Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Education in March reported four-year graduation rates were down in 2023, renewing concerns about the direction of the state’s public schools and the lingering effects of the pandemic.

But a deeper look at the data finds the state’s published results were flawed and that graduation rates are actually rising.

APM Research Lab, a sister organization of MPR News with expertise in collecting and analyzing public data, examined the results. It found after incorporating misreported numbers from several school systems, including Minneapolis and St. Paul, two of the state’s largest districts, the state graduation rate rose slightly, from 83.6 in 2022 to 83.8 percent.

It’s a slight but important change at a time when school performance data is scrutinized intensely. From test scores to graduation rates, those numbers have an outsized influence on policy decisions and on public perceptions of school success and failure.

These "critical fire" danger warnings from NOAA are really starting to wear on me. Living in drought conditions for 2 years is killing everything. I watch the radar and there is rain falling all around me, but very few drops for this area. And living in the middle of a forest makes for uneasy sleep.

It might be our turn to burn like Canada.

RE: libranet.de/objects/0b6b25a8-7…

Minnesota lawmakers imposed strong limits on payday lenders last session, capping interest rates at 33% for loans between $350 and $1,000, and even lower for smaller loans — but a federal law allows banks based in other states to offer short-term loans with triple-digit interest rates.

A bill in the Legislature could close the loophole by opting Minnesota out of a provision in federal law that allows state-chartered, federally insured banks to offer loans at the interest rates allowed in their home state, rather than the state where the loan is issued.

The broader election policy bill approved by the House also:

• Clarifies definitions and stiffens penalties for those violating a prohibition around campaign-related deep fake material meant to interfere with elections. That would include disqualification from violators holding appointed or elective office.

• Makes it easier for college students to register to vote when living on or near a college campus.

• Updates the state’s law around language translation of voting materials in polling places with many residents who speak something other than English as a primary language.

• Sets clearer standards around exit polling done by news media outside voting locations.

• Makes clear that any request for a recount in the presidential race be done within a day of the official canvass completion. That recount would have to happen within a week.

• It would also count people who are incarcerated at their last known address before entering state or federal prison for redistricting purposes. That varies from the current system that counts those individuals in the census block where they are incarcerated.

Republicans in the Legislature, including Senate assistant minority leader Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, have introduced legislation (HF4687/SF4630) inspired by the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory.

The bill contains a mishmash of conspiratorial pseudoscience, including references to made-up phenomena like “xenobiotic electromagnetism and fields,” with just enough parroting of actual science to give it a veneer of credibility.

It requires county sheriffs to investigate citizen complaints of “polluting atmospheric activity,” and grants the governor the authority to call up the National Guard and ground any aircraft suspected of spreading pollutants.

“I graduated on June 1, 1996. That was 10,167 days ago, and it has been 10,167 days that I have not used algebra,” Farnsworth said on the Senate floor.

Laboratory results for a helium reservoir discovered in northern Minnesota suggest concentrations of the sought-after gas are the highest the industry has ever seen.

Thinking about moving to Duluth. How is healthcare there?

After months of wondering, speculating — and writing letters to ask — why Kathy Cargill was buying up so many properties on Duluth's Park Point, the city's mayor and residents may have an answer from the apparently peeved member of the billionaire Cargill family.

She told the Wall Street Journal she was planning to beautify and modernize the neighborhood, but the pushback, including a message from Mayor Roger Reinert, has made her change her mind.

"I think an expression that we all know — don't pee in your Cheerios — well, he kind of peed in his Cheerios right there, and definitely I'm not going to do anything to benefit that community," Cargill said in an interview with the publication.

Consumer Affairs' 2024 edition of "The worst roads in America" features a big Minnesota brag that, for many residents, may induce a mixture of pride and a bit of astonishment.

The consumer news platform ranks Minnesota's roads as best in the nation, describing them as "the smoothest" and "safest," according to data from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.

"An especially admirable achievement since Minnesota's cold temperatures, significant snowfall and proximity to the Great Lakes create a hazardous set of conditions that can be tough on roads and drivers," writes author Kaz Weida.

Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Employers rarely penalized for misclassifying workers; Minneapolis sends Uber and Lyft packing; Workers sue manure company for wage theft; Striking workers would get unemployment benefits under state bill; state legislatures have few working-class lawmakers; St. Paul educators ratify contract; Biden says U.S. Steel should stay in American hands; and Texas judge knocks down joint-employer rule.

Dozens of Minnesota counties, including Hennepin, Ramsey and much of the rural western part of the state, shrunk in population between 2020 and 2023, according to data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

But dozens more have grown, with the highest rates seen in the outer ring Twin Cities suburbs and parts of Minnesota’s lake country.

The law was confusing enough — and troubling enough — that some bars and restaurants decided it was safer to keep hemp-derived beverages off the menu.

At issue was a provision in the state’s recreational marijuana law signed last May that would have prohibited bar servers from selling a patron alcohol and THC beverages in the same five-hour period.

The first confusion was over when bars would start enforcing the “five-hour rule.” Some thought immediately after the bill’s passage, but the myriad effectiveness dates contained in the 300-page bill said it wasn’t to become law until spring 2025. Regardless, the larger issue was this: While a server might know that a patron who they’d served a beer to couldn’t then be served a THC-seltzer, they would have no way of knowing if other patrons had one or the other at another bar.

Key Democratic lawmakers want to place a question on the 2024 general election ballot that would create an independent redistricting commission to prevent the common practice — including in neighboring Wisconsin — of majority parties drawing highly favorable legislative and congressional district maps that can lock in those majorities for a decade or more.

The proposed constitutional amendment would also seek to prohibit lawmakers from becoming lobbyists within one year of leaving office and give the Legislature more leeway to determine its calendar — including potential year-round sessions.

For Indigenous students in Minnesota, taking care of their mental and spiritual health in a culturally specific manner may soon be viable, thanks to a bill introduced by Sen. Mary Kunesh (DFL-New Brighton). This bill, S.F. 2998, would permit Indigenous students to smudge in Minnesota public schools with staff supervision. Prior to the introduction of this bill, schools in the St. Paul Public Schools system adopted a policy in 2022 allowing students and staff to smudge in school buildings under the supervision “of an appropriate School District staff member.”

Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management is proposing changes to the state’s marijuana law, including one that would allow the issuance of a set number of temporary licenses.

Those licenses would cover everything from cultivation to testing to retail and delivery operations.

The goal of issuing those temporary licenses, the office said, would be to give those businesses “the clarity they need to establish business operations and be prepared for market launch” once regulatory rules are finalized, likely in 2025.

State Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton and Rep. Aisha Gomez, DFL-Minneapolis are sponsoring legislation to transfer state-owned land from the 160,000-acre White Earth State Forest to the White Earth Nation by the end of the decade.

The proposed legislation would also give the White Earth Nation the right of first refusal on the sale of any tax-forfeited land that comes up for sale within the forest.

Kunesh says the intent of the bill is to honor the sovereignty of the White Earth Nation. Most of the White Earth State Forest is located within the White Earth reservation.

Minnesota could more easily rein in corporate power if lawmakers pass a series of reforms to the state’s antitrust laws, Attorney General Keith Ellison said Monday.

Ellison and some Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers are advocating for policies that would grant the attorney general’s office more leeway to punish large corporations that use their market share to artificially drive up prices.

At least four Minnesota labor unions are making plans to potentially go on strike all at once during the first week of March unless their demands are met.