President Donald Trump’s administration recently announced an executive order closing the federal Department of Education to “provide children and their families an opportunity to escape a system that is failing them.” 

The order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take steps to close the education department in order to return education decisions to the states while maintaining services, programs and benefits for students. The department currently supports schools nationwide by allocating funds to K-12 schools and tuition assistance to universities. 

Sen. Steve Cwodzinski (DFL-Eden Prairie) said in a statement that he is concerned with the “chaotic and cruel” decisions from the Trump administration, especially dismantling the Department of Education. He said the executive order sends a clear message to students that their education is not Trump’s priority. 

“The firing of over 1,300 public servants at the department does nothing to create ‘more efficiency,’ as the administration claims,” Cwodzinski said in the statement. “Instead, services will be halted, phone calls will go unanswered, and our most underfunded and vulnerable students will not receive the help they deserve.”

Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison, alongside 21 total attorneys, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to halt the closing of the Department of Education. The suit said the order violates constitutional and federal law and overrides the U. S. Congress’ authority and urges courts to stop the order. 

Teachers raise concerns for fair, accessible education

After hearing the news, University of Minnesota education professor Jehanne Beaton said her initial reaction was not only that it was not legal but also that it would be extremely harmful.

“My other thought was removing the Department of Education is not just this simple thing,” Beaton said. “The impacts it’ll have on kids and families and college students and school systems and universities are so massive.”

University education professor Justin Grinage, who teaches students wishing to become English teachers, said the executive order did not surprise him. 

“The Trump administration has been signaling very loudly in public statements and in Project 2025 that this was going to be happening,” Grinage said. “I basically was asking myself, ‘What’s the end game here? What’s motivating these kinds of decisions and policies? Whose interests are being prioritized?’”

Beaton, who works with students through the DirecTrack program, said the closure of the Department of Education could mean students with disabilities and multilingual students could lose funding and anti-discrimination protections. 

“We have laws about racial and gender discrimination that are supported and regulated by the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education,” Beaton said. “That particular part of the Department of Ed has completely been eliminated. So that protects kids when they are discriminated against by teachers, by a school system or by other kids.” 

Grinage said the order will make free public education for K-12 students less accessible while vouchers to private and faith-based schools will expand greatly. 

“The more we disinvest from public education, the more unhealthy our democracy will become,” Grinage said. “That’s going to trickle all the way down to where we’re going to see massive achievement gaps and opportunity gaps.”

While Trump officials have said that closing the education department is meant to bring education decisions back to the states, Beaton said states already decide on public school curriculums and policies. 

“There’s no nationally required curriculum. Every state determines that,” Beaton said. “There are different levels of flexibility based on the standards and requirements set by the state. So it’s a false notion that by eliminating the Department of Ed, we will somehow change the curriculum that’s being taught.”

Since the announcement of the executive order, Beaton has begun asking her class if the Department of Education is overrated or underrated. 

Beaton said she imagines if the executive order is successful, teachers and students will see the department carved down to its bare bones but not completely gone. She added that communities will be impacted disproportionately. 

“You will see poor communities suffer worse,” Beaton said. “That’s really important to acknowledge. I think more affluent communities will be able to fortify their schools and poor communities will not. And that’s wrong.”

University student Jack Baribeau, who would like to teach history, said he thinks the department’s usefulness depends on where a teacher lives. States with stronger union protections, like Minnesota, will be better off compared to states with weaker ones, like Wisconsin.

Although the executive order has many teachers and aspiring teachers worried about their future careers and students, Baribeau said he has noticed a sense of camaraderie among his peers and host teachers since the executive order. 

“I was at the history conference for educators this last week. There was a sense of, ‘We’re going to be in this together,’” Baribeau said in class. “In fact, there was a full conference that we had a big talk where they had a big panel, and everyone kind of was under the sense of we’re going to get through this together.”

State lawmakers are looking to make prescription medications more affordable with multiple bills moving through the state legislature to simplify the complicated supply chain behind pharmacies. 

More than 42,000 drug products had price increases between 2022 and 2023, according to the Department of Labor, with an average increase in manufacturer prices being around 15%. 

U.S. consumers spent around $406 billion on retail prescription drugs in 2022, which is more than $100 billion more than they did in 2014, according to the National Health Expenditure Accounts. 

Rep. Steve Elkins (DFL-Bloomington), who chief authored three bills aiming to make prescription drugs more affordable, said his ultimate goal is to chip away at the convoluted, dysfunctional pricing system behind prescription drugs. 

“If you look through the literature, some of the worst examples of this dysfunction are related to insulin, which is a drug that people need to live,” Elkins said. 

Prescription drugs are seeing inflated costs because, in part, third-party groups called Pharmacy Benefit Managers give benefits for health plans to insurance plans, employers and government programs to try to negotiate costs through rebates and discounts, Elkins said. 

Because of this system and current federal laws, PBMs and other groups can negotiate the price of prescription drugs with health insurers and pocket the difference while leaving consumers with a larger bill, Elkins said. This phenomenon, called spread pricing, is targeted in one of his bills, HF2851.

Elkins said his bills target this process, as well as rebates given by drug manufacturers to PBMs, in hopes of simplifying the process to lower costs.

