tom petters

Tuesday was a day for Q and As with Norm Coleman, Michele Bachmann and Tom Petters. Coleman in the Harvard Crimson: “No regrets.” Bachmann in City Pages: “I’m proud.” Petters in federal court: “I apologize.” Al Franken got in on the game this morning on Minnesota Public Radio, where an interviewer said it sounds like he’d [...]

Ballot referendum measures in Minneapolis and St. Paul will be decided by voters next week, but the cities’ daily newspaper editorial boards say today how those votes should go. The Star Tribune says to vote yes on eliminating the city’s tax board, and the Pioneer Press says to vote no on instant-runoff voting. So remember: [...]

St. Paul set the standard at last year’s Republican National Convention for dealing with protesters and reporters during a so-called “National Special Security Event.” That Minnesota hotdish of pre-emptive detention and prior (physical) restraint on the media is getting re-warmed as Pittsburgh prepares to host the G-20 Summit later this week, writes Nigel Parry at [...]

U.S. Sen. Al Franken, calling himself “a voice for the overwhelming majority of Americans who aren’t lawyers” on the Senate floor Wednesday night, continued his harsh critique of the U.S. Supreme Court, lambasting its recent record of overturning its own precedents:
Again, I think that this is judicial activism. In fact, I think it’s judicial activism [...]

Last fall, Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign made a $9,200 charitable contribution to the faith-based drug treatment program Minnesota Teen Challenge in an effort to wash its hands of tainted contributions from Frank Vennes, Jr., a convicted money launderer and associate of alleged Ponzi scheme operator Tom Petters. But, the Minnesota Independent has recently learned, the donation was given back. Teen Challenge returned the check on Oct. 3, but Bachmann’s campaign waited nearly three months to disclose the fact to the Federal Elections Commission.

The motivated DumpBachmann folks point out that Tom Petters’ business associate Frank Vennes Jr. had extra motivation in December 2007 to get help from U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in obtaining a presidential pardon for past money-laundering and other convictions. That was the same month that that Petters’ alleged massive Ponzi scheme became apparent to Vennes, according to an affidavit [...]

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman received $2,300 from the family of Isaac Robert Toussie. Toussie, who is convicted of fraud, had his Dec. 23 presidential pardon revoked the next day by President Bush. Bush’s reversal came after large donations from Toussie’s father and other family members to the Republican Party and Republican candidates, including Coleman, came to light.
It’s [...]

If you accept taxpayer money, you have to accept that you’re going to receive public scrutiny. That simple point seems to be eluding Minnesota Teen Challenge (MNTC), the faith-based drug treatment program which secured a federal earmark in early 2008 arranged by Rep. Jim Ramstad, for its “Know the Truth” program which aims to prevent drug use.

Last week, the program sent two nearly identical letters to both the Minnesota Independent and the Huffington Post responding to articles critical of their programming.

Less than two months after he was elected in 2002, Norm Coleman used the power of his yet-to-be-assumed U.S. Senate office to try to leverage a presidential pardon for convicted money launderer and Tom Petters associate Frank Vennes Jr. And two years after that, Coleman wrote yet another pardon plea on Vennes’ behalf.

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.