Northern Progressives News

2026-06-07

"And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first his throne erected within you is destroyed."
— Kahlil Gibran

"Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within."
— Ruha Benjamin

Hello friends!

Thank you for being here.

June is heating up & there are so many opportunities to engage, connect & activate.

Contents

Upcoming Events ^

Grant Hauschild

Legislative Recap Fundraiser

When:
June 8, 4:30–6:00pm
Where:
RSVP to get location
Learn more

Minnesota Indivisible Alliance Townhall with Amy Klobuchar

The governor’s race is on

When:
June 10, 7:00–8:00pm
Where:
Online

Join MN Indivisible Alliance on Wednesday, June 10 from 7–8 PM for a live Zoom townhall with Senator Amy Klobuchar — the DFL-endorsed candidate for Minnesota Governor.

The governor’s office is on the line in November. This is your chance to hear directly from the candidate, ask your questions, and get ready for the work ahead.

Learn more

Aaron Kania Special Fundraiser

We’re excited to invite you to a special fundraising event in support of Aaron Kania as he runs for Minnesota State House of Representatives for District 3A!

When:
Friday, June 12, 5:30–8:00pm
Where:
Early Frost Farms
7273 Palo Tia Road
Embarrass, MN

✨ Come be part of something meaningful ✨

Enjoy great company, inspiring conversation, and the chance to connect with others who care about the future of northeastern Minnesota.

You’ll hear directly from Aaron about his vision, priorities, and the positive change he is working towards based on what he has heard.

Plus, enjoy a picnic barbecue in a warm, welcoming outdoor setting.

Your support truly makes a difference—whether that’s attending, following on social media, bringing a friend, or contributing to the campaign. Since not everyone lives in the district we recommend that attendees donate between $100 to $250. PCR refunds of $75 per person or $150 per couple are available.

RSVP:
erickalamar.lamar@gmail.com or text: 218-208-9613
Suggested Contribution:
Any amount appreciated

Let’s come together, have some fun, and support a campaign rooted in community, collaboration, and hope.

We can’t wait to see you there! — Team Aaron Kania

No Kings — Signing for Democracy

Celebrate Flag Day by standing with our neighbors

When:
June 14, 12:30–1:00pm
Where:
Hwy 53 & 12th Ave
Virginia, MN

poster for event

Hands Across the Bong Bridge

A Cross-State, Flag Day Bridge Brigade Joining Duluth & Superior

THE GREATEST BRIDGE BRIGADE EVER!

When:
June 14, 12:30pm
Where:
Bong Bridge
Duluth to Superior

Expected Flow of the Event:

  • 12:30 Start assembling at both entrance ways to the bridge
  • 1:00 Participants start marching toward the middle
  • When we meet up, Bridge Brigade signs and flags for about one hour
  • Safely return off the bridge
  • Post-event celebration (details to follow)
  • Paddlers welcome in the water, too (stay safe)

On June 14th, Flag Day, join Rise Up Superior, Good Trouble Indivisible, Zenith City Indivisible, Duluth Indivisible, and Duluth 50501 for Hands Across the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge.

We will assemble on either side of the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge between Superior and Duluth (or Duluth and Superior, depending on your perspective) and march with signs and flags across the bridge on the protected pedestrian/bike path. Somewhere near the middle, we will join hands (and hearts and minds) in a demonstration of unity for democracy, for justice and for community. Two States. Two Cities. One Bridge. One Country. Our Country.

The Bong Bridge is 2.2 miles long - we will need about 3,000 people to be able to truly hold hands across the Bong Bridge. This event is set up for the Duluth access to the bike/pedestrian path (W. Michigan and S. 43rd Avenue West). The Superior trailhead is at Susquehanna Avenue, just behind the Quality Inn (46.722970, -92.125832).

Richard I. Bong was a hero (the "Ace of Aces") in World War II and received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was born in Superior and raised in Poplar. Learn more about him at the Richard Bong Veterans Memorial Center in Superior.

poster for event

Learn more
Facebook event
Mobilize event

The Next 250 Starts With Us

No Kings!

When:
June 14, 2026
Where:
Nationwide

As America approaches its 250th anniversary, we have a choice about what story we tell.

We can let strongman politics and corruption define the moment. Or we can make the story of America about people coming together — across race, background, identity, belief, and community — to defend our rights and build a future rooted in people power.

