Author Archives | by Alexandra DeYoe

University details state legislature budget request for the 2025 session

With the upcoming state legislature session looming, University of Minnesota officials are preparing their budget requests in hopes that more money can go toward improving student services and infrastructure like the Washington Avenue Bridge. 

Improvements for the Twin Cities campus include increasing fencing height to eight or nine feet along the Washington Avenue Bridge and improving the infrastructure of the Food Science and Nutrition building. Other funding will go to supporting health services and research opportunities for students. 

The Minnesota Legislature has projected a $616 million budget surplus for the 2025 session starting Jan. 14 with a potential $5 billion deficit, according to reporting by the Minnesota Star Tribune. Last session, there was a $17.6 billion budget surplus for the 2022 to 2023 session. 

While the University requested around $500 million in funding from the Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR) bill in the state legislature last session, the bill did not pass. However, the University’s biennial budget request of $90 million was partially fulfilled and they received around $45 million last year. 

Improving and maintaining University buildings 

Vice President of University Services Alice Roberts-Davis said the around $200 million HEAPR request for this year is not a guaranteed amount, meaning the state legislature can give less than that amount or none at all as it has done in previous years. 

“$200 million is really only enough for us to not fall into further disrepair,” Roberts-Davis said. “That’s the thing that would keep us from not going into even more backlog maintenance. So this is dire. This is bare, bare, bare minimum for us to keep buildings standing.”

That funding would contribute to improving the infrastructure of four of the University system campuses — Twin Cities, Crookston, Morris and Duluth. Roberts-Davis said the actual amount needed to improve all areas of each of the four campuses would be around $6 billion. 

The Rochester campus does not receive HEAPR funding because those buildings are leased, not University-owned. 

Roberts-Davis said the University’s Twin Cities campus’s main infrastructure focus is the Food Science and Nutrition building and suicide prevention fencing along the Washington Avenue Bridge. The University installed temporary extended barriers on the bridge in November. 

Some of the proposed improvements for the bridge could be new integrated lighting and extending the height on existing railings to eight or nine feet tall, Roberts-Davis said. 

“It would be non-scalable fencing, but it would still be somewhat decorative,” Roberts-Davis said. “What we’re looking for is something that balances the beauty of the river that we have there with a safety issue that we have to address.”

Other priorities include improving the heating systems on the Crookston campus, increasing disability accessibility in the multi-ethnics center in Morris and reinvestments in the business library annex on the Duluth campus, Roberts-Davis said. 

Last legislative session, no bonding bill passed so the University did not receive any HEAPR funding to improve inoperable buildings like Eddy Hall on East Bank. Roberts-Davis said Eddy Hall is still on the University’s mind for future improvements. 

“It is not a top priority in HEAPR dollars at this point in time, but it is something that we would love to bring back to life if we were to get enough money,” Robert-Davis said. 

Targeted priorities for the Twin Cities campus 

Melisa López Franzen, University executive director of government and community relations, said the University’s biennial budget request created four groups of priorities which total around a $235 million budget request. 

“I am really excited about the request. It does sound like a lot of money, but at the end of the day, the story should be about the investment in the University of Minnesota,” López Franzen said. “This is an investment in the future and investment in the state.”

López Franzen said one of the biggest targets for the budget request is the $120 million request that would go toward maintaining things such as basic university services, workforce salaries and student support services to ensure they graduate. 

Another section of the $235 million request is around $30 million toward targeted student support services such as mental health resources, internship opportunities, housing, food and other basic needs. 

“We know that those demands are increasing in every part of the state, not just in the country, not just in the University of Minnesota,” López Franzen said. 

López Franzen said the University educates around 70% of the medical workforce across the state and thus is requesting around $45 million to support the six healthcare fields offered — medical school, nursing, dentistry, vet medicine, public health and pharmacy. She said this funding would ensure an increase in about 3,000 new healthcare workers over the next 10 years. 

Other parts of the biennial budget include a research funding request of $40 million which would support further research done at the University, specifically biomanufacturing, precision agriculture, hypersonic and green iron research. 

