Northern Progressive Updates

Member newsletter 2025-07-20

Greetings

Thanks to all who turned out for the Good Trouble events.

There were about 75 people who showed up in Virginia and about 120 folks showed up in Ely. Participants report lots of energy and honks of support.

Action Items or Events

Next Meeting!

When:
Wednesday, August 6, 6:30pm
Where:
Cook Community Center
510 Gopher Dr.
Cook, MN
Topic:
Surviving What Comes Next: Planning for Resilience

Bring ideas and strategies for moving forward in the current political climate. What can we do to preserve ourselves and our communities?

All are welcome to attend.

Virginia Town Hall

Outfront MN

When:
Sunday, July 20, 4:00–5:30pm
Where:
Location provided upon registration

The political landscape can be confusing and hard to follow. This is even more true for those navigating trans needs. There is a lot of misinformation out there, and it is important that we know the truth and how current state and federal legislation effects us. Please join us for a town hall with Representative Leigh Finke to get answers and clarification around what is going on with a focus on queer and trans health identity and health legislation. NA drinks and snacks will be provided. The location of the event will be shared with another follow up email.

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Register

Signing & Resisting Events

Each Friday at noon at the following locations:

Signs should include issues common to everyone like good jobs, enough money for food and healthcare, and a good education.

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Sign up for Cook
Sign up for Tower

Support our local health care workers

Your actions are needed NOW to support our local health care workers.

Bria Schurke sent an excellent explanation and request. Read her original letter at the bottom of this entry.

Essentia is refusing to negotiate with the union of health care workers, although required to by the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) decision. Our actions as residents and patients can make a difference to pressure Essentia to negotiate by contacting Essentia and the governor’s office. (See specifics in Bria’s letter.)

A few new developments, over 40 DFL members have publicly asked Essentia to bargain in good faith, see this article:

Read more

The merger with Essentia-Fairview-U of M would only further lessen providers’ voices. If Essentia cannot allow their providers to come to the table now, why should the state grant them even more power? This is the MN Attorney General's website for the public to offer input. Bria included a suggested letter template.

Provide your input

"Before the AG approves any merger involving Essentia, they should be required to bargain in good faith with their frontline providers. How can we trust a corporation with even more power when they’re already ignoring the legal rights of the clinicians who care for us? If Essentia refuses to respect unionized providers now, what happens when they control even more of our state’s healthcare system? Patient care will suffer if the people delivering it are excluded from the decisions that shape it."

Read Bria's letter

News & Training

Speak out about the quality of our local health care

Hosted by the Cook Hospital

231 2nd St E, Cook, MN
Duration: 2 hr
Open to everyone

We are hosting 4 separate focus group discussions at Trinity Lutheran in Cook, MN.

These discussions are meant to shed insight into what's *really* happening in our community, so we can better serve & support the health needs of you & your loved ones.

Note that your identity will not be a part of the focus group report, and your individual responses will be kept confidential. The information will be used for strategic planning, grant applications, new programs and by community groups interested in addressing health in the region. This process will help to maintain quality health care in the community.

You can message our Facebook account directly to RSVP, email Molly (mcarmack@ruralcenter.org), or simply show up.

Your voice is important...we want to hear it!

Cook Hospital Facebook Page

2025-2026 Smart Justice Fellowship

ACLU

"The ACLU of Minnesota — in partnership with T.O.N.E. U.P. and the Minneapolis NAACP — is excited to announce our 2025-2026 Smart Justice Fellowship, the third iteration of this annual program!

"Through this ten-month hybrid fellowship opportunity, participants will (1) gain the organizing skills and experience necessary to engage with Justice-Impacted Minnesotans in communities across the state around criminal legal reform and immigration detention, (2) learn how to navigate and work in coalitions toward a common campaign goal, and (3) study policy solutions to shrink our carceral systems -- including immigration detention -- and reduce racial inequalities within these systems."

Learn more

Right-Wing Supreme Court Acts Again
& the "Rescissions" Before Congress

Heather Cox Richardson

"Without any explanation, the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court yesterday granted a stay on a lower court's order that the Trump administration could not gut the Department of Education while the issue is in the courts. The majority thus throws the weight of the Supreme Court behind the ability of the Trump administration to get rid of departments established by Congress—a power the Supreme Court denied when President Richard M. Nixon tried it in 1973.

