to the state, after using committee funds for personal travel and help on her tax returns.

As the Star Tribune noted, the state's Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board reported that Omar and her latest husband filed joint tax returns while she was married to another man who is alleged to be her brother.

Minnesota law only allows spouses to file jointly in civil marriages whereas Omar filed with a man with whom she was only married in "faith tradition." And Minnesota law frowns upon sibling marriage as it produces offspring with pointy heads known as future Democrats.

"It is even more disturbing, therefore, to learn that among the board’s latest findings ... Omar, for two years running, filed joint tax returns with a man she was living with but not legally married to [but was probably having a sexual relationship with]. Complicating matters further, she was legally married to another man at the time," the editorial read.

The paper also called on Omar to disclose whether she benefited materially from the filings. "That is something that voters, who are obliged to follow tax laws no matter how painful, are entitled to know," it read.

But it doesn't say anything about benefiting materially in sharia law, and that's the law she follows when it suits her, and taqiyya [google it] when it doesn't.

The incident was just one of many issues -- including collecting allegedly illegal speaking fees -- that could prompt an investigation, the paper said, not mentioning how Omar's speech sounds somewhat bizarre in its pitch and cadence.

"Omar’s political rise has been marred by a series of unforced errors," the paper also said, "including intemperate remarks and tweets earlier this year that were widely perceived as anti-Semitic. Every month seems to bring a fresh problem."

The main reason her remarks and tweets sound anti-Semitic is because she uses anti-Semitic tropes and attacks Israel, not for its policies, but for its people. That's kind of, you know, anti-Semitic.

But have hope, she's planning to join the Black-Jewish Caucus and if accepted, will be its first anti-Semite. However, it's a new organization and there may be more anti-Semites to follow. There are plenty in the Democratic Party to choose from.


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Burning stuff for jihad

The joys of jihad on her face

Minnesota, Land of a Thousand Lakes and even more jihadis -- A former college student was arrested after going on a fire-setting jihad at St. Catherine University in St Paul, her alma mater.

She reportedly set eight fires but was incompetent in her quest to kill non-believers, so there were no serious injuries, thank the Lord.

Nineteen-year-old Tnuza Jamal Hassan expressed extreme Islamist ideas to her roommates and was arrested for setting a series of fires. This was done in retaliation for American military "crimes" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Star Tribune reported.

"You guys are lucky that I don't know how to build a bomb because I would have done that," she told the cops and fire investigators upon her capture.

Hassan also does not know how to build with Leggos, how to milk a cow, iron a shirt, read a map or use a washing machine.

Court documents state that "Hassan said she started the fires because she's been reading about the U.S. military destroying schools in Iraq and Afghanistan and she felt that she should do exactly the same thing.

"She said that her fire-starting was not as successful as she had wanted. She said the most successful fire she set was at Saint Mary's [the residence hall] where she set a couch on fire."

The brilliant jihadi wrote a letter to her roommates while a student at the school. She espoused "radical ideas about supporting Muslims and bringing back the caliphate." The roommates, evidently scared and aware that Hassan was as crazy as jihadis tend to be,  turned the letter over to campus security.

Hassan appeared at her bail hearing with an improvised burqa--an Muslim cloth body tomb--consisting of a black niqab over her siren-like face that makes men go insane, and a large white sheet draped over her head to send a message to all men out there that she is "not available to rape." She also wore a mandatory orange jump suit, making it appear as if she was planning to go 'trick or treating'.



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U of M Protest D' Jour

The University of Minnesota (Duh-UM) has experienced protests in the past few weeks over campus diversity, Fox News and AP have reported. The school announced that they will be somewhat less vague when sending out alerts dealing with descriptions of suspects of serious crimes.

Hands up don't think

Pamela Wheelock, Duh-UM's vice principal said told The Star Tribune that the suspect's description will only be given in cases with "sufficient detail that would help identify a specific individual or group," or, in other words, we really don't want to catch the person unless he or she has killed someone, or whatever else we deem as "serious."

"Unless we have a sufficiency of information, we're not actually going to use any suspect information." Whatever that "sufficiency of information" entails is a mystery.

So if say, a man with a beard, dyed with henna, and who looks Middle Eastern, robs the campus deli, the report of his description might be: "A person, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, wearing black shoes and a brown jacket, was seen running across the quad." 

Of course, if the man wore a Jewish skull cap, known as a yarmulke, instead of the henna-dyed beard, the description might be: "A light-skin Jew, with a long, dark beard, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, wearing a black skull cap, brown woolen jacket, white shirt, black pants with strings from a Jewish prayer shawl sticking out from his beltline, black-rimmed eyeglasses, has an annoying Jewish accent, robbed the campus deli. He was last seen running in an unathletic-like trot across the campus quad. 

Protest d' jour

In a letter to his faculty, staff and students, Eric Kaler, President of Duh-UM, said that the routine use of a person's race in describing miscreants "may unintentionally reinforce stereotypes of black men and other people of color, as criminals and threats."

It sounds like Kaler is a racist since he assumes that future perpetrators of crimes will turn out to be blacks or people of color. This is typical of progressives--they have always had lower expectations of these groups. If it's a problem on his campus, i.e., that most of the crimes are committed by minorities, then not identifying them only makes things worse.

The biggest targets of hatred on American campuses are not with blacks, nor with Muslim students, it's with the Jewish students. The same is true off-campus as well, but the left seems to turn a blind eye. Jed Lipinski discusses this issue in The Times-Picayune.

Most Jews in the USA tend to vote Democratic, being under the false assumption that the left cares about their safety and welfare. 

They fail to see the analogous lack of caring with Israel and how Obama seems to have more in common with Islam than the Jews.

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