Minnesota taxpayers entrust our government with billions of dollars each year to make Minnesota a safe and dignified place to live — including for people in prison. It’s hard to believe we might throw away hundreds of millions of dollars trying to salvage 100-year-old prisons in deep disrepair. These facilities are dangerous for the people living and working inside. The only safe and affordable option is to close them once and for all.

In February 2025, the Minnesota Office of the Ombuds for Corrections released an urgent update to its 2024 report on the state of Minnesota correctional facilities. Both reports paint a dire picture for two of the state’s prisons in Stillwater and St. Cloud, which together house around 2,300 individuals: these prisons are crumbling.

Moreover, as these prisons continue to deteriorate, our state’s prison population is growing. According to a recent report by the Crime and Justice Institute — a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that partners with jurisdictions nationwide to improve justice systems — Minnesota’s prison population has been rising faster than in other states since the pandemic. From 2021 to 2022, our incarceration rate grew by 8% compared to just 2% nationally, for instance.

The human cost of the increasingly crowded prisons and their disrepair is devastating. In an op-ed last year, Maurice L. Ward — CEO of Justice Impacted Individuals Voting Effectively — described his experience in the Stillwater prison as “living in a coffin but not buried underground,” where the temperature inside felt like “120 degrees.” Folks inside have been moved to create powerful art, tell important stories and stage peaceful demonstrations to illustrate the inhumanity of such conditions. This alone should be enough to reconsider the future of these facilities.

But it gets worse. The old-fashioned layout of these facilities — with stacked cells — reduces corrections officers’ line of sight, creating additional safety risks in an already dangerous environment where lockdowns can, and do, emerge at a moment’s notice.

Additionally, the financial cost of facility maintenance is massive: The Department of Corrections estimates operating the correctional facilities in both Stillwater and St. Cloud costs almost $100 million, while the cost of urgent repairs at just St. Cloud is an estimated $71 million. We’re talking about nearly $200 million just for business as usual, which still leaves the people living and working in these facilities in danger.

Once you factor in the amount of work required to address the long-term infrastructure issues, this price tag skyrockets. Standing water, falling bricks, leaky roofs, plumbing problems, and excessive heat during the warmer months make living and working at these prisons inhumane. A 2014 study to replace the St. Cloud facility projected a cost that amounts to an estimated $730 million in today’s dollars. Should we spend this much to replace just one of these crumbling prisons? The DOC itself calls this “the epitome of throwing good money after bad.”

Minnesota lawmakers know the importance of an individual’s successful reentry after incarceration, as evidenced by the passage of recent laws that incentivize participation in prison programming for those in custody, like substance abuse disorder treatment, medical and mental health services, and vocational, career and education training. This programming is impossible in crumbling facilities lacking usable spaces.

We understand that breaking the law and causing significant harm to people, property and society requires accountability. We ask Minnesotans to imagine what accountability mechanisms will be possible if we invest in the human potential of those who live and work inside these facilities.

As statewide decision-makers consider long-term solutions, the economic and human costs of addressing the issues in Stillwater and St. Cloud mount daily. We can spend hundreds of millions of dollars trying to fix or replace these unfixable prisons, or we can take that money and build a plan that keeps communities safe and uplifts the humanity of every resident. The Minnesota Justice Research Center joins the chorus of people urging the immediate decommissioning of these prisons.

Do you have thoughts about the future of Minnesota’s crumbling prisons? Join us for a community conversation hosted by the MNJRC and We Are All Criminals at the Weisman Art Museum on May 8, 2025.

We’ll view powerful pieces in the SEEN exhibit, hear from the Office of Ombuds for Corrections and CJI about their reports, discuss what we know, and work together to reimagine the future of these facilities — because we don’t have another option.

Preview:

Davis Moturi lay awake in bed last October, eyes on the ceiling, unable to shake the burning image of his neighbor pointing a gun directly at him through the bedroom window.

Hope to see you there! ✊

Preview:

Vue Lee spent $133 less on his electric bill this February than he did in February 2024.

The savings mean a lot to Lee. He lives in Brooklyn Park and has what he calls a “typical Asian family,” with an adult daughter and grandchildren also living under his roof. The extra money can go to groceries or family fun.

