Minneapolis - St. Paul Metro

This fall, Minnesotans will vote on whether to renew a proposal earmarking some money from the state lottery to fund environmental programs, including parks projects, conservation and clean water efforts.

Back in 1988, voters approved a Minnesota constitutional amendment dedicating a portion of lottery proceeds to the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. Since then, voters have thrice renewed the proposal. However, a new provision this year reserves 1.5 percent of funds for projects in underserved communities.

Rep. Athena Hollins, DFL-St. Paul, sponsored the 2023 bill to reauthorize the earmark and told MPR News that the change would help ensure money doesn’t just go to large organizations.

“Think like University of Minnesota, Conservation Minnesota, groups that have been well established and also have the time and staffing to be able to apply to this grant process,” she said. “And so what we're trying to do is provide an opportunity for other organizations, maybe smaller organizations, organizations that are more community-led and focused, grassroots, to be able to access a tiny amount of this money and hopefully then grow to be able to participate in the full LCCMR process.”

LCCMR, or Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, is a group of legislators and citizens that makes funding recommendations to the legislature for the use of the trust’s money. Through that process, it’s allocated $1.5 billion to more than 2,600 projects since its founding in 1963.

Last month, a group of more than 130 conservation and environmental organizations and businesses announced they’d campaign together to convince voters to support renewing the amendment which needs a clear majority to pass. Since it’s a constitutional amendment, leaving the ballot question blank counts as a no-vote — and some proponents told MPR News they were worried the presidential election and other races would overshadow this.

“I think when people understand the question, they are wholeheartedly in favor of it, and I think it’s one of the things that unites us as Minnesotans: We love the outdoors, and we will protect it,” Hollins said. “It’s really important that people not just look at it and say, ‘Well, that sounds like a good idea.’ They need to proactively vote yes for it.”

Eleven people were released from the Hennepin County Jail on Wednesday following their arrests at a protest on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus on Monday calling for divestment from Israel.

Prosecutors charged 23-year-old Robyn Harbison with fourth-degree assault. Harbison is a U of M alum and was released from custody pending a future court date, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

The other 10 people arrested are not facing charges at this time.

“After review, decisions on felony-level charges in 10 cases have been deferred pending additional routine investigation, including any information connecting specific individuals to specific acts, damages, and costs,” a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.

About 30 people waited outside the jail to greet the 11 arrestees as they left on Wednesday. The group of arrestees included eight current students and three recent graduates, according to student organizers.

The 11 protesters entered Morrill Hall on the university’s Twin Cities campus on Monday, following a student march calling on the university to divest from Israel and weapons manufacturers. Students were also protesting campus policies limiting protests to certain hours and locations.

“We’re gonna keep being here as long as it takes for the university to divest its weapons manufacturer investments and bonds from Israel,” Harbison said after being released from jail Wednesday.

The arrested protesters were among those who occupied Morrill Hall on Monday, blocking some entrances and exits with furniture and bike locks. Campus administrators say protesters spray painted over security cameras and broke windows inside.

Police entered the building later that evening and made arrests. Students continued protests over recent days following the arrests, rallying outside the Hennepin County Jail and leading rallies on campus.

https://archive.is/7n1zb

The city of Minneapolis is taking advantage of a workaround to a federal rule blocking the construction of new public housing units.

The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority will use federal, state and local funds to construct 15 new affordable apartments as part of a larger renovation of Spring Manor, a 221-unit public housing complex in northeast Minneapolis.

It’s one of about 15 projects nationwide using a new federal funding program to work around the restrictions imposed by the Faircloth Amendment, which effectively froze the number of public housing units any one public housing authority can manage in 1999.

The $65 million project is the largest rehab project in MPHA history. Residents have long asked city and state leaders to fix up the 57-year-old high rise, which has dilapidated floors, poor ventilation and dysfunctional air conditioning, according to residents and local representatives.

“You had me over last year — you put my feet to the fire,” Ward 3 Council Member Michael Rainville told residents in the audience at a Tuesday press conference.

For the existing buildings, MPHA will replace and improve plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning systems; upgrade kitchens, bathrooms, appliances and finishes; rework the ventilation system; add accessibility features to some units; and repair windows and roofs.

