Good morning and happy Wednesday. Here’s your Digest.
1. Three Twin Cities men convicted of conspiring to join ISIS were sentenced in federal court in Minneapolis Tuesday. Adnan Farah, 20, tearfully thanked federal agents who arrested him. “If it wasn’t for them, maybe I wouldn’t be here today,” he said before being sentenced to 10 years in prison. Hanad Musse, 21, also sentenced to 10 years, apologized for lying to his family, the government and the community, but added: “I told myself the biggest lie. I deceived myself to think I was doing good.”Hamza Ahmed, 21, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars.“I’m grateful I can still breathe right now,” Ahmed told Judge Michael Davis in court. “I’m thankful I was pulled off that plane.” Three more men face sentencing today. (MPR News)
2. Despite having had his name floated on a list by the New York Times a few days ago, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty is not interested in serving in Donald Trump’s cabinet."Gov. Pawlenty told me he is not being considered for treasury secretary and the New York Times story was just speculation," Pawlenty’s former aide Brian McClung said. Just over a month ago Pawlenty withdrew his support from Trump, saying the presidential candidate “wasunsound, uninformed, unhinged and unfit to be President of the United States.” This week Pawlenty told the BBC, “The fact is we want him and need him to succeed, and I’m going to do all I can to hope and pray and help him succeed.” (Forum News Service via Pioneer Press)
3. A longtime leading advocate for reproductive rights and women’s health care services has died. Connie Perpich died of cancer Sunday at age 69. She was was the director of legislative and public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota from 1986 until she retired in 2012. She was also the sister-in-law of the late Gov. Rudy Perpich and a leading DFL political strategist. (Pioneer Press)
4. Rudy Giuliani was paid millions for legal and consulting work by governments that did not always have good relations with the United States. His clients included an exiled Iranian political party that he argued should be taken off a terrorism list,and Qatar’s state-run oil company. His firm’s clients also included the company that wanted to build the Keystone XL pipeline and the maker of the painkiller OxyContin. The AP reported that Giuliani is the leading candidate for secretary of state in the Trump administration, and critics would certainly compare his conflicts of interest with the ones the Trump campaign used to hammer Hillary Clinton. (Politico)
5. Some of the biggest pushback on the president-elect’s plan to improve relations with Russia is coming from within his own party. "With the U.S. presidential transition underway, Vladimir Putin has said in recent days that he wants to improve relations with the United States," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in a statement released by his office. "We should place as much faith in such statements as any other made by a former KGB agent who has plunged his country into tyranny, murdered his political opponents, invaded his neighbors, threatened America's allies and attempted to undermine America's elections," McCain said. ( Washington Post)