“They are going after the big rebates because, for the most part, the rebates get passed on to the plans, and to a large degree, it’s the plans themselves that are driving the PBMs to choose drugs for the formularies that will provide bigger rebates rather than lower prices,” Elkins said. “That’s the part that really is perverted to me.” 

Under this system and current federal laws, PBMs and other groups can negotiate the price of prescription drugs with health insurers and pocket the difference while leaving consumers with a larger bill, Elkins said. This phenomenon, called spread pricing, is targeted in one of his bills, HF2851. 

Michael Murphy, American Pharmacists Association senior advisor for state government affairs, said that because everything gets paid through insurance in pharmaceutical companies, the process becomes more complicated and removed from the patient. 

“Oftentimes, because it’s such a complicated process, health insurers subcontract out the drug benefit to organizations known as pharmacy benefits,” Murphy said. 

One of the bills, HF1652, which Elkins authored, ensures that a health plan cannot force patients to switch drugs in the middle of a year because a health insurer wants a pricier drug to get a higher rebate. The second bill, HF1075, targets health plans and PBMs to use rebates to buy down the prices patients pay at the pharmacy. 

“Because so much revenue is generated by a relatively small percentage of their health plan members who need these drugs, but they are making a conscious decision to use those revenues to buy down the premiums rather than buying down the price of the drugs for the people who have to take them,” Elkins said. 

The fourth bill, HF1076, requires health plans to list all low- and high-priced drugs in the consumer’s bill and that the lowest-priced drugs take precedence for patients. According to Elkins, a strategy like this has not been used in any other state.

“As a state legislator, I know that so many of these problems are the result of well-meaning but misguided decisions that were made, either in Congress or by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,” Elkins said. “Some cases 20, 30 years ago, and they were just spun out of control.”

Due to PBMs setting reimbursement prices for medications to gain higher rebates, Murphy said the pharmaceutical industry is forced to dispense medications at a loss, which often creates communities with limited pharmacy options across the country. 

“It can be concerning when we see misaligned incentives coming from some of these external organizations that put handcuffs on how pharmacists can best provide care to their patients,” Murphy said.

College of Pharmacy professor Sarah Westberg said it is necessary to support pharmacies alongside patients because of the specialized care they offer to people, such as ensuring effective and safe medications. Westberg added that pharmacists connect patients with the prescriber, which is a connection that could be lost if pharmacies are not well supported. 

“If you lose that frontline pharmacist, you lose a lot of access,” Westberg said. 

Westberg said most pharmacists want what is best for patients and to make sure their services stay accessible. She added that although the system is complicated, all parts of the system, such as PMBs, bring value by negotiating prices and more. 

“They bring value in terms of helping to negotiate prices. They bring value in helping to make sure that when certain medications are used, they are the most appropriate through prior authorizations,” Westberg said. 

Murphy said it is important for state and federal lawmakers to consult with health care providers who have intimate knowledge about the dysfunctional medication system to ensure new legislation supports patients

“What’s really concerning for me as a health care provider is that when a patient is going to the pharmacy to pick up their prescription and they’re faced with a cost that they can’t deal with, that’s someone’s mom,” Murphy said. “That’s someone’s son. That’s someone who is trying to navigate what is likely a very foreign, complicated system, and they need someone that can be there as an advocate for them to help them navigate that system.”

Other bills targeting the prescription drug system include requiring a PBM to enter into a contract with the Minnesota commissioner of human services, another one simplifying how payments are dispensed to improve access to pharmacies and another bill moving through the state legislature that would require health plans to pay a dispensing fee to certain pharmacies. 

At the end of the day, these bills are meant to keep health care affordable for residents and support local pharmacies.

“Pharmacies aren’t looking to make huge profits,” Westberg said. “They just want to cover their costs and stay open to take care of patients. And right now, that’s tough.”

The first-ever East Bank Neighborhoods Partnership (EBNP) meeting was Tuesday night with association members and city staff giving updates about the two future construction projects in the area, the creation of more green spaces and the EBNP itself. 

EBNP was created in October after neighborhood associations from Marcy-Holmes, Southeast Como and Nicollet Island voted to merge into one organization. With declining financial support from the city, association members decided to go forward with the merger to combine financial resources. 

“These three organizations found that their funding from the city was diminishing year by year and thought it would be better to merge so that we would have a strong administrative support for all the activities that were happening in these neighborhoods,” EBNP Interim President Ted Tucker said in the meeting. “So this is a merging of associations, not of neighborhoods. You’ve got to remember that.”

Tucker said the new board of directors will be elected in November and consist of 15 members with six at-large directors. 

The three neighborhoods will elect three directors to work alongside the six at-large directors, Tucker said. At least two of the at-large directors must be renters, and if a seat is not filled by a renter, the seat will remain vacant, he added. 

“We’re doing our best to broaden the representation,” Tucker said. “Above all, to get more students to live here just for a few years, but still are a very important part of the community. And above all, have more renters.”

Presenters at the first EBNP included representatives from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board, Minneapolis Public Works and more. 

