By Mike Kaszuba In the spring of this year, the State of Minnesota submitted a high-profile bid to have the United States Army build a Futures Command Center in the state. The bid – while ultimately unsuccessful – provided a revealing look at how the University of Minnesota tried to market itself to the military. […]
By Mike Kaszuba Documents found in Peter Smith’s Minnesota motel room last year only hinted at his role as a Republican operative who specialized in political opposition research on Bill and Hillary Clinton. However, the work that Smith was reportedly doing prior to his death in May of 2017 has intrigued both reporters and congressional […]
By Mike Kaszuba In the fall of 2016, three Minnesota counties volunteered to send sheriff’s deputies to North Dakota to provide police support as protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline project drew national attention. In early December of that year, Saint Paul-based non-profit Public Record Media asked the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office for internal correspondence […]
By Matt Ehling and Mike Kaszuba The U.S. military provided coaching on how to handle media inquiries during a 2014 military training exercise in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and included advice on how to limit information should a “serious accident or incident involving injury or death” occur. The latest documents from the U.S. Special Operations […]
By Mike Kaszuba Three days prior to this year’s Super Bowl, the Minnesota Vikings hosted a private dinner at St. Paul’s Union Depot for some of the wealthiest people in the United States — the team owners of the National Football League. Documents obtained by Public Record Media (PRM), a Saint Paul-based non-profit, show how […]
By Mike Kaszuba One day after a Tesla automobile crashed in rural Minnesota last summer, Tesla’s director of field performance engineering contacted the Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s office about the accident. In an e-mail, he wrote that federal regulators were asking the car company about the crash. Kandiyohi County officials had sent out a press release […]
On May 3rd, Minnesota-based open government organization Public Record Media (PRM) filed suit in federal court, seeking access to U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) records requested under a 2017 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. PRM’s FOIA request seeks a variety of records about legal tools and techniques used to obtain information from members of the […]
By Mike Kaszuba In the late 1960s, Twin Cities peace activist Marv Davidov was on the radar of legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who told the Secret Service that Davidov may have tendencies indicating a “propensity for violence and antipathy toward good order and government.” Hoover would later update his assessment of Davidov, and […]
By Matt Ehling and Mike Kaszuba The National Football League took wide-ranging control of U.S. Bank Stadium for Super Bowl LII – including being given 75 percent of the luxury suites at the facility, and having local officials pay to add temporary seating for the game, according to newly released documents. But a spokesperson for […]
By Mike Kaszuba State officials allowed Greater MSP – a business development non-profit with ties to Minnesota’s top companies – to assume a uniquely dominant role in the unsuccessful bid to land Amazon’s second corporate headquarters, according to new documents reviewed by Public Record Media (PRM). Records released by the Minnesota Department of Employment and […]
