NEW: Google will build a data center in Pine Island, near Rochester. The tech giant will also pay for a significant amount of new wind, solar & battery power. Google has been eyeing the state for at least a year, but had been quiet about its plans: www.startribune.com/google-annou...

Trump administration formally denies Minnesota investigators access to evidence in Alex Pretti shooting

The front page of tomorrow's Minnesota Star Tribune: Feb. 1, 2026

The Minnesota Star Tribune, @mprnews.org @minnesotareformer.com , @spokesmanrecorder.bsky.social, @sahanjournal.bsky.social, Center for Broadcast Journalism and Minnesota Newspaper Association today released the following statement:

Here's how to identify some crowd control munitions, canisters of which federal agents have left on the ground after deploying them against people in Minnesota. bit.ly/3YWp1jE Graphic by Mark Boswell/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026

Federal agents pinned a man to the ground in south Minneapolis and sprayed him with chemical irritants directly in the face. Minnesota Star Tribune photographer Rich Tsong-Taatarii did not witness the man put his hands on agents.

An observer arrested in Suth Minneapolis. Photo by Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune

BREAKING: Immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, a memo obtained by AP says.

Two days after an ICE agent killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, a federal agent asked an observer, "Have y'all not learned?" Her phone was taken and she was briefly detained. Two days after that, another federal agent said, “You did not learn from what just happened” to a different observer.

Minneapolis prepares for ‘March Against Minnesota Fraud’ led by right-wing influencer www.startribune.com/minneapolis-...

There are reports of a shooting involving federal law enforcement in north Minneapolis. We will be updating our live blog at the MN Star Tribune as we get more info. Please consider following local sources during breaking news situations, we are familiar with the area in a way national media isn't.

The majority of the leadership team inside Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney’s Office resigned Tuesday in protest of directives from federal officials in the wake of the killing of Renee Good, according to sources familiar with the decision.

Joe Thompson, US Attorney who was leading fraud investigations in Minnesota, resigns. By Jeff Day @startribune.com www.startribune.com/joe-thompson...

New story from @jcollins.bsky.social on ICE attempts to intimidate ICE Watch observers in Minneapolis, including ICE letting them know they know where they live—by leading them to their homes www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced today that their offices, alongside the Minnesota BCA, will pursue an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.

The agent, Jonathan Ross, was dragged by a vehicle and injured during a June operation in the Twin Cities, court records show.

Statement from the Minnesota Star Tribune:

I'm already seeing people on here use AI face tools to try to identify the masked ICE agent in Minneapolis. It's a truly terrible idea and here's why

"Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” her mother said. “She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.” www.startribune.com/she-was-an-a...

Live updates: Law enforcement agents have closed off several blocks of Portland Avenue as hundreds of people gather at the scene of the shooting near Portland and E. 34th Street.

My very smart colleagues are doing excellent coverage of the ICE shooting in Minneapolis today. I would urge you to follow along with local sources familiar with the area and the residents here.

We need your help with a project looking into hospitals that make it challenging to apply for charity care or take exceptional actions to collect medical debts. Have you or someone you know had trouble with medical bills? Share your story here:

Our reporter was investigating Minnesota’s ban on PFAS chemicals when she faced a painful and distracting case of dry eye. So @chloeajohnson.bsky.social went looking for treatments. She was prescribed an eye drop that's a type of PFAS.

The Social Security Administration snatched Alex Vukovich’s January payment right out of his bank account and hasn’t made February or March payments — because the government insists he's dead. (He's not)

Today's must-read from @chloeajohnson.bsky.social & @readbrooks.bsky.social... They bought items from local stores & tested them for PFAS chemicals to see how Minnesota's new law is working. www.startribune.com/we-tested-ho...

Great story up today on PFAs in household products by @chloeajohnson.bsky.social & Brooks Johnson www.startribune.com/we-tested-ho...

this interview is incredible www.npr.org/2025/03/13/n...

BREAKING: Trump team has removed the top IRS attorney as career staff resist demands to give DOGE access to sensitive taxpayer records, multiple sources say DHS has sought home addresses of undocumented immigrants who pay taxes W/ @jacobbogage.bsky.social & co

Musk claims Social Security is a "gigantic magnet to attract illegal immigrants." In fact, immigrants here illegally do not collect Social Security. But they pay $25.7 billion a year into it, a recent study found, so these undocumented workers are actually subsidizing Americans.

Feeding Our Future trial rocked by witness tampering allegations www.startribune.com/feeding-our-...

If you are a federal employee in Minnesota and recently lost your job, we'd like to talk to you. Please contact reporter Janet Moore at JMooreStrib.60 on the encrypted messaging app Signal. You can also email us at [email protected]. We strongly encourage you to use a personal device.

The "large scale social deception" contract Musk is conspiracizing about was: * first awarded under Trump * paid to Reuters' data division, not the newsroom * for researching *defenses* against deception * not revealed by "DOGE investigations" and was a public record, visible online for many years

What the NIH cuts are jeopardizing: new treatments for cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and virtually every other ailment you can think of. Minnesota institutions alone are poised to lose $100 million in research funding, according to a preliminary estimate. minnesotareformer.com/2025/02/10/n...

NEW: An internal email obtained by WIRED from a threat intelligence team monitoring US Treasury systems advised labeling DOGE operatives an "insider threat," adding that it recommended suspending their access "immediately." | www.wired.com/story/treasu...

Thanks @zoemjack.bsky.social for stopping by Stump Party and sharing our silly little tradition with the world! www.startribune.com/swing-an-axe...

Please please please do not start using FOIA systems as a form of protest. No one outside of a handful of FOIA officers at most will ever see it, and it'll just clog things up for anyone actually trying squeeze valuable information out of the government.

New: manufacturers of frying pans under brands like All Clad, Circulon, T-Fal and Farberware are suing Minnesota, saying the state can't ban PFAS from their products. www.startribune.com/cookware-ass...

How much warmer is Minnesota than it was in your childhood? www.startribune.com/how-does-202...

my door just closed

Sad story from my colleague Kim Hyatt: animal investigators first found 300 animals in distress at a rural MN rescue. When they returned to seize them, only 64 were left. www.startribune.com/animal-human...

A sinister sense at the Wilco show that Jeff Tweedy could be lurking anywhere in the waiting audience, because most of this crowd, frankly, are Tweedy lookalikes

“Mr. Kennedy has privately expressed interest in having Mr. Siri serve in the Health and Human Services Department’s top legal job, general counsel.” Mr. Siri “has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine”. Gift link. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/h...

This is so delightful. Knausgaard on his favorite and least favorite books: "I think it's so dreadful. But I will read it, because I have to, because of what I'm writing." wapo.st/49t8yaV

Luigi Mangione’s sprawling family found success after patriarch’s rise

Health care reporter Jeremy Olson delves into the company's reputation re: claims denials.

Very funny to me that WaPo thinks a Minnesotan would find 31 degrees (the low in NYC yesterday) “frigid”

Thousands of people in Minnesota (and across the US) have recently gotten letters informing them a lead pipe sends drinking water into their homes. Don't panic; there's a lot you can do to protect your health. Gift link: www.startribune.com/mn-lead-pipe...

South Korean unions representing journalists called Yoon's actions “anti-democratic,” “unconstitutional” and a denial of the “historical achievements of democracy and press freedom that the entire nation has fought for with blood over half a century.” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/b...