Minnesota beekeeper wins ‘partial’ victory in fight over insecticide

“Partial” is better than none. Dan Kraker at MPR reports, “A Minnesota beekeeper is claiming a partial victory in a federal lawsuit over the regulation of a common insecticide. Last week, a federal judge in California ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the federal Endangered Species Act when it approved dozens of neonicotinoid insecticide products. Steve Ellis of northeast Minnesota is the lead plaintiff of suit, which claims the EPA approved products containing neonicotinoid insecticide without adequately considering harm to bees and endangered species. Center for Food Safety attorney Peter Jenkins said the judge will now consider if she should suspend some of the products registered a decade ago.”

There are no more surprises in this story. Says the AP, “A man who says he was abused by a priest 46 years ago has sued Bishop Michael Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston in northwestern Minnesota, alleging the bishop coerced him into signing a document saying the abuse never happened. The lawsuit announced Tuesday says Ronald Vasek was exploring whether to become a deacon in 2010 when he told Hoeppner he had been abused by a priest during a trip to Ohio when he was around 16 and that the priest worked at Holy Trinity Church in the town of Tabor. Vasek says the bishop advised him not to tell anyone, including his wife.”

Here’s MPR’s Brian Bakst on the (latest) meltdown over the budget at the Capitol. “The standoff could complicate efforts to craft a new two-year budget by the required adjournment date of May 22. Missing that mark would force the Legislature into special session with a possible government shutdown on the horizon weeks later. Democrats complained of a power play. ‘Let’s quit the charade,’ Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said at one point, urging lawmakers to at least get the tactic behind them so real negotiations could resume.”

Yeah, “total” is about right. Says Peter Cox for MPR, “Melissa Maher, a Lino Lakes city council member, is facing scrutiny after she wrote a Facebook post that seemed to threaten Republican Congressman Tom Emmer. Emmer’s Facebook page posted a photo of his visit to a Cokato farm on Monday morning. Shortly after the post went up, Maher issued a disparaging response: ‘If I were you Emmer, I’d avoid people who have a lot of deadly objects at hand. Selling us all out was not a good plan for your future. You’re a coward … .’ The post quickly drew the ire of others, including one of Maher’s constituents who responded that the comment was ‘beyond rude’ and ‘borders on threatening’. Maher responded to that calling it a ‘total lapse of judgment.’ “

Sweet dome. The Strib’s Aimee Blanchette writes: “The world needs more obscure candy. At least that’s what the owners of Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store say. The Wagner family hopes their latest expansion — an 85,000-pound, 60-foot space dome — hits the sweet spot. Drivers on Hwy. 169 south of Jordan already can’t miss the place with its hangar-like building sloshed with yellow paint and filled with quirky sweets like bacon-flavored soda and jalapeño cotton candy. But lately, the mysterious silo addition has been taunting tourists who want to know what’s inside.”

Waiting another day for “Media Day.” Says FoxNewsTravel, “After a bit of bad press, Delta has admitted that they aren’t quite ready to face the media. In a statement Delta issued on its official Media Day website, the company says it’s postponing its International Media Day until sometime later this year. The airline went on to cite Congress’ recent interest in ‘airline customer service issues that have gone viral on social media’ as the reason for the decision.” And they’re not the airline that dragged a paying customer off a plane, or had a scorpion drop on another one.

No. 2. Barry Amundson of the Forum News Service says, “[Lisa Twomey of Moorhead is] one in the vast army of working moms in Minnesota, a state that was ranked the second best in the nation for working moms as Mother’s Day nears. North Dakota at 19th and South Dakota at 34th were further down in the rankings, but also won high marks in a few categories, according to a study released this week by personal-finance website WalletHub. The rankings were based on day-care quality, median women’s salaries and female unemployment rates, among other categories.”

The inclusiveness stuff is clearly a plot. Says Beatrice Dupuy for the Strib, “The calls flooded into Delano Superintendent Matthew Schoen’s office as soon as word got out that teachers were putting up rainbow-colored signs that read, ‘Diverse, Inclusive, Accepting, Welcoming, Safe Space for Everyone.’ Some parents took issue with the rainbow color scheme, which they felt focused on the gay and lesbian community. In response, district officials informed teachers by e-mail that they could be violating a written policy about the posting of non-school-sponsored material. Now district officials and the Delano Teachers Union are trying to work out a solution. By late afternoon Tuesday, district officials told the union that teachers could use their discretion in deciding whether to keep the signs up, and Schoen said that staff were never ordered to remove them.”