Armed Forces

Pao Houa Her

Minnesota leads U.S. in National Guard suicides since 2008

More Minnesota National Guard soldiers have committed suicide since 2008 than those from any other state.SEE ALSO: Blake Page, West Point cadet, quits academy to protest "unconstitutional proselytism" That grim tidbit was contained in an extensive report on Texas National Guard suicides put together ... More >>

Pete Hegseth on lady soldiers: "You don't want to have to deal with Matt's feelings toward Mary"

Yesterday, in a surprising move, outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed an order allowing women to partake in armed combat for the first time in American history.SEE ALSO: Decorated war vet Pete Hegseth seeking GOP endorsement to challenge Klobuchar [VIDEO]Panetta's move had the strong suppo ... More >>

Kirill Bartashevitch of St. Paul pointed AK-47 at daughter after argument over her grades [MUG]

Kirill Bartashevitch, 51, faces two felony counts of terroristic threats after pointing an AK-47 at his daughter. He was allegedly upset because she was getting two B's in school instead of straight A's.SEE ALSO: Pine County Sheriff's refusal to enforce new gun regulations has at least one legislati ... More >>

Jim Fetzer, UMD professor emeritus, thinks U.S. government was behind Newtown shooting

Jim Fetzer is a retired UMD professor who has made a name for himself nationally by arguing on behalf of conspiracy theories for everything from the JFK shooting to the death of Paul Wellstone.SEE ALSO:-- Michele Bachmann's favorite gun is the Bushmaster AR-15 used in Newtown [VIDEO] -- Andy Parrish ... More >>

David Pillatzki Jr. faces felony for Facebook video of himself shooting a gun

Watch what you post on Facebook, kids -- especially if you've been previously convicted of a violent felony.SEE ALSO:-- Clinton Corry went berserk when ex-girlfriend blocked him on Facebook, charges say -- Michael Hamer used Facebook to solicit Twin Cities little leaguers for sex, police say Brooten ... More >>

Michele Bachmann's favorite gun is the Bushmaster AR-15 used in Newtown [VIDEO]

During an appearance on Jan Mickelson's radio show late last year, Michele Bachmann said her favorite gun is the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle.SEE ALSO: Thomas Caffall, Texas A&M shooter, was a Michele Bachmann supporterThat's the same controversial high-capacity gun used by Adam Lanza to kill 20 child ... More >>

Apollo 11 moon rocks find safe home at the Minnesota Historical Society

Moon rocks from the Apollo 11 moon landing found a safe home yesterday at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul.The Minnesota National Guard recently found the moon rocks tucked away and forgotten among military artifacts in a storage unit in the Veteran's Service Building in St. Paul.When Ne ... More >>

Tim Poe booted from America's Got Talent [VIDEO]

Tim Poe, the America's Got Talent singer whose battle injury claims were disputed by the Minnesota National Guard, was cut from the show last night. Poe sang George Strait's "The Chair" at the Las Vegas finals before he was booted rather anticlimactically from the competition."I don't know that he h ... More >>

Tim Poe defends against fake war injury charges as evidence mounts

Tim Poe has been through hell this week ever since the Minnesota National Guard issued a statement Tuesday that the singer was not injured in a grenade blast in Afghanistan as Poe had claimed the day before on America's Got Talent.Poe's Facebook fan page was hit with negative comments. His ex-wife, ... More >>

Minneapolis woman claims Tiger Woods hurt knee in Navy SEAL urban warfare simulator

​During the past two-plus years, Tiger Woods has been dogged by revelations he's a waitress-chasing serial wife-cheater... and recurring injuries. In late 2009, it seemed inevitable that Woods, then 33 and with 14 major championships to his name, would easily surpass Jack Nicklaus' career record o ... More >>

Aaron Morrow convicted for AK-47 murder of Joe Rivera, sentenced to life

Aaron Morrow fired 15 shots from his AK-47.​Aaron Morrow was convicted yesterday for the September 2010 murder of 21-year-old Joe Rivera. Morrow, also 21, received a life sentence from the jury, which chose not to believe Morrow's defense: That he'd simply brought an AK-47 into a St. Paul house pa ... More >>

Wisconsin will call out National Guard against striking state workers

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants the National Guard for political muscle.​ The Kent State shootings happened 40 years ago, but one state failed to learn the lesson not to call in the National Guard on unarmed protesters. That state is Wisconsin. There, Gov. Scott Walker has declared that he' ... More >>

Tim Pawlenty would rather defund the military than let gays in

Sometimes being a hero means denying the American military the funding it needs to uphold the law.​The Don't Ask Don't Tell debate is over, but Tim Pawlenty seems to think that if he can revive it he might also be able to revive his so-far lifeless campaign to get Americans to remember his nam ... More >>

Michele Bachmann retreats from cutting war veterans' benefits

Bachmann took a beating from veterans' groups.​Maybe it was while she was jetting between Oahu and Maui for "district work" that Michele Bachmann realized cutting war veterans' benefits was a tone-deaf response to the nation's budget deficit. But she got the message, and today she announced she wo ... More >>