Three years of construction around Dinkytown

Public Works Transportation Planner Mallory Rickbeil, along with engineer Spencer Evert, overviewed future construction on Fourth Street and University Avenue. The construction project aims to repave streets, add protected bike lanes and update intersections to comply with the American Disabilities Act (ADA) standards, according to Hennepin County. 

Rickbeil said planners used crash data from 2017 to 2022 to identify the places and intersections where vehicle accidents commonly occur. She said around 46% of crashes involved a pedestrian or cyclist in these areas. 

“We prioritize our project based on where are the crashes? What is the severity of crashes and where are they located on multi-modal corridors? When do they involve pedestrians and people who are running bicycles?” Rickbeil said in the meeting. 

A final concept of construction will be finalized in July, Rickbeil said, while construction will begin in 2026 and resurfacing in 2028. 

Alongside the pedestrian improvement project, SRF Consulting engineer Joshua Colas presented construction plans for University Avenue and Fourth Street construction to make roads smoother, update ADA standards, extend pavement life and improve safety and accessibility for pedestrians, cars and cyclists. 

“We’re looking to bring enhancements for safety, for comfort, for visibility, for those that are walking, and the bikes that are also motorists as well,” Colas said in the meeting. “How we’re going to do that is that we’re actually going to be reconstructing the roadway and also in a place in the bridges, bring them up to standard and also extend them along, jamming up the life of you.”

MnDOT is wrapping up the preliminary designs of the two roads with construction scheduled for 2027 and 2028. 

“I’m just really happy to bring improvements here, and hopefully these are the results that the communities have ever seen,” Colas said in the meeting. 

From industrial to green 

The Grand Rounds Missing Link project would add parks, trails and parkways to connect the city’s greenspace with around $6 million in funding already approved for the project, Project Manager Julie Aldrich said.

Landscape Architect for the project Andrew Montgomery showed the audience how to use the project’s interactive map. Connecting the city’s greenspace would first require removing two portions of the industrial parkway to turn it into a green space, Montgomery said. 

“We’re really excited about this location,” Montgomery said in the meeting. “There’s some park expansion opportunities. And really this portion will be the only portion of the grand rounds that goes through an industrial area. So it’ll have kind of a unique character.”

Montgomery said other improvements include a Bus Rapid Transit plaza and future park spaces dedicated to pedestrian and cyclist use within the missing link section of the Grand Rounds. He added a way the community can help is to be vocal about wanting these improvements. 

“Being vocal and being present are two really great ways to help the park board kind of keep that energy visible to the community at large and to our commissioners,” Montgomery said. “We’d certainly appreciate that.”

Ukrainian-American students feel increasing fear and uncertainty about Ukraine’s future with President Donald Trump’s negative rhetoric toward the country and revamped efforts to end the war. 

Trump continues peace talks to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine after over three years of fighting with plans to contact Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday, Reuters reported. This comes after a tense meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February. 

Ukrainians rallied at the Minnesota State Capitol Saturday to support the continued U.S.-Ukraine relationship. Hosted by Stand with Ukraine MN and the Ukrainian American Community Center, the rally featured speakers from Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania urging Minnesotans to support Ukraine’s fight for independence. 

Concern for the future of Ukraine leaves students like Kevin Babashov fearful for his parents’ home country. Babashov, a second-year University of Minnesota student, said Trump’s handling of the war in Ukraine makes him nervous, especially Trump’s statements about Putin not starting the war. 

“The fact that they won’t even acknowledge that Russia was the aggressor in this war and that they provoked an unwarranted invasion,” Babashov said. “It seems like such a basic thing for them to acknowledge that they won’t. I don’t know, it just feels unreal to me.”

Babashov said his parents immigrated to the U.S. in 2003 from the Crimea region, a former region of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2014. He said his parents left due to the increased military presence in the region at the time and hoped life in the U.S. would yield more opportunities and a stable life. 

Second-year student Victoria Untura said her parents supported Trump when they first immigrated to the U.S. in 2015 from Moldova, a country neighboring Ukraine. However, seeing her relatives and friends in wartime Ukraine while the U.S. pulls back aid makes her parents and herself feel scared for their loved ones’ safety. 

“It feels like Ukraine has to fight for themselves with not a lot of support from other Americans,” Untura said. 

First-year student Sophia Milinchuk, who co-founded the Minnesotan Ukrainian Student Association, said despite being in the U.S. her whole life, Trump giving Ukraine the cold shoulder has not surprised her.

“I definitely expected them to be hindered when Trump was appointed to office,” Milinchuk said. “This is definitely not something that came as a shock to me as I’ve been following really closely the news and his thoughts and feelings, his relationship with Putin.”

Dissecting the Oval Office meeting and beyond

Trump and Zelenskyy met last month at the White House to discuss a possible mineral investment deal between the two countries that would also help increase security in Ukraine. The agreement was intended to be signed during the meeting but a tense exchange between the world leaders ended the meeting on a sour note. 

During the meeting, Zelenskyy was questioned if he ever thanked the U.S. for supporting Ukraine and why he does not wear a suit. 

Untura said she thought it was unfair to ambush Zelenskyy with those questions and that his authority was undermined by people in the meeting. 