“I can spend more on the grandkids,” Lee said.

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https://archive.is/Tu42t

The Minneapolis City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance that would prohibit landlords from employing algorithms to set rent and vacancy rates.

The proposed ordinance would specifically ban the use of algorithms that use “non-public competitor data.” It passed by an 11-2 vote.

Wonsley said many of the corporate property management companies that use this technology operate student housing complexes around the University of Minnesota. College students are “particularly vulnerable to exploitation,” she said, because they’re often first-time renters who are constrained to living near campus.

Hi everyone! Our family is moving back to MN in a few months, and we are starting the process of looking into schools. Our son will be 5 next year and will be starting kindergarten in 2026. He's our oldest, so this is our first rodeo. We're looking into Nova Classical Academy (Highland Park) and Math & Science Academy (Woodbury).

Our questions:

1. How hard is it to get into these schools for kindergarten? (We are not school staff members, and our child doesn't have a sibling already enrolled in the school.) We realize that MSA's elementary school is just now being built, and 2026-2027 is the first year they're enrolling for kindergarten.
2. Is there anything we can do to be more competitive for acceptance to either school? Or is it literally just a random lottery? Does it matter when we apply for the lottery, as long as it's within the enrollment window? (Our children don't appear to be "protected class students" as defined by MDE.)
3. Any experience with either of these schools? We welcome all feedback as we know nothing! Especially if you have a child with mild ASD, we'd love your input.

Thank you so much!

Preview:

On one of the first warm days in Minneapolis this year, the doors were propped open in most businesses near the intersection of Lake Street and Lyndale Avenue. That’s why employees at the store Smitten Kitten were able to notice a woman slumped over in her parked car outside the shop.

State Sen. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, was arrested in Bloomington on suspicion of soliciting a minor for sex.

Bloomington Police led Eichorn, 40, to believe he was talking to a 16-year old girl and then met the senator and arrested him Monday near the 8300 block of Normandale Avenue, according to a Bloomington Police Department press release.

Senate Republicans have called for Eichorn’s resignation.

“We are shocked by these reports and this alleged conduct demands an immediate resignation. Justin has a difficult road ahead and he needs to focus on his family,” Senate Republicans said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

Police say they saw Eichorn arriving in the area by pick-up truck and arrested him without incident outside his vehicle.

Eichorn was booked into the Bloomington Police Department jail and will be transported to the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center, the release said. Felony charges of soliciting a minor to practice prostitution are pending, Bloomington police said.

“As a 40-year-old man, if you come … looking to have sex with someone’s child, you can expect that we are going to lock you up,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges said in the release. “I have always advocated stiffer penalties for these types of offenses … We need our state Legislature to take this case and this type of conduct more seriously.”

Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, in a statement, said the allegation against Eichorn is “deeply disturbing.”

“The felony allegation against Sen. Eichorn is deeply disturbing, and raises serious questions that will need to be answered by the court, as well as his caucus and constituents.”

Eichorn’s arrest complicates efforts by Senate Republicans to expel DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell from the upper chamber, following her arrest last year after she was alleged to have burglarized her stepmother’s home.

Although some Democrats — including Gov. Tim Walz and some of Mitchell’s colleagues — have called on Mitchell to resign, the ethics case against her has been blocked by Democrats, who say expulsion should only come after she’s received due process in the courts. Her trial is scheduled for after the session.

Republicans have said she’s brought dishonor to the institution and should be immediately expelled, even before a criminal trial.

During debate about a motion to expel Mitchell, Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls, said doing so would restore integrity to the Senate.

“We don’t need the results of a criminal trial to know Sen. Mitchell’s conduct fails to meet the standards of ethical behavior that we expect from senators,” Rasmusson said in January.

That argument presumably now applies to Eichorn, as well.

In February, Eichorn reposted an article on Facebook about attempts to expel Mitchell, saying that the “growing scandal keeps pulling focus from the Legislature’s important work. We need to end the disruption and let voters choose a new senator.”