“In that area, we can drive more economic development in Minnesota, but also attract more dollars, whether it’s federally or also from private investment,” López Franzen said. 

Funding for the state’s future 

With the upcoming legislative session operating under a Democrat-lead Senate and a 67-67 House tie, Robert-Davis said she expects a more difficult session for the University budget requests and ensuring a bonding bill moves forward. 

“It’ll be interesting to see how they manage the house as well with the split nature of it (and) how they’re going to lead with co-chairs for each committee,” Roberts-Davis said. “It’s going to be just a real different session that we’ve seen in a long time.”

López Franzen said she is not nervous about the upcoming session dynamics because University funding and support should be a non-partisan issue. She added that all parts of the state are a partnership to support one another and the overall ecosystem of Minnesota. 

“We’re complimentary, but we work together on many different things,” López Franzen said. 

López Franzen said that monitoring and supporting higher education in the state legislature is not usually the most interesting, but it has a huge impact on how the state functions, its workforce and its students. 

“We can’t keep patching a system that really needs foundational support,” López Franzen said. “That’s what I think the Higher Education Committee in the House and Senate, regardless of party, really needs to ask whether they are willing to invest in the future and invest in the University.”

It is important to receive this funding for the University’s infrastructure and services because, without it, Roberts-Davis said students will not receive the necessary preparation and support to be successful. She added that without a strong University, students could look elsewhere for schooling, ultimately decreasing the talented workforce in Minnesota. 

“It may seem like buildings, but it’s not just about buildings,” Roberts-Davis said. “It’s really about how do we build the Minnesota that we want for the future.”

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on University details state legislature budget request for the 2025 session

Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin begins campaign for national party leadership

Minnesota DFL leader Ken Martin announced his campaign in November to lead the Democratic National Convention (DNC) with plans to refocus on the party’s messaging as a way forward after Democrats’ presidential election failures. 

Martin said on Nov. 19 that he planned to run for the chair of the DNC, a position that helps coordinate candidates and the Democratic Party’s image. 

“As Democrats, our end goal is improving people’s lives, making good public policy, and making sure our government gives a damn about people,” Martin said in a post on X. “But we can’t do any of that unless we build a foundation to win at all levels. I’ll do just that as your DNC Chair.”

Other candidates for the position include former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party Ben Wikler. 

University of Minnesota political science professor Steve Kelley said Martin has a good chance due to his prior leadership experience in the Minnesota DFL party and in the DNC as vice-chair. 

“He’s been a solid administrator for the party and certainly during this time period when there isn’t an elected official at the national level who’s seen as the leader of the party,” Kelley said. “The role of DNC chair is especially important for communicating the party’s message.”

Martin has been the chairman of the Minnesota DFL Party since 2011 and started his political career when he joined Paul Wellstone’s U.S. Senate campaign in 1990. The Democratic Party has won every statewide election since Martin was elected into office, including two trifectas. 

However, ensuring unity within the Democratic Party on the national level may be a challenge for Martin, Kelley said. He added that Martin helped facilitate a strong party statewide, but the main challenge will be getting his message across to southern states. 

“It’ll be a challenge for him, and I assume part of his messaging in the campaign is his ability to bring the party back together after a very difficult loss to communicate the benefits that Democrats in the U.S. Senate and Democrats in the U.S. House would provide for Americans,” Kelley said. 

As Martin ramps up his campaign, he said one priority of his is “rebranding” the Democratic Party for the working class and uniting the party nationally. 

“We’ve always stood up for the working class. We’ve always stood up for the poor. We’ve always stood up for the marginalized,” Martin said in a post on X. “That’s who we are as Democrats — and it’s what we must continue to do.”

Kelley said Martin does not necessarily have to rebrand the Democratic Party to voters. Instead, he will have to focus on reshaping the messaging after losing the general elections to Republicans. 

“I personally don’t buy into the view that the Democrats have to rebrand because I think we have been adopting policies that are beneficial to working people,” Kelley said. 

