Midwest

Democrats in disarray: Growing field in race to chair party

Published

2 years ago

November 20, 2024

Democrats in disarray: Growing field in race to chair party

A Midwestern state party chair is off to a fast start in his bid to chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

“I am running to serve as the Chair of the Democratic National Committee,” Ken Martin, head of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, announced Tuesday in a social media post.

Martin becomes the second candidate to launch a bid to succeed current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who is not expected to seek a second four-year term early next year in the wake of this month’s major election setbacks for the Democrats up and down the ballot.

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File photo of Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party. (Chairman Ken Martin)

Former two-term Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who for the past year has served as Social Security administration commissioner in President Biden’s administration, announced his candidacy on Monday.

Martin, who has led the Minnesota Democrats for a dozen years, serves as a DNC vice chair and is also the leader of the association of state Democratic Party chairs.

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“When I took over @MinnesotaDFL, we were in debt and disarray. But we brought people together, built a winning coalition, and delivered results. I’m ready to get to work to rebuild our party,” Martin said in his social media post.

In an accompanying video, Martin emphasized, “if you’re looking for a creature of D.C., that’s not me. But I do know how the DNC works and how it isn’t working.”

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison speaks at the DNC’s winter meeting, in Philadelphia on Feb. 4, 2023. (Fox News )

He stressed that Democrats “need to reconnect our ideas — which we know are popular in red, blue and purple states across this country — back to our party and to our candidates.”

Martin said he started his bid for DNC chair with the backing of over 80 DNC members. The next DNC chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee.

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O’Malley, in launching his bid, highlighted that “we must connect our Party with the most important place in America — the kitchen table of every family’s home. Jobs, Opportunity, and Economic Security for all. Getting things done. Hope. A 50 state strategy. Now,” O’Malley emphasized in a social media post.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley speaks at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on April 24, 2018 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)

While O’Malley and Martin are the first two candidates to launch bids, others are expected to follow, as the Democrats try to rebound after losing the White House and Senate in the 2024 elections and failing to recapture the House of Representatives.

Another potential contender is Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

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Michigan

Michigan State hockey breaks program record with nine NHL Draft picks

Published

7 minutes ago

June 27, 2026

Press Room

Michigan State hockey breaks program record with nine NHL Draft picks

Buffalo, N.Y. — The day after a school record-tying five Michigan State players and commits heard their names called at the 2026 NHL Draft, four more future Spartans joined them as NHL draft picks and broke another program record.

Michigan State finished the NHL Draft at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center with nine current and future Spartans drafted to the NHL, breaking a program high of eight draftees in both 1990 and 2025. NHL teams selected Michigan State commits Brooks Rogowski, Jonas Kemps, Nick Bogas and Cullen McCrate on Saturday’s closing day of the draft.

Rogowski, a center, was the first player off the board Saturday, going 33rd overall to Vancouver. Then left-shot defenseman Kemps went to Florida 98th overall in the fourth round and left-shot defenseman Bogas went to St. Louis at 139th overall in the fifth round. McCrate, a right-shot defenseman, went to Boston 216th overall in the seventh round to round out the group.

Defenseman Chase Reid (seventh overall, Seattle) headlined Friday’s group of five first-round picks that set a Michigan State record in one draft class. Nikita Klepov (15th, Anaheim), Ethan Belchetz (17th, Utah), Jack Hextall (30th, Calgary) and defenseman Tommy Bleyl (31st, Nashville) were also first-rounders.

Michigan State will set an NCAA record when its nine first-round draft picks hit the ice in 2026-27. That is the most on a college hockey roster in history, breaking the previous record of seven held by rival Michigan in 2021-22.

A defensive-first blueliner, Kemps comes from the USHL’s Chicago Steel, where he scored two goals and notched seven assists in 57 games played. The previous season, Kemps played in 49 games for the U.S. National Team Development Program’s U17 team and finished the year with no goals and eight assists. He will play for the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds next season before arriving in East Lansing for the 2027-28 season.

Bogas came from the NTDP, too, playing there this most recent season though he suffered an ankle injury in November that derailed his draft year. He got a lot of support from his family, including his dad and Michigan State alum Chris Bogas (1995-99), as well as his coaches.

“I’d just say I had a lot of support,” Bogas said. “My dad’s friends, they had very similar injuries, they reached out. And my coach Kevin Porter had a very similar injury. He helped me a lot, too. Just trust the process and it’s all gonna work out.”

He spent most of the year rehabbing the injury, returning in March and finishing the season with two goals and two assists in 37 games. He’ll join Kemps in Michigan State’s 2027-28 class. And though he even knows what NHL organization he could one day play for now, he doesn’t know where he’s going to play next season.

“I don’t really know yet,” Bogas said. “So, we’ll see. … It’s kind of out of my control again.”

McCrate, a 6-foot-2 defenseman born in Adrian, played the past two seasons in the USHL, scoring 30 points in 61 games for the Fargo Force in his draft year. He also played AAA for Little Caesars. Whether McCrate, 19, will play for Michigan State this season or next isn’t known.

Bogas following CCHA champion father to Michigan State

Bogas was born in Royal Oak, and he grew up a fan of Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall. And much like those “Kronwalled” hits used to pull fans out of their seats, Bogas once had an aunt come up with his own tagline, “Bogied,” when he lined someone up at 13. He says he models his game after the Swedish defenseman.