"This is a major expansion of presidential power, permitting the president to disregard laws Congress has passed, despite the Constitution's clear assignment of lawmaking power to Congress alone."

This article by Richardson goes into several critical recent moves to grab more powers for the Executive Branch. She provides a very helpful explanation of what is happening & who might be driving it.

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Read on

Dismantling It All With A Whisper

The Big Picture and Jay Kuo

"The Supreme Court's 'Shadow Docket' is letting the Trump White House burn it all down.

"One of the most historically consequential rulings of the Supreme Court came down yesterday. But you wouldn't know it from the order itself.

"That's because it comes to us again off the Supreme Court's so-called "Shadow Docket," which the radical majority of justices has wielded to horrifying effect. All we get is a decision, without explanation, and we must rely upon the dissent (once more, of the three liberal justices) to try to parse what just happened."

Read on

Rapid Response

Compiling a list of resources

We are learning together how to protect our neighbors. We welcome your thoughts.

Inspirations

Meet the new Indivisible chapter in Ely!

We are a chapter of Indivisible located in Ely, MN, 10 miles as the crow flies from Canada.

Much slower by canoe and much longer by car.

We have started the Ely Indivisible chapter to focus on concerns of and activities more specifically in the Ely area while we continue to collaborate with Northern Progressives on issues that affect our region, state, and country. We will not be duplicating Northern Progressives activities like the newsletter and frequent meeting programs, but will be increasing accessibility for people at the east end of the Iron Range to participate in meetings and activities in our huge, geographically challenging region.

The autocrats and fascists would want us to believe we are powerless, but when individuals come together, we create real power. We must stand up for the right to hold our own political beliefs and the right to dissent. The Trump administration is hoping that people won’t notice what they’re trying to do and the cruel atrocities they have already perpetrated, but millions of people in the United States and globally are speaking out and standing up together to resist the degradation of justice, human rights, and the rule of law.

In Ely we are used to standing up for our rights, helping our neighbors, and working together when someone needs help or something needs to get done. You don’t have to go it alone. Join us.

We invite you to sign up for Ely email updates at our website ElyIndivisible.org by clicking on the Join Us button. You can reach us with the email address ReachUs@elyindivisible.org or elyindivisible@gmail.com. They both go to the same inbox, but after the first time, all you need to remember is "ReachUs." (Please add us to your contacts.)

Visit us online

Public opinion on immigration is moving left

from Strength In Numbers

"The highlights of their report are here:

Read on

Keith Ellison is Standing Up

from Robert Hubbell

"Minnesota's Attorney General Keith Ellison has consistently used the full scope of his role to defend Minnesotans from unconstitutional federal overreach and his actions set the standard for what bold leadership looks like in this moment.

"Earlier this year, he issued a formal legal opinion declaring that local law enforcement in Minnesota cannot legally detain individuals based solely on ICE detainers. He made it clear that such actions violate constitutional rights and expose agencies to civil liability. He has also joined multistate lawsuits challenging federal attempts to undermine birthright citizenship and other core protections.

"Following the ICE detention of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, he publicly condemned the act, stating:

"'When a government deports, threatens, [and] arrests people for First Amendment activity, that government is tyrannical. Mahmoud Khalil is being persecuted for his beliefs and free expression.'

"AG Ellison's swift legal positioning and vocal defense demonstrate precisely how AGs can wield both legal tools and public pressure to confront injustice. This is the kind of principled, aggressive leadership every state needs right now."

Read on

Please Share your Sources of Information and Inspiration:

What news sources, reading lists, podcasts, subscriptions and other resources do you rely on for good information? Please respond to hello@northernaction.org with the sources you recommend and a brief reason why they're important to you.

Northern Progressives Schedule & Structure

NP Group meetings are held:

First & third Wednesdays in Tower or Cook

Breakfast Club:

Everyone is welcome to come and discuss current happenings, help shape the direction of NP, and get to know each other.

Northern Progressives Communication Committee

General email (submit ideas here):
hello@northernprogressives.org
Betty Firth
bfirth88@gmail.com
Beth Peterson
edithepeterson@gmail.com
Northern Action
northernaction.org

Thanks to Breakfast Club Liason Jesse Bearheart