A Concert for the First Amendment

A Night to Build Community

Across the country, communities will gather for local watch parties to sing along, make art, share food, connect with neighbors, and take meaningful action together.

Join a Rise Up, Sing Out event near you, watch from home — or host a watch party in your community.

Learn more about the concert
Learn more about No Kings

Luke Gulbranson Candidate Forum

Part of our candidate information series

When:
June 16, 6:00pm
Where:
Jim's Sports Bar
Chisholm, MN

Minnesota says’ GAAWIIN! ‘NO’ to Big Tech!

When:
June 26, 1:00–2:45pm
Where:
Minnesota Capitol Front Lawn
St. Paul, MN

Join us June 26th for a rally in front of the Minnesota Capitol, where we will be presenting the Mother Earth Vs Big Tech Petition. This petition advocates for a two-year moratorium on the construction of hyperscaled data centers. Our goal is to deliver this important message directly to the office of the Governor of Minnesota.

Learn more

More info about Big Tech Issues

When the Decision Is Too Big for the City
Why Stop the Data Center
Take This Data Center and Shove It
Everybody Hates Data Centers

Unfinished Freedom: 250 Years On

A Free Community Concert

When:
June 28, 1:00–8:00pm
Where:
Miner's Pavilion
1401 NW 3rd Ave
Grand Rapids
(Road Trip!!)

Join us for a fun community event full of music, food and drink for purchase, and connection.

Free event & parking, food & drinks for purchase. Bring a lawn chair!

poster for event

Mobilize event

America’s 250th Birthday!

Bring a Sign That Commemorates Our Rights & Freedoms

When:
July 3, 12:00–1:00pm
Location 1:
Sheridan & Central
Ely, MN
Location 2
Main Street at the Locomotive
Tower, MN

We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.

Ongoing ^

Signing & Resisting Events

Each Friday at noon at the following locations:

  • Cook: Hwy 53 and River Street
  • Tower: Mainstreet by the locomotive
  • Ely: Sheridan St. & Central Ave

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

Calls to Action ^

Ensure Minnesota Gas Prospecting and Development Doesn’t Contaminate Groundwater

Your Comment and Request is Needed by JUNE 10

Ensure Minnesota Gas Prospecting and Development Doesn’t Contaminate Groundwater and Put Health and Safety at Risk!

The Court of Administrative Hearings is reviewing rules proposed by the Minnesota Health Department (“MDH”) that would open Minnesota up to prospecting and production of gas.

These MDH Proposed Gas Rules will go into effect as “expedited rules” exempted from the normal rule process and public hearing unless Minnesotans like you send comments that request a hearing to protect groundwater, surface water, health and safety from gas prospecting.

Learn more

Stop Trump’s Crypto Corruption

Tell our Senators to Say NO to the CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633)

Last year, the House passed the CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633), a bill disguised as “crypto regulation” but which actually serves the billionaires and bad actors at the center of today’s crypto chaos. This bill doesn’t protect consumers, doesn’t close money laundering loopholes, and does nothing to stop the biggest threat of all: Trump’s crypto-fueled bribery machine. Now, the CLARITY Act is being considered in the Senate.

Note that Angie Craig voted yes ...

Take Action
Learn more about cryptocurrency
Learn more about the US Senate's landmark crypto bill

Call for writing

Activate your voice — storytellers, poets & independent journalists wanted

Panatrope wants you for the launch their new journal!

They are accepting written work of any genre: Poetry: up to 5 pages
Short Fiction or nonfiction: between 400-5000 words.

poster for event

Learn more

ICE wants to reopen the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, MN

What happens next depends on us. We keep us safe.

ICE wants to reopen the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, MN as a 1,600 capacity immigration detention center, run by private prison giant CoreCivic. If approved, it would become one of the largest ICE detention facilities in the US, ~60% larger than Delaney Hall.

They're betting this can happen quietly in a small town far from the headlines. Don't let it.

Call your elected officials and demand an end to for-profit detention. Organize locally. Talk to your neighbors. Learn from the protests and hunger strikes happening at detention facilities across the country.

Learn more
ICE Details a New Minnesota-Based Detention Network That Spans 5 States
from CURE

Write Postcards to Swing States

Progressive Turnout Project

Sign up for our Get Out the Vote postcards. We'll send you the postcards for free, along with voter lists and instructions with proven message options. You will need to provide the Postcard Stamps (currently $0.61). All the mailing dates for these postcards are in October.

