Environmental groups question Minnesota clean-water plan

by MinnPost staff 03/07/201803/07/2018

Water plan. MPR’s Mark Steil reports: “Minnesota’s plans to reduce nitrates in drinking water are moving closer to completion. … On Tuesday, Gov. Mark Dayton and agriculture commissioner Dave Frederickson outlined a proposal years in the making: By creating a system of voluntary and mandatory measures on farmland and in public water supplies, the state hopes to safeguard and improve water quality across the state. … But some environmental groups wonder if the plan goes far enough to address what Frederickson said is a statewide issue.”

More on Best Buy’s relationship with the feds. Gizmodo’s Dell Cameron reports: “The existence of the Geek Squad informants was first revealed via the prosecution of a California doctor named Mark Rettenmaier. After Rettenmaier sent his computer to Geek Squad for repair in 2011, technicians working out of a massive Kentucky repair shop discovered thousands of images depicting child abuse on Rettenmaier’s device. Court filings later revealed that there were ‘eight FBI informants at Geek Squad City,’ and a number had received $500 to $1,000 payments in exchange for acting as confidential sources. … It was unclear at the time how much Best Buy knew about the arrangement. However, documents recently acquired by the Electronic Frontier Foundation—which last year sued the Justice Department under the Freedom of Information Act after the FBI denied the group access to records—show that Best Buy has, at least at certain times, maintained a relationship with the feds, at one point hosting a meeting with the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Working Group at its Kentucky repair facility.”

Politico’s Reena Flores checks in with Minnesota’s new senator: “Sen. Tina Smith doesn’t want to talk about Al Franken. … When asked about her Democratic predecessor, who resigned the Minnesota seat amid allegations of sexual misconduct, she avoided even saying his name in a recent interview with POLITICO’s Women Rule podcast, instead concentrating on the economic implications of the #MeToo movement. … ‘I believe it’s a cultural change that we’re going through as a country, and it’s not really a partisan issue,’ Smith, Minnesota’s former lieutenant governor, told POLITICO. ‘But I think that my party, the Democratic Party, needs to continue to lead the way in … paving the path for more economic opportunity for women. And to me, this is really part of that challenge, whether it is paid family leave, whether it is improved child care.’ ”

What, exactly, happened to McNally Smith? For City Pages, Bill Lindeke digs into the school’s sudden closure: “It didn’t have to be like this. Almost every college that closes at the very least gives advance notice to students, faculty, and staff. But that wasn’t the case at McNally Smith. … The key question is, why did the school close when it did? So far, nobody has a good answer.”