Hundreds gather to remember slain Minnesota lawmaker and her husband
ST. PAUL, Minnesota — Hundreds of people, some clutching candles or carrying flowers to lay in front of a memorial, gathered outside Minnesota's Capitol on Wednesday evening for a vigil to remember a prominent state lawmaker and her husband who were gunned down at their home.
As a brass quintet from the Minnesota Orchestra played, Gov. Tim Walz wiped away tears and comforted attendees at the gathering for former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were killed early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs.
Walz has described Hortman as his closest political ally and 'the most consequential Speaker in state history.'
Wednesday's vigil also included a Native American drum circle, a string quartet and the crowd singing 'Amazing Grace.'
The memorial, which sprang up outside the Capitol after the killings, features flowers, American flags, photos of Hortman and sticky notes with such messages as, 'Thank you for always believing in me and in Minnesota' and 'We got this from here. Thank you for everything.'
Around the gathering, there was a heavy police presence, with law enforcement blocking off streets leading up to the Capitol and state troopers standing guard.
The event didn't have a speaking program planned and attendees were instructed not to bring signs of any kind.
The man charged in federal and state court with killing the Hortmans, Vance Boelter, is also accused of shooting another Democratic lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, at their home a few miles away in Champlin. They survived and are recovering. Federal prosecutors have declined to speculate about a motive.
Boelter's attorneys have declined to comment on the charges.
Hortman had served as the top House Democratic leader since 2017, and six years as speaker, starting in 2019. Under a power-sharing deal after the 2024 election left the House tied, her title became speaker emerita and Republican Rep. Lisa Demuth became speaker.
The Hortmans were alumni of the University of Minnesota, which held a midday memorial gathering on the Minneapolis campus.
Rebecca Cunningham, the university's president, spoke during the event about the grief and outrage people are grappling with along with questions about how things got to this point.
'I don't have the answers to these questions but I know that finding answers starts with the coming together in community as we are today,' she said.
Funeral information for the Hortmans has not been announced.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
43 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Canada will impose new counter-tariffs against U.S. if it can't make a trade deal in 30 days, Mark Carney says
OTTAWA — Canada will impose a new wave of counter-tariffs if it cannot reach a deal within 30 days to resolve the trade dispute with the Trump administration, says Prime Minister Mark Carney. Speaking in Ottawa on the eve of a key meeting tomorrow between the negotiating teams, Carney announced a suite of new countermeasures, including adjusting existing counter tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum products on July 21, at the end of that 30-day period. 'In other words, we're going to adjust them to levels consistent with the progress that's made at that point on the broader trading arrangements with the United States,' he said. Carney also announced a Buy Canadian policy for steel and aluminum used in federal procurement. 'Only Canadian producers and producers from trading partners that provide Canada with tariff free reciprocal access through trade agreements, can compete for federal government procurement of steel and aluminum,' he said. Carney wants an immediate end to the so-called 'border emergency' tariffs and the sectoral tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum that U.S. President Donald Trump has hit Canada with. But he said, 'it's a negotiation,' acknowledging there may not be an immediate lift to all of them. 'There is still some room to travel, so to speak, before we get to that point. But we have a deadline in order to achieve that, and if it's in Canada's interest, we'll sign it,' Carney said. With the move, the Carney government is putting more pressure on Canadian and U.S. negotiators to outline the path to a more predictable trade relationship. Carney also announced new tariffs of 100 per cent on foreign imports of steel from 'non-free trade agreement partners to stabilize the domestic market and prevent harmful trade diversion as the result of the U.S. actions that are destabilizing markets.' He said Trump did not ask him to institute the anti-dumping measure, but it has been a call made by steel producers in Canada. Ottawa also signalled that its digital services tax, which Trump calls an unfair trade practice and wants to eliminate, will apply even as Carney's team is in pitched negotiations to reach a deal. Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told reporters, 'This was voted by Parliament so we're going ahead with the DST. 'But obviously, you know, all of that is something that we're considering as part of broader discussions that you may have, but the DST is in force and it's going to be applied.' Champagne said he and other G7 finance ministers have discussed different regimes of taxation that affect Big Tech at length with the Americans. 'This is not the big thing. The big thing is all the (value-added taxes) and other type of taxes you have around the world,' he said. 'And we had a discussion at the G7 about a few weeks ago, and even in Washington last time, to explain to our American colleagues that, a lot like the VAT they have in Europe and the GST we have in Canada, is neutral, so that it applies to goods … there's no distinction in terms of imports and exports. So we're going to continue to have these discussion and make our case.' Asked if retaining the digital services tax is a red line for Canada in the current trade dispute with the U.S., Champagne said, 'Listen, the tax is in Canada, the tax applies and will apply.' Carney's surprise scheduling of a news conference Thursday afternoon set back a planned news conference by the Canadian Steel Producers Association and the United Steel Workers, who were set to outline their urgent call for immediate action as the 50 per cent steel tariffs Trump imposed are squeezing domestic producers. They have previously called for the full imposition of tit-for-tat counter-tariffs against U.S. steel without any exemptions. During the election campaign, the Carney government authorized exemptions for Canadian imports of U.S. steel and aluminum products — called remissions — that amount to about $8 billion. But most of those exemptions favour importers of American steel, which Canadian steel producers say has given their competitors an advantage.