The agency will also construct a four-story addition, which will contain a gym, office space, internet lounge, bike storage and community space on the first floor. The top three floors will house residents in nine one-bedroom and six two-bedroom disability accessible units.

“When this project is done, these spaces will be worthy of the people who live here,” said U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., at the Tuesday press conference.

Smith introduced legislation last month that would repeal the Faircloth Amendment and create a new department within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund and develop affordable housing.

The $65 million price tag will be paid for with a complex scheme of federal, state, city and MPHA funds. It will only make a small dents — around $10 million — in MPHA’s $260 million maintenance backlog.

https://archive.is/Rar8Y

https://archive.is/nTkvY

In general open governance is good. These requests look silly at the same time, e.g. asking about CRT. At the same same time,

The Owatonna People’s Press last month reported the Owatonna school district spent $300,000 to fulfill a data request related to an equity plan and assessment and a word search of district correspondence containing words and phrases such as “Black Lives Matter,” “systemic racism” and “critical race theory.”

It's crazy that it cost $300k to do that. I think ideally, requests like this wouldn't be an issue even if they're not really in good faith, because responding to them would take someone a few button clicks.

The drumbeat of anticipation for Triumph apples dates back to at least 2021, when KARE 11 teased the University of Minnesota's long-awaited new entry into the apple canon.

"Most of what you see behind me is most of the world’s supply," U of M research scientist David Bedford told the station, gesturing to just four trees. "It was 31 years from the time that the breeding was done on this one until we released it this year, so it’s definitely a long game."

While orchards have been planting Triumph trees since '21, the hybrid fruit—part Honeycrisp, part Liberty—that touts "excellent scab tolerance, good fresh eating qualities, and long storage life" isn't expected to hit the retail market until 2025, according to the U. (Its name stems from its resistance to the fungal disease known as apple scab—"a triumph over apple scab!")

But, beginning earlier this week, a narrow avenue has opened for local apple-freaks to obtain Triumphs: Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market, the neighborhood grocer/bodega hybrid situated blocks from the U of M's ag-focused St. Paul campus. Ted Spreigl, the owner and produce director, managed to tap into the supply due his connections at Fireside Orchard in Northfield.

"I've built a pretty good relationship with them over the past four years, and it was simply a matter of asking them: 'Hey, can I get a few bags?'" Spreigl says. "To my knowledge, and to the orchard's, we're the first retailer selling them. It's a big deal, actually. I was shocked we were able to do it."

Speedy Market snagged 24 Triumph bags from Fireside, and 12 reportedly remain today. Scoot your butt over to St. Paul to score a $9.99 bag. Spreigl is an early Triumph fan.

"It is delicious," he says, noting that customers have been excited to get a sneak peek. "It's not too tart, not too sweet. It has a nice crunch to it, and it's perfect for dipping into caramel. Just a great, juicy eating apple."

That more or less tracks with our taste test. The Triumph is airier and crispier than the mighty, U of M-launched Honeycrisp, though it manages to pack a similar (albeit more muted) tart-sweet balance. We weren't familiar with the second strain in this hybrid, Liberty, which one upstate New York nursery describes as: "a large McIntosh-style fruit… sweet-tart, aromatic, crisp, and juicy—perfect for fresh eating or for cider blends."

"I haven’t been able to find a Liberty apple yet but I’ve been on the lookout," Brian Frange, the Long Island comedian/rigorous apple critic behind Apple Rankings, tells us when prompted for a Liberty review. "This Triumph apple sounds like a real legendary apple potential. I can’t wait to try it!"

Oh, yeah! Quick shoutout to Tim & Tom’s Speedy Market, a family-run Como Avenue staple since 1995. Aside from scoring generational apple scoops, the place is generally delightful and was buzzing with lunch energy during our Wednesday visit.

"It's an interesting store—kind of a cross between a Kowalski's and a bodega," says Spreigl, whose dad founded Speedy Market and whose brother co-owns it. "We have a full-service butcher, full deli, fresh produce form local producers, organic, imports; we run the gamut, and we fit it into a really tiny space."

How do ya like them apples?

Alright take us out, Charli!

