The operator of a Minnesota nuclear power plant said the facility would be taken offline Friday to repair a new leak near the Mississippi River, an announcement that came a week after the company and state officials belatedly acknowledged a separate leak that occurred in November. Xcel Energy insisted in a statement Thursday that the leak at its Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant poses “no risk… Source Source / Read More: Nuclear Plant Shuts Down After New Leak Near Mississippi River
Minnesota
MN Governor Signs Law Giving Voting Rights Back to Formerly Incarcerated People
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed a bill on Friday that grants formerly incarcerated residents in the state the right to vote immediately upon their release from prison. Currently, residents who are released from prison after being convicted of a felony are forced to wait until the conditions of their probation expire before being able to vote again. The legislation, which will go into effect on… Source Source / Read More: MN Governor Signs Law Giving Voting Rights Back to Formerly Incarcerated People
Minnesota Democrats Pass Expansive Voting Rights Bill in Committee
This article was produced by Sludge, an independent, ad-free investigative news site covering money in politics. Click here to support Sludge. The day after the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol in D.C., Minnesota legislators in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party introduced legislation to address a host of election issues, from expanding voter registration to reforming campaign finance laws. Source Source / Read More: Minnesota Democrats Pass Expansive Voting Rights Bill in Committee
Minnesota Becomes First State to Pass Abortion Protections Bill After “Dobbs”
The Minnesota state legislature has passed a bill that guarantees the right to abortion, codifying a state Supreme Court ruling from nearly 30 years ago. Early on Saturday morning, the state Senate voted 34-33 in favor of the bill following several hours of debate on a series of amendments that Republicans put forward in hopes of derailing the proposal. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) has said that he… Source Source / Read More: Minnesota Becomes First State to Pass Abortion Protections Bill After “Dobbs”
Minnesota May Become “Abortion Access Island,” But Not Necessarily for Everyone
This article was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. For nearly three decades, long before the fall of Roe v. Wade, the blond brick Building for Women in Duluth, Minnesota, has been a destination for patients traveling from other states to get an abortion. They have come from places where abortions were legal but clinics were scarce and from states where restrictive laws have narrowed windows of opportunity. For many residents of northern and central Wisconsin, and the Upper…
Minnesota Lawmaker Proposes Eradicating Funding for Early Childhood Education
A far right Minnesota state legislator, upset with increases in state funding for early childhood education, has called for the complete eradication of a legislative committee tasked with creating and funding programs meant to give children in the state access to such learning. Republican State Rep. Steve Drazkowski decried increases in publicly-funded early childhood education while speaking on the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives this week. His approach to child-rearing is short-sighted, as he didn’t appear to address in his comments how parents would manage to be able to raise their children without funding from the government, which…
Educators in St. Paul and Minneapolis Are Preparing for Potential Strike
This story was originally published at Prism. In a Feb. 24 announcement, teachers with the Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT), which includes both teachers and Education Support Professionals, announced an intent to strike. Filed with the state of Minnesota’s Bureau of Mediation, the intent to strike was authorized by the board in a vote counted Feb. 17 and provides a legally-mandated, 10-day warning to the school districts about a possible strike. The demands from both unions to their districts have been similar. They are asking for limits on class sizes, wage increases,…
Investigation Shows Police Are Still Secretly Surveilling Minnesota Activists
A new investigation reveals that federal and local law enforcement agencies have been surveilling journalists and activists involved in the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd for over a year under a secretive program known as Operation Safety Net (OSN), despite claiming to have shut the operation down last April. Officials announced OSN in February 2021, a month before the trial for former Minneapolis police officer and murderer Derek Chauvin began. Law enforcement officials claimed that the goal of the program was to ensure that the public was able to exercise its right to free speech while making…
Biden Administration Cancels Two Trump-Approved Minnesota Mining Leases
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it has cancelled two mining leases near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, a move that will likely kill the project opposed by environmental activists and Indigenous groups. The project, proposed by Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, was revived by President Donald Trump when he took office and reinstated the leases, slashing environmental regulations that would have prevented the mine from being built. However, the Department of the Interior recently found that those leases were issued improperly. “The Department of the Interior takes seriously our obligations to steward public lands and waters on behalf of all Americans.…