Expect less. Pay more. Jim Spencer at the Star Tribune has a piece on how tariffs on Chinese imports will affect Big Red and its customers: “Whether it is furniture, carpets, handbags, belts, sports gear, luggage or a host of other items Target buys in China, the price is about to go up 10 percent Sept. 24 with an additional 15 percent increase on Jan. 1, 2019.”
Finally, an agreement. WCCO has a report on a new agreement between Mille Lacs County and Mille Lacs tribal police: “‘The past two years have been tragic and difficult years on the Mille Lacs Reservation,’ Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin said. ‘The reinstatement of the law enforcement agreement is the beginning of a long journey in restoring law, order and hope in our community. This journey will take many years.'”
Caution: Student Drivers. Martin Moylan at MPR News writes about Metro Transit’s apprenticeship program, which hopes to boost the number of metro bus drivers: “Metro Transit is still providing around 5 million passengers rides each month — but there are fewer trips on some routes. Overall, bus trips have been pared back about 1 percent. The apprenticeship program will connect new recruits with experienced drivers to try and reduce the drop-out rate, said Brian Funk, who oversees bus operations.”
Good call. Emma Dill at the Minnesota Daily reports that university police will join Minneapolis police and fire departments in supplying Narcan to its officers: “In the past two years, UMPD officers responded to one opioid overdose. As it was an accidental overdose of a non-student, UMPD Chief Matt Clark said the department needs to be equipped to serve the larger community. ‘With hospital and light rail and everything else, we know that the folks we serve aren’t always part of the campus community,’ Clark said.”
In other news…
Godspeed: “Minnesota National Guard members ready for deployment” [West Central Tribune]
Fact check: “Joe Radinovich, running from the law?” [Duluth News Tribune]
The news from Madison: “Police stop black legislative candidate going door-to-door” [Star Tribune]
Ice fudge shops and antiquarian bookstores are next: “Stillwater City Council Agrees to Keep Ice Castles at Current Location, with Conditions” [KSTP]
Controversy: “Thousands of fans request grand jury probe of Prince’s death” [MPR]
Kudos: “St. Paul poet Danez Smith wins prestigious British literary prize” [Pioneer Press]
Which aisle are the MAGA hats? “Video of Bloomington, Minnesota, Walmart employee’s racist rant resurfaces” [City Pages]
I heard an interview with Wilbur Ross yesterday where he made the most absurd claim. He said that consumers won’t feel these new 10% tariffs on everything because they’ll be spread around over so many things.
Huh?
If you slap a 10% increase on EVERYTHING, then it doesn’t matter how many *things* that 10% is added to – it’s still gonna be 10% on each thing.
A Commerce Secretary who can’t do math. What else is new?
No, a Commerce Secretary who’s SO filthy rich, that a 10% increase in any of his expenses would make no difference to him whatsoever,…
unless, of course, it was a 10% increase in the taxes he pays,…
at which point the world would be coming an immediate end,…
and the “liberals” could clearly have a found anew way to,…
“punish success,”…
(even though this kind of “success” is just successfully legalizing all the ways you’ve invented to rip other people off).
How about a Commerce Secretary who doesn’t understand how tariffs are supposed to work in a trade war?
As I understood it, the point of a tariff in this kind of situation is to depress demand for the foreign goods by–wait for it–making them more expensive. If the consumer doesn’t notice that the goods he or she is buying, there is no incentive for them to stop buying them. The trade war accomplishes nothing.