Charli xcx - Apple

Winning an election in our divided, distracted culture with its hopelessly fragmented media landscape requires a deft mix of political strategy but also something else: brand marketing. Kamala Harris and her party navigated the politics of this wild summer with nary a misstep. To my eyes informed by decades in the advertising business, they’re also winning the marketing fight.

While Donald Trump has been using his platform to hawk merchandise – printed-in-China bibles and crypto currencies – the Harris campaign has done a sophisticated job of building a positive emotional brand to contrast the deep negativity of the Trump/Vance campaign. That’s worth keeping in mind as we enter the final stretch of a fraught campaign.

Not everyone is so optimistic about all these emotions bubbling to the surface of the election. Patrick Healy of the New York Times opinion page wrote flatly of the Harris campaign, “Joy is not a strategy.”

But if we dig a little deeper into what’s driving all that joy you might have a different opinion.

I find it useful to distill a marketing strategy down to a few key words. Earlier this year I put together my own wish list. It’s been fascinating to watch so many of them emerge as themes of the Harris-Walz campaign, and I’d encourage Democrats at every level of the campaignto focus on these words even as they make the case that Trump is unfit for another term.

“New” is at the top of my list. Originally it was there as a hope-to-have. Now it’s what the Democrats have given the voters, improbably enough given that Harris is an incumbent. In the ad biz we have a saying that that new is the most powerful word in the language. It signifies hope. We shouldn’t be surprised it’s driving a lot of momentum. Symbolism is also helping. Trump’s grumpy old-billionaire scowl vs. Harris’s meme-friendly smile.

With the initial head rush wearing off, the campaign’s job is to keep finding ways to contrast a steady stream of energetic new ideas with a Trump campaign that, for now at least, is doing them the favor of re-running the same tired old show from 2016 and 2020.

“Unity” comes next. At one point I wondered if the word unity could work much the way the word “hope” fueled Obama’s first campaign, given the unsettling feeling among voters that the whole country might be breaking apart.

It’s more complicated than that, but we have been hearing the word a lot from both parties. I’ll fearlessly predict that Trump reached his highwater market when he said his brush with an assassin’s bullet had made him a changed man out to unify the country. Now that he’s disavowed that vow and reverted to form, unity is ripe for the Democrats to own. It can be as simple as using the word “we” rather than breaking everything down into party or identity. Harris hit the perfect note by offering, “A chance to chart a new way forward, not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”

“American” is a word I’ve been waiting to hear more of from the Democrats, and it was a great thing to see them reclaim patriotism at their convention. In the past they’ve tended to leave the cynical flag-waving to the other party. But there is deeper, more authentic kind of patriotism. It is serious high ground. By becoming the party of Trump with all his badmouthing of the country we all share, the Republicans have given the Democrats a rare opportunity to claim it for their own.

“Freedom” is the other word from the Republican lexicon that the Harris campaign has been busy taking ownership of. It’s a neat bit of marketing jujutsu to defend something better than tax cuts and deregulation with the kind of soaring rhetoric Ronald Reagan once used.

Given the swamp of disinformation and misinformation we’re all living in, “truth” carries special significance. Some strategists will tell you everyone knows Donald Trump is dishonest; he is after all a convicted felon. Why waste time and money repeating it?

Standing on the side of truth is useful as a defense against the barrage of false attacks being aimed at Democratic candidates all up and down the ballot, and it’s an easy case to make as we see Republican lies do real harm to hurricane survivors or the people of Springfield, Ohio.

Here’s a positive way to frame it. Lying is lazy leadership that holds this country back. Moving forward means facing hard truths together.

There’s a marketing strategy in five words: new, unity, American, freedom, truth. Easy to remember. Easy to share. I don’t know if that’s the way people advising the Harris/Waltz campaign would describe their efforts, but it’s a good way to understand what they’ve achieved in an astonishingly short time.

They’re good words to keep in mind by any Democratic candidate who doesn’t want the emotional advantage of late summer to get lost in the hard politicking that’s sure to come with the campaign’s final days.

https://archive.is/Bc9ej

https://archive.is/THRUX

Welcome to The Topline, a weekly roundup of the big numbers driving the Minnesota news cycle, as well as the smaller ones that you might have missed. This week: A record breaking year for charter school failures; Twin Cities apartment construction plummets; early voting returns; cannabis testing shenanigans; and Minnesotans’ electoral power.

