Author
![J. Patrick Coolican](https://minnesotareformer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Patrick-Coolican-2-scaled.jpg)
J. Patrick Coolican is Editor-in-Chief of Minnesota Reformer. Previously, he was a Capitol reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for five years, after a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan and time at the Las Vegas Sun, Seattle Times and a few other stops along the way. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and two young children
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
What are the Nazis doing in a south Minneapolis legislative race?
By: J. Patrick Coolican - March 1, 2024
Katie Jones is from a small town in rural Indiana. She studied soil and water engineering at Purdue University before taking her engineering skills into the energy conservation field with the Center for Energy and Environment here. She’s worked on transportation and climate change policy with her local lawmaker, Rep. Frank Hornstein, who’s made an […]
By endorsing Trump, Joe Teirab has turned his back on his former DOJ colleagues, Marine Corps
By: J. Patrick Coolican - February 22, 2024
In Joe Teirab, Republicans have a promising candidate in the 2nd Congressional District. He’s a Harvard Law grad, a Marine Corps veteran and former county and federal prosecutor. As the son of a Sudanese immigrant, Teirab could bring a broader perspective to the current U.S. House GOP caucus, where there are more guys named Mike […]
Will Stancil: ‘repetitive and annoying’ — and an influential player in American politics
By: J. Patrick Coolican - February 16, 2024
Whenever insurgents stage a coup, they always take control of the TV and radio stations and printing presses first. After all, radio “ties a million ears to a single mouth,” as Anthony Doerr put it in his novel All the Light We Cannot See. For Will Stancil, this is a key pillar to understanding politics, […]
Minneapolis settles lawsuit with journalists attacked by police after George Floyd’s murder
By: J. Patrick Coolican - February 8, 2024
The Minneapolis City Council approved a settlement Thursday with journalists attacked by police during the aftermath of the George Floyd murder. The journalists, who were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and pro bono attorneys, won nearly $1 million in the settlement, though the city and the Minneapolis Police Department did not […]
Conservative groups say offices were firebombed
By: J. Patrick Coolican - February 2, 2024
The Center of the American Experiment, a conservative outfit based in Golden Valley, says its offices were firebombed last weekend in what the group is calling politically motivated violence. CAE says office space of two other conservative groups — the Upper Midwest Law Center and TakeCharge — also suffered fire damage. “The fires obviously were […]
Republicans smeared Ilhan Omar over a faulty translation. Here’s what she really said.
By: J. Patrick Coolican and Max Nesterak - February 1, 2024
Republican lawmakers and commentators questioned U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s allegiance to the United States — even calling for her to be deported — over a video clip with an inaccurate translation of her remarks from Somali to English. The translation animating her Republican critics — including Minnesota colleague U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, who called for her […]
Charges brought against state trooper in killing of Ricky Cobb II
By: J. Patrick Coolican - January 24, 2024
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has brought charges against State Patrol Officer Ryan Londregan in the killing of Ricky Cobb II, who was shot and killed by Londregan during a traffic stop on I-94 in north Minneapolis last summer. Cobb was stopped for driving without rear lights. Body camera videos of the killing show Cobb […]
New Hampshire voters listened to Dean Phillips. He should listen to them.
By: J. Patrick Coolican - January 24, 2024
The CNN reporter could be forgiven for not knowing who Kathy Sullivan is. After all, every four years, the national press whisks into New Hampshire for the quadrennial Super Bowl of politics, and only the most rigorous reporters have anything in the way of local sourcing. So the CNN reporter approached Sullivan Tuesday, thinking she […]
Wage theft case is a test of whether we have two justice systems in America
By: J. Patrick Coolican - January 23, 2024
Bosses at a dairy farm with operations in Stearns and Redwood counties have been housing their workers in barns and stealing their money, according to a recent civil suit filed by Attorney General Keith Ellison. The alleged conduct isn’t necessarily surprising — we know labor and especially immigrant labor are exploited all the time. What’s […]
Stauber boasts about Blatnik Bridge; internet reminds him he voted against it
By: J. Patrick Coolican - January 22, 2024
U.S Rep. Pete Stauber, Republican of Minnesota’s 8th District, sought to take credit for the recent announcement by the Biden administration that the federal government will send $1 billion to help rebuild the Blatnik Bridge between Duluth and Superior, Wisconsin. I’m proud to announce that Duluth, MN and Superior, WI have received over 1 billion […]
Minnesota GOP congressional delegation bends the knee
By: J. Patrick Coolican - January 8, 2024
The question the American system confronted three years ago was whether the people’s votes should determine the nature of their government, or instead should power be vested in a would-be despot backed by a mob? We faced that question because then-President Donald Trump used various machinations — several of them illegal, as charged by the […]
Minnesota Supreme Court gets us closer to ending the travesty of Minnesota school segregation
By: J. Patrick Coolican - December 14, 2023
Consider the tale of two schools: The neighborhood elementary school where my two children would attend based on geography is Maxfield Elementary in the Saint Paul School District. It’s on the freeway frontage road. I have no doubt the educators and staff who work there are trying their hardest, but there are challenges. Just to […]