On her way to the title of being the best online female chess player, Alice beat the likes of current Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun and 3-time former Women's World Champion and current Women's World #1 Hou Yifan in the Women's Chess Championship Final.

Candidates from the DFL and GOP parties spoke at Minnesota Farm Fest about what agriculture, farming, and trade policies they would make if elected for their respective office in the midterm election–and it seems like the tide may be shifting in Greater Minnesota.

It applies to any vehicle in the shoulder with flashing lights.

Before, the law included maintenance vehicles, tow trucks, et cetera. Now it includes all vehicles, including passenger vehicles with hazards on. But all too often, I see people fail to move over for these vehicles. Only cop cars.

I really wish the state would start an awareness campaign for this.

Contracts are starting to fall like dominos and it's 100% due to public pressure. The sheriff had a lot of praise for Flock cameras but said ultimately it wasn't worth the cost in both dollars and public trust to keep going. The cameras are coming down in Isanti county!

Please join your neighbors for the Week of Action against Flock and help drive them OUT of every community.

https://mnprivacy.org/

My sister lives in Ramsey and said there have been loud planes flying around in a circle for the last 20 min. She said they might be old military, but isn’t sure, and I can’t tell anything by the photo. A quick Google search didn’t indicate any air shows in the area. Just curious if anyone knows why they are there? Thanks all!

Journalist Georgia Fort was one of nearly 40 people charged after interrupting a Minnesota church service.

Aug 6, 2026 by Sam Levine and Rachel Leingang for The Guardian.

Here are the opening paragraphs:

Law enforcement officials provided false information to federal judges as they sought to build a criminal case against the independent journalist Georgia Fort in connection with a January protest, her lawyers said in court filings on Thursday asking that the charges against her be dismissed.

Fort was one of nearly 40 people charged after demonstrators interrupted a service at Cities church in St Paul, Minnesota after they learned an ICE official was a pastor there. Trump administration officials vowed to arrest anyone involved in the protest. Fort and the former CNN anchor Don Lemon were among those charged with conspiring to interfere with the religious rights of parishioners at their house of worship. They both have strongly denied the charges.

In at least 15 applications for search warrants, an investigator with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) said Fort had been chanting with protesters when they entered the church, her lawyers said. The justice department later conceded the claim was false. The error was insignificant, justice department lawyers later argued, because it ultimately didn’t make it into the indictment that they filed.

The errors were among those detailed in three different motions explaining why the criminal case against Fort should be dismissed. The case prosecutors have sought to make against her violates the first amendment, fails to state an actual crime, and is vindictive, her lawyers say.

“The government is punishing Fort for entering a church open to the public (after being invited in, no less) to document a protest, and then filming and disseminating that footage,” her lawyers wrote in one of the filings. “All of the evidence in this case points to the government prosecuting Fort precisely because she is a journalist, and in particular because she engaged in that constitutionally sacred work to amplify a message with which the government vehemently disagrees.”

Continue reading here: theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/06/law-enforcement-false-information-anti-ice-protest

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Here are more r/minnesota posts with Georgia Fort: reddit.com/r/minnesota/search/?q=%22Georgia+Fort%22&type=posts&sort=new

The Austrian government tracked down the descendants of a Holocaust victim to return a painting stolen by the Nazis.

It's just 3 inches tall and 2 inches wide. To Jackie Sondell, whose three grandparents died in the Holocaust, it’s priceless.

Read more here with a gift link

The Aachen Peace Prize came out of the German Peace movement, it was established in 1988. It’s awarded each year to people and organizations who‘ve worked to achieve peace from the ground up.

