cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/53725616

It’s been amazing to see the reactions and groundswell surrounding these midterm elections.

Let’s make a Lemmy-train of stickers here!

Ellison's office says it's asking the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission not to approve the deal unless Xcel and Google can prove its electronic service agreement "is reasonable, consistent with the public interest, or meeting the stringent requirements of the applicable law."

State law requires "all costs attributable to the utility's very large customers" be charged to those customers, but Ellison's office alleges the utility has not provided proof that Google subsidiary Echo Zone, LLC, will cover all costs during the service agreement's term.

Ellison's office says Xcel also hasn't confirmed if "customers will be protected from paying for stranded costs if Google reduces its demand or leaves Xcel's system," which would also be in violation of state law. They also allege a lack of transparency, noting the utility provider "has redacted almost all of the dollar amounts of these potential impacts, however, and has not provided specific explanations for some of its redactions."

Xcel says the deal provides more than $1 billion in savings for taxpayers. Ellison's office says its assessment actually puts a $1.1 billion in net costs to customers.

https://www.startribune.com/long-delayed-southwest-light-rail-line-will-open-june-12-2027/601892317?from_app=1&darkmode=Dark&from_mobile=1

A Minnesota law limiting conversion therapy for minors is now facing a federal court challenge.

The lawsuit was filed by True North Legal on behalf of a Christian counseling group. It argues the 2023 law violates counselors’ First Amendment rights by limiting what they can discuss with minors about sexual orientation and gender identity.

• Klobuchar won with 89%
• Omar won in district 5

Republican primary:

• Michele Tafoya wins Senate primary 52%
• Lisa Demuth wins gov primary 43%. Mike Lindell had 32.5%

You can't make this up. It's like being anti-Antifa.

If you're against something that's objectively terrible, what does that make you?

This school was doing great stuff nobody else could do or would do. The video is just a short, rough tribute to years of education and all the lives impacted by a small school closing due to budget cuts and lack of empathy in this administration (to say the least). We'll miss you Watershed. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dY3b6f8yzb0

As a reminder to all Minnesotans, all workers are guaranteed up to 48hr of paid sick time per year at a minimal accrual rate of 1hr sick time per 30hrs worked (it can also be front loaded). You do not need to provide advance notice, unless it's a written policy. They cannot require a doctor's note if your time off is less than 2 consecutive days. You do not need to provide a reason to your boss on why you need time off, and if pressed I recommend saying that it's a mental health day (protected by ESST). You do not have to find someone to cover your shift.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/41854454

I’m gonna start by saying 1. Sorry if this kind of thing isn’t allowed, I checked the rules and didn’t see anything against this and 2. I’m not in any way affiliated with her (pic was just lifted from her website), I just want to let other people know about a candidate I’m keeping my eye on. With that out of the way:

With all of these progressive races and wins happening across the country, I wanted to see if there was anything similar happening here in MN for the governor’s race. Unfortunately most of the news/press about it assumes that Amy Klobuchar is the leading candidate and treating her as the default dem candidate even though we still have the primary in August to get to. So I checked Amy Klobuchar’s campaign website and it’s literally just a donation grab. You can check for yourself, but theres literally no policy, no key issues, not even an about page. It’s just a request for donations despite the fact that she announced her candidacy in January. Personally, I have no interest in a candidate that takes my vote for granted

So I looked at the other candidates and found Kobey Layne. She’s a progressive candidate that is anti-ICE and anti-genocide, and she’s a supporter of single payer healthcare/universal healthcare and worker’s rights. She supports divestment from Israel. She also supports trans rights and action against climate change. This is the first time she’s running for office but she does have some experience working in politics. I found a short speech she did, but tbh the audio is a little scuffed bc theres people talking right by the camera. And theres also an interview she did with a YouTuber where she talks about herself and her politics. She also has an insta set up

I’ll be honest, her campaign so far seems pretty small, but that’s why I’m making this post. I want our candidates to really earn our votes, and I feel like Klobuchar isn’t even trying. So even if Layne doesn’t win the primary, I think it’s important to use the primaries to tell the dems that we demand more. There’s still a lot of time before August 11 (mark the primaries on your calendars!) so I want to use this time to support a candidate that seems to actually have my best interests in mind

If you don’t care for any of this or it’s too long to read then just please remember the primaries are on August 11th! Do your civic duty and vote!

Sorry again if this isn’t allowed <3

Edit: archive ph link removed

Live updates page, so posting text. I could not find the article "freestanding".

2:49 p.m. Feb. 8 | Kidney recipient detained by ICE still hasn't received life-saving medications

Four days after ICE arrested a Rochester man who is the recipient of a kidney transplant, federal authorities still have not given him the life-saving medications he needs to prevent his body from rejecting the donated kidney, according to the man’s wife.

The Department of Homeland Security said late Friday that ICE is aware of the man’s recent kidney transplant, that the family gave authorities the medications and that ICE was working to ensure he gets them, but he apparently still has not received them.

Javier Abreu-Vasquez was arrested by immigration agents in Rochester on Friday while he was delivering groceries as part of a local mutual aid group through his church. He was taken without his medications to the Whipple Federal Building near the MSP airport, where he was held until being flown to a federal detention center in Texas Friday.

State Rep. Kim Hicks, DFL-Rochester, said a lawyer for Abreu-Vasquez was told Friday morning that he would need a doctor’s note to be able to access the anti-rejection medication vital to his transplant survival.

Hicks drove to the Twin Cities Thursday night to deliver the medication to Abreu-Vasquez at the Whipple building. After conferring with his attorney Friday morning, she got a letter from his doctor at Mayo Clinic, where the 38-year-old had kidney transplant surgery in July of 2023.

