Federal judge David Doty today overturned the NFL’s suspension of Vikings star Adrian Peterson over Texas child-abuse charges, saying the league’s arbitrator overstepped his authority under the NFL players’ collective bargaining agreement, the Star Tribune’s Rochelle Olson reports. While Peterson was suspended till at least this coming April 15, “ ‘It is undisputed that under the previous policy, first-time offenders faced a likely maximum suspension of two games,’ Doty wrote.”
Judge Doty is a favorite of the NFL Players Association due to his penchant for labor-favorable rulings, as Jay Weiner reported a few years ago in these very Internet web pages.
Another victory for Target in its race to the bottom against Walmart. While Walmart announced to great fanfare last week it was raising pay for its lowest-paid workers to $9/hr and the parent company of TJ Maxx and Marshall’s followed suit this week, MPR’s Matt Sepic reports that Big Red is holding steady on its lowest wages.
Do you ever feel like the presidential campaign just doesn’t start soon enough? The AP reports on a group of Minnesota GOP Senators who are hoping to move their primary election in 2016 from August to March: “Sen. Julianne Ortman of Chanhassen, says an earlier primary would put Minnesota on the radar of presidential hopefuls and build enthusiasm among voters who are increasingly sitting out primaries.” Political ads in March are definitely going to build enthusiasm.
They’ll pay this off in pottery sales after the first boat lands. The Pioneer Press’ Joseph Lindberg reports that the city of Red Wing is looking to spend $5 million on a new port to accomodate the recently announced Viking River Cruises on the Mississippi.
Yet another gift Michele Bachmann has bestowed upon the world. Mother Jones reporter Kishore Hari spoke to the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Kathleen Hall Jamieson about the inspiration for launching Scicheck, a science-focused analog to Annenberg’s Factcheck.org:
“When Michele Bachmann in the last election made an allegation about the effects of…a vaccine, in public space on national television…the journalists in the real context didn’t know how to respond to the statement as clearly as they ought to,” explains Jamieson. “The time to contextualize is immediately. That should have been shot down immediately.”
What is it with people and vaccines?
In other news…
Minnesota hospitals report errors in hopes of learning from mistakes [Star Tribune]
Rep. Keith Ellison is pretty happy about today’s FCC net-neutrality decision:
Excited about @FCC‘s decision on #NetNeutrality https://t.co/vSwfffT1Kn
— Rep. Keith Ellison (@keithellison) February 26, 2015
Warning, Stillwater stores: Bad-check suspect seems like nice grandma [Pioneer Press]
More Stillwater news: In March, you can pay your $15 parking tickets (!!) by donating food [WCCO]
Vote for Minnesota’s most important bike trails on MnDOT’s interactive map [Pioneer Press]
Kevin Garnett: “If you saw a fat guy with everything out dancing with your name on his chest, you would pay attention for at least five seconds.” [City Pages]
Puppy news: Labs extend record stretch as America’s No. 1 dog, but bulldogs breeds are making waves. Just click for the photo accompanying the story. [AP]
…and here’s a police dog in a flak vest. [Faribault Daily News]
More to the sentence
“Political ads in March are definitely going to build enthusiasm.” What should be added is: “…among those who pay for, produce and perform in them. Among viewers, however, not so much.”
Any chance that Mr. Sepic
Knows what Target’s lowest wages are? It would be helpful to the story.