Current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a press release that the Committee is determined to run transparent and fair party leadership elections, especially during President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration. 

As my time as Chair comes to a close and we prepare to undertake the critical work of holding the Trump Administration and Republican Party accountable for their extremism and false promises, we are beginning to lay out the process for upcoming DNC officer elections in the New Year,” Harrison said in the press release. “The DNC is committed to running a transparent, equitable, and impartial election for the next generation of leadership to guide the party forward.”

Over four meetings, candidates will make their case to the 448 members of the DNC who will later vote for their picks in January 2025. Before voting, candidates must have at least 40 DNC supporters for their nomination statement. Martin has 83 supporters, according to ABC News

Kelly added that if successful, Martin’s first priority will be tackling a second Trump administration. 

“He’ll need to be responsive to any errors or negative things that occur during the second Trump administration,” Kelley said. “Where he could, as the DNC chair, draw attention to how the Democrats might have done it differently.”

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin begins campaign for national party leadership

Local Republicans weigh in on Trump’s current cabinet picks

Minnesota Republicans remain confident and optimistic about President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks despite controversies. 

Trump has been finalizing his 15-member presidential cabinet for the last three weeks since he won the general election. The cabinet members oversee federal departments and are meant to advise the president relating to their departments. 

Trump is expected to face some pushback for some of his cabinet nominations due to sexual assault allegations and inexperience concerns.

Matt Gaetz, Trump’s original pick for attorney general, withdrew following growing scrutiny about his alleged sexual relations with a minor, as reported by ABC News. Instead, Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the position.

Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has been under recent fire for sexual assault allegations during an encounter in 2017. According to the witness’ account, Hegseth was under the influence during the encounter, as reported by USA Today

Anti-establishment Republicans vs. old-guard Republicans

President of the Minneapolis Republican Party Shawn Holster said Trump’s pick of Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, which oversees U.S. agencies like the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA), is one of the most promising of the president-elect’s picks. Holster added he is excited about Trump’s pick of Hegseth because of his military background and anti-war stance. 

“It’s her experiences as a veteran and her experience in Washington as well as her anti-war stance that she recognizes that war is an ugly thing and you don’t enter into it lightly,” Holster said. 

Gabbard, who is the former U.S. Representative for Hawaii, has a background serving in the U.S. Army Reserve and was in the Hawaii National Guard in 2003 during the Iraq war. Hegseth is a former Army National Guard officer and has been a political commentator on Fox News since 2014. 

State chairman for the College Republicans of Minnesota and President of the St. Olaf chapter Chris Flemming said the College Republicans are especially excited for Trump’s picks of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services and Tom Homan for Broader Czar as well as Gabbard and Hegseth. 

Flemming said Trump’s pursuit of more “anti-establishment” cabinet picks is exactly what supporters like him want.

“A lot of us were excited at the possibility of the second Trump term being more aggressively anti-establishment,” Flemming said. “I think one of the big mistakes of his first presidency was bringing in a lot of the same old people that were in all the other Republican administrations, and that’s not what the people voted for. They voted for a serious change.”

Kennedy ran for the 2024 presidential election as an independent and has a background as an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine advocate. Homan is a former police officer who served under Obama’s administration in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Trump’s first administration as the ICE director. 

Holster added that Trump’s picks of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy for directors of the Department of Government Efficiency are also encouraging because of how innovative they are. Ramaswamy originally ran against Trump in the 2024 presidential election for the Republican Party. 

Flemming said he is a bit skeptical about Trump’s pick of U.S. Senator of Florida Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Florida Rep. Mike Waltz for national security advisor. Flemming added that Rubio and Waltz are more in line with traditional Republicans rather than Trump. 

“Sort of any of these Republican old-guard figures that I don’t think are in line with the movement, but are being sort of forced onto Trump,” Flemming said. 

Recess appointments, cabinet picks and Trump loyalty

While some of Trump’s picks are expected to face significant pushback, Trump said on Truth Social that anyone seeking Republican leadership positions “must agree to Recess Appointments.” Recess appointments could enable a president to temporarily install nominees without a Senate confirmation process. 

