Minnesota
Explore Minnesota unveils new marketing campaign
ROCHESTER — Minnesotans got a first look Tuesday at the state’s new ads touting tourism and a move to the Land of 10,000 Lakes that will launch in March — the largest nationwide marketing campaign the state has ever done.
The ads in the new “Star of the North” campaign aim to draw more visitors and new residents, and will launch March 4 in 22 states and Canada. Explore Minnesota, the state’s tourism arm, unveiled the ads to travel industry experts at its annual conference in Rochester.
This is the first time Explore Minnesota is marketing beyond tourism, hoping to inspire Americans to consider relocating to Minnesota, with digital, TV and radio ads targeting communities like Seattle, Boston and Austin, Texas. Separate tourism ads will air mostly in the Midwest as well as cities like Denver and Dallas.
“Our campaigns are going to showcase the best of our state,” said Lauren Bennett McGinty, executive director of Explore Minnesota. “Minnesota can be the next positive chapter in their journey.”
The effort is needed, leaders say, to keep up with other states’ marketing efforts and fill critical jobs. Minnesota’s 3.1% unemployment rate — lower than the national rate — means the state has more job openings than workers. Minnesota also loses more residents than it gains.
“This campaign allows us to stand out,” Bennett McGinty said. “We want people across the country to know our secret: … Life is better in Minnesota.”
The national ad campaigns are part of new efforts at Explore Minnesota thanks to more than $25 million in extra funding the Legislature approved last year for the agency over the next two years, the first time its budget has increased in more than a decade and the largest investment ever.
Gov. Tim Walz said Minnesotans have long been humble and don’t brag about the state, but now is the time to sell its merits. He and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan addressed about 500 people at Tuesday’s conference, the largest attendance ever in decades of it.
“Nothing drives me crazier than to see other states advertising here knowing that what we have here can compete anywhere,” Walz said. “We need to tell the story … This is the place to be.”
The tourism ads feature influencers experiencing Minnesota for the first time in documentary-style ads, such as female anglers from South Carolina catching walleye on Lake of the Woods after visiting the headwaters of the Mississippi River and dining at Krewe in St. Joseph. The livability campaign highlights recent transplants from other states, including Oregon and New York, who have moved to Sartell, Minneapolis and Duluth.
“Talent recruitment is so important,” said Bill Von Bank of Experience Rochester, where the number of visitors has increased this year, nearing pre-pandemic levels. “Once you visit, maybe you’ll move here. Every state wants that.”
Of the new state funding to Explore Minnesota, $11 million is starting a new division called Explore Minnesota for Business, focused on economic development. The first phase is focused on attracting residents, followed by campaigns to lure new businesses and pitch college students on staying here for school and after graduation. Minnesota loses more college students than it attracts.
More than half of the states in the country have livability campaigns like this, Bennett McGinty added.
“To date Minnesota has been too quiet on that,” she said. “We haven’t been doing a good job of marketing of what we have to offer those job seekers or business owners. But that is changing.”
Most of the new funding, including for the new economic development division, is one-time funding this biennium. Bennett McGinty said she will likely be back at the state Capitol next year to ask legislators to sustain the funding.
“This is a long-term plan,” she said. “This isn’t just one and done. I’m hoping people see the effectiveness. I think people understand we need workers.”
Walz said the state will continue to fund the agency’s operation.
Minnesota’s leisure and hospitality sector makes up the fourth largest industry in the state, with about 250,000 employees at resorts, hotels, restaurants, museums and theaters. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the sector, which lost $14 billion and saw its workforce shrink by 23,000 workers from 2019.
There are some signs of a recovery. Average monthly hotel occupancy rates bounced back to 55% in 2022, up from 36% in 2020, though still below 2019′s rate and still lagging behind U.S. and other metro areas’ hotel indicators. The number of passengers traveling through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport increased to 31 million in 2022, up from less than 15 million in 2020 but still below the nearly 40 million travelers at MSP in 2019.
In 2022, the state recorded 77 million visitors — finally rebounding to the same number as 2019. Those visitors generated more than $13 billion in economic impact. New data comes out in April.
Explore Minnesota is also rebuilding, back to its pre-pandemic staffing levels of about 50 employees.
“We have some ways to go, but … 2023 has proved that travel is back,” Bennett McGinty said. “I would love for Minnesota to have a strong brand that lives on for a long time.”
Minnesota
Shorthanded Clippers can’t keep pace with Anthony Edwards and Minnesota
Anthony Edwards scored 31 points, Donte DiVincenzo added 18 and the surging Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Clippers 94-88 on Thursday night.
Jaden McDaniels and Ayo Dosunmu each scored 12 points and Rudy Gobert had 13 rebounds to help the Timberwolves improve to 5-1 since Feb. 9 and 3-1 since the All-Star break.
Edwards, returning to the site of the All-Star Game, where he was the MVP, was 12 for 24 from the floor and sealed the victory with a step-back three-pointer over two defenders for a 92-88 lead with 42.9 seconds left.
Minnesota improved to 2-0 on a three-game trip.