Record number of charter schools failing, with more possibly ahead

The Star Tribune reports that nine of the state’s 181 charter schools have shut down this year, with another one facing the imminent revocation of its authorization over financial and management difficulties.

The story focuses on the STEP Academy in St. Paul and Burnsville, which serves a student body that’s 99% Black and predominantly immigrant. The school overextended itself with a recent expansion followed by enrollment projections that failed to materialize. It also had to repay $800,000 to the Department of Education for overstating its enrollment last year.

vCharter schools, when run well, can be a bridge to success for students from disadvantaged communities who have challenges in traditional schools. But the overwhelming majority of Minnesota’s charter schools lag traditional public schools on standard measures of student achievement, and some experts argue that by catering to specific minority communities, many charters are bringing about a new era of school segregation.

Minnesota taxpayers spent over $1 billion on charter school funding last year.

Apartment construction projected to drop sharply

Axios reports that apartment construction is projected to drop 43% in the Twin Cities over the next five years, the sharpest decline in the nation. The drop is partly a response to the flurry of new housing construction in the previous five years, which stabilized rents here even as they soared in other major metros. Developers say they’re slowing things down while they wait for existing apartments to be filled.

Places like Wichita, Kansas and Bozeman, Montana, meanwhile, are projected to see new apartment construction explode by close to 250%.

One general word of caution, however: All forecasts are based on assumptions about how people will behave and how events will unfold in the coming months and years, and they often turn out to be off the mark or simply wrong.

Early voting: down from 2020, up from 2022

Minnesota election expert and occasional Reformer contributor Max Hailperin has been keeping tabs on early voting returns. So far, this year, the pattern is mainly what you’d expect: Early voting to date is down from the comparable point in the 2020 election cycle, when we were in the middle of a global pandemic and a massive push to vote by mail.

They’re up, however, from 2022, which is expected given that turnout is always higher in presidential election years.

So far, the decline from 2020 is slightly less steep in greater Minnesota, where many people had been accustomed to voting by mail well before the pandemic.

Data suggests cannabis quality testers are fudging mold levels

An investigation from the Wall Street Journal finds that labs in many cannabis-legal states are four times more likely to report mold levels just under the legal limit than just over. They also found that lab test results were directly tied to their future revenues: Labs detecting less mold got more business in the following year, while those detecting more saw their business drop.

“The improbable pattern suggests tainted samples are being cleared for sale,” the Journal’s authors write, with potentially harmful health consequences for users who assume that legal cannabis products are safe.

Minnesotans’ voting power

Cartography website maps.com recently ran an analysis of each state’s electoral power in presidential elections. Because states are guaranteed at least three electors, regardless of population, smaller states tend to be over-represented in the Electoral College while larger states are disadvantaged.

A vote in Wyoming, for instance, carries about three times as much electoral power as one from California, Texas or New York. Sparsely-populated places like Vermont and the Dakotas have similar advantages.

As with so many other things, Minnesota sits squarely in the middle of the pack. But that could change following the next census, however, as the state is projected to lose a seat in the House of Representatives, which means we’ll have one less electoral vote as well.

“People live by their stories—how can we use them to accelerate action on climate change?”

That’s the question Anna Farro Henderson sets out to answer in Core Samples: A Climate Scientist's Experiments in Politics and Motherhood (University of Minnesota Press, 208 pages). As a U of M scientist and policy expert who’s worked in Washington, D.C., but also been on field visits to nuclear test sites in New Mexico and the Juneau Icefield in Alaska, Henderson authored a book that's full of funny, poetic essays on politics, science, and motherhood, and the surprising places where those things intersect.

There will be a Core Samples launch event this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Open Book Performance Hall (1011 Washington Ave S., Minneapolis), which'll feature Henderson in conversation with Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman. Books will be available for purchase from Magers & Quinn Booksellers, with live music preceding the talk and a book signing, interactive public art, and more music following it. (Free, but registration is required.)

Construction on a new $22 million shared commercial kitchen in north Minneapolis began on Wednesday.