“I think he was looked upon as, as kind of a fool, as kind of someone with no power,” Untura said. 

Milinchuk, whose parents immigrated from Ternopil, Ukraine in the 1990s, said she thought how Zelenskyy was treated was very disrespectful and never expected a leader of a country to speak to another as Trump and Vance did. Especially to a leader of a country who is battling an ongoing war, Milinchuk added. 

“It was a lot of just trying to get a negative reaction from Zelenskyy and to paint the Ukrainian people as ungrateful,” Milinchuk said. “I thought it was so disrespectful.”

In increased efforts to roll back Biden-era immigration protections, Trump is considering revoking the temporary legal status of around 240,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled due to the war with Russia, Reuters reported. 

At the possibility of Ukrainian immigration statuses being revoked, Babashov said he is scared because forcing refugees back to a war-torn country will endanger their lives. 

“I don’t understand how does this benefit (Ukrainians) in any way,” Babashov said. “But that’s also kind of just a lot of the actions that the Trump administration has taken recently.”

Alongside potentially revoking the statuses of Ukrainians, Trump also paused military and intelligence aid to Ukraine with no timeline for when aid will resume, CBS News reported. Milinchuk said it feels to her that Trump is punishing Ukraine for how he feels about Zelenskyy. 

“They got into a dispute, and now it just seems like (Trump) is reacting in a very emotional way that’s not really taking into account the effect that that’s going to have on the Ukrainian people,” Milinchuk said. 

The misinformation spreading about Zelenskyy surprises Babashov the most, he said, especially Trump’s statements that the Ukrainian president has a four percent approval rating when recent polls put that number over 50%. 

It is necessary to highlight past security assurances and agreements between the two countries, especially when Ukraine crucially needs support from the U.S. and other countries, Untura added. 

“We should be there for them. If not them, we could be next,” Untura said. “It’s important to hold hands with your brothers and sisters and honestly establish the real perpetrator of Russia and the imperialistic power that they have and not let it get to here.”

Some local Republican supporters are all in on President Donald Trump’s second administration’s changes but wish the administration would take more time before making decisions. 

In his first nearly 50 days in office, Trump’s administration terminated thousands of federal workers, promised to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico and slashed federal funding toward universities and Medicare. 

College Republicans of Minnesota Chairman and St. Olaf College chapter President Chris Flemming said he agreed with some of the executive orders Trump passed, especially one defining male and female as the two genders recognized by the government. He added he likes Trump’s other orders like renaming Mount Denali to Mount McKinley. 

“I’m very pro-life. So I appreciated that he defined them as from conception,” Flemming said. “I think some of the small cultural changes are pretty important to me. Like renaming Mount Denali to Mount McKinley.”

President of the University of Minnesota’s College Republicans Elliot Lindsey said he likes Trump’s tougher stance on immigration policies but would like to see more action with birthright citizenship and strengthening the U.S. immigration enforcement. 

“What we’re seeing now is throwing the dog a bone,” Lindsey said. “But I don’t think in the long run, we’re going to see anything like what needs to happen as far as the deportation numbers or anything like that.”

The Trump administration opened up sensitive areas like schools, churches and hospitals, to immigration enforcement officials, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement. 

Trump signed several executive orders ending federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs since taking office. While President of the Minneapolis Republican Party Shawn Holster said he thinks the motivations behind the orders are good, he said the bandwagon movement behind ending DEI will not reverse decades of diversity work across public institutions. 

“One executive order ain’t doing that,” Holster said. “That’s 30 years of systemic philosophy in every aspect of our culture, and I can show that on paper. HR departments aren’t changing their practices overnight.”

Trump has also aimed at foreign policies in his second term, mainly the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28 to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine with Russia. The meeting got tense as Zelenskyy asked Trump for more aid in the war while Trump repeatedly said the war should end sooner and Vance insisted the Ukrainian president should be more thankful to Trump.

Holster said he thinks Trump and Vance were right to stand up to Zelenskyy. 

“Zelensky was appropriately put in his place,” Holster said. 

Lindsey said he has mixed feelings about the war in Ukraine, but he is not offended by how Trump and Vance handled the meeting with Zelenskyy. 

Republicans calling for DOGE to make cuts but also take their time

Although these Minnesota Republican supporters agree with Trump and Elon Musk’s actions to improve government efficiency and the economy, they wish there was more consideration before some decisions were made. 

Flemming said he believes Trump’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada are meant to put pressure on certain countries to create more fair deals for the U. S. Rather than immediate benefits, Flemming believes these trade initiatives are more of a means to an end. 

“Trump has always put a lot of emphasis on his ability to make good deals,” Flemming said. “I think he plans to use these tariffs to put pressure on these countries and to sort of leverage the American economy in order to and our market value to get better trade deals that are better for us in the end.”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a new advisory body created via one of Trump’s executive orders with aims to improve productivity in each government department, the BBC reported. Musk is spearheading DOGE efforts such as the termination of federal employees. 

Cutting the size of the federal government through DOGE and firing federal employees is crucial to trimming spending, Flemming said.