“We need positions filled IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said in the Truth Social post

Flemming said he would rather see Republicans in the U.S. Senate vote for the positions to get a better idea of who is in support of Trump and who is not. 

“I want them to stand there in front of all the voters that the Republican Party make their decision so we know who’s with us and who’s against us,” Flemming said. 

Overall, Flemming said he is confident in Trump’s current cabinet picks because of their loyalty to the president-elect. 

Trump is a new breed of Republican and has reshaped the party in positive ways, Flemming said, but he is concerned about more traditional Republicans disrupting “the true agenda.” 

“So far, it’s looking much better than it did in 2016,” Flemming said. “I don’t think we’ll have people that are hanging around for a little bit, and then leave and write a book and just trash Trump or constantly whistle-blow or run to get a new job at CNN or something like that. I think for the most part, they’ll be very loyal.”

Correction: A pervious version of this article said Chris Flemming was a political director. He is the state chairman for the College Republicans and president of the St Olaf chapter. 

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Local Republicans weigh in on Trump’s current cabinet picks

Minneapolis independent evaluator has spoken — next steps for MPD

The independent evaluators overseeing and coaching policing in Minneapolis held their first public engagement sessions on Wednesday and Thursday about what they have and will do. 

Effective Law Enforcement for All (ELEFA) was chosen as an independent evaluator to oversee the two consent decrees requiring the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) to improve its policies, enforcement and behavior. The separate consent decrees are by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. 

The DOJ’s consent decree report found that MPD “unlawfully discriminates” against Black and Indigenous people.

President of ELEFA David Douglass said in the community engagement presentation that they are approaching the consent decree agreements as a checklist for the MPD to follow.

“It keeps everybody coordinated and importantly it holds everybody accountable, including us,” Douglass said.

ELEFA and other independent contractors will review the MPD and Office of Police Combat Review’s police misconduct investigation backlogs, which include around 300 unresolved citizen requests, ELEFA members said Thursday. The group will also be looking at increasing the number of mental health staff and improving the wellness training for officers.

Arlinda Westbrook, who leads oversight and accountability with ELEFA, said in the presentation that during the interviewing processes over the last year, multiple community groups such as Metropolitan Urban Indian Directors reached out to work together. 

Douglass said the role of ELEFA is to coach MPD to improve their processes and training while changing anything that the consent decrees require. 

“We’re asking people to do things they had never done before, things they hadn’t been trained to do, and we’re asking them to do that on top of the things they are already responsible for doing,” Douglass said. “So we want to help them do it.”

Douglass said ELEFA will develop policies for MPD to follow in 2025 and then work on implementation and coaching in 2026. 

Community reactions

Minneapolis Northside resident Tinitha Warren said if ELEFA cannot review previous offenses by officers coming into Minneapolis from other departments, then ELEFA could not prevent hiring officers with improper use of force history. 

“That’s something that we look at as a community and to ensure that we have quality people who can patrol the streets and interact with us,” Warren said.

Overseeing officer background checks to investigate potentially dangerous behavior is not a part of the settlement agreement ELEFA is working on, Douglass said. However, while ELEFA can only act within the constraints of the settlement agreement, Douglass said the community should still raise these types of concerns because their organization can push MPD to address the background checks.

Unity Community Mediation Team member Al Flowers said during the presentation that the community should not forget the racism and discrimination Black and Native American citizens face in policing. 

“I don’t want nobody to never forget what this was all about, and it was racism portrayed against African Americans and natives over many decades,” Flowers said. 

Executive Director of the Legal Rights Center Malaika Eban said the presentation did not address how ELEFA will address shifting the culture around policing in Minneapolis. 

“I understand that policy is the first step,” Eban said. “We’ve got a few years, but there are young people, there are adults, there are everyday community members who are actively being harmed by MPD.”

