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How will Minneapolis pull off police change?

Minneapolis voters have a big question on their ballot this fall. Do they want to keep the Minneapolis Police Department which is deeply unpopular with the people it is supposed to be protecting and serving, or do they want to start over with the new Department of Public Safety that could include police officers, but will emphasize other approaches to keeping people safe? Let’s assume voters approve the new Minneapolis DPS. Who is going to come up with the organization and plan? According to the ballot question, the Minneapolis City Council will have more direct control of the ...

Suing for a mask mandate

Has Minnesota’s health policy become politicized? Apparently, yes. Last year Gov. Tim Walz asked for and received approval for emergency powers that allowed him to issue rules to slow the spread of COVID-19 infections in the state. They were widespread and very impactful. Restaurants, bars and health clubs were ordered to close. People were told to work from home where possible. People were ordered to wear masks in public places, including schools. The state had all kinds of directives for spacing and sanitizing in schools, and for when schools had to go to distance learning. The ...

Labor Day 2021

It has been an odd couple of years for labor in the U.S. The COVID-19 pandemic put a lot of businesses, large and small, in shutdown. Employees of those businesses found themselves laid off, or furloughed. But as those jobs have come back, employers are finding it hard to hire enough people, thanks in part to generous federal unemployment benefits. Market forces have been pushing up the minimum wage to levels legislators had shuddered to consider. Those who have kept working have adapted how they work. Instead going to an office or business campus, they have been working from home. ...

Thumbs Up/Down

Concerts in park THUMBS UP: Another season of summer concerts in German Park has come to an end. A variety of bands, local and area, have entertained crowds on Mondays, and the New Ulm Municipal Band played several Wednesdays throughout the summer. This year the experience was made special by the newly constructed amphitheater seating, which replaced the sloping grass terraces that made sitting in lawnchairs kind of risky. The City of New Ulm and the Friends of German Park, with financing from private donors made the new stone terraces possible. It is an improvement that will provide ...

Capitol security may never be the same

Nobody likes the idea of our nation’s Capitol or our state capitols surrounded by chain link fences and barricades. These are the “people’s houses,” where the representative they elect go to enact laws. People should have access to do what the first amendment says they have the right to do — “peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances.” But in recent years, as the George Floyd demonstrations and ultimately the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol have shown, a lot of demonstrators are not looking to peaceably assemble. Those who do are ...

Widespread suffering from Ida

Hurricane Ida hit the Gulf Coast states last weekend and wreaked havoc along the coast. Flooding and power outages are challenging the recovery efforts. Over a million households in Louisiana and Mississippi were without power as of Wednesday and gasoline shortages were hampering rescue and emergency efforts. The bright spot is that only about half a dozen people have died from the storm, though that figure is expected to rise. We haven’t seen the disastrous flooding that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on New Orleans in 2005. That flooding led to 1,800 deaths in and around New ...