Rep. Leigh Finke wants to make the state’s schools safer for LGBTQ students by expanding the trans refuge bill and other protections Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed into law last year.
The first-term DFL lawmaker from St. Paul has introduced a series of bills to do just that. One would bar schools from banning the display of rainbow flags and another would require school districts to adopt gender-inclusive policies for extracurricular activities – including sports. Another would provide funding for nonprofits that help LGBTQ families relocate to the North Star State. Finke has also introduced legislation that would require insurers to cover gender-affirming care in Minnesota.
Some of last year’s reforms have drawn families from other states including Texas, Tennessee and Florida that enacted restrictions on reproductive healthcare and banned books on “obscene material” in schools that typically take aim at LGBTQ issues.
“It’s a promise,” Finke said of the bills she introduced, “that at least our legal space will protect you.”
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Finke, the state’s first trans legislator, was also moved in part by efforts by Minnesota school boards in Minnesota to ban Pride flags on campuses. A recent incident in Worthington caught her attention, but she said previous proposals in communities like Annandale also illustrated the need for such legislation. Still, Finke stressed that her bill is specifically meant to bar schools and other public agencies from banning rainbow displays – think of it more as a pro-refracted light stance.
“This is not a Pride flag bill,” Finke said.
All of her proposals have had at least one committee hearing. But that doesn’t guarantee they’ll reach either the House or Senate floor. Finke believes there’s momentum behind the boost for further LGBTQ protections at the Capitol but that the legislation still has hurdles to clear. She said St. Paul voters signaled their support for her policies, given that she won her seat by more than 60 points.
“There’s certainly no glide path,” Finke said.
It’s not immediately clear what kind of opposition her proposals will face. House Republicans did not respond to a request for comment.
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Still, diversity and inclusion initiatives, particularly those focused on LGBTQ youth, have become a flashpoint in Minnesota school board politics in recent years as the issue has become a consistent presence in the national consciousness.
That’s partly why Kat Rohn, executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization OutFront, said the Legislature should pursue policies that strengthen those protections at the state level.
“It’s really important that we have as many solid policies as we can,” she said.
BREWSTER, Minn. — Lots of hugs were shared, tears were shed and utter shock was witnessed as a rural Minnesota family was surprised with the Best Christmas Ever early Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14.
More than two dozen people caravaned behind a Brewster Fire Truck to deliver gifts to Austin and Stephanie VandeKamp and their 6-year-old daughter, Callee, in Brewster, Minnesota, in Nobles County.
Friends and family join Best Christmas Ever committee members for a group photo before leaving the Brewster Fire Hall to deliver gifts to the Austin and Stephanie Vande Kamp family Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
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“We just came to bring some joy to your life,” said Sue Hagen, one of the local coordinators for the nationwide nonprofit
Best Christmas Ever organization,
which surprises families who have experienced hard times. “Last year, with the loss of Jaelee, none of these gifts we’re bringing to you will ever replace her, but we just thought that your family deserved a little joy this Christmas.”
The Vande Kamps gave birth to their daughter, Jaelee, on Feb. 4, 2024. Shortly thereafter, Jaelee was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, TAPVR (Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return). She spent her first eight months in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Children’s Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she had 10 surgeries and ultimately required continuous dialysis.
Stephanie didn’t get to hold Jaelee until she was 50 days old, and stayed with Jaelee for much of her hospitalization. When she did come home, Austin would go to the hospital to stay with their youngest daughter.
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They were finally able to bring Jaelee home on Sept. 23, 2024. Because she was dependent on respiratory support, someone had to be awake with her 24/7, so Stephanie got very little sleep, family friend Ashley Prins detailed in the nomination letter she sent to Best Christmas Ever.
People wait in line bearing gifts to deliver to the Austin and Stephanie Vande Kamp family Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025, in rural Brewster.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
Jaelee died unexpectedly on Dec. 9, 2024, while attending regular follow-up appointments in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jaelee’s death compounded the loss the family was still feeling from the sudden death of Stephanie’s dad from a heart attack on Easter morning 2022.
“The community just rallies around a family and they don’t even know who it will be,” Hagen said, noting that Bedford Industries, Sanford Worthington and District 518 were among employers who stepped up alongside community members to “help uplift a family.”