It will take unlearning harmful habits, retraining, new policies, supervision and better discipline within MPD before the community will notice a culture change among officers, Independent Evaluator Michael Harrison said. Once these areas are corrected and improved, Harrison said the culture around policing will change. 

“Getting everybody to now adapt and adapt to that mindset is how culture changed,” Harrison said. “But it will take reforming.” 

Westbrook said community groups have not only educated themselves on the settlement agreements, but people have educated ELEFA and the city on specific policies they believe need changes.

“I don’t want to give the impression that we’re here educating Minneapolis,” Westbrook said. “Minneapolis has educated me on what it is to be engaged in a process well before the settlement agreement came.”

Next steps for policing in Minneapolis

ELEFA finished its first step of community engagement and now plans to post proposed policies online for public feedback, Policy Specialist Lisa Fink said in the presentation Thursday. After receiving public comment on the policies, they will come up with new drafts to review. 

“It’s really important that policies are as clear and concise as they can be,” Fink said. “It’s sometimes difficult to make policies concise, particularly because there are many requirements, but to the extent that it can be as understandable as possible because we need officers to understand it in order to be able to implement it.”

Most of the ELEFA members at the Thursday engagement session had experience policing, monitoring police behavior to improve it or both.

Westbrook also highlighted the work of the city’s Community Commission on Police Oversight and advocacy group Communities United Against Police Brutality for their feedback on the ongoing policing policy changes. 

“The truth is that the way this is going to be done is with all of us together,” Westbrook said. 

Harrison said in the Thursday presentation that he has listened to community members’ concerns about MPD leadership and has reached out to MPD Police Chief Brian O’Hara. 

“I meet with Chief O’Hara pretty regularly,” Harrison said. “Not just to bring him to the concern of his officers, but to offer myself as a resource and share my experience with the Chief who is responsible for making really tough and hard decisions on personal matters, operational matters, management functions, changing the status quo, the responsible policy and the training decisions.”

Julie Solomon, who oversees mental health and crisis support at ELEFA, said the organization will be focusing on training for behavioral health crisis response within MPD. This includes 911 responses and the Behavioral Health Crisis Response teams that are separate from the police.  

ELEFA will review data from body cameras and MPD reports to create an intervention system to address an officer’s improper use of force, ELEFA data analyst Eric Melancon.

Douglass said Minneapolis could be a model for the nation about police accountability and community engagement just by what he has seen in the past year. 

“We’re here not because we have to be,” Douglass said. “We’re here because we believe in this kind of engagement.”

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Minneapolis independent evaluator has spoken — next steps for MPD

Minnesota House tied, DFL trifecta broken, recount Thursday

The Minnesota House will likely be tied 67-67 between the DFL and Republican parties, breaking the two-year-long DFL trifecta. 

Minnesota House Republicans flipped three House seats to end the DFL trifecta, however, with one of the elections mandating a recount another seat is still in play.

House DFL incumbents Rep. Dan Wolgamott (DFL-St. Cloud) and Rep. Brad Tabke, (DFL-Shakopee) won by the thinnest margins in the Minnesota general election on Nov. 5. Wolgamott initially won by 28 votes before an updated count increased his lead to 191 votes, meanwhile, Tabke won by 13 votes. 

Scott County, which covers Shakopee, is recounting Tabke’s votes election starting Thursday, according to the KSTP

The Minnesota Constitution forbids the House from having two speakers at the same time, so if the recount in Shakopee does not flip the result, the parties will need to come up with a power-sharing agreement, MPR News reported. That agreement could mean one party gets the House speakership while the other holds important positions in House committees.

“I think one really good thing about having a power-sharing agreement is you wouldn’t have that kind of dynamic on the floor where one party lays down on the railroad tracks and another party feels like they have to go to extraordinary means to pass bills,” current House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) said in a press conference.

Given the national shift toward Republicans this election, University political science Professor Dan Myers said Republicans breaking the DFL trifecta is not surprising. Myers said the DFL trifecta was thinly held by a few seats in both the House and Senate. 

