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1 week ago | 
inforum.com | Jack O'Connor
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s two largest higher education institutions are warning of tuition increases and education cuts as the Legislature passes a limit on new higher education spending. HF2431 , which passed out of the Senate on Thursday, May 1, makes dramatic cuts to one-time grant funding to the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities systems. The bill does not decrease base funding for the institutions.
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2 weeks ago | 
inforum.com | Jack O'Connor
MINNEAPOLIS — The first person convicted of helping Feeding Our Future steal millions of dollars of public funds was sentenced in October 2024. Two autism treatment centers in St. Cloud and Minneapolis were raided by the FBI in December for fraudulent Medicaid claims. In April, a couple was indicted for defrauding around $15 million from health insurers, and the state’s attorney general’s office convicted an apartment subcontractor of wage theft for the first time.
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1 month ago | 
inforum.com | Jack O'Connor
MINNEAPOLIS — Over a hundred people came to the capital Wednesday to raise awareness about the disproportionate rates of violence facing Black women as part of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Day on the Hill. The Wednesday, April 9, event also celebrated the Office for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls, which was created in 2023 to investigate and attempt to reduce the deaths and disappearances of Black women in the state.
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1 month ago | 
duluthnewstribune.com | Jack O'Connor
ST. PAUL — Legislators advanced the education policy omnibus bill, which could require schools to implement a cell phone ban policy, mandate greater transparency for charter schools and amend the READ Act. The Senate and House passed their versions of the education policy omnibus bill Wednesday with bipartisan support, where it will eventually be heard on the floors of both chambers.
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1 month ago | 
postbulletin.com | Jack O'Connor
ST. PAUL — Legislators advanced the education policy omnibus bill, which could require schools to implement a cell phone ban policy, mandate greater transparency for charter schools and amend the READ Act. The Senate and House passed their versions of the education policy omnibus bill Wednesday with bipartisan support, where it will eventually be heard on the floors of both chambers.
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1 month ago | 
parkrapidsenterprise.com | Jack O'Connor
MINNEAPOLIS — Private schools are raising the alarm over Gov. Tim Walz’s proposed education budget, which cuts funding for nonpublic school transportation and educational materials in 2026. Walz’s updated budget proposal, released March 21, eliminates nonpublic pupil education aid — estimated to cost $52.5 million in 2026-27 and $56.4 million in 2028-29 — and nonpublic pupil transportation aid — budgeted at $56.2 million for 2026-7 and $58.4 million for 2028-29.
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1 month ago | 
inforum.com | Jack O'Connor
MINNEAPOLIS — Prison reformers want Minnesota to end its use of solitary confinement and improve conditions for inmates separated from the rest of the prison population. The commissioner overseeing the state’s prisons and jails said the issue is more complicated. A Senate bill, SF207, and its House counterpart, HF1628, would ban solitary confinement and mandate better conditions for those in segregated housing.
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1 month ago | 
inforum.com | Jack O'Connor
ST. PAUL — More than a year after Minnesota legalized cannabis in 2023, Minnesota lawmakers continue to tinker with cannabis regulations in the state. While the fight to legalize cannabis is over in Minnesota, the war for how the industry takes shape is not. Bills to ramp up regulations, relax restrictions and remove outdated language remain scattered across the state Senate and House floor.
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1 month ago | 
twincities.com | Jack O'Connor
Minnesota lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have introduced bills to give K-12 teachers a larger pension and earlier access to it with retirement. To receive their full pension in Minnesota currently, teachers must teach for 30 years and be 65 years old, or retire a few years prior with a smaller pension. Three bills in the state Legislature target early teacher retirees and make early retirement more financially feasible, the bill authors said.
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1 month ago | 
duluthnewstribune.com | Jack O'Connor
ST. PAUL — Minnesota lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have introduced bills to give K-12 teachers a larger pension and earlier access to it with retirement. To receive their full pension in Minnesota currently, teachers must teach for 30 years and be 65 years old, or retire a few years prior with a smaller pension. Three bills in the state Legislature target early teacher retirees and make early retirement more financially feasible, the bill authors said.