Learn more

Be a Walking Voter Registration Booth

Talk to neighbors, friends, family, co-workers — Make sure everyone has a plan to vote.

We have business-size cards you can print & distribute. Download & print on your own, send a digital version to your contacts, or arrange for us to get you already-printed cards.

Once you have a card in hand you can help people you encounter use a handy QR code to get straight to an online voter registration portal.

We've got this!

poster for event

poster for event

Download (pdf)
Website from side 1
Website from side 2
Other voting resources

5calls

Pick an action & make a call

Act now

Training Opportunities ^

Organizing to Protect Democracy

How Elections Work (ACLU)

When:
June 10, 7:00pm CT
Where:
Online

Our right to vote is facing relentless attacks. Supreme Court decisions, redistricting wars, and anti-voter legislation have put access to voting under strain. But this fight is ours, and we'll continue to show up.

We know these attacks are meant to overwhelm and confuse us. That's why this Organizing to Protect Democracy session is focused on confidently understanding the systems that shape our elections and democracy.

Learn more

Understanding and Responding to Christian Nationalism

by Christians Against Christian Nationalism Minnesota

When:
June 16, 6:30–7:30pm
Where:
Online

Christian nationalism seeks to merge Christian and American identities, damaging both the Christian faith and America’s democracy. It implies that to be a good American, one must be a Christian. This workshop provides information about Christian nationalism and ways for Christians, people of other faiths, and secular individuals to respond to Christian nationalism.

Learn more

De-Google Workshop

When:
June 18, 5:30–7:00pm
Where:
Dovetail Cafe
Duluth, MN

Come learn how to take back control of our privacy, our environment, and our futures from billionaires and their corporations by getting Google out of your life.

At this hands-on workshop we'll share practical alternatives and help you de-Google your devices.

Bring your devices, chargers & enthusiasm to learn & change.

Indivisible Voter Engagement Tactics Guide

Over the years, Indivisible groups have learned first-hand the power of engaging voters with a local message. As the Indivisible movement has grown, so has our collection of resources to help you engage voters locally. We have more ways than ever to help you connect with voters, find out what they care about, get them the info they need, and get them motivated to vote.

Download the guide

Inspiration ^

Rural Minnesota’s grocery stores are changing plans, hands

A Detroit Lakes food co-op and independent grocers like it show a resilient rural Minnesota

"Today [Pesch] and Maree co-manage Manna Food Co-op in Detroit Lakes — a store that opened in 2017, grew out of the local farmers market, and now works with over 40 vendors within 100 miles

"Ben Winchester, a rural sociologist with University of Minnesota Extension who has spent nearly 30 years studying small towns across the Midwest, has the research to back that up. His so-called brain gain work documents a decades-long pattern of people in their 30s and 40s choosing to move to rural Minnesota — drawn by lower costs, outdoor access, and something harder to quantify about pace and community. The Pesches are not an outlier: They’re part of a trend.

"Manna did not begin as a response to a food desert. It grew out of a question asked at the farmers market one summer: Why doesn’t this community have a year-round outlet for what gets sold here? Pesch, fresh from years at Mississippi Market and two decades as an educator in community economic development and ag business management, joined the board. They found members, built a model, and opened in August 2017.

"The store joined INFRA, a national cooperative buying network for independent natural food retailers, and Pesch said the impact was immediate: “Like night and day, compared to how we were able to compete in terms of grocery previously.” They got bulk pricing, plus a peer network of independent operators navigating the same pressures. The co-op model, he said, is what makes the whole thing work — not just the buying power but the shared knowledge."

Read on

An equal and habitable world is possible

Academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival

"Humanity can raise living standards, reduce inequality and keep global heating within a 2C rise, according to a sweeping vision for planetary survival.

"The report by the World Inequality Lab (WIL) aims to be the most comprehensive attempt yet to navigate the polycrisis that is pushing the world toward climate breakdown, political extremism and ever greater economic and social tension.

"It offers a set of bold policy proposals, including hefty wealth taxes on billionaires, sharp reductions in working hours, a change in diets and a shift of investment from materially intense sectors, such as industry and mining, to education and health."