New York Post
43 minutes ago
- New York Post
Armies of Kremlin and Iran bots aimed at attempting to destroy MAGA: report
Russia and Iran are targeting the Make America Great Again movement and trying to 'destabilize the right from within,' according to a new report. Both rogue states are using tens of thousands of social media bots to amplify untrue voices and opinions 'masquerading as MAGA loyalists,' to cause chaos and confusion and question US leadership, The Post has learned. The bots are automated software applications that mimic human activity on social media. Advertisement They are used to amplify real-life influencers who post untrue 'false flag' narratives designed to discredit President Donald Trump and his conservative stalwarts, according to a bombshell new report from the Network Contagion Research Institute, a politically neutral nonprofit who study extremism on the web. 5 The same foreign playbook that undid the Democratic party is trying to destroy MAGA from within, according to a new NCRI report. REUTERS 'If you talk to Republicans right now, more than 80 percent of them support the war against Iran. But if you go on Twitter you get the sense that there is a civil war raging. Advertisement 'This is exactly the purpose of the psychological operation — to destabilize people's perceptions of institutions that are supposed to protect us,' said an NCRI analyst. The bots make it look like extreme posters have tons more support than they actually have, which helps to persuade other real life viewers that what they are posting is legitimate. The bots use innocuous, average names and have profiles which make them appear as average Americans. NCRI says after domestic attacks, including the Uvalde school shooting, Matthew Crooks assassination attempt on Donald Trump and the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC in May it has noticed an alarming trend of a 'false flag reflex'. Advertisement 'Within minutes of initial reports [the events are recast] as evidence of hidden conspiratorial plots, obscuring the true motives and perpetrators. 'In the days following these crises, Kremlin-affiliated propagandists and Iranian state-linked media are able to rapidly inject narratives that are taken up by MAGA-impostor influencers, who then inject them into MAGA-branded spaces,' the report notes. 5 Noctis Draven, who is a regular consultant for Kremlin media, spread the 'false flag' story about the murder of two Israeli staffers in an attempt to push a conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the deaths. Network Contagion Research Institute 5 Evidence from a Network Contagion Research Institute's report showing bots spreading misinformation calling real events 'false flags' Network Contagion Research Institute Advertisement The group points to Draven Noctis, a real person and US veteran who frequently contributes to Russian state media, and has a potential reach of 2.4 million with more than 180,000 followers on X. 'It's so expensive in the US and Canada that even refugees can't understand how we make it,' he says in a 2024 TikTok post while describing the US as a 'slave system' designed to impoverish its own citizens. 'We are free range humans in an open-air prison of taxes and bulls–t distractions and we think it's completely normal,' he continues. In an earlier post on EurAsia Daily, a Kremlin propaganda outlet, he is shown in military uniform urging Ukrainian soldiers to defect to Russia. The message is written in Cyrillic alphabet, propaganda which is then republished by bots. 5 Jackson Hinkle, a social media influencer, spreads anti-Western conspiracies to his more than three million X followers. Getty Images The 'false flag' narrative surrounding the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers in May – absurdly attempting to claim the man charged with the shooting was, in fact, working on behalf of Israel – was another case in point, the nonprofit says. 'Foreign-linked seeders, such as Noctis, inject crisis narratives within minutes of breaking news. Their content is then mass-republished by clusters of inauthentic accounts, according to the NCRI report. 'Domestic personalities with large but unstable followings – [such as noted trolls like] Jackson Hinkle supply a veneer of grassroots legitimacy, completing an 'asset-adjacency' model in which fringe US influencers ride the same engagement farms that propel Kremlin messaging,' the NCRI report says. Between May 1 and June 10, NCRI recorded 675,000 posts on X referencing 'false flag' and drawing nearly four million interactions, according to the report, adding activity spiked in two sharp bursts: on May 24 after the embassy shooting and on June 3 after the firebombing of a Jewish demonstration in Boulder. Advertisement 5 X user Red Pill Media claims to be based in the US, but was found to originate in Karachi, Pakistan. Eyal Yakoby/ Red Pill Media/ X 'False-flag allegations occupy a privileged corner of Russian hybrid-warfare doctrine: a ready-made, easily adaptable alibi that flips blame, muddies attribution, and buys time for diplomatic misdirection,' the report says. For instance, a tweet from 'Red Pill Media,' which identifies itself as 'exposing Zionist terrorism' and has nearly 81,000 followers on its X account claims to be based in the US, but another user recently revealed that the account belongs to Abdul Abbas in Karachi, Pakistan. Working through firebrand right wing social media influencers, Kremlin-affiliated propagandists also conducted 'a coordinated assault' against Trump, according to the report. Advertisement 'It's a combination of an artificial voice with a real voice,' said an analyst with NCRI. 'It destroyed the Democratic party and now they are going after MAGA.' The network is quick to jump on and twist almost any story in the news cycle, and have recently trained their sights on President Trump, NCRI says. 'The network's goals extend beyond crisis exploitation,' the report says. 'After leveraging the false-flag frame to pose as MAGA loyalists, the same actors pivoted to accuse Donald Trump of pedophilia and to disseminate Iranian state leaks portraying IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) as an Israeli proxy.'