Collective Kitchens is a food incubator project created by the North Economic Opportunity Network, or NEON. The organization helps underserved and low-income entrepreneurs start businesses to build wealth within the community.

“This building is going to be more than just a physical space, it’s about creating generational wealth, building careers and leaving behind an enduring legacy,” said Mariam Omari, a co-founder of K’s Revolutionary Catering in north Minneapolis.

Omari has been a NEON client for several years. She says her business is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and has found success with the support received from NEON.

“They help to build an ecosystem to support entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs like us, an ecosystem that's going to be able to weather any storm that we have coming,” Omari said.

Collective Kitchens has gained support from elected city and state officials.

Sen. Tina Smith attended Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony. She said Minneapolis’ northside has had deficits of resources and opportunity to grow and thrive. Parts of north Minneapolis are food deserts, regions where people have limited access to healthy, affordable foods.

“This kitchen is going to be a place where new businesses are generated, where people get training, where there’s new economic activity and there's more opportunity,” Smith said.

State Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and NEON President Warren McLean also spoke on behalf of Collective Kitchens.

Many community members and NEON clients hold much anticipation and enthusiasm for the project.

Michael Feng owns BianDang, a Taiwanese pop-up food truck. He said the new kitchen will help him to grow his business.

“Being able to just kind of house our trailer here on site and with their incubator ... providing guidance for whether it’s wholesale or just any avenue that we decided to go on, this would be, a great opportunity,” Feng said.

The kitchen will be located on West Broadway Avenue next to the Capri Theater.

Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Workers’ paychecks are increasing much faster than prices; 62,000 Minnesotans work in green(er) energy; U of M and graduate student union at impasse; fair pay icon Lilly Ledbetter dies; and Home Depot execs must work retail shifts.

Wages far outpace inflation

Wages have risen twice as fast as inflation on average over the past year in Minnesota, which has pushed workers’ buying power back to where it was before inflation took off in 2021, according to data released by the state Department of Employment and Economic Development.

“This is especially encouraging news for everyone who’s been reminded of inflation during trips to the grocery store, the gas station and elsewhere,” said DEED Commissioner Matt Varilek on a call with reporters on Thursday.

Wages in Minnesota increased 4.9% on average — slightly higher than the 4.6% growth nationally — over the past year to $38 per hour for private sector workers, while the consumer price index rose 2.4% over the same time.

Zooming out to include the recent years of high inflation, wages grew 15.1% in Minnesota on average over the past three years while inflation over the same period was 14.9%. That’s why many workers may feel like they’ve been trying to run up a down escalator since the pandemic.

Wage growth has been strongest for lower-paid workers, with only those in the bottom half of the income scale seeing real wage growth through peak inflation. Those gains for lower-paid workers helped decrease economic inequality but are now leveling off, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Unionized workers leveraged their collective bargaining power to secure much higher pay raises than nonunion workers. Union workers struck hospitals, auto plants and nursing homes and won double-digit pay increases.

With inflation tamed, the Federal Reserve has begun lowering interest rates to head off slower economic activity for the first time since 2020, which will make borrowing money for big purchases like cars and homes more affordable to everyday workers.

DEED also announced strong job growth in September, with employers adding 6,300 jobs. Unemployment ticked up 0.1% to 3.4%, but remains lower than the national rate of 4.1%.

Green(er) energy jobs rebound after pandemic

Green energy jobs surpassed 60,000 in Minnesota for the first time since the pandemic, spurred by generous federal subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act and the state’s law requiring 100% of energy to be carbon-free by 2035, according to a report released this week by three industry groups.

The analysis of employment data found green energy jobs grew 4% in 2023, far surpassing job growth across the entire economy.

The industry groups behind the report — E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs), Evergreen Climate Innovations and Clean Energy Economy MN — include broad swaths of workers not typically thought of as working in clean energy. Two-thirds of the clean energy jobs counted in the analysis — 44,500 — are employed in energy efficiency: manufacturing efficient appliances, installing heat pumps and constructing buildings with efficient materials like ‘low-carbon concrete.’

