Minnesota
Minnesota Legislature to return with much done, much to do
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – The Minnesota Legislature will return from its Easter-Passover break on Tuesday with a remarkably excessive variety of payments already signed into regulation, however with loads of work forward to finish a balanced two-year funds within the six weeks earlier than the necessary adjournment on Could 22.
Democrats seized the second when lawmakers convened in January, utilizing their new management of each chambers and the governor’s workplace to hurry by a slew of priorities that they couldn’t move when Republicans managed the Senate. Gov. Tim Walz proclaimed: “The period of gridlock is over.” However the pace has pissed off Republicans, who really feel steamrollered and accuse Democrats of occurring a spending spree and rising the scale of presidency as a substitute of offering everlasting tax reduction.
An up to date forecast in February put Minnesota’s funds surplus at an unlimited $17.5 billion. Walz and Democratic leaders agreed final month on broad funds targets that add as much as practically $17.9 billion in new spending, together with $3 billion for tax cuts. Hammering out the small print is lawmakers’ primary job within the dwelling stretch of the 2023 session.
What have lawmakers achieved and what’s nonetheless within the works?
ABORTION
Minnesota Democrats credit score voter anger over final summer season’s U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling putting down Roe v. Wade for his or her robust exhibiting within the November elections. In order that they made abortion rights certainly one of their priorities for the session. Walz enacted the precise to abortion and different reproductive well being care in January, signing a invoice meant to make sure that Minnesota’s broad abortion rights protections stay in place.
Different payments are nonetheless advancing, together with one to repeal restrictions declared unconstitutional by a choose final summer season, and to fortify Minnesota’s standing as a refuge for sufferers from states who come for abortions. Republicans say all these payments go away Minnesota with no limits on abortion in any respect.
TAXES
Home and Senate committees will roll out the principle tax payments quickly. High Democrats have softened on the governor’s proposal for direct tax rebate funds and are able to reduce taxation of Social Safety to spare extra residents. However they’ve been chilly to calls by Republicans and a few Democrats to eradicate the tax utterly, saying the advantages would go to the wealthy.
The governor’s funds and another proposals additionally embody tax will increase, reminiscent of bumps in license charges, and native or metro-wide gross sales taxes earmarked for transportation, housing and different tasks. Proposed will increase in fishing license and state park charges have hit bipartisan opposition within the Senate.
TRANS RIGHTS
The Home strengthened protections for transgender kids and their households who come for gender-affirming care by making Minnesota a “trans refuge state,” bucking a nationwide backlash towards transgender rights. The invoice, which remains to be in committee within the Senate, would agency up protections lined by an government order that Walz signed.
FREE LUNCHES
Breakfasts and lunches will probably be free to all college students in Ok-12 public and constitution colleges beginning within the subsequent faculty yr, no matter household revenue. Lawmakers handed and the governor signed laws for the state to cowl the price.
PAID LEAVE
A paid household and medical go away program has had quite a few hearings and has a number of to go earlier than it reaches both ground. It could partially exchange as much as 12 weeks of wages in a 52-week interval to take care of a sick member of the family or a new child or adopted baby, and as much as 12 weeks for an worker’s personal sickness. Republicans and enterprise teams object as a result of it might be funded by a 0.7% payroll tax.
BONDING
A Democratic effort to move a $1.9 billion public works borrowing package deal often known as a bonding invoice that cleared the Home didn’t get the required GOP votes within the Senate to offer the required 60% supermajority. Senate Republicans need tax cuts in change. Democrats have threatened to move an all-cash tasks invoice as a substitute, which might not require GOP votes.
ELECTIONS
Walz signed a invoice to revive voting rights to felons once they go away jail as a substitute of once they’re off probation. Greater than 55,000 Minnesotans will profit. Supporters say it would assist reintegrate former inmates who’re disproportionately individuals of colour. Broader laws to ease registration and voting is approaching ground votes. It could enable 16-and-17-year-olds to pre-register. It could additionally penalize individuals who deliberately unfold disinformation to discourage Minnesotans from voting, and supply new protections for election employees.
GUN SAFETY
Two gun security proposals lastly bought hearings in a Senate committee the place they died in earlier periods when the GOP was in management. It’s unclear if they will move on the Senate ground, the place Democrats now maintain a one-seat majority. One would develop legal background checks for gun transfers. A “pink flag” regulation would let authorities briefly take weapons from people who find themselves a hazard to themselves or others. Within the Home, the 2 measures had been folded right into a public security invoice.
ENVIRONMENT
Minnesota utilities should get 100% of their electrical energy from carbon-free sources by 2040. Walz mentioned when he signed the invoice that he’s assured it would arise towards a threatened lawsuit from coal- and gas-producing North Dakota. His administration additionally needs to limit nonessential makes use of of “eternally chemical compounds” often known as PFAS.
MARIJUANA
Laws to legalize leisure marijuana has cleared greater than 20 committees between the Home and Senate however has extra to go. Whereas the Home handed a hashish invoice final yr, it’s not clear if there will probably be sufficient help on the Senate ground.
SPORTS BETTING
It’s an even-money wager on legalizing sports activities betting. Tribes may provide in-person betting at their casinos and distant wagering through cell gadgets. The massive query is whether or not supporters can discover sufficient votes within the Senate, the place some lawmakers wish to give the state’s two horse tracks a bit of the motion.