Derrick Jones Jr. scored 18 points and Bennedict Mathurin added 14 for the Clippers, who struggled from the outset with a season-low 38 points in the first half. Kris Dunn had 11 points for the Clippers (27-31), who have lost three consecutive games for the first time since December.
The Clippers struggled on offense without star Kawhi Leonard, out because of ankle soreness. The Clippers shot 40.5% from the floor, including 18.2% (four for 22) in the second quarter. Minnesota shot 43.4% in the game.
The Timberwolves (37-23) scored just 15 points in the second quarter and still topped the Clippers, who had 11. Minnesota led 44-38 at halftime behind 12 points from DiVincenzo and 11 from Edwards.
The Clippers led by six in the third quarter and were up 68-63 heading into the fourth. Edwards’ drive and reverse layup put the Timberwolves up for good at 76-74 with 7:40 remaining.
The Clippers pulled within one three times in the last 2½ minutes, but Edwards answered each time. He scored the Timberwolves’ last nine points.
Up next for Clippers: vs. New Orleans on Sunday night.
Minnesota
Church congregant filed lawsuit against alleged Minnesota church protesters
A St. Paul church member has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a group of individuals, including journalist Don Lemon and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, unlawfully disrupted service last month as part of a coordinated political demonstration.
The complaint, filed by Ann Doucette in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, alleges that a Jan. 18 demonstration at Cities Church interfered with her ability to worship and caused her to suffer damages, including emotional distress and trauma.
In addition to the former CNN anchor and Armstrong, the complaint names journalist Georgia Fort and activists Will Kelly, Jerome Richardson, Trahern Crews and Jamael Lundy. It also names St. Paul school board member Chauntyll Allen.
Doucette and seven of the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Doucette filed the complaint without the representation of an attorney. In an emailed statement to NBC News, Crews denied the lawsuit’s allegations “with empathy and compassion.”
The lawsuit accuses the group of civil conspiracy, aiding and abetting, intentional infliction of emotional distress, interference with religious exercise and trespassing.
“As a result of Defendants’ actions, the worship service was disrupted, congregants experienced fear and distress, and Plaintiff’s ability to freely exercise her religion in a private place of worship was unlawfully interfered with,” the lawsuit states.
All eight defendants are also facing federal charges for conspiracy against the rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and for interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom. Lemon has pleaded not guilty to all charges, saying outside the court, “I wanted to say this isn’t just about me, this is about all journalists, especially in the United States.”
Fort, Crews and Lundy were released on bond and entered not guilty pleas, according to The Associated Press.
This is the latest legal action tied to protests in the Twin Cities, where tensions remain over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
According to the lawsuit, the demonstrators engaged in “coordinated conduct” by organizing meetings ahead of the “Operation Pullup” protest and promoting it on social media.
The lawsuit alleges that on the morning of Jan. 18, a coordinated group of individuals entered Cities Church, halting the worship service, and chanting “‘ICE Out!’ and ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!’” while obstructing aisles. Protesters could allegedly be seen “confronting the pastor and congregants in a menacing manner,” the lawsuit says, noting that their chanting and “aggressive gestures” caused “severe emotional distress, fear, anxiety, and trauma” and caused children “terror.”
Demonstrators gathered at the church because they said its pastor, David Easterwood, was the acting director of an ICE field office in the city, the lawsuit says.
Lemon was arrested in January in California and accused of violating federal civil rights law after covering the protest on Jan. 18. He was released on a personal recognizance bond before a federal grand jury in Minnesota returned the indictment against Lemon and eight co-defendants, all of whom are also named in Doucette’s lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, Doucette alleges that Lemon specifically livestreamed the protest, “noting congregants’ fear and distress, and appeared to take satisfaction in the disruption.”
Levy Armstrong, a Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney and activist, was also arrested for her participation in the St. Paul protest. Her arrest drew national attention after the White House shared on social media doctored photos where she appeared to be crying.
Minnesota
Man arrested, charged with threatening to kill a state senator
A Hubbard County man was arrested and charged after threatening to kill a Minnesota state senator on Facebook.
Court documents filed on Wednesday state the Minnesota State Patrol were investigating a threat posted by John Tobias saying that he would “kill every one of you treasonous [expletive] immediately” if he did not get money back that he claims he lost during the 2020 COVID shutdown.
Court documents go on to say that Tobias then called the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office asking for something to be done about “Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ‘unconstitutionally’ shutting down the state due to COVID-19.
The Minnesota State Patrol contacted Hubbard County deputies regarding Tobias. Court documents state Hubbard County investigators were already familiar with Tobais after speaking with him regarding similar threats he made in Jan.
The charging documents state that investigators searched Tobias’ residence on Tuesday and found an arsenal of guns and 45 boxes of ammunition.
Tobias was taken into custody. During an interview with law enforcement, Tobias admitted to making the threat on Facebook. He also told investigators that “he did not have any intention of killing anyone, but admitted he was trying to get people’s attention,” according to court records.
In late 2025, Lt. Col. Jeremy Geiger of the Minnesota State Patrol, who oversees Capitol security, told a panel of lawmakers that threats to lawmakers had doubled between 2024 and 2025.
Tobias made his first court appearance Wednesday morning and is expected back in court early next month.
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