The analysis also tallied 9,000 jobs in renewable energy like solar and wind, 4,500 jobs in electric vehicles, 3,000 jobs in grid and storage, and 700 jobs in ethanol and other biofuels.

U of M and graduate student union at impasse

Negotiations between the University of Minnesota and the newly formed union representing around 4,000 graduate students broke down this month after a year of bargaining. The contract will be the first for graduate students, who voted by a wide margin to unionize in April 2023 after five failed attempts going back to 1974.

The two sides, which entered mediation in August, are at an impasse over whether about 1,500 graduate students and trainees on fellowships should be added to the union after the Legislature passed sweeping changes to the law governing unions at the university earlier this year.

The new state law says graduate school fellows and trainees are part of the graduate assistant unit, but the university argues that fellows are not public employees because they do not perform work at the direction of the university.

The Graduate Labor Union, United Electrical Local 1105, says the university agreed to continue negotiating over wages, benefits and other issues while the state Bureau of Mediation Services — which oversees public-sector unions — makes its ruling on the graduate fellows.

But the union says the university reneged after the last negotiating session on Oct. 10 by asking BMS to issue an order suspending negotiations and preventing any changes on wages or other employment conditions until the agency reaches a decision.

“Because of the university’s dishonest decision to halt bargaining after 13 months of productive negotiation, graduate assistants must continue to endure low pay, discriminatory fees, and no recourse for abuse in the workplace,” the union wrote in a statement.

BMS Commissioner Johnny Villarreal said in an interview that it’s typical for the agency to pause negotiations when there is a dispute over who is included in the union, especially in cases where only one side has asked for the review and the workers don’t already have a contract in place.

A spokesman for the university declined to comment beyond an update posted to its website.

Fair pay fighter Lilly Ledbetter dies at 86

Lilly Ledbetter, who became an American icon in the fight for equal pay after taking on her employer for paying men more than she for the same job, died on Saturday in Alabama at 86 years old.

Ledbetter’s battle against Goodyear began near the end of her 19-year career at the tire plant, when she received an anonymous note that men in the same supervisory roles were earning as much as 40% more, the New York Times reported in their story on her death.

Ledbetter sued in 1999 and a jury awarded her $3.8 million in back pay and damages. The judge in the case reduced the award to $360,000, and then the verdict was overturned entirely on appeal. A narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ruling against Ledbetter, holding that the Civil Rights Act required her to have filed a complaint within 180 days of her first unequal paycheck.

Ledbetter had found out about the pay discrimination too late, and never received a dime.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her dissent, argued it was virtually impossible for Ledbetter to have known she was being discriminated against since salaries are usually secret. Ledbetter said Goodyear barred workers from discussing pay.

Ginsburg urged Congress to change the law, which they did when Democrats swept control of government after the 2008 elections. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which extends the statue of limitations on fair-pay claims, was the first bill President Barack Obama signed into law as president.

“Lilly Ledbetter never set out to be a trailblazer or a household name. She just wanted to be paid the same as a man for her hard work,” Obama wrote in a statement.

Union petitions surge

Workers are continuing to unionize at high rates since the labor movement’s renaissance the past few years.

The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees private sector unions, reported that petitions for union elections are up 27% across the country this fiscal year, which ended in September. The agency received 3,286 union election petitions in 2024, more than double the petitions filed in 2021.

Joe Biden, who aims to be the most pro-union president in history, heralded the news and boasted that he is the first president in five decades to see an increase in union petitions.

“When unions do well, all workers do well and the entire economy benefits,” he said in a statement.

In Minnesota, unions filed 85 petitions for representation in 2024, more than twice the 38 petitions filed in 2021.

Despite enthusiasm and public support for unions, the share of workers represented by unions is at an all-time low in modern American history. Union membership ticked down nearly a full percentage point from 14.2% to 13.3% in Minnesota in 2023, inching closer to the national average of 10%.

Home Depot executives must take a retail shift

Home Depot’s corporate workers will have to work a full 8-hour shift at one of its retail stores once every three months in order to better support its retail staff, Bloomberg News reported.

