Minnesota

Consumer Affairs' 2024 edition of "The worst roads in America" features a big Minnesota brag that, for many residents, may induce a mixture of pride and a bit of astonishment.

The consumer news platform ranks Minnesota's roads as best in the nation, describing them as "the smoothest" and "safest," according to data from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.

"An especially admirable achievement since Minnesota's cold temperatures, significant snowfall and proximity to the Great Lakes create a hazardous set of conditions that can be tough on roads and drivers," writes author Kaz Weida.

Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Employers rarely penalized for misclassifying workers; Minneapolis sends Uber and Lyft packing; Workers sue manure company for wage theft; Striking workers would get unemployment benefits under state bill; state legislatures have few working-class lawmakers; St. Paul educators ratify contract; Biden says U.S. Steel should stay in American hands; and Texas judge knocks down joint-employer rule.

Dozens of Minnesota counties, including Hennepin, Ramsey and much of the rural western part of the state, shrunk in population between 2020 and 2023, according to data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

But dozens more have grown, with the highest rates seen in the outer ring Twin Cities suburbs and parts of Minnesota’s lake country.

The law was confusing enough — and troubling enough — that some bars and restaurants decided it was safer to keep hemp-derived beverages off the menu.

At issue was a provision in the state’s recreational marijuana law signed last May that would have prohibited bar servers from selling a patron alcohol and THC beverages in the same five-hour period.

The first confusion was over when bars would start enforcing the “five-hour rule.” Some thought immediately after the bill’s passage, but the myriad effectiveness dates contained in the 300-page bill said it wasn’t to become law until spring 2025. Regardless, the larger issue was this: While a server might know that a patron who they’d served a beer to couldn’t then be served a THC-seltzer, they would have no way of knowing if other patrons had one or the other at another bar.

"In defending itself against union busting allegations, Trader Joe’s fired a cannon ball that could sink the ship of modern American labor law.

The grocery store chain is arguing that the federal agency prosecuting it for unfair labor practices — including giving union workers worse retirement benefits and barring workers from wearing union pins at work — is unconstitutional."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/8291259

Warning: Jesse Singal is looking for trans youth near Minnesota to interview

For anyone unfamiliar with Gwen Smith, she’s a cofounder of TDOR and a reporter for the Bay Area Reporter.

If you know any trans youth around Minnesota please pass it on to them or their families!

For anyone unable to see the post without a Bluesky account, it’s a picture of a flier that reads:

NOTE: It has come to our attention that journalist Jesse Singal has been reaching out to families in the area to gather stories, quotes, and personal accounts from trans youth and their families for a new book. Jesse has been listed on the GLAAD Accountability Project as expressing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and spreading misinformation about the trans experience. QUEERSPACE collective and other LGBTQ+ youth organizations in Minnesota recommend not engaging with Singal or any of his proxies, even for debate or conversation, to avoid providing additional material for his upcoming works.

The cannabis office won’t likely have a director until mid-February at the earliest, and expungements aren’t expected until late summer. Minnesota officials have always been vague about exactly when retail sales of recreational cannabis would start, but predict it will be on store shelves sometime in the first quarter of 2025.

A public option that competes with Minnesota's private health insurers could entice more than 100,000 people at a cost up to $364 million per year to state taxpayers.

Those estimates were included in a study released Thursday by the state Department of Commerce ahead of what's likely to be a divisive debate in the Legislature over expanding the state's role in insuring Minnesotans.

Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic lawmakers say health insurance will become more affordable if a public option is available to compete with existing private plans. Republicans oppose public interference in the private insurance marketplace and say it will raise premiums in the end. Lobbying groups for hospitals and insurers are also lining up against a public option.

While a public option could provide coverage to the roughly 4% of Minnesotans without insurance, proponents also say it would offer cheaper and better benefits to people who can only afford bare-bones insurance through MNSure, the state's online marketplace for individual health plans. House Majority Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, hosted an online forum Tuesday that highlighted how Minnesotans are suffering from inadequate options in the individual insurance market.

"They can't use it because it is too expensive," Long said. "They have deductibles that are too high. They really are only covered for catastrophes, and that means that they aren't getting the care that they need on a day-to-day basis."

The study analyzed the consequences of removing income limits and creating open access to MinnesotaCare. That's the public health insurance option for individuals and families who earn too much to qualify for Medical Assistance poverty benefits but don't have workplace benefits and can't afford top-flight private insurance on the individual market.

The analysis by Milliman, a national actuarial firm, also examined the benefits of offering a private plan similar to MinnesotaCare on the private marketplace.

Both would attract about 471,000 Minnesotans, but only 100,000 to 150,000 would sign up, the study found. The state would pay $86 million to $364 million per year to provide a public option to that many Minnesotans, after factoring out federal subsidies and premiums paid by the enrollees.

The proposal has created an unusual coalition of opposition from two groups that traditionally compete for their share of health care dollars. The Minnesota Council of Health Plans commissioned a study suggesting that the state would gain more affordable insurance options and increase enrollment if it instead moved all of its existing MinnesotaCare enrollees into the private marketplace.

