Jill Burcum

NEW: Four federal judges have formed a firewall against ICE in West Virginia — and say they’ll punish state and federal officials of they continue detaining people in ways they have ruled illegal and unconstitutional.

www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Burcum: Target Medicaid fraud, not innocent people’s health care "Medicaid serves a highly vulnerable population with few alternatives for coverage," columnist Jill Burcum writes.

Richard Painter on Trump admin deferring MN Medicaid dollars: “I just think this is political retribution by the Trump administration because they got their you-know-whats handed to them on this Metro Surge." www.startribune.com/trump-withho...

It's... nuts that the AI company is the good guy in this

Pete Hegseth reposted Sam Altman & @sama X.com Tonight, we reached an agreement with the Department of War to deploy our models in their classified network. In all of our interactions, the DoW displayed a deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome. Al safety and wide distribution of benefits are the core of our mission. Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems. The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.

We also will build technical safeguards to ensure our models behave as they should, which the Dow also wanted. We will deploy FDEs to help with our models and to ensure their safety, we will deploy on cloud networks only. We are asking the DoW to offer these same terms to all Al companies, which in our opinion we think everyone should be willing to accept. We have expressed our strong desire to see things de-escalate away from legal and governmental actions and towards reasonable agreements. We remain committed to serve all of humanity as best we can. The world is a complicated, messy, and sometimes dangerous place. 6:56 PM • 2/27/26 • 155K Views

It’s looking more and more like Trump squeezing Anthropic was just in service of the other tech oligarchs Sam Altman and Elon Musk

Anthropic says it will challenge Pentagon's supply chain risk designation in court Anthropic said on Friday it will challenge in court the Pentagon's decision to declare the AI firm a supply-chain risk, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump also directed every federal agency to stop work with the company.

Anthropic says it will challenge Pentagon's supply chain risk designation in court reut.rs/4u0Jy4P

Sack's Back: MN's Greatest Political Cartoonist Un-Retired Because He's 'So Fucking Pissed' at Trump, ICE - Racket Before launching his Substack, Sack had to re-learn to draw using his left hand.

I wanted to talk with Steve because it's amazing he came out of retirement to publish independently. I had no idea he'd been forced to RELEARN HIS ARTFORM WITH HIS LEFT HAND. Anyway, great guy and a state treasure.

Wicked ideology? Bizarre and worrisome choice of words .

US surgeon general nominee dodges vaccine questions in Senate hearing

Means defended removing the newborn dose of the hepatitis B vaccine from the childhood immunization schedule.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/u...

Photo: Ron Johnson/ Wikimedia Commons

This is ugly.

One takeaway from #SOTU: Trump is doubling down, not backing away. on the strategy that led to the violent MN immigration operation.

bsky.app/profile/eric...

Mn Rep Ilhan Omar is shouting at the President. #SOTU

JD Vance now nation’s new fraud czar. #SOTU

Burcum: Minnesota mom says Trump’s IVF affordability plan falls short A Minnesota mom who spent thousands on fertility care says the president’s “coupon” approach isn’t enough — and that state lawmakers need to act, Jill Burcum writes.

Background on Trump’s IVF drug program. www.startribune.com/trump-admini...

Leaves out “rips on Minnesota and/or Tim Walz”

Burcum: Feds want Minnesota to cooperate? You first. Throughout Operation Metro Surge, the Trump administration repeatedly berated Minnesota for its lack of cooperation, Jill Burcum writes. But it refuses to assist the state to investigate the homicides...

Star Tribune: 'Burcum: Feds want Minnesota to cooperate? You first.'

'Why won’t the federal government work with state law enforcement to investigate the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good?'

www.startribune.com/minneapolis-...

People in the U.S. are being charged up to 16x as much as peer countries for the same treatments.

This is absurd.

As generics manufacturers are expected to begin selling GLP-1s in Canada for less than $100 soon, we're calling on HHS to authorize generic competition for GLP-1 drugs.