“I think a lot of Americans are actually very supportive of it and I think D.C. is way too large,” Flemming said. “There’s way too many people with jobs that shouldn’t have jobs there. I think taxpayers are generally supportive of it.”

Lindsey said he wishes Musk took more time and consideration before firing employees and canceling contracts. Several employees and contracts had to be reinstated after they had been mistakenly fired, according to NBC News. 

“It would have been better to have a more stable presence running as opposed to Elon Musk,” Lindsey said. “I don’t think it’s really the most sensible on these kinds of issues.”

Holster agreed with Lindsey and said the overall goal of DOGE is needed, but more consideration is needed before they take actions.

“Elon and this administration and Trump and the methods and tactics that they’re using are actually appropriate,” Holster said. “I wish they would just temper it better.”

In addition to cutting federal employees, Trump also cut federal funding to universities. Lindsey said he is less enthusiastic about the cuts to funding university research, but agrees some of the federal funding had to be cut. He added he would have liked to see more considerations before the major funding cuts took place. 

Trump announced cutting around $4 billion of federal funding for research at universities nationwide, including around $100 million at the University of Minnesota, in February. The cut would cap funding from the National Institute of Health that goes to overhead costs at 15%. The University currently receives 54% from the Institute. 

Although university research is important, Flemming said he is still generally supportive of the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding in hopes to decrease wasteful spending. 

“My grandfather was a professor and my mom was an educator, so I do value education very highly, so I do want to make sure we’re getting funding to valuable research that leads to good company development,” Flemming said. “America has always thrived off of our innovation and the quality of our workers so it’s important that we maintain that but at the same time a lot of this research is pretty wasteful.”

Former Minnesota Senate Leader Melisa López Franzen announced her campaign for the U.S. Senate Monday morning. 

“I am running for the United States Senate to protect our Minnesota values, restore sanity and bring decency and common sense back to Washington,” López Franzen said in a video on X announcing her decision.

López Franzen was the DFL minority leader in the state Senate from 2021 to 2022 representing the southwest metro area. López Franzen opted not to run for reelection when redistricting placed her in the same district of another DFL lawmaker. 

Since then, López Frazen hasd been the executive director for the University of Minnesota’s government and community relations before resigning from the position on Feb. 21. 

López Franzen highlighted her work as state senator in the video and said she helped expand Medicaid, raise minimum wage and enhance worker protections. She also boasted her record in strengthening protections for reproductive rights and marriage equality in Minnesota while in the Senate, according to her campaign website. 

“When people said it can’t be done, I proved them wrong,” López Franzen said in the video. “That’s why my state Senate colleagues elected me as their leader. I took that grit to the University of Minnesota, supporting the faculty who shape our future with our students who are the future. Now the stakes are even higher.” 

López Franzen became the second DFL candidate to officially announce their campaign to replace Sen. Tina Smith’s (D-Minn.) U.S. Senate seat after Smith said she would not seek reelection. López Franzen will face Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who announced her campaign in February, in the DFL primary.

Republican Royce White, who challenged Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s seat in 2024, is the only Republican who has announced their campaign so far.

Other potential candidates for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat who said they are considering running include Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), state Sen. Julia Coleman (R-Waconia) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he will not run for Senate but has not officially announced a reelection campaign yet.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, López Franzen graduated from Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in 2001 with a political science degree before gaining her Master in Public Policy from the University’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs two years later. She also attended Hamline University’s law school and received a doctorate in 2006. 

On her campaign website, López Franzen said her campaign would be about putting working families first and rising above partisan gridlock. She said in a video on X that she will bring decency and common sense back to Washington, D.C.

“Our rights are being stripped away while unelected billionaires slash services for everyday Americans,” López Franzen said in the video. “Everything we work so hard for is under attack. So it’s time to work harder than ever before to protect the next generation. America’s off course, not lost. Minnesotans will lead the way.”

Xcel Energy announced a deal with state agencies to reduce the company’s carbon emissions reliance and meet the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and carbon-free electricity goals. 

Xcel Energy released its Upper Midwest Energy Plan on Feb. 20, which details its goals such as expanding wind and solar power in Becker and Oak Prairie, Minnesota. The plan also includes improving battery energy storage and extending the use of the state’s two nuclear plants. 

About 20% of Minnesota’s greenhouse gas emissions are from electricity generation, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Other factors contributing to greenhouse gases in the state include transportation, agricultural work and industrial facilities. 

Xcel Regional Vice President of Planning and Policy Bria Shea said their clean energy goals with the state do more than just protect the environment; they also create jobs at new energy facilities and provide more affordable ways customers can receive energy for their homes. 

“We’re cleaning up the general environment for all of Minnesota. We’re also creating jobs that are not just in our service territory, right, for all Minnesotans,” Shea said. “The jobs, the clean air effort, certainly benefiting, I would say all Minnesotans, but probably even more so our own customers.”

Sydnie Lieb with the Minnesota Department of Commerce said the state goal of zero carbon emissions across the economy by 2050 is also something energy providers such as Xcel have to consider alongside the state mandate of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. 

The Department of Commerce, alongside the Public Utilities Commission and Legislature, created a resource plan for utility companies to follow to meet these goals. 