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Largest US city tries to be more democratic with voting. It's like picking ice cream.
Largest US city tries to be more democratic with voting. It's like picking ice cream. The candidates for mayor in the nation's largest city are, arguably, as diverse as the residents they seek to represent. Show Caption Hide Caption NYC mayoral candidate Brad Lander detained by ICE Brad Lander, New York City's comptroller and mayoral candidate, was detained while escorting a defendant out of immigration court. NEW YORK − The candidates for mayor in the nation's biggest city are, arguably, more diverse than the residents they seek to represent. Among those in New York City's June 24 primary election are a disgraced former governor; a democratic socialist state representative (and former rapper); a street performer named Paperboy who dons a clown face; and a former hedge fund executive trying to channel Mike Bloomberg. With so many options, New Yorkers will choose their next mayor like they pick ice cream in the summer. The city's ranked choice system allows voters to choose their top five candidates for mayor, plus top picks in other city races. Even if your top choice doesn't make it, you can still get flavors, or candidates, you prefer. Ranked choice 'allows for people to vote in a way that expresses how they feel,' said Susan Kang, an associate professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The system aims to give voters more choices in a crowded field of nearly a dozen Democratic and a handful of Republican mayoral hopefuls in closed primaries for both parties. It also hopes to bring up candidates from underrepresented backgrounds, often without access to vast campaign war chests. The system, first approved by voters in 2019, has been used in elections around the country − from Alaska to Maine, and from San Francisco to tiny Woodland Hills, Utah (population 1,571). Other places, including Washington, D.C., more recently adopted it. Australians use the system. Winning New York City's Democratic primary is almost always a ticket to City Hall in a city that's about two-thirds registered Democrats. Primary lessons: Trump rules, Dems are revved. NYC's melee is next. How Cuomo v. Mamdani shows ranked choice voting Andrew Cuomo, New York's longtime governor who resigned in 2021 after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment, had led comfortably in polls. Many voters see Cuomo, 67, as an experienced moderate executive who can fight President Donald Trump. But with ranked choice, state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist calling to freeze rents, has inched ever closer to Cuomo. That's because under ranked choice, a candidate has to get over 50% of votes. While polls have Cuomo ahead, he's unlikely to win most first-round votes. At each round, candidates with the fewest votes get eliminated. Voters who ranked less supported candidates first will have their subsequent choices allocated to their next ranked candidate. New York first used ranked choice voting in 2021. With many candidates vehemently opposed to Cuomo, their supporters' next-round votes can help Mamdani, who is endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive star. The process continues until there are two candidates left. Cuomo is favored to win, though polling has tightened between the former governor and Mamdani. Cross-endorsements, cooperation The city's first time using ranked choice, in 2021, resulted in the narrow, eighth-round victory of Eric Adams, the swaggering, scandal-plagued mayor. (Adams dropped out of the 2025 primary, opting to run for re-election as an independent.) Then, Adams' last standing opponent, Kathryn Garcia, received a late endorsement from Andrew Yang, another candidate. Yang supported ranked choice even in his 2020 presidential run. 'The ranked choice voting system enables you to take advantage of being someone's second- or third-place vote,' Yang, now a third-party advocate, said. 'A smart candidate will try and capitalize on that.' In 2025, there are more cross-endorsements, seen with Mamdani and other candidates to Cuomo's left, such as city Comptroller Brad Lander and former lawmaker Michael Blake. However, barbs are out over accusations of antisemitism, islamophobia and documented sexual harassment. Ranked choice challenges Under this relatively new system, voters need to know how to correctly rank their choices. In a 2023 study, Lindsey Cormack, an associate professor of quantitative social science at Stevens Institute of Technology, found higher levels of voided ballots in lower income areas and communities with lower educational attainment. There were also issues among people who speak a language other than English. 'Anytime you change a system, you make it nominally harder, or at least the capacity for errors goes up, because there's just more boxes to tick,' she said. Complicating matters, the primaries use ranked choice, but the general election does not. Nor do state or presidential elections. Only growing beyond June 24 primary election Politicians and experts agree that, with time, voters can get used to their new system. For now, ranked choice appears to continue expanding across cities and states. In November, Washington, D.C., approved ranked choice voting. Christina Henderson, one of the district's at-large representatives and a Brooklyn native, has supported ranked choice to help people dissatisfied with polarized politics. 'If provided the right information, they can make the right choice for themselves,' Henderson, an independent, said. 'Now, the key is providing the right information.' New York City's primary is June 24. Early voting is underway. Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@ or on Signal at emcuevas.01.