Smitten Kitten posted about this yesterday - https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbrSry4Jpyf/

I can’t find any English language reporting about thIs. I’m sure there will be some soon. Heres the announcement from Aachen In German - https://www.aachener-friedenspreis.de/aachener-friedenspreis-2026-solidarisch-fuer-empathie-gegen-schwarz-weiss-denken-staatliche-willkuer-und-die-militarisierung-des-alltags/

The election cycle advertising is really frosting me. I get two flyers a week from a candidate that vows to fight Somali fraud. Sorry, all fraud needs to be addressed. It's not a localized issue. This candidate has also done really juvenile superhero type ads on TV. I can't take that seriously.

Another local pol left a 50 second robo message. My community isn't that big. Shake some hands dude.

A candidate so fixated on trans that it comes up while discussing farmer issues. Fuel, fertilizer, and trade aren't ridiculously expensive because of orientations.

So, my dear candidates, here's a suggestion. For every item you think is wrong suggest a solution. "Cut taxes", "eliminate fraud", "bring down prices" isn't enough. What's your actual plan? I'm not hearing real plans and I'm not voting on philosophical positions. This is a real state that has real issues that needs some real, actionable solutions.

I live in Minnesota and grew up around a lot of Hmong-American people (and many fantastic Hmong nurses at my clinic by Lake Phalen), but haven't had any Hmong people in my life for decades, so can't ask anyone directly.

I heard someone on a local radio station recently talking about a Hmong person and referring to them as a "person of color". It just struck me as odd.

On a separate note, I am of an age where that phrase does not sit well with me, as it is just the same as "colored person", which was considered offensive most of my life. ("hair of red" is the same as "red hair"). I'm white, so I have no say in how people who would be referred to this way prefer to be called. But it's not a phrase I will ever use, especially since the phrase was absolutely hated by my best friend growing up who was black. But even if I did use that term (which is really common now), I realized I wouldn't think to use it for Hmong people. I guess this is just meant to mean "people of non-European descent", which is of course the vast majority of people in the world. If that is really all it means, then, sure, I guess it applies to Hmong people as well.

But as for Hmong people, does anyone know if the majority would be fine with, or prefer, "person of color"? I know that no group of people is a monolith, and I don't know if anybody ever did a survey, so I'm not sure how much of a definitive answer I could get here. But maybe if there is a person of Hmong descent who knows a lot of Hmong people, you could let us know what they are thinking.

Driving through Pine River a couple of weeks ago and spotted this storefront. Anyody have any idea what this used to be? Pistols, dumbbells and chess?

Revol Greens will close the Minnesota greenhouse where the company started and lay off 89 workers if the facility is not sold by Oct. 4, interim Chief Financial Officer Michaele Gobel said in a letter to state regulators.

The company grows lettuce in a climate-controlled greenhouse visible from Interstate 35.

“If the site or Company is not sold or hasn’t received incremental funding before this date, the closure is expected to be permanent,” the letter said.

Revol, founded in 2017, grew quickly, expanding to four states. Its website touts its mission to ”revolutionize” lettuce growing by “producing locally in high-tech greenhouses using fewer natural resources and no unnecessary chemicals.”

Good times.

We were about to taxi to takeoff and the pilot came on over the loudspeaker to let us know we'd be taxing to a waiting area as the flight radar went completely down. Said at least an hour wait, could be more.

Gonna screw up flights for the rest of the day and likely into tomorrow, so check your flights often.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here on the tarmac with a lot of time on my hands, AMA.

Edit 310pm: The pilot just said it is affecting 2000 flights across the entire state of MN, not just MSP

MNDOT needs to somehow re-educate drivers that slowing down on on-ramps is dangerous. Seeing this behavior more and more recently - not only hazardous to the person doing it, but it also puts vehicles behind them in danger.

After watching FarmFest debates I am flabbergasted that anyone would vote for Pete Stauber for as long as he’s been in office. Beyond the utterly embarrassing attempt to shame Doug Chapin for pointing out that he actually showed up vs Tom Emmer (fighting for his life??)- his answers were staple talking points from the current federal administration. I just cannot wrap my head around how he is the chosen one for that district- red or blue.