“The resource plan makes decisions on size, type and timing,” Lieb said. “How many new resources are needed? How many megawatts? What type of resources those should be? Then when those resources need to come on is the timing piece. That’s where we sort of look at what the clean energy goals are and mandates are for the state.” 

Signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz last year, the 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 law establishes a standard for utilities to provide Minnesotans with carbon-free resources. The law requires utility companies to produce 80% clean energy in 2030, then increases every five years to reach 100% clean energy by 2040.

Research fellow at the University of Minnesota Matthew Grimley said clean energy mainly means energy sources that do not emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and more.

Minnesota’s electricity grids were dominated by coal and nuclear power plants for decades before they transitioned into using natural gas power Grimley said. He added that these sources were so attractive despite any environmental concerns because they could be turned on and off at will during a power outage. 

“The goal of that grid, and even our smaller distribution grids, is to help balance out differences and like what’s producing where,” Grimley said. “It’s always been true that we have balanced out these different power plants with each other.”

Under the state’s current energy goals, coal and natural gas use would transition into more clean energy use, such as solar, wind and battery storage, Grimley said. 

Lieb said in addition to clean energy sources, the goal is to make the energy grid more reliable by supplementing other energy sources when wind and solar energy do not fill the gaps.

Outside of their clean energy and carbon-free goals, Shea said a top priority is meeting customers’ energy needs by increasing use of energy sources like battery and nuclear to fill in gaps in wind and solar energies when needed. Xcel does have natural gas plants for critical need moments when clean energy options are unavailable. 

“Our top priorities are maintaining our system that is not only meeting the carbon-free goals of Excel and the state,” Shea said. “But certainly keeping the system safe and reliable and affordable so that our customers can continue their expectations that we provide them electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Grimley said a main part of Xcel’s goal is to meet the energy goals outlined by the Legislature, Minnesota Department of Commerce, Public Utilities Commission and green energy advocacy groups. The process came around during the 1970s global oil crisis, Grimley said, and now it aims to predict energy needs and create energy goals. 

“It’s a really complicated process,” Grimley said. “You have like the attorneys general, clean energy organizations participating, labor organizations participating. Everybody is trying to give input on what they think is the best way to go forward on this.” 

The most important and recent commitment Xcel made with the state is the 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 requirement, Shea said. 

“We were supportive of that when it was passed a few years ago because that is largely consistent with our own internal goals at Xcel Energy,” Shea said. “We were the first utility to announce our intentions to be carbon-free by 2050. We did that several years ago.”

Because of the goals set by the state to have 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040, and to have net zero carbon emissions by 2050, Lieb said the Department of Commerce has worked closely with utility companies like Xcel to improve home-grown energy sources like solar and wind in the state. 

“Having a lot of wind and solar on the system allows us to bring down the overall cost of energy, which is really important to our direction to have affordable, reliable, clean, equitable energy for the state,” Lieb said. 

Shea said it is important to always consider these clean energy goals as Xcel is ending its coal production, which serves a significant portion of its customers. As Xcel removes a reliable and long-used energy source like coal, Shea said it is necessary to think of how renewable energy sources can supplement the energy need. 

“Looking to new technologies to supplement that, and in particular, to meet the state’s goals, will be critical to continue keeping our system safe, reliable, and affordable,” Shea said. “So certainly that’s an important part of the future.”

Ultimately, Grimley said these goals are important because average global temperatures have increased by one and a half degrees Celsius between February 2023 and January 2024, which negatively impacts public health and the environment. He said clean energy can not only make energy production more sustainable, but it can also create new jobs. 

“At least really exciting for me because that wasn’t necessarily possible with big coal plants in the past or anything like that,” Grimley said. “It really does open up a whole new line of equity and benefits and participatory decision-making for communities that the old fossil fuel infrastructure necessarily didn’t have.”

Minnesota legislators push for bipartisan support for a bill to create an Office of Inspector General (OIG) in Minnesota to investigate, identify and prevent future fraud in the state. 

The bill requires the future inspector general to have a bachelor’s degree in either criminal justice, public administration or law, have a professional certificate from the Association of Inspectors General and more. Duties include conducting inspections, investigations and evaluations of state agencies to identify fraud and other abused funds given to outside institutions. 

Sen. Heather Gustafson (DFL-Vadnais Heights) said the goal of the OIG is to create an independent oversight authority to work with existing fraud prevention agencies such as the Office of the Legislative Auditor and the Office of the Attorney General. 

“It’s not trying to purposely go after people just for the sake of going after somebody,” Gustafson said. “There has to be some indication that dollars are being spent, but the office would employ investigators and they would have access to documents.”

Fraud cases around the state such as Feeding Our Future inspired Gustafson and Sen. Michael Kreun (R-Blaine) to act.

Feeding Our Future organizers received around $250 million in funding from the Minnesota Department of Education to feed underserved children during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, over a dozen people were charged in 2022 for allegedly stealing the funds. 

Gustafson said she invited Kreun to co-author the OIG bill to ensure bipartisan support from the beginning. They present at committee meetings together and meet at least once a week to discuss new improvements and other lawmakers’ input on the bill. 