Minnesota
Donald Trump Falsely Tells Supporters He Won Minnesota in 2020
Minnesota
Back on the road: Timbers visit Minnesota United FC | PTFC
Fresh off their 4-2 comeback win against the Earthquakes on Wednesday, the Portland Timbers (11th, 3-6-4, 13pts) get back on the road to take on Minnesota United FC (2nd, 6-2-3, 21pts). It’s their first encounter in 2024, and The Loons are flying high having won three of their last four matches, good enough to put them second in the conference. The Timbers will look to harness the second half energy from Wednesday’s win to pull out their second road victory of the season this Saturday.
Kickoff from Allianz Field is set for 5pm PT.
🖥️ TV/Streaming: Live coverage available in English and Spanish on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. Enjoy 25% off for the rest of the season when you subscribe today.
🍺 Pub Party: We’re gathering at Hop Haven to cheer on the boys! Click below for more information.
Minnesota
Women, kids and the future of fishing: thoughts off the Minnesota opener
The goodwill that exists among Minnesotans for conservation of the state’s natural resources and especially for preservation of outdoor traditions — fishing among them — is unbounded.
That was among my thoughts last weekend during the inland walleye and northern pike opener, which some friends and I spent on Lake Winnibigoshish (“Winnie”) while fishing out of McArdle’s Resort on Winnie and nearby Paradise Resort on Moose Lake.
On the season’s first day, Winnie was loaded with boats, most carrying an average of three anglers. An hour’s drive north or so of that giant lake, Upper Red Lake also was crowded, as were, not far away, Leech and Cass lakes.
Department of Natural Resources conservation officer (CO) Andrew Goodman of Perham concurred the opener was bustling, saying it was the busiest he’s seen in recent memory.
CO Aaron Larson of Tower agreed, reporting a busy opener on Lake Vermilion, while CO John Slatinski IV, working out of Ray, said he couldn’t remember a recent opener as hectic.
Fishing license sales just before the opener were 7% higher than a year ago, confirming the officers’ observations.
While waiting last weekend in long lines at bait shops and at boat launches, and while trolling a quarter-ounce jig in 12 feet of water on the opener (fishing partners Joe Hermes, Steve Vilks, my wife, Jan, and I had good luck), these were two of my observations:
- More women are fishing now than in previous years, a trend that in my view must continue for fishing to remain the state’s premier outdoor activity.
- Perhaps counterintuitively, given the meteoric rise in popularity of competitive fishing in Minnesota among 7th-12th graders, fewer young people appear to be fishing on the opener — and at other times — than has been the case in Minnesota historically. (This could be because many school fishing competitions are for bass, not walleyes.)
The two issues are connected in my view, and how they play out, alone and together, will help determine whether fishing, Minnesota’s premier outdoor pastime, continues to thrive or suffers.
The issue is important to everyone, not just anglers, because fishing is second only to camping in the amount of money ($36 billion) it contributes to the U.S. recreation economy. The funds not only underwrite fisheries management, they help ensure the presence of surface and sub-surface clean water.
According to the Department of Natural Resources, about 20% of anglers in Minnesota are women. That percentage is impressive and might be the highest among all states. But it will have to increase markedly to ensure future generations of kids are exposed to fishing and other outdoor activities in intentional ways.
That’s because women generally have more influence on how a family spends its time than men do. And given that any young kid doing anything outdoors — playing in mud included — is likely to be better off psychologically and emotionally than a kid who stares at a phone or computer all day, more women (and men) of the future will, in my view, have to help kids make healthier choices, including some that include rods, reels and lures.
Diane Scott, a Future Anglers of Minnesota (FAM) board member, believes fishing might hold special promise for a kid’s development.
“Our group probably interacts with 250 kids a year,” Scott said of FAM. “This includes Callan Wagner, my grandson, who was my biggest reason for getting involved with FAM.”
As proud as Scott is of 13-year-old Callan’s developing angling prowess, she’s prouder still of the fundraiser he and other FAM kids participated in. Soliciting pledges for every fish they caught in a winter tournament, Callan raised $6,885 for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, while fellow FAM member Khloe Thorson did better still, raising $7,200 for a cancer foundation.
“We challenge our young anglers not only to develop their fishing skills but to help their communities,” Scott said.
Meanwhile, Women Anglers of Minnesota (WAM), the fishing group founded in 1977 to introduce women to the joys of fishing, continues to thrive. On June 8 on Lake Osakis, the group will host its 46th WAM Open Water Fishing Tournament, and members also will volunteer June 15 at Buffalo Days Fishing Klinics for Kids, and June 28 at the Jiggin’ with Kids nationwide virtual fishing tournament.
Impressively, WAM also sponsors 25 high school fishing teams and, in Minnesota, also sponsors the Student Angler Tournament Trail.
Of course, these groups can’t provide outdoor opportunities for all Minnesota kids. Parents also must help attempt to counter the temptations of electronics and social media with outdoor activities. In my experience, as a parent and observer of parents, that can be an uphill climb if a child isn’t brought to a park or similar environment by age 2 or 3, and isn’t soon thereafter taken camping, hiking, biking, fishing or otherwise doing something outdoors.
Which is why the seeming absence on this opener, as on previous openers, of young people is worrying. Not only because the future of fisheries and clean water depend on continued participation by the masses, but because society will benefit if more people spend more time outdoors.
A retired Twin Cities teacher and expert angler, Kay Hawley agrees.
A member of three fishing clubs — Minnesota Valley In-Fisherman, Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited and WAM — Hawley this weekend is passing on the joy of fishing by helping to host the Minnesota Angler Meet-Up at Vermilion Dam Lodge on Lake Vermilion.
“We have 30 anglers here representing the three clubs, and by joining forces and learning from each other, each of us will have a greater opportunity to positively impact the Minnesota fishing community,” Hawley said.
Then she went fishing, as she should.
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