Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
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ST. PAUL -- Minnesota lawmakers do not agree on how much to spend on public works projects, but also do not agree on what projects should be funded. An example Monday was whether the state should fund a new social services building and school on the Red Lake American Indian Reservation. "What I see happening now is not only are we going to ask our taxpayers to build a school ... now we are going to be paying to put up a social services building on private land," Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, said Monday when Senate Democrats released their p...
ST. PAUL -- Upper Midwest football fans may have a really good excuse to stay home Sunday, even better than the 50th Super Bowl. There may be a blizzard. The National Weather Service on Friday issued a blizzard watch from northwestern Iowa north through eastern South Dakota and North Dakota and western Minnesota. Some northwestern Minnesota counties are under a winter storm watch. Snow could be accompanied by 60 mph wind gusts from late Saturday through late Sunday thanks to a strong Alberta...
ST. PAUL -- Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton knows his $1.4 billion public works project plan cannot happen as proposed. "It's like pushing a boulder uphill," he said Friday in announcing his proposal, one of the largest such requests in history and a big target for Republicans who prefer spending much less. Knowing the opposition he faces, he began a campaign for the measure saying this is a good time to borrow money, through the state selling bonds. "Today is the day we talk about investing in the...
Editor's note: In 2008, Minnesota voters approved the "legacy amendment." To date, the fund has put $1.5 billion toward various projects in the state. In this two-part series, Forum Communications examines the impact the Legacy Funds have had on the state, and what lessons neighboring North Dakota can learn as it decides whether to embark on a similar path. ST. PAUL - The moose population in northern Minnesota's forests is dwindling, but a tax voters raised in 2008 could help save the giants....
ST. PAUL -- American Indians volunteer for the U.S. military in higher percentages than any other ethnic group, and now Minnesota officially recognizes that accomplishment. At the conclusion of a Thursday ceremony in front of the state Capitol, Chairwoman Erma Vizenor of the White Earth Nation and Glynn Crooks of Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, wearing a traditional headdress, pulled up a prisoner of war-missing in action flag to unveil a plaque in the Capitol's Court of Honor. "It is so...
ST. PAUL - An American Indian environmental group led by nationally known Winona LaDuke is fighting a northern Minnesota oil pipeline. Honor the Earth officials say the Sandpiper pipeline is planned to go near or through some of the most environmentally fragile areas of the state, including the country's largest wild rice bed. Enbridge, Inc. officials say they have 65 years of safe experience with Minnesota pipelines. "This is a pipeline that is going through the middle of the lakes," LaDuke...
ST. PAUL — A nearly $1 billion proposal to fund state construction projects, ranging from trails to transit, launched Tuesday with its author calling it “inadequate” and a Republican who usually supports public works projects saying he could not vote for it. It was an unusual start for a public works funding bill, financed by the state selling bonds. Few legislators expressed enthusiasm for a pair of bills: One would bond for $850 million while the other could spend $125 million of the state budget surplus on construction projects. “The...
WASHINGTON -- A pipeline company promises it will ship more propane to the Midwest and Northeast. The action comes after the Obama administration responded to dozens of lawmakers and governors who demanded action as propane prices soared and temperatures plummeted. Enterprise Product Partners told shippers it would inject an extra 150,000 barrels of propane into its pipeline on Monday and 350,000 barrels on Thursday. Later, in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, it said it was willing to continue prioritizing shipments...
ST. PAUL - Opinions remain sharply divided about whether Minnesota should allow wolf hunts, and Tuesday night a state lawmaker also questioned whether state officials are doing a good job of managing wolves. Rep. Jason Isaacson, D-Shoreview, said the state Department of Natural Resources needs to do more to track wolves. "I struggle with the idea that we are doing all we can," said Isaacson, an opponent of allowing wolves to be hunted. He lectured DNR officials testifying to the House Environmen...
ST. PETER, Minn. -- A man with a criminal history on the Red Lake Indian Reservation and in Bemidji is in jail after the death Wednesday night of a fellow state hospital patient. Darnell Dee Whitefeather, 31, was taken to the Nicollet County Jail after Michael Douglas, 41, of Blue Earth County, died in his room of the Minnesota State Security Hospital in St. Peter, a facility that houses mentally ill patients. Gov. Mark Dayton has asked to be kept up to date on the investigation. The state...
ST. PETER, Minn. -- A man with a criminal history on the Red Lake Indian Reservation and in Bemidji is in jail after the death Wednesday night of a fellow state hospital patient. Darnell Dee Whitefeather, 31, was taken to the Nicollet County Jail after Michael Douglas, 41, of Blue Earth County, died in his room of the Minnesota State Security Hospital in St. Peter, a facility that houses mentally ill patients. Gov. Mark Dayton has asked to be kept up to date on the investigation. The state...
ST. PAUL -- A Minnesota state commission provided a key approval Wednesday to a northern Minnesota oil pipeline expansion as chants of "shame on you" rang out in the downtown St. Paul meeting room. "We are the people you represent," one of more than 100 protesters shouted as all five Public Utilities Commission members approved increasing the pipeline's capacity after a brief discussion of the pipeline issue with no chance for public testimony. Pipeline opponents, mostly environmentalists and...
ST. PAUL — Here are how some issues fared at the recently completed 2013 Minnesota Legislature: Bonding: Gov. Mark Dayton and House Democrats wanted to borrow $750 million to $800 million for public works projects around the state, but Republicans and Senate Democrats favored something smaller. In the end, they agreed to spend $177 million, with $132 million to continue a state Capitol building renovation project. Also getting funds were sewage projects statewide, a Capitol-area parking ramp and a new Minneapolis Veterans’ Home building. Bud...