Kalen and Katherine Pohjonen died in murder-suicide

FacebookKalen and Kathy Pojohnen were discovered dead Tuesday morning.​When 19-year-old Katherine Pohjonen hadn't been to work in a couple of days, a co-worker called police and asked them to check up on her. Ramsey County Sheriff's deputies drove to the townhouse she shared with her husband, Ka ... More >>

Tim Pawlenty would reinstate Don't Ask Don't Tell if he could [VIDEO]

Pawlenty wants military gays back in the closet.​If he's elected president, Tim Pawlenty says he would put military gay folk back in the closet by reinstating Don't Ask Don't Tell, putting himself at odds with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Pentagon brass and members of Congress who suppor ... More >>

3,000 anti-gay marriage DVDs returned to Archbishop Nienstedt

Merry Christmas, Archbishop.​Archbishop John Nienstedt will get an early Christmas present today in the form of 3,000 anti-gay marriage DVDs, some of the 400,000 he ordered sent to his flock in September. A protest group called ReturnTheDVD planned to deliver the disks, along with handwritte ... More >>

Al Franken near tears after GOP halts Don't Ask Don't Tell debate [VIDEO]

Al Franken on the Senate floor​Sen. Al Franken has done seven USO tours to military bases in war zones since 1999. For almost as long, he's been mocking the military's anti-gay Don't Ask Don't Tell policy from the stage, getting big laughs from the troops. But he almost broke into tears on th ... More >>

Pinalcchio

Phoenix deputy's tale of being shot by drug smugglers doesn't add up

Video: Muja Messiah, "Gary Coleman"

​A few weeks ago we wrote about Muja Messiah's new single "Gary Coleman" off his forthcoming mixtape M-16's, and now Muja has dropped a video to accompany his new song. "Has the era of no money and free music liberated something in local rap?" writes Peter Scholtes in the Critics' Picks preview of ... More >>

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in trouble with the law

Experts see more soldiers facing criminal time

Michele Bachmann accuses U2 of sinking troop ships

Michele Bachmann flubs military history... again​Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is giving supporters a mouthful this summer and somehow mega-popular Irish band U2 have become entangled in her "facts". She  has  been caught on tape confusing the rockers with attack submarines while invoki ... More >>

Muja Messiah announces record release, debuts 'Gary Coleman'

​I was introduced to Muja Messiah when I saw him open for GZA's "Liquid Swords" tour some years ago (two? three?). Expecting so much out of Gary and getting so much from Muja was a complete letdown and lucky surprise in equal turns. Muja's wry and lithe stage presence, crux, and flow haven't y ... More >>

Princeton Review finds no Minnesota campuses with top grades

What's your college known for?​With apologies to the Bard of Anoka, we really do live in a place where the men are strong, the women are good looking, the children are above average, and the colleges hover somewhere below the top of the heap. The Princeton Review is out with its annual college ... More >>

The Lovely Creatures Cabaret

Franken wants "morning-after" pill available for military women

The freshman senator again wades into the culture wars.

Dead Al-Qaida suspect had ties to missing Minn. Somalis

U.S. Special Forces killed a man Monday in Somalia suspected of being a link between al-Qaida in Pakistan and the militia targeted for recruiting Minnesota Somalis to return to fight.

Watching the flood waters

The flooded waters are still dominating the areas along the Red River and a second crest of 38 to 39 feet is likely next weekend.

U of M researchers: binge drinking popular in military

Who knew that months of killing strangers/avoiding being killed by strangers could drive a person to the bottle?

MN National Guard to deploy in February

Blitzen Trapper

Military recruiters and Minneapolis schools

Letters to the Editor

Readers respond to "Soldier Suicides"

Reporter's Notebook: Soldier Suicides: veterans are killing themselves in record numbers

Military donations shift toward Dems, anti-war candidates

Robert Hawkins

New laws in effect today

Of Montreal: Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

I Love the 80s: Did the U.S. train Iraq's death squads?

10/19: Morning Communique

U.S. forces fight Zombie army in Iraq: How many "top lieutenants" can a man have?

Onward Christian Soldiers

"First we get the military, then we get the nation"

Iraq: Secret UK memo says US weighing troop drawdown

Baghdad boogie

The Ghost of Bob Hope

Doing the Baghdad boogie with traveling band Jack Knife & the Sharps

Bring 'em On!

The Bush administration's top 40 lies about war and terrorism

The Changing Face Of War

A groundbreaking 1989 essay on "Fourth-Generation Warfare"

Fall Out

The military turned Ron Falcon into an officer, a gentleman, and a doctor. When the brass discovered he was gay, they kicked him out and sent him the bill.

LEFT FOR DEAD

Nguyen Cao Son and his fellow South Vietnamese soldiers were part of a secret U.S. spy commando force--so secret, in fact, that the American government turned its back and let him spend 14 years in North Vietnamese prison camps.