Minnesota

DNR adds 27 Minnesota counties to burn restrictions list

Published

12 months ago

April 8, 2025

Press Room

DNR adds 27 Minnesota counties to burn restrictions list

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(Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) – The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced Tuesday it’s adding 27 counties to the state’s burn restrictions list.

What’s happening?

Why you should care:

DNR officials say as warm and dry weather increases across the state, burn restrictions will continue to increase Tuesday and into next week. They say fire from burning vegetative debris is the state’s No. 1 cause of wildfires. Burning restrictions help reduce the risk for wildfires.

What counties are being added?

What we know:

Here is a look at the 27 counties being added to the list as of 6 a.m. Tuesday. They cover most of central and northern Minnesota.

Aitkin
Becker
Beltrami
Carlton
Cass
Clay
Clearwater
Crow Wing
Douglas
Grant
Hubbard
Itasca
Kittson
Mahnomen
Marshall
Normam
Otter Tail
Pennington
Polk
Pope
Red Lake
Southern St. Louis County
Stevens
Traverse
Wadena
Wilkin
Roseau

Counties still under burn restrictions

Why you should care:

The DNR already had burn restrictions in effect in 15 Minnesota counties, including five of the seven in the Twin Cites metro area.

Anoka
Benton
Chisago
Hennepin
Isanti
Kanabec
Mille Lacs
Morrison
Pine
Ramsey
Sherburne
Stearns
Todd
Washington
Wright

DNR officials say they will not issue permits for open burning of brush or yard waste in the 42 counties under burn restrictions until they are lifted.

What if I need to get rid of yard waste?

What they’re saying:

With burn restrictions in place, DNR officials say composting, chipping or taking your brush to area collection sites are the best options.

The Source: Information was provided by the Minnesota DNR.

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Minnesota

Minnesotans faced with sticker shock over car tab renewals: “It’s just very expensive”

Published

5 hours ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

Minnesotans faced with sticker shock over car tab renewals: “It’s just very expensive”

March 23, 2026 / 6:55 PM CDT
/ CBS Minnesota

If you have a newer car, you may be in for some sticker shock when you renew your Minnesota license tabs. That’s because the formula for calculating fees has changed due to a 2023 bill.

If your car is less than five years old, you could even be seeing tab prices go up year over year.

Jeff Craig drives a Subaru Forester. He bought it used, but was shocked when he renewed his tabs.

“We paid the tab on it for the first time and the next year it was more expensive,” Craig said.

The new formula means the average driver paid $178 in registration taxes this year — a 20% increase. Craig thinks it unfair.

“The car depreciates, but the tax goes up? Really? Is that how that’s supposed to work? I don’t thing so,” he said.

But the 2023 bill didn’t just change the state’s overall formula for calculating license tab fees; it also changed the way it calculates the depreciation of your vehicle.

The state calculates that your new car loses 5% of its value a year, so 10% over two years. The Kelley Blue Book estimates that over two years, the average new car loses 30% of its value.

GOP state Sen. John Jasinski has a bill to roll back the changes.

“People are frustrated. It’s just very expensive,” Jasinski said. “You’re paying a lot more up in the first couple years now, and it’s very expensive on a new car.”

But the state says tabs for older cars are going down, and that many Minnesota drivers will pay less. And If you can hang onto your car for 11 years, your renewal cost is a flat $35 plus taxes and fees.

The bill to roll back the changes is moving forward in the GOP-controlled House, but it’s stalled in the state Senate.

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Minnesota

Minnesota lawmakers push to repeal César Chávez Day after allegations

Published

17 hours ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Minnesota lawmakers push to repeal César Chávez Day after allegations

DFL and Latine community leaders are pushing for the repeal of César Chávez Day in Minnesota after sexual abuse allegations against the late civil rights icon have surfaced.

The New York Times published a report on March 18 detailing several allegations of sexual abuse by Chávez, a farm labor activist, including the sexual abuse of two minor girls and the assault and rape of Dolores Huerta, who led the farmworkers’ movement of the 1960s and ’70s alongside Chávez.

“The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual,” Huerta, now 95, said in a statement. “Cesar’s actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people. We must continue to engage and support our community, which needs advocacy and activism now more than ever.”

State and local leaders have quickly responded, and an effort is underway at the state Capitol to repeal the quickly approaching March 31 “César Chávez Day.”

The House passed a repeal late Monday afternoon. The Senate still have to consider it. It’s not clear whether the state would eventually designate the day with another person’s name or another farmer union-related title.

Rep. María Isa Pérez-Vega, DFL-St. Paul, how authored repeal legislation, said “it was gutting” to read the sexual abuse allegations.

“This legislation to repeal César Chávez Day out of the Minnesota Constitution marks one crucial step in a multi-faceted process. We acknowledge that this is merely the beginning. Constantly, we must advocate for numerous causes, recognizing that a movement transcends individual figures,” she said.

‘Drawing a clear line’

Emilia Gonzalez, executive director of Unidos Minnesota, said the repeal is about “drawing a clear line.”

“Repealing César Chávez Day is about drawing a clear line that no legacy, no matter how powerful, no matter how important, stands above the safety and dignity of our children and our community. We can honor farm workers, we can honor the movement, La Causa. We can honor the struggle of labor rights, but we don’t have to enshrine a single figure in a way that leaves no room for truth, complexity or accountability,” she said.

Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, said accountability starts with the repeal of César Chávez Day.

“Our community is showing the nation how to respond to sexual violence and violence in all of its forms,” they said. “We are showing what it means to listen and believe survivors when they break their silence. We believe them, we stand with them, and we hold individuals and institutions accountable.”

A street in St. Paul

Minnesota also has a street named after Chávez in St. Paul, as well as a charter school, Academia César Chávez.

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, who was at the Capitol on Monday, didn’t provide a timeline for when the street name could be changed, but said she’s getting a group of stakeholders and residents together to discuss the issue.

Ramona Arreguín de Rosales, an activist who personally met Chávez and the co-founder of Academia César Chávez, said she has recommended that the Board of Academia César Chávez change the school’s name, but said she does not want to “diminish the good work that the movement has accomplished.”

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Minnesota

NCAA women’s tournament takeaways, Day 3: Minnesota drains buzzer-beater as LSU, Texas dominate again

Published

1 day ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

NCAA women’s tournament takeaways, Day 3: Minnesota drains buzzer-beater as LSU, Texas dominate again

The Sweet 16 field is halfway filled as the first weekend of the NCAA tournament starts to wrap up. There weren’t a ton of surprises on Sunday for the start of the second round, but we did get our first buzzer-beater.

Minnesota reaches Sweet 16 on buzzer-beater

After a buzzer-beater was called off on Saturday, we finally got one.

Amaya Battle got her game-winner to fall on Sunday afternoon, which lifted Minnesota to what is its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2005. Battle, with less than a second left on the clock, drilled a contested jumper from the short corner to push the Gophers past Ole Miss 65-63. Naturally, that sparked a massive celebration on their home court.