ST. PAUL – Phil Norgaard uttered words seldom heard in the meeting-filled Minnesota Capitol: “I can’t wait to get to some meetings.” The Fond du Lac American Indian Reservation human services director had just been named on Tuesday to the MNSure board, which will govern a new health insurance marketplace, and he wanted to get to work. Dr. Kathryn Duevel of Willmar also was eager to get started, taking on “a big responsibility” of making sure people with a “diversity of needs” all have access to good health care coverage. Gov. Mark Dayton nam...
ST. PAUL — Minnesota senators joined the House on Thursday night in voting to eliminate a law requiring students to pass a test before graduating high school. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor education bill, spending nearly $15.7 billion in the next two years, passed 35-28 after Republicans refused to vote for 10 minutes when Senate President Sandra Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, did not call on two GOP members seeking to speak. Most Republicans eventually put up their "no" votes, but some sat in their seats and never voted. Three Democrats joined R...
ST. PAUL — Almost 1 million Minnesotans would receive larger property tax refunds, or their first refunds, under a House Democratic proposal. Rep. Jim Davnie, DFL-Minneapolis, said the House plan would establish the homestead credit refund, spending $250 million to replace existing homeowner tax refunds and expand a renters’ refund. More than 300,000 homeowners would get bigger refunds; that is 75 percent of those who file for refunds. Davnie said the average homeowner’s refund would rise $212....
ST. PAUL – Jeffrey Weise shot and killed his grandfather on March 21, 2005, and tried to load a semi-automatic rifle. But former FBI agent John Egelhof of Bemidji told a Minnesota House committee Wednesday that the rifle, the type that would be banned under a bill state lawmakers are considering, jammed and Weise was forced to use less efficient guns when he went to a Red Lake school in northwestern Minnesota. The 16-year-old shot and killed seven people at the school, after killing his g...
ST. PAUL – Minnesota officials say they have tried to prepare for school shootings like one Friday in Connecticut, but there always is more they can do. “We need to collaboratively do a better job of securing those kids,” said state Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, a law enforcement officer for 34 years, 16 as Douglas County sheriff. Training how to react to a shooting is one thing, but “it is very difficult” to prevent shootings, said Superintendent Wade Setter of the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Minnesota law requires...
ST. PAUL — The “fiscal cliff” is getting more and more attention with a Dec. 31 federal government deadline looming, but Americans seem to have a lot of questions: Just what is the fiscal cliff? The simple answer is that Dec. 31 is the deadline for federal leaders to reach a budget agreement and the time when a variety of tax cuts are scheduled to end. Several tax increases and spending cuts would come almost immediately. Why is this happening? Democrats who control the White House and U.S. Senate could not agree with Republicans who hold...
ST. PAUL — Incoming Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk has announced who will lead committees for the next four years. Rod Skoe of Clearbrook, representing District 2, has been appointed chairman of the Tax Committee. Tom Saxhaug of Grand Rapids, representing District 5, will chair the State Departments and Veterans Affairs Finance committees. Democrats will regain control when senators return Jan. 8 for the 2012 session, and lots of familiar Democratic senators will be chairs. The decision comes unexpectedly early, since last week B...
ST. PAUL – More synthetic drugs will be illegal under a law taking effect Wednesday, and a state agency will be able to act faster to make newly developed versions illegal. Still, as makers of the so-called “designer drugs” continue to change chemical formulas to skirt the law, there will be lags between when a new drug is released and it is declared illegal. State officials and law enforcement officers said Thursday that so much about the drugs known by names such as spice and 2C-E is not known, other than they threaten Minnesota’s youth....
ROSEVILLE, Minn. — Minnesota charities could begin rolling out electronic pulltab and bingo games this fall, although concerns remain that could slow their acceptance. “This isn’t an industry that embraces change,” Executive Director King Wilson of Allied Charities told the Minnesota Gambling Control board Monday. In an interview, Wilson said that even though state lawmakers passed a bill allowing electronic pulltab and bingo games, with some profits funding a Minnesota Vikings football stadium, “a lot of misunderstanding” exists. One of char...
ST. PAUL – A Mississippi American Indian leader objects to a wolf hunting season that appears near passage in the Minnesota Legislature. She joins several Great Lakes-area tribes in opposing wolf hunting and trapping proposals. Chairwoman Sandra Skinaway of the Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa told a Minnesota Senate committee about her concerns, but said the issue flew under the radar and she missed testifying to a House committee. “In the Anishinaabe creation story, we are taught that the wolf is a brother to original man (An...
ST. PAUL -- The White Earth Nation proposes giving the state $400 million for a Vikings stadium in exchange for permission to build a Twin Cities casino. “Minnesota will have the money and the Vikings will be able to proceed in a timely manner,” White Earth Chairwoman Erma Vizenor told reporters this morning. However, the money would come only after a casino receives final approval, which might not come until after a lengthy court challenge. Opponents to the plan include the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association, which represents most Min...
ST. PAUL – The White Earth Nation says it will front the state’s Vikings stadium construction costs, if it receives approval to build a Twin Cities casino. Chairwoman Erma Vizenor of the northwestern Minnesota American Indian tribe Thursday announced White Earth is tweaking an earlier proposal so the state would get $400 million up front, and then receive half of all casino profits. She said that could amount to $1 billion in the first five years of casino operation. “We have moved the ball to the goal line,” Vizenor said. “It is now the gover...