“We need to stay connected to the core of our business, so we can truly understand the challenges and opportunities our store associates face every day,” CEO Ted Decker said in the memo obtained by Bloomberg.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota is providing legal representation to Jessica Beske, a Fargo woman facing decades in prison and a potential $1 million fine over bong water allegedly found in her possession in a case that has raised questions about uneven enforcement of the state’s drug laws.

“We’re pretty broadly interested in making sure Minnesotans aren’t criminalized for things like addiction,” said attorney Alicia Granse, who is working on the case. “Do we want to be spending so much of our resources on bong water?”

The ACLU’s involvement speaks to the unusual nature of the case itself, as well as its broader implications for criminal justice reform efforts in Minnesota.

Beske was pulled over in May in Polk County in the northwest part of the state. Upon searching her car, sheriff’s deputies reported they found drug paraphernalia and methamphetamine residue, as well as a glass bong containing 8 ounces of water.

Because of a longstanding loophole in state law, the county attorney’s office was able to treat the bong water as if it were 8 ounces of pure methamphetamine, warranting a first-degree drug charge carrying up to 30 years in prison.

The materials allegedly found in her car would not otherwise have resulted in any criminal charges thanks to a 2023 bill decriminalizing drug paraphernalia containing residue.

Bong water prosecutions are highly unusual, and Beske’s story garnered widespread media attention after the Reformer first reported on her case. The Office of Polk County Attorney has a reputation for zealous prosecution of drug cases. A 2014 Star Tribune story revealed it was one of a few in the state charging people for violating an archaic law requiring them to pay taxes on illicit drugs.

“They’re going hard up there,” Granse said. She questions whether charging people for bong water or marijuana tax stamp violations is actually contributing to public safety. “I don’t know if that’s what we really want to be spending our money on, or our time.”

Scott Buhler, the assistant county attorney working on the case, previously told the Reformer that his office “simply enforces the laws of the state as written.” In reality, prosecutors have a great deal of discretion to decide which offenders to charge and which violations to prosecute.

Granse said the case could end up being a lengthy one: “It sounds like this prosecutor is not willing to give up, but neither am I.”

Walz Watch: Body Language and Deep Fake Edition

New York Magazine is taking a closer look at how and why Tim Walz’s body language may play a key role in connecting with people—even from a distance. According to features writer Kerry Howley, he knows how to work a finger gun (“at a middle distance, he will deploy two finger guns; at a shorter distance, one”), he knows when and how to point like a pro (“‘I love you,’ someone shouts from the crowd. Walz points straight at him. ‘You love America!’”), and he is definitely the guy you want on our charades team (“It is difficult to make policy physical, but Walz could mime the agenda if pressed. He has a lexicon of moves.”). The story also covers Walz lore from his teaching days and time repping rural Minnesota in Congress, but it’s Howley’s understanding of political theater and staged communication that make this a fun read.

(Folks will now be able to analyze Walz’s physical mastery more regularly leading up to the election, as NBC News reports that Walz has been released from his “bubble,” with plans to stop by The View and The Daily Show in the coming weeks.)

Meanwhile, on the dark side of the web, aka Twitter/X, Qanon accounts have been circulating a deep fake video of a former student accusing the VP candidate of sexual assault. It’s not real; it’s AI from a dude, DotNetYoutube, who Washington Post reporter Will Sommer says is “an up-and-coming new player in the ‘making things up’ corner of online Trumpworld,” noting that the “appearance of a cursor in a witness's key emails” suggests that “DocNetYoutube wrote it himself.”

Red Guy Living in a Sea of Blue Is More Than He Seems

Shawn Holster is just a Republican living in south Minneapolis, and that’s hard, you know? In this (kinda, supposed to feel-good?) story from Winter Keefer at MinnPost, Holster says he wants folks to know that he gets along with his liberal neighbor, hasn’t experienced any property damage since decorating his lawn (“I’ve had a Trump sign in my front yard… and I haven’t had a single brick through my window”), and he, like many Republicans, is “just like you. We have the same concerns.”

