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1 week ago | 
minnesotareformer.com | Shauneen Miranda |Minnesota Reformer
U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith honored Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, during remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday. The Minnesota Democratic senators eflected on Melissa’s leadership, devotion to her community and many contributions to her state. “Melissa is someone that I wish the whole Senate and the whole nation knew,” Klobuchar said. “We treasured her in Minnesota. She was the epitome of what you want in a public servant.
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1 week ago | 
rawstory.com | J. Patrick Coolican |Minnesota Reformer
Just hours after Minnesotans learned that Democratic House leader Melissa Hortman had been assassinated, right-wing influencer Collin Rugg, who has 1.8 million followers on X, posted a “report” that hinted that she’d been killed because of a recent vote on ending undocumented adults’ ability to enroll in MinnesotaCare, a subsidized health insurance for the working poor.
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2 weeks ago | 
minnesotareformer.com | Madison McVan |Minnesota Reformer
by Madison McVan, Minnesota Reformer June 13, 2025 President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs mean international buyers are purchasing fewer Minnesota products. First quarter exports are down 6% compared to the first quarter of 2024 — and the quarter ended before Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, which raised the effective tax on imports to 27%, before courts intervened and Trump reversed or paused some of the taxes.
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2 weeks ago | 
minnesotareformer.com | Max Nesterak |Minnesota Reformer
The narrowly divided Minnesota Legislature passed the smallest of changes to the state’s paid family leave program and paid sick leave mandate, rejecting more significant reversals sought by Republicans. House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said failing to make larger changes to the two laws was one of her party’s most significant disappointments of the session.
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3 weeks ago | 
minnesotareformer.com | Max Nesterak |Minnesota Reformer
A painting contractor was sentenced on Friday to three years probation for stealing more than $37,000 in wages from five workers at an affordable housing development in Minneapolis. Frederick Leon Newell was the first person ever to be convicted of felony wage theft in Minnesota in April, more than five years after state lawmakers enacted criminal penalties for wage theft. Newell was also convicted of felony theft by swindle.
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3 weeks ago | 
minnesotareformer.com | Madison McVan |Minnesota Reformer
A bipartisan group of lawmakers released on Thursday the final draft of their plan to cut $270 million over the next two years from programs that serve the elderly and disabled. The two-year, approximately $17 billion compromise human services budget will cut future spending on nursing homes and home care programs, though it will raise pay for nursing home and home care workers. The bill largely avoids pushing costs on to county governments, which was a core piece of the House plan.
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4 weeks ago | 
minnesotareformer.com | Jennifer Shutt |Minnesota Reformer
WASHINGTON — The Public Broadcasting Service and Lakeland PBS in Minnesota sued the Trump administration Friday, arguing an executive order seeking to cut off their federal funding violates the Constitution and would “upend public television.”The lawsuit was filed just days after a collection of National Public Radio stations sued President Donald Trump over the same executive order, which blocked the Corporation from Public Broadcasting from funding the networks.
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4 weeks ago | 
minnesotareformer.com | Ariana Figueroa |Minnesota Reformer
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Maryland slammed the Trump administration Friday for its “blatant lack of effort to comply” with her order earlier this month to report steps taken to facilitate the return of a second wrongly deported man to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.
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4 weeks ago | 
minnesotareformer.com | Michelle Griffith |Minnesota Reformer
A bill to fund critical public works projects — including upgrading the state’s roads, protecting Minnesota’s drinking water and expanding city sewers — is dead this year, legislative leaders said Thursday. The Minnesota Legislature in even years typically passes an infrastructure package — known as a “bonding bill” around the Capitol because it’s funded with borrowed money — that costs hundreds of millions and sometimes billions of dollars.
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1 month ago | 
minnesotareformer.com | Max Nesterak |Minnesota Reformer
In a victory for Minnesota’s new Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by two industry groups challenging the board’s authority to mandate that nursing homes pay workers time-and-a-half on 11 holidays. The lawsuit was the first legal challenge to the board since the Legislature created it in 2023 to set minimum pay and working standards for nursing home workers across the state.
