View Comments
Across America, far-flung election conspiracies have metastasized to the mainstream of the Republican Party, resulting in the assault on the U.S. Capitol and a record number of anti-voting bills hitting statehouse after statehouse.
Here in Minnesota, Senate Republicans have cynically decided to capitalize on those lies by using them as justification for new legislation that would make it harder for Minnesotans to vote. Instead of standing up for our democracy, Senate Republicans just passed a voter ID bill that would needlessly curtail it.
The push for voter ID is insidious for a number of reasons. The first is that Minnesotans believe in voting and trust our elections. Even in the middle of a pandemic, Minnesota led the nation in voter turnout during the 2020 elections. Clearly, our system is working. Unfortunately, studies have found that voter ID laws make it harder for people to vote by establishing additional logistical and administrative barriers to participat
Lawmakers debate Northstar s future after 96% ridership plunge
(FOX 9)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Minnesota lawmakers are debating whether to deactivate the Northstar Line commuter rail or heavily subsidize it in the hopes that its customer base rebounds after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ridership on the Minneapolis to Big Lake line has plunged 96 percent during the pandemic as downtown office towers emptied, workers set up home offices, and sporting events were played with few or no fans in attendance. In 2019, the line averaged more than 60,000 riders per month. Over the past year, Northstar has averaged about 2,000 monthly riders.
Lawmakers debate Northstar s future after 96% ridership plunge
Related On an October night in 2019, Scott Newman stood on his Sonoma Valley farm and watched the smoke plumes from the Kinkade Fire over the mountains to his north. He texted a friend, the local fire chief, “It looks like we might be in the fire path.” Minutes later, Newman recalled, the chief replied, “Sadly, yes.” By the following day, the fire had reduced nearly everything on his 500-acre property to blackened rubble. Only a single barn remained unscathed.
Newman’s crop and fire insurance policies covered just about all the damages, including six homes, 14 structures, and vineyard and ranching equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Over the next year and a half, he built anew on the property that had been in his family for 50 years.
Serious Negotiations
The Minnesota legislative session is required to end within ten days. At the beginning of the week, legislative leaders announced that they had given themselves a goal of having a broad global agreement on key issues and budget targets by Friday (today). Following such an agreement, conference committees would need to finalize details within their individual bills.
On Tuesday, Senate leadership publicly shared a document that explained its opening offer to the House for a global agreement on key end-of-session issues. In the days since, there have been no other offers or counteroffers that have been made public. Quiet negotiations such as those happening now is typically a sign that the legislative leaders are conducting serious negotiations.
The Minnesota Senate approved a bill Monday that would require voters to present photo identification at the polls. In Minnesota, the issue of photo ID was previously addressed in 2012, when Minnesota.