In 2021 he objected to a bill requiring Minnesota schools to teach about sexual orientations and gender identities, saying “before you know it, they’ll be reading kids ‘50 Shades of Grey.’ This discussion is better had at a more mature age.”

Eichorn was first elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2016 and works at his family’s outdoor store in Grand Rapids.

Eichorn also co-authored a bill to classify “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness.

Sociopaths Misappropriate Hit Song From MN

Setting aside its singular devotion to the financial interests of the 1%, fetish for deregulation that threatens our workers and planet, and obsession with stripping rights from trans people, the MAGA movement, tonally, is really fucking mean. Case in point: This official White House video posted Monday to Instagram, in which we see footage of handcuffed young men being rounded up like dogs by Border Patrol as—Jesus Christ how is this real...—"Closing Time" by Semisonic plays, mockingly.

As you'd expect, the Minneapolis band behind the 1998 pop-rock hit isn't cool with being used for sadistic far-right propaganda. Through their publicist, Semisonic wasted no time issuing the following statement earlier today...

We did not authorize or condone the White House’s use of our song in any way. And no, they didn’t ask. The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.

What is "Closing Time" about, specifically? Frontman Dan Wilson told Billboard in 2018 that it's inspired by the birth of his daughter, Coco.

The guys wanted a new song to close our sets with. I thought "Closing Time" would be a good title. We had spent seven years of our lives at that point, four nights a week entertaining people. That was our life. Some bouncers yelling things, closing time coming, all that imagery, literally, that’s how the song started and then when I was halfway done, I started realizing the whole thing was a pun about being born, so I just made sure that the rest of the thing could ride with that double meaning, but nobody got the joke and I didn’t bother to explain. I thought everyone would get it.

Or, to quote the top-voted comment from 24 years ago on mostly defunct lyrics website SongMeanings: "It means its closing time so get the hell out."

Semisonic join a long list of artists who've unwillingly soundtracked Trump shit, including Céline Dion ("My Heart Will Go On"???), Rihanna, Adele, Steven Tyler, and Neil Young.

Let's Hear From 3 Locally Based Ex-Federal Workers

Shoutout to Max Nesterak at the Minnesota Reformer for banging the actually, federal workers matter drum. In this great piece, he speaks to three ex-employees of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), all of whom had their lives upended by an unelected, deeply unlikable, ketamine-zooted freak who invented DOGE to gut the federal government. These unemployed Minnesotans are among the 60,000 government workers who've recently been cleaved from 17 different agencies, according to one estimate.

“I know it’s not personal, but it just feels personal,” says Iceley Andaya, an Air Force vet, who lost her job at the VBA.

“They’re talking about building smarter, better software and government (but) my skill set wasn’t even taken in consideration when it was time to fire people,” says Nina Sawyer, who lost her job at GSA. “They’re just going in with a hammer and breaking things.”

“The grant money that is made available to a city or a county is not going to go as far because now they’re going to have to hire me as a private consultant who can charge more for the work compared to someone who is a federal employee,” says Katie Haun Schuring, who lost her job with FRA.

Food Hall Trend Finally Reaching Richfield?

Hey, how about some non-depressing news? (Don't worry: We'll return to the pulling-out-your-hair beat in a sec.) The food hall craze of the past decade has yielded mixed results locally, and now one suburban holdout might give the concept a whirl. Last week Tim Naumann, co-owner of Plymouth's Luce Line Brewing, presented Richfieldians with his plans for a 7,500-square-foot food hall at 64th & Lyndale—aka vacant land just north of Lakewinds Food Co-op.

The proposed site is currently owned by Richfield-based Cornerstone Group, whose 10-acre Lyndale Garden Center development spree has reimagined much of that area; the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority is offering Luce Line $750,000 to boost the project, which is estimated to cost $4.9 million. The food hall would feature three vendor stalls and Luce Line brews, J.D. Duggan at the MSP Biz Journal reports.

“It’s percolating. It’s moving along nicely,” Naumann tells Duggan, while stressing that plans are preliminary at the moment. “Generally, there’s a lot of support for this,” adds Melissa Poehlman, Richfield Director of Community Development.

