Take Rep. Michele Bachmann, for example, who has sent out an email today saying "Americans deserve the truth."

Who ordered the political witch hunt by the IRS against Tea Party groups, Pro-Israel, Conservative, and Christian organizations? Who ordered no military response in Benghazi? Who ordered journalist phone lines to be tapped? Who ordered the EPA to provide more waivers to green-leaning groups over conservative ones?

The answer to one of those question is "nobody," because nobody's phones were tapped. Seizing of phone records is not the same as "tapping" a phone.

Earlier this week Congressman Devin Nunes got bloggers excited when he claimed the Obama administration had tapped the Capitol.

"I don't think people are focusing on the right thing when they talk about going after the AP reporters. The big problem that I see is that they actually tapped right where I'm sitting right now, the Cloak Room," he told radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Jack Langer, Nunes, director of communication, noted the obvious mistake in the congressman's assertion:

What Rep. Nunes meant by "tapped" was that the DOJ seized the phone records, as has been widely reported. There was a little confusion between him and the host during the conversation: He did not mean to refer to phone records of the cloakroom itself, but of the Capitol. This refers to the phone records for the AP from the House press gallery, which the DOJ admitted to looking at. He was explaining that if those phone records were seized, they would reveal a lot of conversations between the press and members of Congress, since reporters often speak to Members from the press gallery phones. The notion of the DOJ looking at phone records from the Capitol of conversations between Members of Congress and reporters is something that concerns Rep. Nunes, bringing up issues related to the separation of powers.

In other words, not only is there no story here since this is actually a story about accessing phone records of the Associated Press, there was no "tapping" going on.

That didn't stop John Boehner from making the allegation during a news conference last week while outlining the list of grievances for which the White House should be investigated.

"You've got the Justice Department tapping the phones of those in the media," Boehner said.

Sen. Rand Paul alleged Obama is "using the power of his government to investigate his enemies, he's tapping the phones of the press..."

But they didn't.

What the Justice Department did was obtain phone records of calls that had already been made to and from the Associated Press in April and May of 2012, in its effort to find out who leaked a story to the news cooperative.

Surely, "tapped" is an entirely difference matter, suggesting someone listening in to a conversation. That didn't happen.

And, of course, there are the teachers in Moore, Oklahoma, who shielded the children from a tornado.

There's Zach Sobiech, the young Stillwater musician who lost his battle with cancer, but not before showing people how to live and how to die.

There's also the 7 year old who wanted to raise money for Boston Marathon victims by having a pajama day at school. Now she has a dream of seeing a young victim of the attack dance again.

But we're going to go with Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, who jumped off a bus to come to the aid of a soldier who had been attacked -- and as it turned out, killed -- by terrorists in the heart of London.

That's when a man with a bloody machete appeared over her. He declared that he had started a holy war.

"Well, you're going to lose," she said.

Is it true that Minnesota has only been mentioned five times in songs?

"So I watched that sun come rising / From that little Minnesota town" (Went to See the Gypsy - 1970)

"Thought I'd shaken the wonder and the phantoms of my youth / Rainy days on the Great Lakes, walkin' the hills of old Duluth" ("Something There is About You" - 1974)

"Oh some of us'll end up / In St. Cloud Prison" ("Walls of Red Wing" 1963)

"Thrown in like bandits / And cast off like criminals / Inside the walls / The walls of Red Wing" ("Walls of Red Wing" 1963)

"Pretty maids all in a row lined up / Outside my cabin door / I've never wanted any of 'em wanting me / Except the girl from the Red River Shore" ("Red River Shore" - 2006)

It's not clear who gets credit for Highway 61.

By the way Pete Seeger was not particularly charitable to the present-day Dylan in an interview this week in Baltimore:

Of course, now he just shouts. I can't understand what he's singing. Too bad. But he's actually out there just to say "I am what I am. This is me. If you like it you can like it. If you don't like it, it doesn't make a damn to me." He wrote his best songs when he was young. As did I.

There are are more glamorous ways to get out of town -- the summer cabin, for example -- but probably none as fascinating as Judy and Elmer Gilow, owners of a Winona company who are culling through the mysteries of Duluth this week. And by "mysteries," I mean your trash, Duluth.

They're trying to figure out what and why we choose to toss in the trash, the Duluth News Tribune reports.

"We've seen it all. Human remains. Dead animals. Nothing would surprise me now," Elmer Gilow said as he dumped a container of rotten potato salad into the food category bin. And, by the way, the human remains weren't found in Duluth.