Read on

The Good Life Agenda

"What should be the goal of US economic policy? It shouldn’t be to maximize GDP: Economic growth is good, but it’s a means to an end, not the end itself. Even “affordability” is too narrow a concern. It matters immensely, but it’s not the whole story.

"No, economics is ultimately about people, and the purpose of economic policy should be to help people live good lives."

Read on

What Would America Look Like Without Citizens United?

Imagine an America where elections cost less, voters mattered more, and public policy followed an honest path...

"The story of how we got here is fascinating and I’ll get into it in a minute, but suffice it to say that fraud, lies, and corruption are at the core of every aspect of it.

"Without Citizens United we’d have a national healthcare system like literally every other developed country in the world..."

Read on

Communities Making a Difference

Across the U.S., residents, town councils, planning boards, and lawmakers are organizing, voting, and litigating to shape how AI data centers come to their towns. Here are concrete examples of that work

Erin Brockovich reports on successful efforts in the following areas:

Moratoriums & Pauses (towns and counties pressing the brakes) — When residents and councils want time to study the impact before approving more data centers, they're enacting temporary pauses. These moratoriums vary in duration and scope, but they share a goal: don't let the buildout get ahead of the planning.

Voter Action (at the ballot box) — When elected officials don't listen, residents are taking it directly to the polls — passing referenda, signing petitions, and voting out the leaders who approved unpopular projects.

Project Denials & Rejections (planning commissions saying no) — Local planning and zoning commissions have legitimate authority to deny rezoning requests and conditional use permits. In multiple states they've used it.

Lawsuits Defending Communities (when politics aren't enough) — When approvals go through anyway, residents are turning to the courts.

Petitions & Mobilization (neighbors organizing neighbors) — Before lawsuits or moratoria, residents are gathering, signing, and speaking up.

Legislative Action (state and federal lawmakers responding) — Community pressure is translating into bills at every level of government.

Read on

The Oligarchs Are Not as Safe as They Look

Thiel fled the country, Trump's fund stalled, and Musk lost to a jury, all this spring. The record shows how their kind loses the grip, and who takes it back: us.

"Wealth mistakes its height for permanence, and the fall always begins with a crowd."

Read on

Migrants detained at ICE facilities launch hunger strikes to protest conditions

Protests have erupted at facilities in New Jersey, California, Michigan and Pennsylvania

"An ongoing hunger and labor strike at the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey, reportedly involves roughly 300 people and has sparked daily protests outside the jail, which is owned and operated by the GEO Group, a private security company that provides security, maintenance, food and medical care under a 15-year contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"Earlier this month, it was reported that at least 20 detainees at the 750-bed Desert View Annex in Adelanto, California, had launched a hunger strike to call attention to what they allege are substandard conditions at that facility, including a lack of medical care, unsafe drinking water, and mold.

"And last month, hunger strikes reportedly erupted at the 1,800-bed North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, and at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, which has a capacity of nearly 1,900. North Lake is the largest facility in the Midwest, and Moshannon Valley is the largest in the Northeast."

Read on

Nearly 80% of America Did Not Vote for Trump

Every person deserves dignity, representation, freedom, and a chance to thrive.

"America is not made up only of people who had the time, access, transportation, paperwork, language support, physical ability, work schedule, child care, or legal right to cast a ballot.

"America is made up of everyone who calls this country home.

"That includes our children, who cannot vote but must live with the consequences of every policy decision made in their name. It includes young people who will inherit the climate, the economy, the schools, the courts, and the freedoms we either protect or allow to be stripped away. It includes immigrants who work, build, care, serve, teach, heal, cook, clean, farm, pay taxes, raise families, and strengthen communities. It includes disabled people, elderly people, unhoused people, formerly incarcerated people, people stuck in voter suppression systems, people who were purged from rolls, people who stood in line and still could not vote, and people who have been told over and over again that their voices do not matter.

"But their lives matter."

Read on

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NP Structure

Northern Progressives will be suspending our regularly scheduled, twice a month meetings in Cook. Most of the folks that were involved in planning these meetings are devoting many hours working with the DFL as we move towards the upcoming elections.

Members are welcome to organize a gathering around a topic you feel is important to address & Northern Progressives will continue to collaborate on rallies & special events around the region. Keep the communications team posted with anything you would like us to announce in the weekly newsletter. We also can help you print related announcements / flyers / informational postcards for distribution to community. You can reach us at: hello@northernprogressives.org