The Minnesota Hospital Association has bemoaned payment rates from public plans such as MinnesotaCare that are below the cost of providing care, and it has opposed any expansion that could undermine struggling hospitals.

"Hundreds of patients are stuck in hospitals every day and hospitals around the state are being forced to cut services at an unprecedented rate in order to keep their doors open," said Dr. Rahul Koranne, the hospital association's president and chief executive.

The DFL-controlled Legislature considered creating a public option during the 2023 session before delaying plans and seeking the analysis.

Minnesota's commerce and human service secretaries made several recommendations Thursday to the Legislature, including that it conduct additional research to see if a public option would provide equitable benefits to disadvantaged populations. Nearly 22% of Hispanic Minnesotans are uninsured, compared with less than 3% of white non-Hispanic Minnesotans, according to the state Department of Health.

Minnesotans seeking better health insurance options include Lisa Phillips, whose family raises livestock and grows pumpkins and produce on 450 acres in Good Thunder, about 14 miles south of Mankato. Phillips said during Long's public forum that her family recently went uninsured because it couldn't afford annual premiums of $25,500 and keep its business afloat. She said that decision might have delayed identification and treatment of her husband's cancer and worsened his prognosis.

Phillips said she wants to pass the farm to her daughter and son-in-law but doesn't want to bind them to farming unless they have access to affordable health insurance.

"This could be the end of our family farm," she said.

Republican lawmakers and commentators questioned U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s allegiance to the United States — even calling for her to be deported — over a video clip with an inaccurate translation of her remarks from Somali to English.

Many Minnesota based corporations have resumed donating to election deniers, thinking we wouldn't notice.

Unions are enjoying the most robust public support in nearly six decades and winning double digit pay raises for their members, yet the share of the American workforce that is unionized remains stuck at historic lows.

In Minnesota, union membership ticked down nearly a full percentage point from 14.2% to 13.3% in 2023, inching closer to the national average of 10%.

A Worthington journalist's car was vandalized following reporting by the southwestern Minnesota newspaper on a school board's controversial decision to remove flags from a high school classroom.

The incident left a Worthington Globe employee's car marked with homophobic messages and a side-view mirror damaged sometime during the overnight hours of Nov. 28 or 29, the newspaper previously reported.

The aging reformed mobster who has admitted stealing a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in “The Wizard of Oz” gave into the temptation of “one last score” after an old mob associate led him to believe the famous shoes must be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.

Crime in Minnesota was down across the board in 2023, according to preliminary data released by the Department of Public Safety.

Statewide, relative to 2022:

• Homicide was down 5%
• Car thefts were down 8%, and carjackings 38%
• Larceny, or theft, decreased by about 15%
• Rape fell by 20%

Many major crime categories, like robbery, burglary, larceny and sexual assault, are now running lower than they did prior to the pandemic. Others, like homicide, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft, remain well above pre-pandemic levels despite recent declines.

After coming up short at the Capitol for more than a decade, backers of a Minnesota equal rights amendment view 2024 as their moment.

Ahead of the 2024 legislative session, they’re tweaking a proposed addition to Minnesota’s Constitution to address new concerns around equality. That has meant explicitly spelling out rights to pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, though authoring groups have not formally agreed to the final draft.

The result could yield the most expansive equal rights policy in the country. Advocates say the change is critical in this political moment, while opponents say it’s a “Trojan horse” that could come with unintended consequences.

After eight years on Minnesota’s highest court, Justice Margaret Chutich said Tuesday that she will retire this summer. Her announcement comes five days after Justice G. Barry Anderson said that he will retire in May.

Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday proposed spending nearly a billion dollars to update the state’s roads, improve public safety and protect Minnesota’s drinking water, among many other projects.

Walz’s $982 million public works proposal comes about eight months after the Minnesota Legislature approved the largest infrastructure package in the state’s history. Lawmakers approved a $2.6 billion infrastructure bill — known around the Capitol as a bonding bill because the state typically relies on borrowed money — after a split Legislature had stalled critical public works spending for two years.

Infrastructure packages are normally passed during even years, which also happen to be election years, when candidates can brag about bringing projects home to their districts. Walz said his nearly $1 billion proposal — $819 million in general obligation bonds, the rest in other financing and cash — will move the state into “the golden age of construction and infrastructure in Minnesota.”

As the law changes, the University of Minnesota is working on how best to approach a set of human remains held in its medical school for years. A preliminary review found that some of the remains are likely Native American in origin.

An updated version of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, went into effect Friday. The Act was passed over 30 years ago to facilitate the return of remains, funerary and sacred items to tribal nations.

Among other changes, the rule requires institutions like the University of Minnesota to rely on the expertise of tribal nations to guide the repatriation processes.

The state of Minnesota will soon consider whether to join a growing number of states looking to legalize assisted death.