On Wednesday the Gilows were sorting with their daughter, Kari Babler, and business partner Mike Rogers. The Minnesota natives sort garbage throughout the U.S. for agencies that keep track of solid waste.

"The dead animals are the worst -- they smell REALLY bad," Judy said.

"The worst is when it gets really hot or cold," Elmer said.

"We had 105 degrees in Nebraska last year, and that was awful," Judy added. "We do this part time, maybe eight or 16 weeks each year. ... We've been as far away as Hawaii. ... But I wouldn't want to do this job full time."

A lot of what they find is a failure -- things that could have been composted or recycled. They're expecting to find much more plastic this year than in recent years because of the explosion of single-serving packaging now.

It's not surprising the couple is finding lots of rotten food. A study a few years ago found Americans throw away 40 percent of their food.

2) BEHIND THE SUSPENSIONS

Saint Paul school officials say the number of suspensions of students is down after criticism over the number of minority students suspended for bad behavior. But that may not mean that behavior is improving, the Star Tribune reports.

The district class removed "continual willful disobedience" from the list of violations for which students could be suspended, and it also gave bonus pay to principals at pay where suspensions were reduced. Voila! Suspensions were reduced.

At St. Paul Federation of Teachers headquarters, union President Mary Cathryn Ricker said that she's heard varied opinions from teachers as to whether the push to lower suspension rates has improved classroom behaviors. Some see it as a genuine effort to improve the school environment, she said, while others say it's hiding work that needs to be done about disruptive acts.

Some students have weighed in on how safe they feel at school. Nick Faber, a veteran science teacher, surveyed third- through sixth-graders at his school about bullying and school safety. Nearly one-fourth said they felt "kind of not safe" or "not safe at all" at school, he said. Nearly two-thirds reported having been pushed or shoved at least once in the previous week. Teachers need professional development to help kids who've had trauma and chronic stress, and district administrators ought to put more resources there, rather than simply saying, "stop suspending," Faber said.

3) AFTER THE FIRE

This is what a classic Stearman airman looks like in typical condition.

This what a classic Stearman looks like when it burns...

I finally got a chance last evening to take a look at the damage from the fire that swept through the hangar, and several others earlier this week at Fleming Field in South St. Paul. The blaze started apparently while the plane's owner refueled the airplane without ventilation.

Here's another view of the fuselage.

Related aviation: Here's a story you don't hear every day - someone taking responsibility. A helicopter lost power over Honolulu and the pilot had seconds to act. Everybody lived. Then, risking legal consequences, the mechanic who worked on the helicopter stepped forward to accept responsibility. Now the insurance companies are suing him and he says he won't fight it.

Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL

4) GET RID OF THE APOSTROPHE?

The end of the apostrophe may be at hand, Slate suggests today.

The number of bloggers and websites suggesting that we get rid of the apostrophe for good has increased dramatically in recent years--and their position is not taken up as some sort of joke. Those who maintain the Kill the Apostrophe website, for instance, take this stuff seriously. The site's manifesto notes that the apostrophe "serves only to annoy those who know how it is supposed to be used and to confuse those who dont." It asserts that apostrophes are redundant, wasteful, snobbish, and anachronistic in an era of text messaging. Apostrophes "consume considerable time and resources" and, according to the website, "Tremendous amounts of money are spent every year by businesses on proof readers, part of whose job it is to put apostrophes in the 'correct' place--to no semantic effect whatsoever." We'd all be "better off without em."

More from the learned world: Anything is possible, people. A fairly undistinguished professor at the University of New Hampshire proved a math theory that, apparently, the math world thought would not be proven in their lifetimes.

Says Boston.com...

For more than a century--and perhaps as far back as ancient Greece--mathematicians have conjectured there are an infinite number of prime numbers separated by two. That would mean that there are an infinite number of pairs such as 3 and 5, or 41 and 43, or 269 and 271. What Zhang showed was actually that there were an infinite number of primes separated by 70 million. As any child who knows how to count knows, 70 million is a far from two, but Zhang's proof--of something called the "bounded gaps conjecture"--excites mathematicians because it is the first time anyone has proven there are an infinite number of primes separated by an actual number.

What do Minnesota Orchestra musicians do when they're locked out? The play. And teach.

MN Orchestra Visits MHS from Minnetonka Public Schools on Vimeo.

Bonus I: Kid President is back. This is a good thing.