Democrats push for tariff refunds, daring vulnerable GOP lawmakers to join them A new Senate bill would require reimbursements to businesses within 180 days. House legislation calls for even quicker action.

Three top Democrats are proposing a 180-day deadline for CBP to pay refunds for all of the Trump tariffs the Supreme Court just invalidated. The 180 day timer would kick off once the bill became law.

It directs CBP to prioritize refunding small businesses.

Burcum: Minneapolis for the Nobel Prize? Heck yes, and don’t be bashful. "Boasting simply isn’t in our nature. But this is an extraordinary moment, one that demands we temporarily cast aside our northern manners and toot our own horns for a change," columnist Jill Burcum w...

The latest Nobel Peace Prize winner presented her medal to President Donald Trump. Minneapolis certainly would not denigrate this honor the same way. Minnesotans are much too polite for that. www.startribune.com/nation-nomin...

Lessons from the Minnesota’s Civil Contempt Case “The government’s understaffing and high case load is a problem of its own making,” a federal judge observed.

Lessons from the MN civil contempt case, by me:
Petitioner’s atty: “I understand that the caseload has affected all parties astronomically, and we are all human. But my client is, too. . . . All the people behind these petitions are humans.”
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/less...

MS NOW's Ken Dilanian on Patel's USA hockey trip: "Nobody believes that Kash Patel would have been in that locker room had Donald Trump not made him the FBI director. It’s not like Kash Patel is famous on his own, so he clearly used his office to get this access and the taxpayers paid for the trip."

Minnesotans stuck in Puerto Vallarta as flights canceled amid unrest over killing of Mexican cartel leader Sun Country and Delta have called off flights to and from the popular Mexican tourist destination.

Several Minnesotans are stuck in Puerto Vallarta amid chaos and unrest that broke out following the killing of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in a military operation.

US trade chief says no countries have said they will withdraw from tariff deals U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday said he was having active conversations with countries that had reached tariff deals with the U.S. and none had indicated plans to withdraw following Friday's Supreme Court decision to strike down a large swath of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

US trade chief says no countries have said they will withdraw from tariff deals reut.rs/4aM1Aim

German soccer team cancels Minnesota visit due to ICE crackdown Bundesliga side Werder Bremen were planning to visit in May, though no matches were scheduled.

The pro German soccer team Werder Bremen have canceled a planned spring tour to Minnesota and Detroit, citing the controversial immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

From 'buy America' to 'bye America', Wall Street exodus gathers pace U.S. investors are pulling money out of their own stock market at the fastest pace in at least 16 years as Big Tech returns fade and overseas markets look more attractive.

U.S. investors are pulling money out of their own stock market at the fastest pace in at least 16 years as Big Tech returns fade and better-performing overseas markets look more attractive.
www.reuters.com/business/buy...

A lot of people, including me, were wondering how an IRB could ever approve this study.

The answer is that no IRB did. The person who “signed off” on approval from the only ethics board that reviewed it had resigned three years earlier. His signature was used without his knowledge.

A tariff “refund” mostly goes to whoever wrote the tariff check: the importer of record. That’s not the same person who paid more at the register. So refunds -- if they're offered -- might sound like consumer relief, but in reality, they're corporate windfalls.

"Just imagine for a moment I call you… you better do exactly what I want or I'm going to impose… a 10% tariff that will last for 150 days and then go away." That’s not leverage; that’s a marshmallow test.

Analysts say China less likely to buy US soy after Supreme Court decision China may be less likely to follow through on another big purchase of U.S. soybeans that President Donald Trump has been touting for several weeks in the wake of the Supreme Court striking down Trump's sweeping tariffs, analysts said.

Analysts say China less likely to buy US soy after Supreme Court decision reut.rs/3MWuWTj

After Stunning Setback, Trump Finds Other Ways to Impose Tariffs

and here is the complicated rundown of the new tariffs Trump plans to impose soon possibly later today, and it may all net out close ish globally to what the court just invalidated. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/u...