Grace Birnstengel reports A proposal to temporarily stop evicting tent encampments within the city was rejected by the 13-member council. This is a Minneapolis police practice in which homeless people are often given little notice and don’t have an alternative.
Star Tribune story by Paul Walsh and Alex Chhith. “University of Minnesota officials now have opportunities to allow all graduates to walk on the stage to receive diplomas after renovations possibly jeopardized their rite of passage… 3M Arena in Mariucci, which is where most graduations take place, is currently closed for “extensive renovation,” according to David Greenstein, interim Dean at the College of Biological Sciences. According to Greenstein’s email, the students were expected to celebrate with “numbers of other UMN college” at Huntington Bank Stadium. According to Szatkowski, a student at the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources sent an email to Greenstein stating that the joint ceremony would have prevented students from walking across the stage and receiving diplomas.
A story in the AP says span-style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”” More than 30 people chanted?Democracy! in the near-freezing temperatures Wednesday. They held signs that read ‘We Choose Us,’ the name of a voting rights advocacy group that opposes attempts to make it more difficult for voters in Minnesota counties. Members claimed that groups like the Dakota County Patriots or MidWest Swamp Watch are “attacking our democracy” by calling for dangerous changes such as hand-counting of ballots, limiting drop off boxes and flooding a county office with dozens data requests that are slowing down staff. We Choose Us members will testify at county board meetings over the coming weeks in an effort to persuade officials to keep machine counting paper ballots, rather than switching to hand counting. Officials counter that machine counting is better than hand counting.
AP Steve Karnowski writes: “The Minnesota Legislature should require that the secretary-general’s office proofread all counties’ ballots before they are mailed out. Kim Crockett, Republican challenger, said this Thursday, as she lamented four counties’ ballot printing mistakes. Crockett acknowledged the fact that the state law doesn’t require that the secretary of state’s offices review each precinct’s ballots for accuracy. That’s been the responsibility of Minnesota counties since long. She suggested that Steve Simon, the Democratic incumbent, should have noticed the errors since counties are required by law to mail copies to his office.
Lawrence Andrea writes in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “After engaging a Wisconsin law company that represented Donald Trump in his attempt to reverse the results of the 2020 elections, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has launched a website encouraging citizens to report suspected election fraud. This comes as Republicans are raising doubts about the confidence in election results, despite recounts and court rulings and nonpartisan audits which confirmed Joe Biden’s win over Trump by approximately 21,000 votes in Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential count.
Josh Verges, a PiPress reporter, writes that “With pandemic relief grants running out, and enrollment falling faster then expected, the Minnesota State College and University System is preparing its largest-ever request for state funding for the upcoming biennium. The system seeks a $350million increase in state support to cover tuition freeze, student services, financial aid, job training improvements, and core funding for the 26 colleges. Devinder Malhotra, Chancellor, stated that he is proposing this bold and aggressive request not to take a share of the state’s enormous budget surplus but so that the state’s campuses can continue supporting the economy.
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