Bonus II: More on why Daniel Alvarez is padding back to Minnesota.

Bonus III: It's become a Memorial Day tradition on NewsCut. The story behind the picture.

(© John Francis Ficara)

If you've got a story to share about one who served, please post it below.

TODAY'S QUESTION

The number of cabin owners in Minnesota has dipped down a bit from 125,000 in 2005, to 122,000 in 2012, according to Jeff Forester, Executive Director, Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates. But time at the lake is still an important tradition for many Minnesotans.
Today's Question: Is owning a cabin part of your Minnesota dream?

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Daily Circuit (9-12 p.m.) - First hour: Friday roundtable of political reporters discusses the legislative session.

Second hour: What if we never run out of oil?

Third hour: Tom Weber hosted Science Night Minnesota in front of a capacity crowd at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul this week. The topic was Mars exploration and the event featured a conversation with the chief scientist of the Mars Curiosity rover, John Grotzinger.

MPR News Presents (12-1 pm): Historian David Blight, speaking at the Minnesota History Center about "Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory."

Science Friday (1-2 p.m.) - Tech tips for older adults. Plus, why houses with dogs might be more diverse germ-wise.

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - When author Richard Rubin tracked down the last veterans of World War I, he unearthed long lost stories. Stories the men had not talked about in 50, 60, even 70 years. Why so long? The veterans said: it had been decades since anybody asked them about the war. NPR reports on the last of the doughboys.

A release of polling data today by Public Policy Polling shows the bill that can't ever get out of the starting gate at the Capitol, is the one that unites DFLers and Republicans.

Overall, the poll showed more than 60 percent of those surveyed, support being able to buy alcohol on Sunday, a practice presently prohibited.

The crosstabs show that very liberal, somewhat liberal, and somewhat conservative people overwhelmingly support the concept, and even half of the very conservative respondents thought it a good idea.

It also provided common ground by race.

And age.

And gender.

Here's the entire poll.

If I were in Louisiana, that sentence could put me in jail.

The Louisiana Senate is set to pass House Bill 8, which states:

It shall be unlawful for any person other than an employee of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections or a law enforcement officer to release, disseminate, or make public in any manner any information contained in an application for a concealed handgun permit or any information regarding the identity of any person who applied for or received a concealed handgun permit issued pursuant to this Section. Any person who violates the provisions of this Subparagraph shall be fined ten thousand dollars and may be imprisoned for not more than six months.

Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy isn't buying it:

This is a clear First Amendment violation. Florida Star v. B.J.F. (1989) struck down a law banning the publication of the names of rape victims, once the information was released by the police (even when it was released in violation of department policy). This statute is thus unconstitutionally overbroad, because it has no exception for these kinds of erroneous-release situations. But even if the statute were limited to exclude information gleaned from public records, it would still be unconstitutional: It would be a content-based restriction on speech. It would apply to speech about crime, lawsuits, threats to public safety, and other matters of public concern.

And while in theory even such content-based speech restrictions might be constitutional if they are "narrowly tailored" to a "compelling government interest," this test has rightly been extremely hard to satisfy (consider Florida Star itself). Indeed, one reason our free speech protections are so strong is that courts have been extremely hesitant to uphold speech restrictions under this test. They are thus very likely to strike down the statute -- and if they do uphold it, the precedent would risk undermining free speech protection more broadly. The Second Amendment (or, to be precise, the desire to keep confidential people's exercise of their gun rights) shouldn't be a basis for undermining the First Amendment.

That part was easy for Sabrina Brady of Sparta High School in Wisconsin, who won -- probably handily -- Google's annual contest for school-age artists.

Her doodle is featured on Google today.

"When I was 10 years old, my dad came home from war," she wrote in her entry. "This was my best day ever."

He was deployed for 18 months.

She will get a $30,000 scholarship from Google, and the thanks of a grateful nation.

Update This is the second win in a row for Wisconsin. Last year's winner -- Dyland Hoffman -- came from Caledonia, WI. He was a second grader.

It's unlikely the world of private aviation is going to get people too worked up about an obvious change in the government detaining of citizens -- most people don't fly airplanes -- but The Atlantic's James Fallows has been following an increasing number of cases in the U.S. where pilots who have done nothing wrong are being detained and searched without explanation. There was a time when that would be considered illegal in the country.