But what the story only mentions briefly is that Holster isn’t just some friendly guy with GOP signage on his lawn—he’s president and chair of the Minneapolis Republican Party. One of his first moves as leader in 2023 was to host a "Rock’n Barbecue" party in the former Clubhouse Jager space. The North Loop spot, owned by Julius DeRoma, closed after it was discovered that he had donated to ex-Ku Klux Klan grand wizard (and surprise Jill Stein supporter) David Duke's 2016 U.S. Senate campaign. Holster told Racket at the time that he thought DeRoma’s support of Duke “was a dumb idea,” but also assured us that his org’s "calendar doesn't include doing Klan shit anytime soon."

Holster is also a former political candidate; in 2022 he ran for District 63’s Minnesota Senate seat, ultimately losing by 71 points to 25-year-old DFL rival Zaynab Mohamed. A quick perusal of his Twitter account suggests he’s anti-trans, thinks the Strib is run by communists, and is a voting truther—yup, sounds like some bipartisan ”same concerns” to me!

A Sweet Labor Story About Sugar Beet Farmers

In 1973, the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association purchased the American Crystal Sugar Co., making them not only the biggest sugar beet producer in the country but also the first sugar beet agricultural cooperative. In this labor story from Workday Magazine, Amie Stager checks in with Mark Froemke, president of the West Minnesota Area Labor Council/Red River Valley, AFL-CIO, who has been working in the sugar beet industry since the 1970s. “I never lost that, the thrill watching them harvest sugar beets,” he confesses. Froemke also reflects on the ACS’s 22-month worker lockout from 2011 to 2013, possible changes in child labor laws in the meatpacking industry, and the challenges of advocating for workers’ rights in a red region.

37 Years Ago Today, the Twins Opened Game 1 of the World Series

This World Series opening segment has it all: an aerial shot of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome; liberal use of the Field of Dreams soundtrack; Al Michaels describing the World Series as a “thoroughly movable feast, and your town never knows it's coming your way until days before.” I wasn’t even living here when this happened, yet I feel nostalgia watching it.

On this day in 1987 Al Michaels opened Game 1 of the World Series in dramatic fashion and it was glorious… pic.twitter.com/nvPMxz4oH0

— Jeff (@MNTwinsZealot) October 17, 2024

https://archive.is/6DPSI

https://archive.is/doOLq

A high-ranking officer with the Minneapolis Police Department has sued media figure Liz Collin and Alpha News for defamation over claims made in the film “The Fall of Minneapolis” and a similarly themed book.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court, Katie Blackwell, the assistant chief of operations for MPD, argues statements Collin made in her film and book about Blackwell’s testimony during the state and federal trials in the murder of George Floyd are lies.

Those lies “have clouded Blackwell’s career,” the lawsuit alleges.

Popular apps that provide cash advances for working people are trapping Minnesotans in a cycle of borrowing and repayment and increasing the rate of bank overdraft fees, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsible Lending.

The companies say they allow workers to borrow money they’ve earned but haven’t received yet, arguing that their cash advances don’t count as loans and shouldn’t be regulated as such. Many apps automatically deduct the money owed from the borrower’s bank account on payday — regardless of whether or not the borrower has enough cash on hand to make the payment, which has led to the increase in overdraft fees.

In Minnesota, two-thirds of users of the apps — known in the industry as “earned wage access” apps — experienced increased overdraft fees after borrowing money. The average user overdrafted their bank account more than 9 times in the three months after their initial payout, according to the analysis by the Center for Responsible Lending.

Rather than charging exorbitant interest rates like payday lenders, the apps make money off of instant transfer fees and “tips.”

The Center for Responsible Lending advocates a federal crackdown on payday lenders and similar businesses, including earned wage access apps.

Minnesota clamped down on payday lenders in the 2023 legislative session, capping interest rates at 33% for loans between $350 and $1,000, and even lower for smaller loans. Minnesotans can still access payday loans with higher-than-allowed interest rates, however, due to a federal law that allows banks to adhere to the laws in the state where they are based, even if they operate in states with tighter restrictions. That means Minnesotans can wind up paying higher interest rates if they wind up with an out-of-state payday lender.

Consumer protection advocates pushed for a bill last session that would have required all lenders operating in Minnesota to adhere to Minnesota regulations; that bill did not pass.

Earned wage access apps function differently from payday loans because they promise not to report outstanding balances to credit bureaus and collections agencies, and they simply discontinue service if a borrower is unable to pay.