Punishingly Stupid "Trump Derangement Syndrome" Bill Introduced

We'll keep this mercifully brief. On Monday at the Minnesota Capitol, five Republican senators—Eric Lucero of St. Michael, Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa, Nathan Wesenberg of Little Falls, Justin Eichorn of Grand Rapids, and Glenn Gruenhagen of Glencoe, all of them hopeless and charmless dumbasses—introduced a bill that would classify “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness.

Ha, ha, ha! Way to seize on that MAGA mandate to help the lives of your constituents, you grievance-pilled, sore-winning dullards. “This is possibly the worst bill in Minnesota history,” DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy says in a statement. She goes on to talk about how the trolling bill trivializes actual mental illnesses, but honestly could have full-stopped with the quote above. “Members are free to do as they wish” counters Republican Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson.

No House version of the bill exists at press time, and Sen. Melissa Wiklund (DFL-Bloomington) has vowed to let the Senate one die without a committee hearing.

Buy for a dollar and sell for two.

It’s the middleman’s credo, and lucrative — but not for the taxpayers getting fleeced.

America’s byzantine health system is beset with parasitic middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers and third party administrators, a key reason why it costs so much more per person than anywhere else in the world despite delivering mediocre results. Even in a supposedly public program like Medicaid — the federal/state partnership that provides care to low income and disabled Minnesotans — state government contracts with managed care organizations to actually administer it.

The Minnesota Legislature is staring at a gloomy, stormy fiscal horizon that includes structural budget deficits and the risk of a massive cut in federal Medicaid funding.

But there’s also a safe harbor in sight, if lawmakers can muster up the courage to cut out the middlemen.

Minnesota just has to follow Connecticut’s lead. In 2012, Connecticut was able to save on their Medicaid program by cutting out the unproductive managed care organization middlemen they had contracted with since the 1990s to run it. They were simultaneously able to ensure the cuts didn’t harm quality of care — in fact, they were able to improve quality — by prioritizing care coordination and accessibility in their new and more efficient MCO-free system.

In Minnesota, by contrast, MCOs to this day have the authority to set provider networks, limit patients to those networks, regulate how services can be delivered, require prior authorizations and other bureaucratic hurdles to receiving certain services, and set their own payment rates. In other words, they can do almost anything they want, especially when patients don’t feel confident enough to appeal denials.

The federal government claims MCO administration should “manage cost, utilization, and quality” in order to “reduce Medicaid program costs and better manage utilization of health services” as well as improve “health plan performance, health care quality, and outcomes.” Whether that’s actually true is both doubtful and unproven. For example, Medicaid MCOs nationwide deny over twice as many claims as privately-administered Medicare Advantage plans, which are themselves known for imposing incredibly onerous and expensive burdens on patients compared to publicly-administered traditional Medicare.

When Connecticut removed its Medicaid MCOs, the result was incredible. By 2023, Connecticut’s Department of Social Services reported that the state had reduced Medicaid administrative expenses to 2.75% of spending. Unfortunately, Minnesota still throws away money contracting out Medicaid. According to consulting firm Milliman, Minnesota’s administrative expenses were at 12.5% in 2023.

The benefits extend well beyond just a mere reduction in administrative costs.

When Connecticut cut out the Medicaid MCO middlemen, it was also able to do more to coordinate care for those on Medicaid. For example, by developing a special type of primary care clinic called the Patient Centered Medical Home, Connecticut Medicaid can better connect beneficiaries who frequently show up in the emergency room with the services they need to prevent expensive future emergencies. Efforts like these can generate even more savings, but are difficult to implement without first getting rid of the Medicaid middlemen because those middlemen tend to view necessary data about their enrollees as a trade secret.

Regardless, collecting and combining the differently formatted data from each one in order to gain useful insights for care coordination would be a statistician’s nightmare even if we make the big assumption that MCOs are willing to share their data and that combining it all is technically possible.

Estimating the precise savings from improved care coordination and reduced administrative costs is complicated, but we can make broad judgments by comparing Medicaid spending per beneficiary in Minnesota and Connecticut. To be sure, this is a simplification because the two states’ Medicaid programs differ in what they cover and the precise payment rates they use for specific services, but these differences are likely minor in the aggregate. Both Connecticut and Minnesota have been historically run by Democratic-leaning governments that tend to provide comprehensive benefits packages without creating onerous eligibility rules.

