Good morning and welcome to Wednesday.
A new report lays out a vision for public safety in Minneapolis, but doesn't include details on cost, staffing or a timeline. MPR’s Dan Kraker reports: The 142-page report from Harvard University’s Leadership for a Networked World calls for the city to work “upstream” on services to prevent social challenges from turning into crime and disorder, and “downstream” to help heal trauma and build resilience in communities. The study also calls for the city to build upon alternative policing programs it’s already launched, including its Behavioral Crisis Response program which provides unarmed mental health professionals rather than armed law enforcement in some incidents. “We need to do much better in Minneapolis at measuring the effectiveness of those plans, finding which services work well and amplifying those and investing in those and perhaps creating new ones that fill some gaps,” said Minneapolis native Antonio Oftelie, who led the Harvard team that produced the report.
I remember being in Denver a few years back and walking by a home where some guys were smoking a lot of some very stinky marijuana just inside a fenced yard. Will Minnesota be like that once marijuana is legal on August 1? Well, yes, as MinnPost reports: As passed, the law seemed to restrict smoking and vaping to single-family homes, yards and private property not accessible to the public. Combined with restrictions on smoking in apartment buildings, the law appeared to give permission to people who owned houses or property, but not to renters. Since that would be restrictive and inequitable, sponsors of the new law say unless either existing smoking laws or the new recreational cannabis law specifically restrict smoking marijuana, then it is allowed. Could someone walk down the sidewalk and smoke a joint? “Yes, I think that’s true,” said Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, in an interview Monday. Outside a bar or restaurant? On the sidewalk? On a public bench? Yes, absent a local ordinance that prohibits it to protect non-users from secondhand smoke, she said.
But maybe Minnesota will be more like other states where aging baby boomers are more likely to consume an edible than fire up a joint. NPR took a look at that trend: Cannabis store owner Dave Vautrin says he's had customers as old as 89. He says a lot of the baby boomers he sees have come back to using cannabis now that it's legal in New York. He calls them boomerangs, and they spend more money than younger people. Some just want to get high. But physical therapist Lori Zucker says a lot of her older patients use it to deal with long-standing health problems. “Headaches, chronic pain, things that have not healed well,” Zucker said. “And so when I'm working in that realm, it's a viable option, just the same as all the other pharmaceuticals.” Among Zucker's patients is Nancy Sasso, who's 70. For years, she struggled with leg and back pain that kept her from sleeping. It was so bad she had to give up her psychotherapy practice. Now, every night before bed, she pops a gummy. It gives her a mild buzz. “It's not like I can't function. It's not like I couldn't react to an emergency if I had one,” Sasso said. “I mean, I'm fine. It's just — I do feel it a little bit and get in bed, read for a while, and I'm out.”
Rochester residents will vote on an extension of their sales tax this fall after the city council approved a referendum question for the November ballot. MPR’ s Catharine Richert reports voters will be asked to extend the city's half-percent sales tax to invest more than $200 million in street projects, flood control and a new sports and recreation complex, among other things. The sports complex is the most expensive item, with city officials estimating it will cost about $65 million. The extension would last for 24 years or until the projects are repaid, whichever comes first. Minnesota law prevents municipalities from extending or increasing their sales taxes without legislative approval — usually a few lines in a massive tax bill. But during the 2022 legislative session, infrastructure projects all over the state were left in limbo after lawmakers failed to pass a tax bill.
The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with members of an Amish group in Minnesota who are fighting efforts by authorities to compel them to install septic systems, sending their appeal back to a state court for reconsideration in light of the high court’s recent ruling in a religious freedom case. The Associated Press reports families with the Swartzentruber Amish in southeastern Minnesota are fighting efforts by Fillmore County to require septic systems. Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that they’re among the most traditional Amish groups in the country. The Minnesota Court of Appeals and a trial court both sided with the county, and the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case. But the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back to the Minnesota Court of Appeals with instructions to take another look in light of its ruling last month in favor of a Philadelphia-based Catholic foster care agency that says its religious views prevent it from working with same-sex couples. While the Supreme Court’s order was a strong indicator of how the justices think the lower court should rule, the next step is up to the Minnesota court.
The Star Tribune reports the company building the Southwest Light Rail line doesn’t think much of a recent report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor: The contractor building the $2.7 billion Southwest Light Rail line claims the state watchdog agency probing the troubled project has ignored critical issues with its design that have led to millions in cost overruns and years of delay. The head of Lunda McCrossan Joint Venture (LMJV), which is building the line, further charged that the Office of the Legislative Auditor lacks the necessary expertise to criticize or offer a legal opinion on the way the 14.5-mile line has been constructed. Had the Metropolitan Council, which is overseeing the project, followed recommendations recently shared by the Legislative Auditor, the opening of the line would have been "pushed out further by years," cost "significantly more" and perhaps faced "very bad litigation," according to a July 10 letter written to Legislative Auditor Judy Randall by LMJV's chief executive officer, Dennis Behnke. | 