Ellison sues Target’s Shipt over ‘gig worker’ benefits

This from Stribber Nicole Norfleet, “The battle between the rights of gig workers and cost of flexibility has arrived in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Thursday filed a lawsuit alleging that Shipt, the grocery delivery business of Target Corp., cheats workers of benefits and rights by classifying them as independent contractors. The suit marks the first time in the decade or so since the so-called gig economy became a feature of the American scene that a Minnesota policymaker has challenged one of its fundamental traits.”

An AP story says, “Election Day is 12 days away. But in courtrooms across the country, efforts to sow doubt over the outcome have already begun. More than 100 lawsuits have been filed this year around the Nov. 8 elections. The legal challenges, largely by Republicans, target rules for mail-in voting, early voting, voter access, voting machines, voting registration, the counting of mismarked absentee ballots and access for partisan poll watchers. The cases likely preview a potentially contentious post-election period and the strategy stems partly from the failure of Donald Trump and his allies to prevail in overturning the free and fair results of the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Joe Biden.”

At MPR News, Tim Nelson reports, “Demolition experts leveled a decommissioned power plant in western Minnesota on Thursday, using explosives to bring down two giant smokestacks and the nearly century-old building in Granite Falls. The sound of the explosives was followed by the boom of the massive plant tumbling to the ground, echoing through the Minnesota River Valley as a cloud of dust rose into the air and crowds looked on from a safe distance.”

This from KSTP-TV’s Jay Kolls, “Small cities across Minnesota face a significant challenge to fill vacancies in their respective agencies. According to Minnesota POST Board records, 14 law enforcement agencies have closed across the state since 2017. A spokesperson for the POST Board said his agency doesn’t track reasons why those agencies have closed, but said it is a ‘fair characterization’ that most shut down due to staffing and budget issues.”

A Strib endorsement says, “Enhancing civic participation is critical, and [Steve] Simon not only passed but aced what he called the ‘ultimate stress test’ on ‘our democracy as a whole’ and on ‘election administration in particular.’ Unfortunately, despite the worst of the pandemic behind us, our democracy is still under stress. … The list of election critics includes Simon’s opponent, Republican Kim Crockett, who has disputed the 2020 outcome multiple times. (That may have led to Trump’s endorsement of Crockett on Tuesday in a social-media post that lied about ‘rampant’ election fraud in Minnesota.)”

At KARE-TV, Diane Sandberg says, “Four tiny lion cubs are on their way to Minnesota, hoping to find a home at The Wildcat Sanctuary (TWS) in Sandstone after escaping the war in Ukraine.  All of the cubs are younger than four months old, according to information from TWS. Their permits said all of the cubs were surrendered to animal rescue organizations after local officials started cracking down on laws regulating the exotic pet trade in Ukraine.”

At KMSP-TV Mary McGuire says, “Just in time for a winter spike in illnesses, three major drug manufacturers are reporting shortages of the popular antibiotic, Amoxicillin.  The medication is commonly used to treat bacterial infections, like ear infections, in kids. The majority of the supply problems were found to be in the liquid form of the medication. Clinical pharmacist Keith Karsky says they’ve been feeling the impact of the shortage at St. Cloud-based CentraCare’s clinic, urgent care, and emergency department.”

At Sports Illustrated, Chris Schad writes, “The case to keep Correa is obvious. All-Star shortstops don’t grow on trees and neither does one with the all-around ability that Correa has. After getting off to a slow start, Correa’s .834  OPS led all shortstops with a minimum of 300 at-bats. His 5.4 wins above replacement ranked fourth, his .291 batting average ranked fifth, and his 22 homers were sixth among this group. … Signing Correa won’t doom the Twins for the next 10 years, but it’s a move that doesn’t need to be made. With an opportunity to upgrade other areas of the roster, they can let Correa get the bag he deserves while also creating a better team back in Minnesota.”

Also at MPR News, this from Paul Huttner, “The fall 2022 warm weather hits just keep on coming. Upper air and surface forecast maps push yet another unseasonably warm air mass into Minnesota starting this weekend and peaking later next week. Temperatures around 20 degrees above average look likely by late next week.”