Doing that calculation, if Minnesota spent what Connecticut did on Medicaid per beneficiary, the state would have saved about $1.5 billion in 2024. The federal government would have saved about $2.6 billion, too. If MCOs save significant money, as is often claimed, such an extreme result shouldn’t be possible.

At the very least, $1.5 billion in savings would substantially reduce the state budget shock that would occur should Republicans in Congress follow through with their ongoing proposals to pass massive cuts to federal Medicaid funding. Former Rep. Jennifer Schultz, a health economist, recently estimated those cuts would cost Minnesota $2 billion.

It’s important to remember that federal Medicaid cuts don’t necessarily eliminate spending. They just pass the shirked expenses onto the states. State legislatures that must then decide whether to fill the gap with state tax dollars or actually cut health care for low income and disabled people. Our state Constitution requires that the state have a balanced budget, and meeting that requirement without cutting program benefits and eligibility — If Congress follows through on cuts to Medicaid funding — will be a fiscal nightmare if we do nothing about wasteful Medicaid MCO administrative costs.

This legislative session, Minnesota has divided control of government, requiring bipartisan cooperation.

Republicans might be willing to cut Medicaid spending to balance the state budget, but Democrats will definitely be hesitant to do so unless program benefits and eligibility can be protected.

The Connecticut model is a win-win for both. Cutting out the Medicaid middlemen is a great opportunity for both parties. They can fulfill their promises of bipartisan cooperation, reduce future budget deficits, and improve the quality of our Medicaid program, which funds crucial health care services for some of our state’s most vulnerable residents.

The legislation (SF1059/HF255) is ready to roll, but the clock is quickly ticking toward May 19.

It could be a bad legislative session for bad drivers.

Traffic safety is one place where lawmakers appear inclined to reach bipartisan consensus this year. Proposals range from more requirements for people looking to get behind the wheel after impaired driving offenses to stiffer penalties for those with a lead foot.

“Running stop lights, speeding — all the highways are insane. I mean, you go down any highway somebody blows your doors off at 100 miles an hour,” said Rep. Terry Stier, R-Belle Plaine. “Hopefully the public is fed up with it, and they get behind us.”

Stier has been in law enforcement for 23 years, the past four as the chief of the Belle Plaine Police Department.

Stier, a first-term lawmaker, wasted little time pushing to boost the penalty for drivers who flee from police from three to up to five years in prison.

“They’re putting the entire general public at risk,” Stier said. “They're crashing into squad cars and they're hurting officers in the process. So we have to find a way to stop this."

Along with Stier’s legislation, there are bills to toughen punishments for speeding, repeat DWIs and driving without a license.

The driving bills are some of the few that have bipartisan support so far this session. In a session where the parties are split pretty much down the middle — 101 DFLers and 100 Republicans — that bodes well for the drive to change the rules of the road.

Gov. Tim Walz also has speeding in his sights. He’s recommended that drivers caught going more than 35 miles an hour above the speed limit get their licenses revoked for six months. Currently, that sanction applies to drivers zooming at more than 100 miles per hour.

“The expected goal of this new law is to provide an additional tool for law enforcement to address the most excessive types [of] speeding violations,” the budget proposal says.

While pointing to the possibility of more court activity and licensing sanctions, “the further goal is to see a decrease over time regarding this unsafe driving that affects the safety of all Minnesotans.”

Col. Christina Bogojevic, the chief of the Minnesota State Patrol, said it’s a common-sense change.

“We’re looking at all speed limits because it’s just as dangerous going 70 miles per hour and a 30 mile per hour zone, as it is over 100 on a freeway,” she said.

State data shows speed citations ticked up during a three-year period that transportation officials analyzed; there were nearly 90,000 in 2022.

Bogojevic says that tracks with what her troopers are seeing.

Last year was the deadliest year on Minnesota roads since 2021. Speed was a factor in nearly 30 percent of those 2024 crashes.

