Minnesota Supreme Court says secretary of state can withhold some voter data

The Associated Press reports: “The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the secretary of state can withhold some voter information from a conservative election watchdog group. In a 5-2 decision, the high court reversed a lower court ruling that favored the Minnesota Voters Alliance. That group sued to obtain data on millions of voters that Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office contends should be kept private.”

In the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Carrigan Miller writes: “Sleep Number will furlough nearly 40 percent of its employees, or as many as 1,790 people, the company announced Wednesday. The furloughs are in response to financial hardships brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. … Minneapolis-based Sleep Number has closed the majority of its 611 retail stores in keeping with state orders closing non-essential businesses; it has also largely stopped making home deliveries of its mattresses.”

Reports KSTP-TV’s Richard Reeve: “The Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) says traffic volume in the Twin Cities has dropped 47%. Statewide, the number of cars on the roads has dropped in half. But authorities say there is a frightening flip side. ‘Speed is a huge issue, and people driving in a reckless or careless manner,’ says OTS Director Mike Hanson. The result: Traffic fatalities are up, even though there are fewer vehicles on the roads.”

This also from the AP, “The union representing employees at a Smithfield pork processing plant in South Dakota said workers were induced to report to work through company bonuses as a rash of coronavirus infections broke out at the facility. The Sioux Falls, S.D., plant, which employees about 2,800 people in the state’s largest city, has emerged as a hot spot of infections, accounting for at least 1 in 5 confirmed cases in South Dakota. Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon says over 80 employees have tested positive according to data from Tuesday.”

In the Star Tribune, Tim Harlow says, “Twin Cities transit agencies are using slower times brought on by the novel coronavirus pandemic to tackle a long list of needed maintenance and to accelerate major capital projects. Besides keeping buses, trains and platforms clean, Metro Transit is remodeling a north suburban transit station. The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority (MVTA) is bringing a deteriorating bus garage into a ‘State of Good Repair.’ SouthWest Transit is finishing a garage expansion and facility improvement.”

In the West Central Tribune, Tom Cherveny says, “Tim Mattheisen likes to joke that he has a ‘few bags of groceries under this belt,’ having started working at the Do-Mat’s Family Foods store in Benson in June 1960 and becoming its owner on April 1, 1972. ‘Nothing like this. Nothing even close to this. This is the wildest I’ve ever seen,’ said Mattheisen of what the last few weeks in the store have been like. Sales have soared to record levels at grocery stores throughout west central Minnesota as people have stocked up in response to stay-at-home orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘A snowstorm on steroids’ is how Brett Almich, of Almich’s Market in Granite Falls and Clara City, initially described the surge in sales.”

At Inc., Kevin Ryan reports, “High demand for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) has led to important changes limiting the size of the payouts for some small business owners. While small business owners across America line up to get their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans — a process that has been a bit chaotic —the Treasury Department has touted the EIDL as a stopgap option. Small businesses that apply for EIDLs can request an advance of up to $10,000. Now, there are some caveats. The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Massachusetts District Office announced in a bulletin on April 6 that, nationwide, the SBA has decided to implement a $1,000 cap per employee on the advance, up to a maximum of $10,000. So a business with three employees, for example, would only be eligible to receive $3,000 up front, as opposed to the originally stated $10,000.”

Also for the AP, Todd Richmond writes: “The Legislature’s finance committee would have carte-blanche power to reduce state spending as part of a sweeping bill Wisconsin Republicans have proposed to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signaled in an interview that he would veto the bill if Republicans don’t remove the language. That would delay other benefits in the bill, including eliminating the waiting period for unemployment checks and suspending interest on property taxes.”