“Nationally we saw a shift towards Republicans,” Myers said. “We probably saw a little bit less of one in Minnesota and probably even less of one at the house, but just a couple hundred votes in the right places was enough to change the balance of power.”

In a Nov. 7 press conference, Hortman said while disappointing, this tie is an opportunity to show bipartisanship and compromise. 

“We would prefer to have the majority, and I know the Republicans would prefer to have the majority, but this is a golden opportunity to show people that we can get along and we can get things done,” Hortman said in the conference.

Expected Republican speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) said in a press conference that the tie accomplished the Republican’s goal of bringing balance back into the state legislature. Demuth mirrored Hortman’s sentiments and said this is an opportunity to “work across the aisle.” 

“This is the opportunity for us to work together with our colleagues, the Democrats, across the aisle and find ways to best serve Minnesotans,” Demuth said at the conference. 

Myers said the recounts will unlikely change the results so he expects the state legislature to accept the 67-67 tie. 

“With recounts, we find out that actually our election systems work pretty well,” Myers said. “That’s close enough that it’s possible, but it would be pretty unusual for it to (change).” 

The last time the Minnesota House had a tie was in 1979, when it was decided that the secretary of state would hold the House speaker’s gavel until the tie was broken by a majority, according to the Minnesota House of Representatives website. 

Myers said it’s difficult to predict how the next legislative session will turn out until a budget is passed. However, Myers said he is cautiously optimistic that there will be efforts to compromise and possibly pass a bonding bill, which was not done last session. 

There is still a chance one party could gain a complete majority in the House this legislative session, Myers said. If a House member steps away from their seat due to health problems or if they resign, one of the parties would briefly hold the majority until a special election.

“My guess is it would be unusual if no one during the entire session resigns or has serious health problems or something else,” Myers said. “The other question I think is whether this turns into an R or DFL majority at some point during the session.”

Correction: A previous version of this article said Myers said the recounts were likely to change. 

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Minnesota House tied, DFL trifecta broken, recount Thursday

Trump set to rollback transgender rights in schools, healthcare

Local legal experts are forecasting the breakdown of transgender rights in schools and healthcare under Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration. 

During his presidential campaign, Trump called for rolling back civil rights protections for transgender people, including protections in schools covered by Title IX, reported the Associated Press.  

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Minnesota staff attorney Catherine Ahlin-Halverson said she expects the Trump administration to not only ban certain anti-discriminatory laws but also weaponize current laws intended to protect individuals. 

“They will argue that requiring the federal government not to discriminate against LGBTQ people, violates the constitutional equal protection clause,” Ahlin-Halverson said. “They will argue that that is harming others.”

Gender Justice’s Legal Director Jess Braverman said Trump could rescind protections through executive orders or by enforcing new laws in new ways, such as the Comstock Act being used to restrict abortion access at the state level. 

Rolling back protections could mean banning trans athletes from joining sports teams or enforcing bathroom access based on the gender assigned at birth and not gender identity, Braverman said. Changing names and pronouns on official educational documents could also become prohibited. 

University of Minnesota law professor Alexander Boni-Saenz said he imagines Trump will deny Medicare and Medicaid to fund gender-affirming care for minors. There are 26 states, including North Dakota and South Dakota, that have bans on gender-affirming care to minors, according to the Human Rights Campaign

“I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures and pass a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states,” Trump said in a recent video.

Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration expanded protections for transgender rights within the healthcare industry. The Department of Health and Human Services advanced protections by withholding federal funding from care providers and insurers who discriminate based on sexual orientation. 

Braverman said their organization is concerned about possible rollbacks to Title IX protections in schools and sex discrimination protections in the Affordable Healthcare Act. 

“There is a concern though that the Trump administration will go further and withhold funding from schools or entities that are inclusive,” Braverman said. “That’s when things start to get really tricky.” 

Boni-Saenz said in an email statement that many transgender people already fear the possibilities Trump might do in office due to anti-transgender ads his campaign ran against Kamala Harris. 

