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Police reforms won’t come all at once

The agreement Minnesota legislators reached on the public safety budget bill over the weekend contains some police reforms, but not enough for those pressing for changes in the way police interact with the public. The agreement contains regulation of no-knock warrants, creating a police misconduct database, and creation of an office dealing with the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women, plus a task force on missing and murdered black women. But proponents of police changes want more. They want to stop police using traffic stops for minor offenses as a pretext for further ...

Session looks to end on time

The Minnesota legislative special session seems on its way to finish work on the state budget bills before the July 1 government shutdown date. Legislative leaders announced an agreement on the last contentious issue, the police accountability measures included in the public safety bill. Democrats had been pushing to add a host of new restrictions on police procedures to the bill, while Republicans were loath to add measures that they considered anti-police. The agreed-upon measures include regulations on no-knock warrants, creation of a police misconduct database to prevent problem ...

Thumbs Up/Down

A fair sentence THUMBS UP: Derek Chauvin, the ex-Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd on May 25, 2020, was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison on Friday. It was an upward departture from the state sentencing guidelines, and the longest sentence handed down to a police officer in the U.S. for the killing of a Black person, but still not as much as Floyd’s family and their supporters wanted. They would have liked the full 40 years the law allowed. Judge Peter Cahill kept his comments in the courtroom brief, but did say his decision was not based on “emotion ...

COVID vaccines are working

There are signs that the COVID-19 vaccines being injected into people these days are doing their job. You can see it in the statistics showing the falling number of new cases and deaths. And, unfortunately, you can see it in the continuing rise of cases in states where people are avoiding vaccination. The case of the State of Missouri was highlighted earlier this week. According to the Associated Press, Missouri is seeing a rise in cases as the fast spreading delta variant sweeps through and finds a population where most people are not vaccinated. One county in Missouri has a ...

Oak Hills residents owe much to Ramnarine

Residents of the Oak Hills Living Center, indeed, all of New Ulm, owes a debt of gratitude to Joe Ramnarine, who died June 8 at the age of 86. Ramnarine was the administrator of the Highland Manor nursing home in New Ulm back in the 1990s. He knew the facility was too old, too uncomfortable and our senior citizens deserved better. He led the push to build the new facility that is now Oak Hills Living Center. Ramnarine would take anyone and everyone through Highland Manor, show them the narrow corridors crowded with wheel chairs and carts, point out the lack of air conditioning in the ...

Good news on state tax cuts

Minnesota legislators have been in special session for a week to pass state budget bills. They are still working on those, but they did get a significant piece of legislation finished last week. Legislators agreed on a nearly $1 billion tax cut bill that focuses most of its benefits to businesses and workers impacted by COVID-19. Businesses that received federal Paycheck Protection Program loans won’t have to pay taxes on the loans, putting the state in compliance with federal PPP loan policy. Workers laid off because of COVID-19 who received federal unemployment benefits won’t ...