Minnesota
OPINION EXCHANGE | Minnesota has a growing trash problem
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Across Minnesota, we are inundated with packaging, from our doorsteps to store shelves. Packaging waste and printed paper now account for 40% of our waste stream. In the Twin Cities metro area alone, the amount of waste generated is projected to grow by 19% over the next two decades. The burden of managing this ever-growing deluge of packaging waste currently falls on local governments and taxpayers.
Our system is overwhelmed, underperforming, outdated and unjust. Minnesota deserves better, and our solution is HF 3577/SF 3561, the packaging waste and cost reduction act. This is a producer-funded system to reduce packaging and single-use plastic, make recycling easier and lower taxpayer costs for managing waste.
This bill isn’t a “nice to do.” It’s a must-do, and the time to act is now. Minnesota is at an inflection point: We have a strong foundation of recycling, yet a 2024 national report found that more than 65% of our cardboard, paper, bottles, cans and other recyclables still end up in Minnesota landfills and incinerators, or as plastic pollution in our environment. This lost waste forces counties to expand landfills across the state. In the metro area, landfills were recently permitted to expand to take in another 5.6 million tons of waste over the next 10 years, with nearly 4 million tons going to two sites in Burnsville and Inver Grove Heights.
We are facing mounting calls to act on this ever-growing trash problem: the inevitable closure of the Hennepin County Energy Recovery Center (HERC), pressures to expand landfills by an unceasing waste stream, a retrenchment of curbside recycling programs in cities like Virginia and Hibbing, and the countless risks that landfills present to our communities, including groundwater contamination and dangers like last year’s landfill fire in Rice County. All these factors threaten Minnesota’s historic leadership in dealing with solid waste, while also clarifying the need for bold action to address our trash problem.
Our bill will improve Minnesota’s recycling by building upon the existing system and combining it with new funding from producers of packaging and paper. This program would use sliding scale fees based on the sustainability of packaging to incentivize producers to reduce their packaging waste and ensure they are not using hard-to-recycle materials that burden our system. The program will protect and leverage public and private investments already made in Minnesota.
This is an environmental and economic solution. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency estimates that Minnesotans throw away over $140 million in recyclable materials every year that could instead be used in local manufacturing to create new products. In fact, many of the major waste and recycling haulers serving Minnesota are already talking about the business opportunities presented by similar programs in Canada.
Opponents of this bill argue that it will increase consumer prices, but data from Canada and Europe proves this wrong. The impact of producer fees for packaging on consumer prices is minimal or nonexistent because packaging fees are only one minor factor affecting the market price of packaged goods. Further, Minnesotans already pay the price of expanding landfills, plastic pollution, increased asthma from incineration and more. This bill shifts those costs and requires producers to invest in solutions, rather than just continuing to pass these harms along.
We’ve worked for months with stakeholders across the solid waste community to build the right solution for Minnesota. While some manufacturers oppose any change, they have failed to propose solutions that move us forward. The fact is that an unwillingness to change is a vote for more landfills, more incineration, more plastic pollution, and more costs upon counties and taxpayers.
This bill is about far more than just waste. It’s part of our commitment to climate, to environmental justice, to reducing plastic pollution and to creating a cleaner, circular economy. We are responding to our residents, counties and environment. This is a well-developed, commonsense, comprehensive solution supported by a coalition of local governments, nonprofits, business groups, recyclers and residents. We need to move forward now so Minnesota can increase recycling, reduce plastic waste, mitigate climate pollution and create green jobs while saving money for households and local governments.
Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis, is a member of the Minnesota House. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, is assistant majority leader in the Minnesota Senate.
Minnesota
Shorthanded Clippers can’t keep pace with Anthony Edwards and Minnesota
Anthony Edwards scored 31 points, Donte DiVincenzo added 18 and the surging Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Clippers 94-88 on Thursday night.
Jaden McDaniels and Ayo Dosunmu each scored 12 points and Rudy Gobert had 13 rebounds to help the Timberwolves improve to 5-1 since Feb. 9 and 3-1 since the All-Star break.
Edwards, returning to the site of the All-Star Game, where he was the MVP, was 12 for 24 from the floor and sealed the victory with a step-back three-pointer over two defenders for a 92-88 lead with 42.9 seconds left.
Minnesota improved to 2-0 on a three-game trip.
Derrick Jones Jr. scored 18 points and Bennedict Mathurin added 14 for the Clippers, who struggled from the outset with a season-low 38 points in the first half. Kris Dunn had 11 points for the Clippers (27-31), who have lost three consecutive games for the first time since December.
The Clippers struggled on offense without star Kawhi Leonard, out because of ankle soreness. The Clippers shot 40.5% from the floor, including 18.2% (four for 22) in the second quarter. Minnesota shot 43.4% in the game.