Bogas got to decide the Michigan State part of his journey without much interference from his father, who was the 148th overall pick of Toronto in 1996. Then again, seeing him stay so close to his old teammates, 1998 CCHA champions, made him want to follow the same path. He’s already got one close friend at Michigan State: Hextall, who will play for the Spartans this year.

“We played against each other like our whole lives, but we never really knew each other,” Bogas said. “He’d usually score a lot of goals against my team, but now we’re almost best friends. We basically talk every day, like it’s awesome. I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Even if Michigan State is one of the Big Ten’s record-setting hockey programs, Bogas’ interests are more in what comes when those records collect dust.

“I know the coaching staff is unbelievable, and the facilities are unbelievable,” Bogas said. “I think the lifelong memories and friends (my dad) made from Michigan State was a big part.”

Two players with Western Michigan ties drafted

If one of Western Michigan’s draft hopefuls had to wait through almost the whole draft to hear his name called, it was worth it: Bobby Cowan is a draft pick in the NHL.

Cowan went 205th overall to the New York Islanders, who drafted the rising sophomore in th seventh round. From Edina, Minn., Cowan had five goals and logged 24 points in 39 games as a freshman in the bottom six.

Cowan is one of two Western Michigan players or commits picked in the draft. The Broncos also had a fifth-round pick, 154th overall to Tampa Bay in Cooper Soller. The 5-10, right-shot forward from Los Angeles scored 26 goals and 49 points in 62 games for the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede. He will be back there this season before joining Western Michigan in 2027-28.

Western Michigan finished the season third in the NCHC and made the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight year under Pat Ferschweiler, but the Broncos lost to eventual national champion Denver in a regional final. Western Michigan had beaten Denver in the Frozen Four en route to its 2025 national championship the year prior.

cearegood@detroitnews.com

@ConnorEaregood

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Minnesota

How Minnesotans are coming together to support Venezuela after deadly earthquakes

Published

22 minutes ago

June 27, 2026

Press Room

How Minnesotans are coming together to support Venezuela after deadly earthquakes

The desperate search for survivors is into the third day following those strong earthquakes in Venezuela. The death toll continues to rise, with nearly 70,000 people still missing.

From nearly 3,000 miles away, Minnesotans are coming together to help the South American country.

With the flag waving in the wind, friends and strangers came together with a mindset and a mission.

“We’ve had people that have just come to donate and stay to help and organize” said Megan Lima, whose daughter dances at Baila Venezuela, a Richfield dance studio holding a donation drive on Saturday.

“This was, as you know, created very quickly” said Lima. “Every single person in our group has family and friends in Venezuela.”

It’s a country where the United Nations says more than 7.9 million people have already been forcibly displaced in recent years.

“It broke my heart. It’s … I don’t have the words to say. It hurt me. It hurt me” said Monica Verona-Cox, who drove from Delano to Burnsville to drop off donations.

As of Saturday afternoon the death toll is nearly 1,400 with another 3,200 critically injured. Packages that have been compiled at Latinos Depot in Burnsville will be driven by community members to Miami. Once they hit Miami they’ll be taken directly to Caracas.

“Medicines, baby supplements, diapers, wipes” said Magbis Paez, who helped organize the drive happening at Latinos Depot, a Burnsville supermercado.

A few of many products that they say will be needed for those they love.

“We’ve been through so much” Paez added. “Our family here in Minnesota that are Venezuelan too, they’ve become our family. They’re still waiting on calls from family members.”

“These people don’t have anything … they’ve lost everything,” Verona-Cox told WCCO.

“I know that we’re gonna be good. We’re gonna be good after this. So much stronger” Paez added.

If you’d like to help, Baila Venezuela says they need donations for transporting the supplies. You can give them a call or visit them in Richfield.

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Missouri

Children receive custom playhouses at Habitat for Humanity’s first-ever playhouse build event

Published

30 minutes ago

June 27, 2026

Press Room

Children receive custom playhouses at Habitat for Humanity’s first-ever playhouse build event

Children in the Jefferson City area received custom-built playhouses Saturday during River City Habitat for Humanity’s first Playhouse Build event at Capital Mall.

Local businesses, volunteers and community organizations spent the day assembling and decorating the playhouses. Each playhouse was designed around a child’s favorite colors, hobbies and interests.

The children and their families were presented with the finished playhouses at the end of the event.

River City Habitat for Humanity said the event was created to give children a special place to imagine and play while bringing the community together in support of the organization’s mission.

“A playhouse may seem like a simple structure, but to a child it’s a castle, a clubhouse, a fort, or a place where their imagination can come to life,” Susan Cook, the executive director of River City Habitat for Humanity, said in a news release. “We hope this becomes a tradition that our community looks forward to each year.”

Nine teams participated in the inaugural event, including Hitachi, Samco Business Products, Jefferson City Medical Group, the Home Builders Association, Capital City Business Builders BNI, Jefferson City Parks, Habitat Women Build and community volunteer teams.

Hitachi served as the event’s presenting sponsor.

“Our team was super excited about sponsoring it because we are giving back to the community and we are giving back to little people,” Leanna Ritter, a Hitachi Energy employee, said. “What’s better than little people?”

Scruggs Lumber donated the plywood used to build the playhouses, and Sherwin-Williams donated the paint.

River City Habitat for Humanity has partnered with local families, volunteers, businesses and community organizations since 1993. The nonprofit says it has helped build more than 138 affordable homes in the Jefferson City area.

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