“When you look at last year’s fatal numbers of 478 deaths on Minnesota roadways, it’s brought a lot of attention to what’s being seen out there,” Bogojevic said. “So people are looking for any effort they can to bring those numbers down. When you’re talking 72 more families that are notified that a loved one has been killed on the road, it's just too many.”

Repeat drunk drivers are another key concern.

Last fall, a man with multiple DWIs drove his vehicle into the patio at the Park Tavern in St. Louis Park, killing two people and injuring several more.

Sen. Ron Latz and Rep. Larry Kraft, both Democrats representing St. Louis Park, are seeking stricter penalties and requiring longer use of breathalyzer car starters for those with multiple DWIs.

It comes after a deadly crash last summer at Park Tavern, a well-known community gathering spot. Two people died and nine others were injured when a man accused of driving drunk plowed into the patio area where they were seated.

The man, Stephen Bailey, has pleaded not guilty to third-degree murder and several vehicular criminal operations charges. His trial is scheduled for May. Bailey had five prior DWIs on his record but was no longer required to use an interlock device.

Latz and Kraft planned to promote the legislation alongside the tragedy’s victims, their families, advocates and other community members at an event Friday at Park Tavern.

Their bill also expands the lookback window from 10 to 20 years for when a past DWI conviction can be considered in harsher punishments for subsequent offenses.

“Those things can really help eliminate those repeat offenders through these ignition interlock requirements,” said Lauren Johnson with Mothers Against Drunk Driving Minnesota. “This is at least a step in the right direction, and I hope that this can give some sort of peace to those that were directly impacted by that crash.”

Regents Preemptively Surrender

Add the University of Minnesota to the long list of institutions that have happily capitulated in the face of threats from the Trump administration. Despite intense pushback from both faculty and alumni, the Board of Regents passed a resolution Friday, by a vote of 9-3, that will drastically limit academic freedom.

As a result, no university “unit,” such as a department or a center, may now address "matters of public concern or public interest” (well, that narrows it down) without the approval of the university president, Rebecca Cunningham. This limitation on academic speech is rooted in the days following October 7, 2023, when academic units such as the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies spoke out about the Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli military response in Gaza. In response 26 state legislators demanded that the U remove such statements.

“We cannot ignore the reality that the public, whether it is the federal government, our state legislature or donors, is holding the university accountable for the statements and positions by units within the university and is then taking actions against the university that jeopardize its mission and operations,” says Board of Regents Chair Janie Mayeron, an absolute fucking coward without a clue why universities exist.

The Regents certainly got more nervous with the election of Donald Trump, especially as his goons have threatened to illegally withhold grants to universities unless their demands are complied with. In February, the administration launched an investigation into “antisemitism” at the U, a matter that a guy who derisively called Chuck Schumer “a Palestinian” can certainly diagnose accurate and fairly.

Maybe some regents even think this will appease their critics. But for a taste of the future, look to Columbia University, where compliance with Trump's wishes has only led to more demands. Trump doesn't want to stamp out antisemitism; he wants to stamp out universities.

Quite simply, no one who thinks this resolution will silence bad-faith critics has the judgment and intelligence to be making decisions on the U’s behalf. Respect to dissenting regents Robyn Gulley, Bo Thao-Urabe, and Mary Turner, the only three members of the board with any respect for academic freedom.

Who Built the Timberwolves?

Almost three years ago, at the urging of then-minority owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, the Minnesota Timberwolves landed a big-fish president of basketball operations in Tim Connelly, who'd built the Denver Nuggets into a powerhouse team that'd win the Finals the following year. Your currently surging 38-29 Wolves have flourished under Connelly, but how well do we know—really know—the 48-year-old hoops executive?

Well the state's best basketball writer, Britt Robson, is on the case for Mpls-St. Paul Magazine. Robson authored this loooooooong, illuminating profile of Connelly, and it's chock-full of goodies for T-Wolves fans. Voted "shyest" senior at his Baltimore high school, the future basketball boss slugged it out for a decade in the scouting department of the Washington Wizards. He'd eventually come out of his shell in a major way. Robson writes that, today, "great relationships" are Connelly's super power.