To say it again: I am not contending that the aviation world is being inordinately picked-upon. Overall it is a privileged part of society -- and demographically it skews toward older white males who are politically conservative, have money, and often have military experience. Ie, these are people who are not generally the object of police profiling for terrorist or other criminal tendencies. So if the security state is leaning heavily on them, you can extrapolate to other groups.

Since Fallows wrote an original piece on his blog about one incident, he's gotten details about others.

It's an extremely good read.

2) RETURN OF THE VACCINE DEBATE

Great Britain is in the midst of a measles outbreak, NPR's Shots blog reports. Why? Apparently because of the disproven theory on the evils of vaccines:

Childhood vaccination rates plummeted in Great Britain after a 1998 paper by Dr. Andrew Wakefield claimed that the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella had caused autism in a dozen children. That study has since been proven fraudulent, but it fueled fears about vaccine safety in Great Britain and the United States.

"This is the legacy of the Wakefield scare," Dr. David Elliman, spokesman for the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, told The Associated Press.

Most of the measles cases have been in children and teenagers between the ages of 10 and 18, according to British health officials. In that age group, vaccination rates dropped below 50 percent in some parts of England after the Wakefield paper was published.

3) WHAT ZACH LEFT BEHIND

It's hard to stand one more story about dead children, but when Stillwater student Zach Sobieski lost his battle with cancer this week, he left a hopeful story behind, along with the music he loved.

His song has hit #1.

"He wanted to be able to find a cure for osteosarcoma, but also, knowing he was going to be leaving the world, he wanted to be able to take care of the people he loved," Scott Herold, the founder of Sobieski's record label tells WCCO. "It's hard that Zach's gone, but man this is really awesome. It's beautiful."

Sobiech's funeral is being held today in Stillwater.

Related: When University of Minnesota men's pitching coach Todd Oakes went to the mound to talk to his pitcher yesterday during the game against Illinois, he was wearing a surgical mask. He's battling leukemia and had a bone marrow transplant and doesn't want to risk infection. But he does want to keep coaching.

"Never give up. Never give in," he said in an interview last month.

4) THE LEGACY DEBATE

Sportsmen and other outdoor enthusiasts are pressuring Gov. Mark Dayton to veto the spending bill for the state's Legacy fund, an issue that took a backseat to other high-profile issues at the Capitol this year.

Legacy money comes from a portion of the state sales tax, a provision voters approved several years ago for arts and outdoors. The battle is over the the question: What is "outdoors?" Is it habitat and wildlife -- mostly in more rural parts of the state? Or is it parks, open space, and water in the cities?

And it's shaping up as a battle of former big names for the Minnesota Vikings. Legendary coach Bud Grant wrote a letter on Tuesday to the governor urging him to veto the bill. Today, the Pioneer Press reports that former player Paul Krause is urging Dayton to sign the legislation, which comes from the legislative group in charge of determining how the money will be spent.

He singles out two of the projects contained in the metro parks initiatives: restoration of Trout Brook in Dakota County and prairie restoration adjacent to state lands purchased with Legacy funds. "Just because wildlife habitat is owned by a county park system -- rather than the DNR -- should not make valuable wildlife land ineligible for habitat restoration funds."

Krause is hardly alone. A host of metro park districts, from Minneapolis to Scott County, have been drafting letters to Dayton urging him not to veto anything, according to e-mails obtained by the Pioneer Press.

Many of those calling for a veto point to a statement, recorded on video, that then-candidate Dayton made at Game Fair in Anoka County: "I will veto any legislative attempts to usurp the authority of the Lessard-Sams council."

5) RIVERFRONT HOMEOWNERS PUSH BACK

Moorhead residents are pushing back against the city's announcement this week that it might stop providing sandbags to residents of the city who live near the Red River.

The city says residents should "pony up" for more of the cost of holding the flood back. Fargo Forum reports the residents say they already have plenty of money invested.

Schramm, who has lived on Rivershore Drive since 2007 in a home her father built in the mid-1970s, said the fact that she and her husband have put roughly $20,000 into their private dike is proof they have "ponied up" to protect the city.

"I grew up in the town, and this town is very important," Schramm said. "And I don't think the people should say we don't care about them because we always have."

Zimmerman said "in most cases" residents along the river do not have private levees.

"For those people that have built a dike like that, they don't need sandbags so there really isn't an issue for them" if the city stops delivering bags, he said.

Politically, it's a near risk-free stance for the city. Only 87 homes are left standing along the Red River in Moorhead.