The Timberwolves (37-23) scored just 15 points in the second quarter and still topped the Clippers, who had 11. Minnesota led 44-38 at halftime behind 12 points from DiVincenzo and 11 from Edwards.
The Clippers led by six in the third quarter and were up 68-63 heading into the fourth. Edwards’ drive and reverse layup put the Timberwolves up for good at 76-74 with 7:40 remaining.
The Clippers pulled within one three times in the last 2½ minutes, but Edwards answered each time. He scored the Timberwolves’ last nine points.
Up next for Clippers: vs. New Orleans on Sunday night.
Minnesota
Church congregant filed lawsuit against alleged Minnesota church protesters
A St. Paul church member has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a group of individuals, including journalist Don Lemon and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, unlawfully disrupted service last month as part of a coordinated political demonstration.
The complaint, filed by Ann Doucette in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota, alleges that a Jan. 18 demonstration at Cities Church interfered with her ability to worship and caused her to suffer damages, including emotional distress and trauma.
In addition to the former CNN anchor and Armstrong, the complaint names journalist Georgia Fort and activists Will Kelly, Jerome Richardson, Trahern Crews and Jamael Lundy. It also names St. Paul school board member Chauntyll Allen.
Doucette and seven of the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Doucette filed the complaint without the representation of an attorney. In an emailed statement to NBC News, Crews denied the lawsuit’s allegations “with empathy and compassion.”
The lawsuit accuses the group of civil conspiracy, aiding and abetting, intentional infliction of emotional distress, interference with religious exercise and trespassing.
“As a result of Defendants’ actions, the worship service was disrupted, congregants experienced fear and distress, and Plaintiff’s ability to freely exercise her religion in a private place of worship was unlawfully interfered with,” the lawsuit states.
All eight defendants are also facing federal charges for conspiracy against the rights of religious freedom at a place of worship and for interfering with the exercise of the right of religious freedom. Lemon has pleaded not guilty to all charges, saying outside the court, “I wanted to say this isn’t just about me, this is about all journalists, especially in the United States.”
Fort, Crews and Lundy were released on bond and entered not guilty pleas, according to The Associated Press.
This is the latest legal action tied to protests in the Twin Cities, where tensions remain over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
According to the lawsuit, the demonstrators engaged in “coordinated conduct” by organizing meetings ahead of the “Operation Pullup” protest and promoting it on social media.
The lawsuit alleges that on the morning of Jan. 18, a coordinated group of individuals entered Cities Church, halting the worship service, and chanting “‘ICE Out!’ and ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!’” while obstructing aisles. Protesters could allegedly be seen “confronting the pastor and congregants in a menacing manner,” the lawsuit says, noting that their chanting and “aggressive gestures” caused “severe emotional distress, fear, anxiety, and trauma” and caused children “terror.”
Demonstrators gathered at the church because they said its pastor, David Easterwood, was the acting director of an ICE field office in the city, the lawsuit says.
Lemon was arrested in January in California and accused of violating federal civil rights law after covering the protest on Jan. 18. He was released on a personal recognizance bond before a federal grand jury in Minnesota returned the indictment against Lemon and eight co-defendants, all of whom are also named in Doucette’s lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, Doucette alleges that Lemon specifically livestreamed the protest, “noting congregants’ fear and distress, and appeared to take satisfaction in the disruption.”
Levy Armstrong, a Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney and activist, was also arrested for her participation in the St. Paul protest. Her arrest drew national attention after the White House shared on social media doctored photos where she appeared to be crying.
Minnesota
Man arrested, charged with threatening to kill a state senator
A Hubbard County man was arrested and charged after threatening to kill a Minnesota state senator on Facebook.
Court documents filed on Wednesday state the Minnesota State Patrol were investigating a threat posted by John Tobias saying that he would “kill every one of you treasonous [expletive] immediately” if he did not get money back that he claims he lost during the 2020 COVID shutdown.
Court documents go on to say that Tobias then called the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office asking for something to be done about “Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ‘unconstitutionally’ shutting down the state due to COVID-19.
The Minnesota State Patrol contacted Hubbard County deputies regarding Tobias. Court documents state Hubbard County investigators were already familiar with Tobais after speaking with him regarding similar threats he made in Jan.
The charging documents state that investigators searched Tobias’ residence on Tuesday and found an arsenal of guns and 45 boxes of ammunition.
Tobias was taken into custody. During an interview with law enforcement, Tobias admitted to making the threat on Facebook. He also told investigators that “he did not have any intention of killing anyone, but admitted he was trying to get people’s attention,” according to court records.
In late 2025, Lt. Col. Jeremy Geiger of the Minnesota State Patrol, who oversees Capitol security, told a panel of lawmakers that threats to lawmakers had doubled between 2024 and 2025.
Tobias made his first court appearance Wednesday morning and is expected back in court early next month.
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