“Tim connects with people better than anyone I’ve ever met,” says Adam Simon, assistant GM for the Miami Heat. “You know how, when you meet someone for a second time, you work to remember how you know them in the first place? Tim remembers everything that was talked about, what you like personally, what you do for a living, the whole initial conversation."

The story is loaded with neat anecdotes about Connelly globetrotting as a scout, paying cash for VHS tapes of players in Italy and struggling to escape Latvia without a credit card. For the family man who oversees the Wolves roster, that sorta thing remains his favorite part of the increasingly global game: “To meet really cool people all over the world."

Ruling: MN Can Still Prosecute Weed Crimes on Reservations

Recreational marijuana has been legalized by both the state and on tribal land, but anyone with an egregious amount of green can still be prosecuted and serve jail time. That’s the ruling a Minnesota district court judge recently made regarding a case against Todd Thompson, a White Earth man who is facing felony charges that could net him up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The man, who owns a smoke shop, was raided the day after the state legalized marijuana, with police seizing 7.5 pounds of cannabis and $1,958 in cash from his store (his home was also searched but nothing was found there). While his lawyers are appealing the decision, Thompson will likely have to go to trial (and, potentially, prison) as his case proceeds.

“The potential conviction of a Native American man for selling marijuana without a license would seem to cut against one of the central arguments Minnesota Democrats made in favor of legalization, which was to undo racial disparities in marijuana charges,” Minnesota Reformer's Max Nesterak writes of one of Thompson’s arguments in this really good primer on the case.

In this specific case, that angle might not be strong enough. “[Thompson] possessed a large quantity of marijuana well over the limit for public places,” the judge states in the ruling. “Moreover, these facts along with the tip received by law enforcement in July 2023 show that Thompson’s conduct predated August 1, 2023.” Regardless, the ruling and pending case would set a precedent for similar prosecutions.

Consequences for Bad Drivers

Racket staffers are collectively of the mindset the way people drive these days is out of fucking control. It's not normal to run red lights; it's not normal to drive 20 mph over the speed limit on residential streets; it's not normal to use bike lanes—especially separated bike lanes—as lanes of traffic; it's certainly not normal to smash into parked cars or flip over into front yards and then flee the scene.

Apparently, our legislators have also had enough. As Peter Cox reports for MPR News, there are a bunch of bills with bipartisan legislative support that would toughen punishments for speeding, repeat DWIs, and driving without a license. Gov. Tim Walz actually wants drivers caught going more than 35 mph over the speed limit get their licenses revoked for six months. Good! Everyone needs to get a grip!

“Running stop lights, speeding—all the highways are insane. I mean, you go down any highway somebody blows your doors off at 100 miles an hour,” Rep. Terry Stier (R-Belle Plaine) says. “Hopefully the public is fed up with it, and they get behind us.”

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https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=SF2589&version=0&session=ls94&session_year=2025&session_number=0

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/18952049

Monica Duque never knows how many hours she is going to get in a given week. She works at the Jerry’s Cub Foods on East Lake Street at the front of the store, helping customers, overseeing cashiering, and running online shopping. She finds out her hours, she explains, “when the schedule is posted on Friday, for the week after next.”

“There is no consistency,” says the 24 year old, which makes it hard to save money, or plan much for the future. She makes a little over $20 an hour, and even being cut 10 hours in a week can have a big impact on her finances. “I can do morning one day then night shift the next day. I go from eight-hour days to barely getting seven-hour days. I can never really rely on how much money I’m going to make.”

“People just want to be able to afford to live. One job should be enough to do that.”

Duque is one of around 9,000 Minnesota grocery workers whose union contracts with 14 different companies expired in early March. Of these workers, approximately 7,000 are engaged in coordinated bargaining with seven employers: Haug’s Cub Foods, Jerry’s Cub Foods/Jerry’s Foods, Kowalski’s Markets, Radermacher’s Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Knowlan’s Festival Foods, and UNFI Cub Foods.

At least the bargaining is coordinated on the part of their union, United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 663. The union sits down at the table with the employers together, and gives them joint proposals, but the employers are insisting on bargaining seven different agreements.