“We decided early on that instead of fighting about this on the floor or in a conference committee or yelling at each other in the media, why don’t we just meet every week,” Gustafson said. “Let’s go over everyone’s concerns. Let’s get a joint bill across the finish line about the Senate, the House, and then show Minnesota we can do it.”

Kreun said like most Minnesotans, he saw various fraud stories in the news and wanted to do something about preventing future stories when the legislative session started. 

Like Gustafson, Kreun said the state already has inspector generals to investigate for fraud within certain agencies, but it is important to have an independent, state-wide inspector to ensure fewer fraud stories occur in Minnesota. 

“It’s a very important thing to have this office be as truly independent as possible by taking the partisanship and the politics out of this office,” Kreun said. “So that this person in their office can do the work that Minnesotans expect.”

Besides the Feeding Our Future fraud, federal investigators raided two Minnesotan autism treatment centers in December 2024 for submitting fraudulent claims to receive funds from Medicare for services that were never provided. 

Gustafson said it is a misconception that only Republicans care about preventing fraud in Minnesota. In reality, she said it is a bipartisan issue because it can impact anyone across the state. 

“A lot of other states have one, but we don’t,” Gustafson said. “This feels like a policy that is really meeting the moment. There are a lot of stories that come out every week now and it’s not good.”

Besides hearing from other legislators, Kreun said it is necessary to hear from all possible stakeholders like the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) to ensure the bill succeeds. 

“We want to have a bill that actually works at the end of this,” Kreun said. “You have to listen to input from the agencies themselves, the BCA, all of these different stakeholders out there that will be playing a role in this.”

Besides the struggle to gain bipartisan support, Gustafson said ensuring the governor will sign the bill into law is the next hurdle they need to confront, especially considering that Gov. Tim Walz created a fraud prevention package in the BCA. 

Kreun said with stories like Feeding Our Fraud circulating in the media, people need more transparency and accountability to trust their government. 

“Minnesotans need to have trust in their government,” Kreun said. “They need to have transparency, accountability. They want to know that the public funds that we’re appropriating for all of these very important needs are actually going to where they’re supposed to be going.”

Although Minnesota has other agencies overseeing fraud, Gustafson said gaps remain that need addressing and filled to protect all of Minnesotan’s tax dollars. 

“We weren’t maybe doing enough and this will fill that gap of what we were doing, build on it, add to it,” Gustafson said. “In the end, the whole goal is to just make the government more efficient and to protect our tax dollars.”

University of Minnesota officials and students rallied at the state capitol Tuesday for the “U of M Day at the Capitol” to urge legislators to pass the school’s two funding requests this session. 

The University made two budget requests to the state legislature for funding to improve programs, facilities and more across all five University campuses. The Higher Education Asset Preservation and Recovery request for $200 million to maintain buildings while the biennial request asks for $235 million to support student needs such as mental health resources and housing. 

Students and University administrators alike said the University provided them with a top-class education and a jumpstart in their careers, but the school needs financial support from the state more than ever.

Board of Regents Co-Vice Chair Mike Kenyanya said during his speech that the education brought to him by the University of Minnesota Duluth was worth his time and investment. He added he believes his parents would agree, especially after leaving Kenya in hopes of a better life. 

“We are obviously here because the University means something to you, has meant something to you, and is a part of your life,” Kenyanya said. “We’re here today to make sure that those stories, my story, your stories are told and made known to the legislature.”

University President Rebecca Cunningham said in her speech the University is strong because of its students and their stories. She added that with higher enrollment numbers than ever before, she believes the University has the momentum to grow stronger with help from the state legislature. 

“These are future leaders who will transform Minnesota for generations to come,” Cunningham said. “In the clinics, in the classrooms, in the farm fields, in city hall, throughout our communities, every one of our students is delivering the power and promise of a U of M degree.”

President Donald Trump’s administration recently announced cutting $4 billion in federal funding for research at universities nationwide. Funding from the National Institute of Health that goes toward overhead costs would be capped at 15% — far below the 54% it currently gets. The University is estimated to lose over $100 million from the federal budget cuts.

Kenyanya said funding the University would lead to beneficial impacts statewide. He added the budget request would support research, advance new technologies, improve healthcare in rural, urban and tribal communities, and more. 

“The University is educating our students that the state’s economy relies on, from healthcare to engineering to farming,” Kenyanya said. “We’re educating more Minnesotan students than we’ve ever had, many of whom stay in the state and contribute, and those who aren’t from Minnesota also come here to stay in the state, contribute, build their careers, and workforce.”

Not only would the budget requests support the more than 70,000 students across the University’s five campuses, but Kenyanya said it would also support around 27,000 employees who help maintain and run University facilities and services. 

Julia Covert, a student from the Duluth campus, said during her speech that students are essential to Minnesota’s economy and community, but they and the college need financial support from the state. Covert added funding could help minimize tuition costs and other student needs such as mental health. 

“With the work we do for Minnesota, we deserve well-defined paths to stable careers, access to mental health resources and the promise that we will never ever lose access to housing or food while we’re here getting our education,” Covert said. 

Covert said Duluth students are familiar with the increasing need for mental health support resources. She added according to a University student health survey for Duluth, around 57% of students have been diagnosed with a mental condition. 

