Good morning and congratulations for making it to another Friday.
Minnesota U.S. Rep. Angie Craig was assaulted in the elevator of her apartment building Thursday morning in Washington. Her staff said she was bruised and shaken but otherwise OK, adding that the attack did not appear to be politically motivated. MPR News reports a District of Columbia police report said Craig saw the suspect in her apartment building lobby acting erratically. Craig said "good morning" to the person, then went into the elevator to go to her apartment. The suspect followed behind and began doing push ups in the elevator before punching Craig on her chin and grabbing her neck, according to the police report. Police say the suspect fled after Craig, 50, tossed hot coffee at him and called 911. DC police announced an arrest last night.
More school meals would be delivered to students free of charge under a bill with traction in Minnesota’s Legislature, part of a broader push to address food insecurity. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports the DFL-led House passed a plan Thursday night guaranteeing one daily breakfast and lunch to every student who wants one. Money to cover the costs would go to almost every public district, charter schools and some parochial schools. “We do have some meal programs already, but a quarter of hungry kids in Minnesota schools do not qualify for those programs,” said Rep. Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis. “And so with this bill, this will ensure that every child has the tools — breakfast and lunch — to succeed in school.” Currently, families under a certain income threshold qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, much of it covered by federal money. This bill expands it to all students regardless of family income, and the state would absorb more costs. Children could still bring a bag lunch if that’s their preference, and a la carte options wouldn’t qualify. “This isn’t a Gatorade-for-all bill,” Jordan said. “This is a meals-for-all bill.” Some schools say they’ve seen a rise in unpaid meal debt since a pandemic-era universal meal initiative ended. The program would add $387 million in state education expenses over the next two years. That would rise in future years. Some Republicans questioned whether well-off families should be put on par with those with a clear financial need. Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, called the meals-for-all design a "shotgun approach" that fails to prioritize. "Wealthy families are not asking for this," Bennett said. "They can pay for their lunches."
A North Carolina-based company that nearly two years ago proposed building a $440 million mill in the small town of Cohasset said Thursday it no longer plans to pursue permitting and construction of the facility. MPR’s Dan Kraker reports the announcement comes three days after the state court appeals ordered the Cohasset to reconsider its environmental review of the project. When the project was first announced in the summer of 2021, it was celebrated by Gov. Tim Walz for the 150 jobs it would create, and for providing a major jolt to northeastern Minnesota’s forest products industry, which has suffered from the closures of several mills around the region over the past two decades. Huber initially planned to break ground on the 750,000 square foot facility in the spring of 2022. The project was given a major boost by more than $50 million in production incentives, loans and other incentives from the state Legislature and two state agencies. But the project ran into opposition from the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, whose reservation is located about a mile from where the mill was proposed.
Vice President Kamala Harris promoted green energy initiatives at New Flyer’s St. Cloud bus manufacturing facility in St. Cloud Thursday. MPR’s Mark Zdechlik reports: “Businesses that do this kind of work, combined with union leadership and workers, are building the future of our nation,” Harris said during brief remarks after touring the factory. New Flyer is a Canada-based company that makes electric buses and has two manufacturing operations in Minnesota. “Minnesota, this is a transformative moment,” Harris said. “The climate crisis has presented an historic challenge to our nation and to the world. It also presents an historic opportunity, to create good jobs, to drive innovation, to generate prosperity in all communities.” Harris said the laws the Biden administration passed have created 100,000 new jobs. Republicans criticized Harris and Biden for promoting electric vehicles while blocking mining near the Boundary Waters. State Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, called the vice president's visit a slap in the face to the Iron Range and the union workers of northern Minnesota. Igo said 90 percent of the nickel reserves in the country are in northern Minnesota, and that Biden's ban will send mining jobs overseas, where labor and environmental standards are much less stringent. "The Biden administration and the Walz administration are failing Minnesotans. They're failing union workers,” Igo said. “One of these copper-nickel mines that produces the materials needed for these electric vehicles produces millions of hours of union construction jobs, not to mention the hundreds of union jobs that are combined with that and all the spin-off jobs that keep Greater Minnesota alive and well."
The latest innovation in clean energy might be iron. Iron batteries, that is. MPR’s Kirsti Marohn explains the science: Form Energy's battery can store electricity for 100 hours, compared to about four hours for a lithium battery. And it's made of iron, an element that's abundant around the world, including on Minnesota’s Iron Range. It uses an electro-chemical process called oxidation, or rusting. The battery takes in oxygen from the air and converts the iron to rust. Applying an electrical current converts the rust back to iron. Repeating the rusting and unrusting process allows the cell to charge and release electricity. Mateo Jaramillo, the company's co-founder and CEO, said Minnesota's plentiful supply of iron is part of its appeal for a launching ground, as the company looks to scale up its technology. “We are very actively investigating what it would take to be able to use that as a resource,” he said. It’s not as simple as taking iron ore from the ground and putting it into a battery, though. Jaramillo said the batteries require a type of iron that's been reduced and purified.
Former Gov. Jesse Ventura on Thursday urged Minnesota lawmakers to pass a bill legalizing cannabis for recreational use. And he pressed them to set the age for legal access at 18. A current version of the bill would allow Minnesotans 21 or older to purchase and use cannabis. But Ventura said that if someone is old enough to join the military, they should be able to legally use marijuana. "If you're able to go kill for your country or be killed for your country and you're old enough to do that, you ought to be old enough to smoke a joint," Ventura said. Democratic leaders and Gov. Tim Walz have said they support the proposal and expect that it will pass this year.
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