Related: In Cross Hairs of Tornadoes, a Town's Residents Stay Put (NY Times)

Bonus I: Read the divorce papers closely. In Texas, the Associated Press reports, a woman has ruled a a North Texas lesbian couple can't live together because of a morality clause in one of the women's divorce papers.

Bonus II : What does Google Glass say to people? "Don't come near me."

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Daily Circuit (9-12 p.m.) - First hour: How communities recover from a disaster.

Second hour: The healing power of holding a grudge.

Third hour: Do voters and candidates really understand what policies truly affect small business owners?

MPR News Presents (12-1 pm): A special from the America Abroad series, hosted by Ray Suarez: "Immigration and the Global Talent Search."

Talk of the Nation (1-2 p.m.) - TBA

All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - Jarrett Krosaczka is the author of 20 childrens books. They include the Lunch Lady series -- an award-winning, kids favorite -- starring the school cafeteria superhero. NPR interviews Jarrett Krosaczka on its Backseat Book Club.

Rev. Wolf Blitzer takes top honors in the "awkward" category for this viral interview of a woman who wasn't about to conform to the notion that surviving a tornado requires the intervention of the divine.

On a more intelligent level, the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog today asks the question that few seem to want to ask. "Where was God?" However, it approaches the question in response to an intellectual question: If one prays for divine intervention in the aftermath of a tornado, doesn't that suggest divine intervention was possible in the mere existence of the tornado?

When atheists use natural disasters as a time to rebuke individuals of faith, there may be some indication that their argument against God is more of an emotional objection, rather an intellectual problem. However, with some atheists, it seems to be a genuine intellectual objection that dates back to the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and later, David Hume.

Some atheists, following Hume, who are watching natural disasters or experiencing true evil, will often hold that the two statements: "An all-powerful and all-good God exists" and "Evil exists" are logically inconsistent. But other logicians will note that there is not an explicit contradiction in these statements. The atheist is often assuming that if God is all good, then He would prefer to create a world without evil than to create a world in which evil exists.

Tom Cabral, writing on his Faith & Fall River blog raises more questions than answers:

The God of the bible has what are called incommunicable attributes. Those he does not share with us. The bible declares God both omniscient (all knowing) and omnipotent (all powerful). Everything in his universe happens under his rule and reign. He knows the number of hairs on our heads, the days until we die, and the places you will live and whom you'll live with.

Some claim that God has a multitude of plans and if one doesn't work out he goes to plan B. That's not what the scriptures declare. They declare that even the most powerful man's existence is under the control of an all-powerful God "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will" (Pro 21:1). Either he is fully sovereign or he is NOT sovereign at all. We cannot put God in a box. The first thing we cannot do is say God cannot stop evil.

If that's true, than we're back to the beginning of the discussion: why a tornado?

The question cannot be answered, Cabral says, because "we must not become the voice of God and answer."

Several meteorologists contacted by The Associated Press used real time measurements, some made by Schumacher, to calculate the energy released during the storm's 40-minute life span. Their estimates ranged from 8 times to more than 600 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb, with more experts at the high end. Their calculations were based on energy measured in the air and then multiplied over the size and duration of the storm.

We heard the same sort of comparison a few months ago when a meteor exploded over Siberia. In those stories, we were told the meteor was more powerful than 30 atomic bombs.

While scientifically correct, perhaps, it's a weak comparison for the purposes of journalism. Rather than add important context, it removes it. For one thing, it's comparing energy released but not the impact of the energy released. And, clearly, comparing something to the atomic bomb is meant to create the impression that the tornado was a bigger force in total than the atomic bomb.

That's nonsense.

The calculations cited include the duration of the tornado's 40-minute lifespan. The explosion over Hiroshima was over in a matter of seconds.

At last check, twenty-four people died in this week's tornado, a tragic number by any comparison. But is it really honest to suggest any comparison to a weapon that may have killed an estimated 90,000 to 130,000 people -- 75,000 immediately and perhaps as many over the following years?

Such a comparison dishonors and diminishes the suffering of people like Michihiko Hachiya, whose 1955 Hiroshima diary was nothing we've ever witnessed before or since on such a scale.

