Stribbers Dave Orrick and Faiza Mahamud report, “The Minnesota DFL voted Tuesday to ban Nasri Warsame, the Minneapolis City Council candidate whose supporters stormed the stage of a convention earlier this month, from ever seeking the party endorsement. It also approved a change to its rules that opens the door to potentially banishing Warsame — and others in his campaign — from the party altogether.”
For The Hill Julia Shapero says, “Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed a bill legalizing recreational marijuana on Tuesday, making the North Star State the 23rd in the nation to fully legalize the substance. ‘We’ve known for too long that prohibiting the use of cannabis hasn’t worked’, Walz said in a statement. ‘By legalizing adult-use cannabis, we’re expanding our economy, creating jobs, and regulating the industry to keep Minnesotans safe’. … the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Zach Stephenson (D-Coon Rapids), has warned it will likely take time to expunge criminal records and get licensed dispensaries up and running in the state. The Minnesota Bureau of Apprehensions has previously said the earliest it would be able to expunge all records would be by August 2024.”
This also in the Strib: Josie Albertson-Grove writes, “A proposal to build more than 80 affordable apartments on the western edge of Edina is drawing scrutiny and opposition from a neighborhood unaccustomed to either apartments or affordable housing. Minneapolis developer Solhem Companies is proposing a five-story apartment building on Lincoln Drive, next to Hwy. 169. Two years ago, Solhem had proposed a larger, market-rate building on the same site. Infrastructure costs proved prohibitive, so the company went back to the drawing board and is now pursuing an affordable housing development because grants could help pay for some of that infrastructure. An initial meeting about the project between the developer and neighbors on May 19 quickly became confrontational, said resident Colleen Feige.”
Says Heather Hogan for autostraddle.com, “ ‘I would not exist if not for the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ Lizzo said to a crowd in Phoenix on Wednesday night. ‘There would be no rock ‘n’ roll without Tina Turner.’ She then performed Proud Mary and brought the damn house down. She said she didn’t want to cry, so she celebrated the heck out of our legend instead. You can watch a clip from Lizzo’s IG below, or the full performance on YouTube.”
In Politico Megan Messerly says, “Mayo Clinic issued an ultimatum to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic lawmakers earlier this month: Kill a proposed health affordability bill, or say goodbye to $4 billion in new hospital investments. Minnesota lawmakers responded quickly — by watering down an ambitious proposal in the final days of the legislative session, which ended last week. The threat from the world-renowned health system is the latest salvo against attempts to rein in rapidly growing health spending — and demonstrates how those efforts sometimes founder against industry heavyweights. … Nationally, health care spending has tripled since 2000 — totaling $4.3 trillion in 2021 — and the U.S. spends nearly twice as much on health per person as comparable countries, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. Nearly a third of that spending is on hospitals, 20 percent on physicians and clinics, and 9 percent on prescription drugs.”
Says Michelle Griffith in The Minnesota Reformer, “The Reformer sat down with [House Speaker Melissa] Hortman the day after the 2023 session ended and asked her to reflect on the DFL’s record this year. She betrayed no doubts about the most transformative legislative session in memory and expressed confidence in Minnesota’s future. … Republicans are saying people with capital are fleeing the state. What do you think of that argument? People don’t move here for the snow, but I think people will be moving here for reproductive freedom. … And if you’re a construction worker anywhere in the country, you should know the welcome mat in Minnesota is rolled out to you. We’ve just funded enough construction projects to last the next five years.”
At MPR News Dan Kraker says, “State and federal land managers are warning of extreme fire danger across northeastern Minnesota, as a lack of precipitation, low humidity, warm temperatures and strong winds combine to create ideal conditions for wildfires. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported 50 wildfires over the long Memorial Day weekend, stretching from central Minnesota northward to the Canadian border.”
In the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader Symmone Gauer writes, “Minnesota State Gov. Tim Walz signed into law last Friday a bill that could potentially stop the proposed merger between Sanford Health and Fairview Health. The new law is meant to ban healthcare entities from merging if they would create a monopoly or ‘substantially lessen competition.’ It will apply to all mergers and acquisitions between health care organizations that have an annual average revenue of $40 million or more. The anti-competitive HF402 bill was created in response to the merger between Sanford and Fairview merger, which was announced in November 2022. … Part of the new law will prohibit an out-of-state organization from controlling the university’s healthcare facilities unless the Attorney General deems it’s in the public interest.”
At FoxNews Jeffrey Clark reports, “The book ‘Call me Max,’ which teaches children about what it means to be ‘transgender,’ is reportedly available to kindergarten students in a Minnesota school district. The education franchise for Sinclair Broadcast Group, Crisis in the Classroom (CITC), shared a video of a mother testifying at a school board meeting over the book, which she said was an assault on the ‘sacred God-given identity of young males and young females,’ according to 13 WHAM ABC. ‘First graders are busy enough trying to master phonics and trying to learn how to read, why would we allow authority figures to plant seeds of doubt in their existence simply as a boy or a girl, that it might be a mistake?’ mother LaDawn Severin asked the board.”
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