MN Teen Challenge closer to national parent than director acknowledged

Last December, after the Minnesota Independent ran an article about Minnesota Teen Challenge and the federal earmark the Christian drug treatment center is receiving, the group wrote in to challenge the Independent’s characterization of their programs. But, a review of documents from the Minnesota Department of Human Services and Hennepin County calls into question the merits of MNTC’s complaints.

Up in smoke: Will Ramstad’s faith-based earmark hurt his chances to win drug czar post?

Throughout his career, retiring Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad championed the needs of people battling mental illness or chemical addiction, often through the lens of his own experience as a recovering alcoholic. For that reason, his name tops the list of possible appointments by the Obama administration as either drug czar or administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. But, should he get the nod for either spot, one Ramstad-sponsored earmark could raise questions in his confirmation hearings — $235,000 that went to the Minnesota Teen Challenge, an Assemblies of God drug treatment center with a history of controversial therapies and overt religious indoctrination.

Tangled web: Bachmann gives money from donor tied to Petters scandal to group tied to Petters scandal

The fallout from her Hardball appearance may have grabbed all the headlines, but that’s hardly the only crisis that Michele Bachmann has been dealing with this month. There is also the matter of her ties to Frank Vennes Jr., the ex-con and Bachmann campaign contributor on whose behalf she wrote a letter requesting a presidential pardon.

Bachmann later withdrew that request — and gave to charity some campaign funds she had received from Vennes. But as it turns out, it appears that Bachmann donated the money to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a faith-based evangelical recovery program on whose board of directors Vennes served as recently as February 2008.