Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Apr 17th, 2011

Summary: Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the last decade and crossed a new census milestone: 50 million, or one in six Americans. In Minnesota, 2010 census figures show the state’s Hispanic population jumped 75 percent in the past decade. The rapid growth of central Minnesota’s immigrant population, if it continues unabated, has the potential to create significant social conflict down the road — though less so in the case of Mexican immigrants than for Somalis. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 17, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that despite an upsurge in threats and violence by far-right radical groups and lone wolves, the Homeland Security Department appeared gun-shy about reporting or monitoring the trend too closely. Domestic security and counterterrorism officials said that even though a controversial report issued a year earlier by Homeland Security about a “resurgence” in far-right radicalization and recruitment appears well informed, if not prescient, the Department had done nothing to re-issue the report or update it.


Oct 23rd, 2010

Summary: The real problem with Michele Bachmann is not her self-centeredness, her unresponsiveness to the needs of her constituents, her meager legislative accomplishments, or even her voting record; it’s her delusion-like paranoia, her shameless conspiracy-peddling, and her incessant fear-mongering. Now it has been revealed that Bachmann’s contact with reality is even more tenuous than previously thought, with the discovery that Bachmann had asked the Minnesota Secretary of State to remove her name from the publicly available voter registration records under a legal provision designed to protect past or potential victims of domestic abuse. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 23, 2009, Aubrey Immelman, in a public service announcement, provided information about the upcoming 2009 St. Cloud-area Veterans Day Parade.



Summary: Today marks the 21st anniversary of Jacob Wetterling’s abduction on October 22, 1989 in St. Joseph, Minn. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 22, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported on the 20th anniversary of Jacob Wetterling’s abduction in St. Joseph, Minn.


Oct 5th, 2010

Update: Jacob Wetterling’s remains have been found after Danny Heinrich led investigators to a site in Central Minnesota. … Previous: Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner announced that nothing of consequence was found in the July 2010 search of the Rassier farmstead in the Jacob Wetterling kidnapping investigation; however, he added that technology could eventually improve to the extent that it would allow for future testing of the items seized.


Sep 15th, 2010

Summary: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has been caught in a lie — saying she opposed the so-called Legacy Amendment, which raised Minnesota sales tax by 3/8ths of 1 percent, despite previously having pandered to outdoorsmen and conservationists by publicly endorsing the measure in appearances before the Game Fair in Anoka, Minn. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 15, 2009, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; reported that Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that a proper effort to counter the Taliban insurgency would probably require more forces; and noted that four mortar shells landed in the Green Zone as Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Iraq on an unannounced mission to help the country resolve its differences ahead of America’s military withdrawal.


Aug 28th, 2010

Summary: Dan Rassier, a teacher whom police call a “person of interest” in the Jacob Wetterling abduction, has been assigned to a different elementary school, provoking an outcry from some parents at his new school. “They’ve brought concerns about placing their children in a potentially dangerous situation,” said Sister Sharon Waldoch, principal of St. Boniface School in Cold Spring, Minn. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 28, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Jaycee Lee Dugard, kidnapped in 1991 from a school bus stop at the age of 11, was found alive after being held captive by a convicted rapist in his backyard as a sex slave for nearly two decades and forced to bear two of his children.


Aug 14th, 2010

Summary: On Friday, August 13, the Sartell-Rice area in Central Minnesota was hit by near-hurricane force straight-line winds. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 14, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Bachmann was at it again, making false or outrageous claims in the national media and then playing the victim by leveraging her disingenuousness, incendiary rhetoric and political paranoia into campaign cash.


Jul 3rd, 2010

Summary: On Friday, July 2, 2010 Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner described 54-year-old music teacher Dan Rassier as a “person of interest” in the abduction of Jacob Wetterling at the end of the Rassier driveway on the evening of Oct. 22, 1989. Aubrey Immelman discusses aspects of criminal motive and the likely offender profile, noting the need for a linkage analyis involving the unsolved kidnapping and sexual assault of Jared S. in Cold Spring and the unexplained disappearance of Joshua Guimond from the campus of St. John’s University. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 3, 2009 Aubrey Immelman, on the occasion of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation from office, featured his research on Palin’s personal psychology, conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.


Jul 1st, 2010

Summary: On Wednesday, June 30, 2010 — more than 20 years after Jacob Wetterling’s abduction on Oct. 22, 1989 — law enforcement converged on the farmstead on the outskirts of St. Joseph, Minn., where a masked man took Jacob at gunpoint at the approach to the driveway of 29748 91st Ave, home Robert and Rita Rassier and their son Daniel Rassier. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 1, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that PolitiFact’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Truth-O-Meter rated Rep. Michele Bachmann’s “ridiculously false statement” that the Constitution only requires people to tell the Census Bureau how many individuals are in their home as [Liar, Liar] Pants on Fire.


Jun 26th, 2010

Summary: Central Minnesota voters had the opportunity to meet gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner’s running mate, lieutenant-governor candidate Jim Mulder at the Granite City Days parade in St. Cloud. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 26, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that angry Iraqis were demanding better protection after a spate of bombings had killed at least 250 and wounded hundreds in just one week as U.S. forces pulled back from urban areas to large military bases in accordance with the 2008 status-of-forces agreement between the United States and Iraq.