The Star Tribune’s Matt McKinney has a follow-up on the shooting at a downtown Minneapolis nightclub early Saturday, which left nine people injured, including Vikings player Linval Joseph. “With so many witnesses and victims, investigators face a lengthy effort to assemble a coherent picture of what happened in the club. No description of the shooter was provided Sunday, but authorities said that was to protect the integrity of the investigation as they collect witness statements. No video of the shooting was released for the same reason, nor did police want to give any description of a gun found at the scene.”
The Strib editorial board joins the chorus of people unimpressed with the logic behind the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling. “When contraception is readily available, poverty rates among women fall, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, relying on data from the 1960s and 1970s, when some states outlawed contraception sales to young and/or unmarried women. Legalizing contraception for those 18 and up was associated with a 0.5 percentage point drop in female poverty rates. In addition, a 2012 study by Washington University scholars found that no-cost contraception, as required by the ACA, leads to a big drop in abortion rates.”
Well, it’s nice of him to say so. ESPN reports, “Andrew Wiggins told Kansas coach Bill Self that he wants to be traded from Cleveland to Minnesota because the No. 1 overall pick believes it will be better for his long-term future. Wiggins joined his former coach as a guest instructor at Self’s basketball camp in suburban Kansas City on Sunday. And while Wiggins declined to speak to the few reporters at Shawnee Mission West High School, Self said the rookie wants to carve out his own legacy in the NBA.” All we’re asking is 40 double doubles next season.
Out of control big gummint spending! Romy Varghese at Bloomberg tells her readers, “Minnesota is offering about $904 million in general-obligation debt tomorrow to raise money for projects from St. Cloud to Winona, in the state’s largest bond sale since 2010. About $288 million of tax-exempt securities will go toward new highway and bridge projects, such as a span connecting Oak Park Heights to St. Joseph, Wisconsin, said Kevin Gutknecht, a spokesman for the state Transportation Department in St. Paul.”
Simultaneously, Kim McGuire of the Strib reports, “After watching the family bank account shrink, Jesse Maloney’s wife asked him to save receipts for all of the school supplies he was buying for his students at the Hmong College Prep Academy in St. Paul. Maloney estimated his tab for the year might be $500. His wife knew better. ‘After it pushed up over $1,000 and we were only three-quarters of the way through the year, I stopped keeping the receipts,’ said Maloney, a science teacher.”
Directly related: Christopher Magan of the PiPress says, “A survey of [school] districts across the Twin Cities metro area shows a dozen made program or staff cuts heading into the 2014-15 school year. In addition, 14 metro districts tapped cash reserves to avoid making reductions. In the east metro, half of districts reduced spending or tapped reserves to balance their most recent budgets. Altogether, those adjustments are worth $45 million across 14 of the east metro’s 21 school districts.”
Since pesticides are no longer cool: Dan Gunderson of MPR reports, “Minnesota fields offer a clear look at how Fargo-based Offutt, the nation’s largest potato grower, is rethinking the way it grows potatoes and is cutting pesticides. It’s a response to consumer and environmental concerns, and also to local residents who’ve complained for years about the spray drifting off fields. It may also make good business sense.”
The guess is they don’t care what’s on Yelp. Aaron Rupar at City Pages says the River Oasis Cafe in Stillwater has been taking a hammering since the public got wind of its “minimum wage fee.” “News that Stillwater’s River Oasis Cafe is charging customers a 35-cent ‘minimum wage fee’ has resulted in people from around the world destroying the place on Yelp. Most of the Yelp reviews posted pre-minimum wave kerfuffle were positive, but the restaurant’s aggregate score is quickly being dragged down as more and more people post their objections to the fee.”
Mark Sommerhauser of the St. Cloud Times files a piece on the GOP gubernatorial quartet. “[Scott] Honour says [Jeff] Johnson hasn’t been bold enough in outlining his vision to slash state spending and bureaucracy. Honour says he’d go bigger if we were governor. For instance, he says he’d propose cutting state administrative staff across the board by 10 percent. … Johnson says his first budget proposal still would take aim at state spending. If elected, he says he would propose reducing overall state spending from the previous budget, cutting funding for light-rail planning and auditing all human services programs.”
What does one unabashed lefty have to say about the Phyllis Kahn-Muhamud Noor race? At LeftMN, Steve Timmer writes, “There is an unmistakable whiff of identity politics emanating from the the Noor campaign; you can sense it when you listen to him speak, or when you read his campaign website. The only thing I’ve heard him say about why Phyllis Kahn should be removed from office is that ‘it’s time.’ Not very persuasive. No, not at all, when you consider the career-long record of service and accomplishment for her constituents and the State of Minnesota of Phyllis Kahn (and no reason offered to suggest that wouldn’t continue), compared to a man who got appointed to the Minneapolis School Board to fill a vacancy, and then decided, after attending a single meeting, that he wanted a different post.” The second sentence of the post says, “this is not an endorsement.”