Outside of the two main funding bills, University officials are also looking for support for another bill in the state Legislature which would give $15 million to add suicide prevention fencing to the Washington Avenue Bridge. 

Joud Haj Sakor, a student from the Rochester Campus, said in her speech that after immigrating to Minnesota from Syria in 2016, the University helped her find a sense of community and belonging. 

Sakor said the University allowed her to conduct undergraduate research with the Mayo Clinic and earn a place in the American Gastroenterological Association Young Guts Scholars Program.

“Investing in the UMR health science strategic plan isn’t just about funding a university,” Sakor said. “It’s about fueling the dreams of these future leaders, expanding enrollment and directly addressing the growing need for skilled medical professionals here in Minnesota.”

University of Minnesota Crookston student Emmah Burnes said in her speech she did not know what to expect from the University when coming from California to Minnesota. Now, she said she can tell that the University cannot support student success without help from the state legislature to ensure buildings are maintained and up-to-date for students’ needs. 

“I urge the Minnesota legislature to pass a capital investment bill this year to help avoid costly emergency repairs, increase safety and accessibility and support student learning and success,” Burnes said. “The University of Minnesota Crookston has provided me with an environment to succeed, and I couldn’t be more grateful to call this place my home.”

Although Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) became the first Republican woman of color to lead the Minnesota House, she said her priorities remain on the work ahead and not this historic accomplishment. 

Demuth was sworn into House leadership on Feb. 6 by Senate President Bobby Joe Champion (DFL-Minneapolis). Formerly the minority leader of the House in the 2023-24 legislative session, Demuth was elected House speaker in early February after a power-sharing agreement was finalized between House Democrats and Republicans. 

Demuth said the opportunity to lead the House is an honor, and she is willing to work hard to reach across the aisle with Democrats. She said Minnesotans expect legislators to get work done after the nearly month-long delay to the start of the session. 

“The voters asked for a change,” Demuth said. “The opportunity to lead is an honor. I look at that as just the ability to serve both my community, my constituents, but then also the state at a greater level. I look forward to the responsibility and the honor of getting to do this.”

Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) said he remembers his friendship with Demuth forming after carpooling with her when he needed a ride to St. Cloud. He said Demuth was new to the House at the time, and meeting her this way fostered a good bond between them. 

“She’s got a surprising amount of just willpower and energy and smarts that I can see why she was propelled up to that speakership position,” Johnson said. 

Demuth’s political career started in 2007 when she won her local school board race in Cold Spring and served until 2018. She became a member of the state House of Representatives in 2019. 

“During that time I really recognized the importance of serving my community at that level,” Demuth said. “Hearing and making sure that decisions were being made in the best interest of students and of staff and administration and then also the taxpayers and the businesses in the communities.”

University Political Science Associate Professor Kathryn Pearson said though Demuth does not intend to lead with the historical implications of her leadership at the front of her mind, it is important to recognize that Demuth is the first Republican woman and person of color to lead as Speaker of the House. 

“She sort of leads as the leader of the Republican party, but I think noting the historical significance is important even as you know she does not herself lead with that,” Pearson said.  

Demuth said growing up in rural Paynesville and moving to the metro suburbs at seven years old gave her a unique perspective of the wants and needs of Minnesotans. She said it is necessary to not consider one part of the state more important than others but to see what each place has in common.

“It’s given me the perspective of the uniqueness between the metro area and greater Minnesota, and that there are definitely some things that we all have in common — solid schools, access to healthcare and to businesses, but yet there’s very uniqueness depending on the area and region of the state that we’re in,” Demuth said. 

Pearson said Demuth is a very flexible leader and will likely fight for what is best for the collective majority when it serves everyone. Pearson added Demuth’s term as House minority leader likely set her in a good direction to become House Speaker. 

“It was a smart choice for Republicans again, sort of out of the blue, a couple years ago to make her minority leader and now to have her as their leader as well,” Pearson said. 

While the House started the legislative session in an intensely partisan way, Demuth said the House has to move on and work in a bipartisan fashion to bring a budget and affordable legislation forward. 

“There’s a lot of work that has to be done in a bipartisan fashion because we’re going to have to come together to pass bills,” Demuth said. “But it has to be affordable and there can’t be the waste of taxpayer dollars specifically in the area of fraud as we’ve seen just an unbelievable amount of fraud in the state of Minnesota.”

Pearson said that although Demuth is known as a partisan Republican who fights for her party’s priorities, she has always been collaborative when needed.

“Demuth is, on the one hand, a partisan Republican. On the other hand, [she] has shown herself to be someone who can work in a collaborative fashion,” Pearson said. “We’re likely to see both sides of her as speaker.”

Demuth said the next step now is focusing on finding a way to rein in spending and focus on Minnesotans’ needs in a bipartisan way. Especially considering this is the first time in six years that the House is controlled by Republicans, and in March it will likely be the second time since 1979 that the House is tied 67-67,  Demuth added. 

“It’s important to recognize that coming out of a full Democrat trifecta or one party control is that the majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives have never served in the minority and for the majority of House Republicans have never served in the majority,” Demuth said.