Politics and views in the United States.

Political tensions rise after Minnesota assassinations. Trump's DOJ demands sweeping election data from Colorado. Advocates mark LGBTQIA+ pay inequity, and U.S. and U.K. reach a new trade deal.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

There are always good bipartisan things that come out of any legislative session here in Minnesota.

But yeah, I think unfortunately, that work doesn't always attract the news headlines.

Jake Loesch of the Citizens League in Minnesota says cross-party cooperation is still possible, even as the state reels from what's probably the worst act of political violence in its history.

Last weekend, Democratic Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in their home.

A state senator and his wife were also shot but survived.

Authorities say the suspect intended to inflict fear and might have gone on to target other elected Democrats and abortion providers if not stopped.

Vance Belter wore a silicone mask, impersonated a police officer and had lists of names, maps and surveillance logs in his car.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson.

This was a political assassination, which is not a word we use very often in the United States, let alone here in Minnesota.

A separate politically motivated shooting at a No King's Rally in Salt Lake City might have been averted, but an innocent bystander was killed in the process.

An armed guard spotted a man with a rifle running through the crowd and shot him, but also hit fashion designer Afa Alu.

The work of Project Runway alum has been celebrated for honoring his Samoan heritage.

Advocates say LGBTQ workers only get about 90 cents for every dollar a typical worker earns for the same work.

And non-heterosexual women make even less.

Deborah Baggins, with Equal Rights Advocates, says workplace protections are being hollowed out and the enforcement agencies are being gutted.

President Trump took the unprecedented action to fire officials at these independent agencies.

He's laid off hundreds of staff.

He's effectively undermined the enforcement protections, especially for LGBTQIA employees.

Election officials are watching a sweeping request from the Justice Department for voting records in Colorado.

The DOJ Civil Rights Division is now led by a lawyer who worked on 2020 election denial cases and is now demanding all state documents, possibly including ballots from the last two presidential election years.

Colorado's Secretary of State says the files could fill Mile High Stadium.

President Donald Trump says he'll be leaving the G7 summit early because of the Iran-Israel conflict.

But while in Canada, he and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled a new tariff agreement to lower the import taxes on British cars and aircraft parts.

Consumer advocates are warning about a growing tariff delay scam.

Kristen Johnson with Connecticut's Better Business Bureau says scammers are telling consumers they have to pay phony fees to get their online orders.

So it's more believable because we're learning about the tariffs just now, but that's why we want people to take a step back and realize, no, the tariffs are not going to affect you on the back end after you place the order.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.