Good morning and welcome to Wednesday.
Minnesota is sending a lot of money to nonprofits over the next two years, as reported by MPR’s Dana Ferguson and Brian Bakst: An MPR analysis found that lawmakers approved more than $900 million for nonprofit organizations and entities funded through local economic development chambers — both in direct appropriations and competitive requests yet to be filled. The Legislature approved the grant funding aimed largely at supporting communities that prior budgets overlooked. And a little more than a year after the Feeding Our Future scandal that allegedly saw $250 million in federal nutrition aid stolen, lawmakers also increased transparency and accountability measures that officials say could stave off wrongdoing or alert them to problems sooner. “We wanted to just kind of clarify and ensure that we are aware of what happened. And we want to ensure that that's something that doesn't have the opportunity to happen again,” said Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, a House co-chair of the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus. The Legislature put more than $5 million into the Department of Administration’s grants administration unit. The oversight division is set to add staff for the top management role and the office will devise a roadmap for a new government-wide grants management system. Applications are due Wednesday to lead that division. State employees who award grants will get more training. Nonprofit groups will face more scrutiny before they get money. And payments can be held back if the rules aren't followed.
Yes, the air is bad again in large areas of Minnesota because of those Canadian wildfires. MPR’s Olivia Stevens reports the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued a record 23rd air quality alert of the year Tuesday morning. Air quality readings were in the red category, meaning unhealthy for everyone, across most of eastern Minnesota — including the Twin Cities — through the morning hours Tuesday and into the afternoon. The alert said air quality is forecast to continue at least in the orange category, meaning unhealthy for sensitive groups, all day Wednesday. Grace Birnstengel tells us what to do about it.
In Minneapolis, an independent report released Tuesday by the city found that most of the $680,978 in taxpayer dollars spent to celebrate local Black businesses at a February expo went to businesses from outside the state. MPR News reports investigators also found that there was no detailed plan for the event and they discovered peculiarities with dozens of invoices submitted by vendors. Council member Linea Palmisano chairs the city’s audit committee that received a briefing from the authors of the report. “I'm extremely disappointed that this event was promoted as a celebration of Black History Month and supporting local Black businesses ended up expending almost as many city funds to out-of-state businesses,” Palmisano said.
The state is not backing the idea of an independent investigation into the car crash that killed five young women. MPR’s Tim Nelson reports: In a written response to family members and the Council on American Islamic Relations-Minnesota who had called for the investigation, Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson made it clear that he did not believe an independent probe was needed or would be undertaken in connection with the crash itself. Jacobson reiterated that his agency has been “in full compliance with the investigation” into the crash and that the suspect Derrick Thompson was not being pursued by a state trooper. The criminal complaint by Hennepin County prosecutors “answers many of the questions that community members have raised about this incident,” he added, noting that the U.S. Attorney’s Office also “reviewed the full incident” before filing federal charges against Thompson.
The Supreme Court rejected the notion that state legislatures can set the rules for federal elections. NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports the Court ruled 6-3 that state constitutions can protect voting rights in federal elections and state courts can enforce those provisions, in a key opinion that should safeguard the integrity of the 2024 election. In a practical sense, Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court decision will not make a difference in North Carolina, where Republicans retook control of the state Supreme Court after the 2022 election and the new GOP majority has since reversed a prior court's ruling that redrawn congressional maps violated the state constitution with an extreme partisan gerrymander. That means that the legislature's politically lopsided map will likely return in some form for the 2024 election, with little likelihood that it will change for the rest of the decade. But at the same time, the court did not set a clear standard articulating a test for when a state court has exceeded its powers, and that may well present issues for the next election. | 