In time I came to an open space where the houses had been removed to make a fire lane. Through the dim light I could make out ahead of me the hazy outlines of the Communications Bureau's big concrete building, and beyond it the hospital. My spirits rose because I knew that now someone would find me; and if I should die, at least my body would be found. I paused to rest. Gradually things around me came into focus. There were the shadowy forms of people, some of whom looked like walking ghosts. Others moved as though in pain, like scarecrows, their arms held out from their bodies with forearms and hands dangling. These people puzzled me until I suddenly realized that they had been burned and were holding their arms out to prevent the painful friction of raw surfaces rubbing together. A naked woman carrying a naked baby came into view. I averted my gaze. Perhaps they had been in the bath. But then I saw a naked man, and it occurred to me that, like myself, some strange thing had deprived them of their clothes. An old woman lay near me with an expression of suffering on her face; but she made no sound. Indeed, one thing was common to everyone I saw - complete silence.

Whatever problems facing Oklahoma City, an increase in leukemia because of the tornado isn't one of them. Neither is a significant impact on the mental development of children not yet born.

What happened in Oklahoma City was real and tragic and on a scale that takes your breath away. But no component of the tragedy in any fashion dwarfs what happened in Hiroshima.

The court ruled in the case of three women, who were employed at Lou's Fish House in Two Harbors. They testified in district court that owner Brian Zapolski asked them about their sexual preferences and sex lives, made sexually suggestive comments to them, showed them pornography, asked them to find friends who would have sex with him, and touched them.

But a district court judge said that's not sexual harassment because they didn't lose salary or their jobs, didn't seek counseling, were not specifically sexually propositioned and Zapolski's sexual comments were "not merely directed at females."

Today the Supreme Court struck that decision down, agreeing with a Court of Appeals ruling. But the Court of Appeals had ruled the women were entitled to a judgment under the human rights law. The Supreme Court today, however, sent the case back to the district court for a decision on the women's claims.

Justice Lori Gildea said in her ruling that the sexual harassment claims do not require the three women to prove discrimination. "The fact that Zapolski directed inappropriate, sexual comments at both male and female employees... cannot support the district court's determination that the conduct was not sufficiently severe..."

But Justice Wilhelmina M. Wright, while agreeing with Gildea's overall ruling, said today's opinion doesn't answer an important question raised in the case: what standards apply when reviewing a hostile work environment claim under the Minnesota Human Rights Act? She said there's no need to send the case back to the original judge for a decision.

If the conduct at issue in this case does not unmistakably violate the MHRA, I shudder to consider both the degrading conduct that any employee must endure in a Minnesota workplace and the unreasonably burdensome actions she must take to prove that her workplace was hostile so as to vindicate her legal right to be free from a hostile work environment. On the record before us, applying the appropriate legal standard, we need not delay or deny the Employees a just resolution of their hostile work environment claims.

Justice Wright said she refused to take part in "playing 'kick the can down the road' with a question of law that affects the legal protections of every worker -- male and female -- in Minnesota."

In other words: if the Supreme Court can't rule that the three women's rights were violated in this case, what would it take to so rule?

In finding that Zapolski's conduct did not create an objectively hostile work environment, the district court relied in part on its finding that the Employees were never explicitly sexually propositioned. This underlying finding of fact is clearly erroneous and contradicted by the district court's earlier finding that Zapolski asked Reinhold "if she would kiss him when he came to work," to which Reinhold replied "no." Notwithstanding Reinhold's refusal, Zapolski's request is a sexual proposition. Although Moyer was not personally propositioned, the district court found that during Zapolski's sexual discussions with her, Zapolski "attempt[ed] to have Moyer solicit other young women to have sex with him."

Justice Paul Anderson called the refusal to rule "extraordinary."

I believe something more needs to be said about the message the majority delivers to Minnesota's citizens, whether those citizens are male or female, young or old, rich or poor. The unfortunate consequence of the majority's opinion may well be that offensive and repulsive sexual misconduct in the workplace, like Zapolski's verbal and physical misconduct, will be much more difficult to curtail in Minnesota and that many victims of similar misconduct will be left without a remedy under the law.

In his strongly worded dissent, Justice Anderson said the court majority made an "almost heroic effort to ignore the district court's erroneous findings," calling Zapolski's behavior "classical sexually motivated misconduct in the workplace."

Anderson, who is retiring, said when he became a justice, he thought the state was well on its way to not tolerating sexual harassment in the workplace. "As my service as an appelate judge draws to a close," he wrote, "I am concerned that the opinion the majority renders today signifies a step backwards on what I once believed was a one-way path toward ending sexual harassment in the workplace."

Here's the full ruling in the case. And here's a webcast of the oral arguments before the court in the case.