Hicks and Abreu-Vasquez’s family grew quite concerned though, because they hadn’t heard from federal officials as of Friday afternoon — after Abreu-Vasquez was scheduled to be transported by plane to a federal detention center in Texas.

By late Friday afternoon, the Department of Homeland Security put out a statement regarding Abreu-Vasquez’s situation.

“ICE is aware of his recent kidney transplant, and his family sent the medications and medical documentation. ICE is working with the family to ensure he gets all of his needed medications,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

“It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody,” McLaughlin’s statement continued. “This is the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives.”

Abreu-Vasquez’s wife, Carolina Rosario De Abreu, told MPR News Sunday that she talked to him by phone, and he told her he still has not received his medications. She says he needs to take his pills daily to prevent his body from rejecting the donated kidney, and that going without them could be life-threatening.

Hicks said community members alerted her Thursday that Abreu-Vasquez had been detained after federal agents rammed into his car and broke his car window on Civic Center Drive in Rochester. She said he had been delivering groceries for a mutual aid network through his church when he was detained.

In the statement, McLaughlin described Abreu-Vasquez as “an illegal alien” from the Dominican Republic.

Hicks, though, said the man has an alien registration number, which people often receive after applying for a green card, receiving a work permit or taking part in immigration court.

“I don't understand why the federal government is taking Minnesotans who are not criminals, who are part of our communities, and violently ripping them off the streets after running into their cars, and then denying them access to life saving medication,” an exasperated Hicks said Friday morning.

“For what purpose? What is the end goal here?” she said. “This is not the worst of the worst.”

— Molly Castle Work and David Schaper, MPR News

Minnesota's four Republican members of Congress are supporting new legislation designed to force the state's election officials to turn over private voter data to the Trump administration, withholding federal funding if it doesn't.

Rep. Pete Stauber introduced the Minnesota Voter Integrity Act of 2026 in the U.S. House on Monday, with Reps. Tom Emmer, Brad Finstad, and Michelle Fischbach as co-sponsors.

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the office of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in St. Paul on Tuesday to demand that state officials take action to bring the federal agents who killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti to justice.

"We are demanding that they bring charges against the killer officers," said Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for Minnesota, which organized the protest. "We want the identity of the officers. We know the federal government is not investigating. They are lying to the American people. They are denying us justice. It is time for the state to do their job."

The crowd then broke out into a raucous chant: "Do your job! Do your job!"

— (@)

The protest, which took place outside Walz's office in the Minnesota state Capitol building, came as the governor negotiates an end to federal immigration agents' takeover of Minnesota with Trump border czar Tom Homan, who was recently dispatched to oversee the Trump administration's operation in the state following the departure of Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino.

The Trump administration appears on the back foot after the killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, over the weekend, by a gang of federal agents, which was caught on camera and heightened the already simmering national anger at Trump's deployments around the US.

Minneapolis has become the epicenter of this outrage, with more than 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents deployed as part of what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said is "the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out."

In addition to the slayings of Good and Pretti, agents have been documented engaging in relentless brutality against the people of Minnesota, including many US citizens. Cases abound of residents being subject to explicit racial profiling, being threatened and assaulted for engaging in First Amendment-protected protest and legal observation, and being detained and interrogated as part of unconstitutional "citizenship checks."

Minnesota state officials, including Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, have faced mounting pressure to pursue criminal charges against Jonathan Ross, the agent who killed Good earlier this month. But Minnesota’s public safety commissioner has said “it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible,” for a local investigation to continue “without cooperation from the federal government.”

According to Walz's office, he outlined two main goals in his closed-door meeting with Homan: He wants the administration to dramatically reduce the massive presence of agents in the state and to give state investigators a role in the investigations of Good and Pretti's deaths.

— (@)

A drawdown of agents reportedly began after a call between Walz and Trump on Monday, during which the governor said he would look for the state to work with the federal government “in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.” Trump characterized it as a “request to work together with respect to Minnesota.”

But Suleiman Adan, the deputy executive director of CAIR Minnesota, told Common Dreams that such a compromise is inadequate, calling on Walz “to use every legal and political tool at his disposal.”

"That means empowering county attorneys to open their own inquiries, collecting and preserving bystander video and witness statements, and going to court when necessary to try to compel or preserve evidence," he said. "It also means using the governor’s political leverage, public pressure, legal action, and intergovernmental channels to make non-cooperation itself a public issue, not something that happens quietly behind closed doors."

According to a report on Wednesday by NBC News, DHS itself is conducting federal inquiries into its own agents' killings of Pretti and Good, which has raised immediate concerns about impartiality, especially after top officials have jumped to preemptively exonerate the agents while labeling the victims as "domestic terrorists."

Rather than simply serve a role in a federal investigation, CAIR wants Walz to demand an independent state-level investigation run by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), which attained a restraining order to prevent federal agents from destroying evidence in Pretti's case.

"Minnesotans are asking, 'Are we safe here anymore?' and they need actionable leadership, not half-measures," Adan said.

Adan said it was unclear at this point what guarantees Walz has secured to ensure proper oversight of agents and the protection of civil rights.

“While Governor Walz has met with Border Czar Tom Homan as part of efforts to address the situation, that meeting has not yet translated into real protections for community members on the ground,” he continued. “We are concerned that any agreement that normalizes or legitimizes an expanded federal enforcement presence without binding constraints, transparent accountability, and independent oversight does not protect Minnesota residents and undermines public trust.”

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