Good morning, and welcome to Tuesday, the ides of March.
There’s still no agreement on replenishing the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund and repaying money owed to the federal government.MPR’s Time Pugmire reports Gov. Tim Walz and top House and Senate leaders met again Monday to try to reach a deal. The Senate has passed a bill to replenish the fund, but the House has not. Walz said he believes the state can address both unemployment and the frontline worker bonuses that House Democrats want. He said the talks will resume Tuesday. “We need deadlines,” Walz said. “We need to know that at some point in time you need to make a decision. It may not be 100 percent accepted. It may not be 100 percent exactly what you wanted. But it’s a decision that works for the people of Minnesota and move forward.” The administration has said that today is the deadline to act to avoid tax increases on employers. The stalemate on unemployment could get in the way of other issues. Walz said there are other important things to do this session, including education funding.
The problem-ridden Southwest Light Rail transit line is about to be put under an auditor’s microscope. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports the Minnesota Senate voted unanimously Monday to seek a legislative audit of the project. The 14-mile rail connection between Minneapolis and southern suburbs is on pace to cost $2.7 billion by its expected completion in 2027. Cost overruns, delays and other construction flaws have upset lawmakers of both parties. Senate Transportation Chair Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, said poor management by the Metropolitan Council is to blame. “They’re really on the horns of a dilemma on this project because there’s a lot of truth in the fact that they’ve gone too far to stop and it’s too expensive to go ahead,” Newman said. “What are they going to do? Just keep wasting taxpayer money.” The state House has approved a nearly identical bill but it will require another vote to send the legislation to Gov. Tim Walz. More here.
In a decision released Monday the Minnesota Court of Appeals struck down an earlier court ruling requiring the City of Minneapolis to maintain a minimum level of police officers. MPR’s Matt Sepic reports a three-judge panel says the charter requires the City Council to "continuously fund" a police force of a minimum size, but there is "no clear duty under the charter for the mayor to continuously employ" that minimum number. Mayor Jacob Frey said Monday that he'll hire more officers anyway. "It doesn't impact anything we're doing as far as pushing for additional officers and accounting for some of the attrition that we've seen over these last two years,” Frey said. The public safety charter amendment that voters rejected in November 2021 would have eliminated the minimum police staffing requirement that's been in the charter for 60 years. The plaintiffs say they'll appeal the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
And Frey says he wants to ban Minneapolis police from using no-knock warrants in most cases.The Star Tribune reports the policy would prohibit Minneapolis police from both applying for and executing no-knock warrants. The announcement comes nearly six weeks after a Minneapolis police officer fatally shot Amir Locke, 22, during such a search at a downtown apartment. Locke was not named on the warrant. "Today will mark a turning point on our warrant entry policies here in Minneapolis," Frey said Monday. "Following the killing of Amir Locke, we wanted to make sure … that we have a policy that is first and foremost about the preservation of life of those that may be in a unit or a home when a search warrant is conducted, and the lives of officers that are stepping into these, at times, high-risk situations." It was Locke's death that pushed the city's no-knock warrant policy back under scrutiny. Police accountability activists noted that Frey had campaigned before his November re-election saying he had banned no-knock warrants.
School officials in New Prague say independent investigators have reviewed video of a February basketball game that allegedly included racist taunts against a visiting team, and those investigators say they don't believe the taunts happened.MPR’s Tim Nelson reports Superintendent Tim Dittberner said in a statement released Monday that the investigation initiated by the district included a review of video from the high school girls home basketball game against Robbinsdale Cooper, after allegations on social media that fans had been making monkey-like noises during the game. Robbinsdale Cooper has a number of Black players on its roster. The statement said such noises aren't audible in video of the game, although there is a "repeated, low-pitched noise (that) is audible for approximately 10 seconds." The district said that noise appeared to be made by one person, but could not be further identified. | 