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Locally, the Best Christmas Ever program is sponsored by the Astrup Family Foundation, owner of Sterling Pharmacy stores, which provides $5,000 toward a life-changing gift for a local family who has fallen on hard times through no fault of their own. Business partners included Worthington Federal Savings Bank and Runnings who, along with Sterling Pharmacy, had giving trees set up at their businesses in recent weeks to accept gifts and monetary donations for the recipients.
The VandeKamps were nominated for the Best Christmas Ever program by family friend Ashley Prins.
“I would love to make this year a joyous season again for them in regards to holidays and I would love to see the three of them be able to get away on a vacation and enjoy their time together as they missed out on so much of that during this life struggle,” Prins wrote in her letter.
Stephanie, left, and Austin VandeKamp share a look as daughter, Callee, stands between them as they listen to Sue Hagen talk about the Best Christmas Ever program Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 2025.
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
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In addition to a mound of neatly wrapped gifts — most of which were for Callee — the family was presented with a monetary gift of $7,403.07. The local Best Christmas Ever committee will work with the family on how the gift may be used.
“I don’t know what to say,” Austin said after accepting the money.
“Merry Christmas,” replied Chad Nixon, representing Worthington Federal Savings Bank.
Callee opened her largest box, which contained a child-sized recliner just for her, as well as two stuffed animals to match the chair. Stephanie and Austin received Minnesota Twins jerseys reflecting their favorite current Twins players.
Among the people on hand Sunday were last year’s recipients, the Adrian and Melissa Gonzalez family, of Worthington. The Gonzalezes lost their son, Emmitt, to cancer in September 2023.
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Hagen also presented the family with over $1,000 in gift cards to local businesses, and noted that donations are still coming in. The Best Christmas Ever committee will meet again with the Vande Kamps after Christmas, she said.
The VandeKamps were completely surprised by the gesture — after admitting a bit of fear as to why a fire truck with lights on and siren blaring pulled into their rural Brewster farmyard.
“I thought right away my barn was on fire, my lambs were running everywhere, then I saw a big wad of cars and I thought, ‘what’?” Austin said.
Julie Buntjer became editor of The Globe in July 2021, after working as a beat reporter at the Worthington newspaper since December 2003. She has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture journalism from South Dakota State University.
So Minnesota: Lego King of Minneapolis builds Minnesota landmarks one brick at a time
Many kids will find Lego sets under the Christmas tree this holiday season, but the popular toy isn’t just for children.
Jeff Esler fell in love with Legos as a child, and that love affair has never ended.
“I am the Lego king of Minneapolis,” Esler said. “So my friends call me.”
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A decade ago, Esler immortalized Nye’s Polonaise Room in Legos and posted it on Facebook.
“That one, it kind of went really viral,” Esler said. “I think I got 100,000 shares.”
Esler’s fame grew after he went on to use toy bricks to build mini masterpieces of Minnesota landmarks.
“I did Matt’s, and then I did Gluek’s,” Elser said. “I did the Frank Lloyd Wright gas station in Cloquet. Then, probably the Split Rock Lighthouse. The Grain Belt sign.”
Each project costs from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. They take a ton of bricks and days to build. Esler has sold some models and given others away.
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“I do the landmarks, because they click with people,” Esler said.
Esler plans to keep building some of Minnesota’s most recognizable places one brick at a time.
Federal prosecutorsannounce indictments against two Philadelphia men they say submitted up to $3.5 million in fake and inflated bills to Minnesota Medicaid programs, WCCO-TV reports. “Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said.
State Rep. Kristin Robbins alleges – without sharing a name or other evidence – that the Minnesota Department of Human Services paid state money to a Feeding Our Future defendant while they were awaiting trial, the Minnesota Reformer reports. Robbins, who chairs a legislative fraud oversight committee and is running for governor, says she has collected hundreds of whistleblower tips, but she has not shared them with the department’s inspector general.
The state has suspended or delayed payments to several social service providers as part of an effort to catch and prevent fraud, and now one of those providers says the crackdown had deadly consequences, KARE 11 reports. A service provider says a vulnerable adult client was found dead in his St. Paul apartment after the state froze payments that had been covering his care.
Rolling Stone writer Stephen Rodrick, who spent time with Melissa Hortman while covering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the 2024 presidential campaign, writes about the life of the late Minnesota House Speaker in a 7,000-word profile based on interviews with dozens of family, friends and colleagues.
