By Deena Winter, Minnesota Reformer Public safety has proven to be the most difficult governing and political challenge of Gov. Tim Walz’s tenure. The pandemic fueled a spike in violent crime, while Minnesotans marched against police brutality after the murder of George Floyd. While most protested peacefully, others looted
Suicide rates are much higher in parts of greater Minnesota than they are in the Twin Cities metro. In northeast Minnesota counties like Lake and Cook, the suicide rate is three or more times higher than it is in metro counties like Hennepin, Scott or Dakota.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain told CNN that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear are his two favorites for vice president given their track records of supporting unions.
By Deena Winter, Minnesota Reformer The Minneapolis City Council is poised to approve another $1.4 million in workers’ compensation settlements with 10 former police officers. A council committee voted 5-1 Monday to approve the settlements, with only Chair Robin Wonsley voting “no.” The settlements await an Aug. 1 vote
By Max Nesterak, Minnesota Reformer Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: DFL party reaches rocky compromise on copper-nickel mining; nursing home workers threaten second strike; Minneapolis police approve union contract; senators chastise Amazon for treatment of delivery
Mitchell has been embroiled in scandal ever since she was arrested in April for allegedly breaking into her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home to steal some sentimental items of her late father, including his ashes.
By Kyle Davidson The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration said this year marked a record low in ice coverage on the Great Lakes, which comes as no surprise to Minnesotans who experienced the warmest winter in well over a century. In a post to its blog, NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental
By Christopher Ingraham Four years ago this week, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. The event was captured on video, inspiring protests and riots in Minnesota and beyond. Floyd’s killing brought newfound attention to Minnesota’s longstanding racial disparities, some of the nation’s worst. In the
By Michelle Griffith Democratic lawmakers in the final hour of the 2024 legislative session passed a 1,400 page bill that includes a lengthy list of policy items, from minimum pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers to increased penalties for straw gun purchases and changes to the state’s
By Madison McVan A swing-district Iron Range Democratic lawmaker is driving an effort to create a special pool of financing for Range-only infrastructure projects. The tax omnibus bill, which House and Senate DFL leaders have been negotiating in conference committee this week, contains provisions to direct mining revenue to projects
By Madison McVan, Minnesota Reformer Early education providers and teachers from the Iron Range piled on a bus headed south on Monday morning, shuttering their childcare centers for the day so they could lobby lawmakers at the state Capitol in the final week of the legislative session. Lawmakers have all
By Eric Harris Bernstein, Minnesota Reformer For the second edition of Tax and Spend, I was planning to respond to yet another Star Tribune op-ed declaring that high taxes are ruining Minnesota. The author — former GOP attorney general candidate Jim Schultz — stopped short of describing Minnesota as “a barren hellscape”
By Deena Winter, Minnesota Reformer Recently released city documents, first reported by the Star Tribune, show at least a dozen Minneapolis police officers were disciplined for misconduct in the days of demonstrations and rioting following George Floyd’s May 2020 police killing. Many more left the department before investigations into
By Madison McVan, Minnesota Reformer The Minnesota Senate passed a tenants’ rights bill Monday, including measures that would give tenants the right to organize; codify renters’ right to call emergency services without retaliation; outline remedies for tenants who can’t move into their apartments on time due to construction; and
By Madison McVan, Minnesota Reformer A proposed child care subsidy program that would help Minnesota’s middle class is unlikely to get significant funding this legislative session. The Great Start Child Care Affordability Program, which has been a priority for child care advocates and some DFL lawmakers this session, would
By Christopher Ingraham, Minnesota Reformer Minnesota traffic fatalities fell by about 7% in 2023, according to preliminary data from the Department of Public Safety. The data show that after spiking in 2021 in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, by last year roadway deaths had mostly returned to levels