Kamala Harris is for they/them, and Donald Trump is for us,” said one of the ads. 

Ahlin-Halverson said the Minnesota branch of the ACLU will focus its efforts on advocating for a gender inclusion bill that was introduced in the state’s last legislative session. The bill would guarantee student access to public school programs and extracurriculars regardless of gender identity. 

“We think it would be an important protection for our LGBTQ+ in our school,” Ahlin-Halverson said. “We will fight for the rights of any LGBTQ+ student who experiences discrimination in their school district.”

Braverman said they urge people to “read beyond the headlines” on Trump’s administration before assuming their rights are gone. There is still an administrative process the Trump administration will have to go through, Braverman said, so people will not see their rights disappear immediately. 

“Don’t just assume your rights are gone because that’s as good as them actually being gone,” Braverman said.

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Trump set to rollback transgender rights in schools, healthcare

Employment challenges persist for people with disabilities

Madison Rubenstein, who has disabilities that make it challenging to move and carry objects, said their conditions make operating their small business extremely difficult. Rubenstein said without physical help, their business would be at risk.

While they developed some disabilities as a kid, later in life they were diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a condition which weakens their muscle tissues.

“There’s certain things about my business that I was able to do physically by myself that I am no longer able to do,” Rubenstein said.

For the 11% of Minneapolis residents who are disabled like Rubenstein, employment fears are constant.

The unemployment rate for people with disabilities in Minnesota is around 7%, double the rate for people without disabilities, according to the Minnesota Council for Disabilities.

Rubenstein, whose work revolves around art, said they use art as an avenue to communicate and express their feelings.

“The motivation is the same as it was when I was a little kid. It’s a language for me to express myself. It’s a space for me to process difficult feelings,” Rubenstein said.

Rubenstein said the state helped her small business through the Employer Reasonable Accommodation Fund, which allowed her to hire a friend to move canvases and lift heavy equipment into their car.

Government offers some relief, though issues persist

Rubenstein said economic setbacks remain. They have been unsuccessful in trying to gain social security disability since 2018.

Rubenstein said the process can be extremely time-consuming, especially without the financial security that social security disability would provide.  Rubenstein’s case was dropped right before they were about to plead to a judge.

“I couldn’t get an answer to why I couldn’t even speak to the person I was working with,” Rubenstein said. “They just said, ‘Sorry, you have to start over somewhere else.’”

To qualify for social security disability, a person must prove they have a disability and their income does not meet a specific cap. Rubenstein said gaining social security as an employed person with disabilities is difficult because while they make income, they do not have a consistent income.

“They try to kind of like shuffle you around and figure out what to do with you,” Rubenstein said.

Former Minnesota Department of Health employee Annika Grassl, who has mild cerebral palsy and low vision, said her disability forces her to rely on public transportation. Her job prospects are limited because if a job is not remote or accessible by public transportation, she has to look elsewhere.

“Even now as I’m looking for positions, I’m looking for mainly remote positions or things that I know I can easily get to,” Grassl said.

Grassl, who worked as a health equity communicator at the Minnesota Department of Health, said she is an outlier when it comes to people with disabilities facing challenges as she secured employment.

“There’s also a lot of lived experience of people who have not had jobs for 20 years or so, but then also who have been either underpaid, under-promoted and a lot of times people with disabilities are taken advantage of in jobs,” Grassl said. “Then also not given the opportunity to use their skills in a way that could really benefit an organization.”

A worker with a disability may be paid less than minimum wage if their disability or condition reduces their ability to do the work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

Grassl said the experience and education she’s gained motivate her to advocate for others like her.

“What really keeps me going is using my own experience to help others and then also knowing that I will find a position and I will find a position where I’m really valued and that I can survive,” Grassl said.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is intended to protect people with disabilities from discrimination in areas like employment.

Minneapolis’ ADA Title I Coordinator Adrianne Wade said her office ensures ADA policies are enforced throughout the city’s offices. Wade added the city recognizing October as Disability Employment Awareness Month signals its ongoing commitment to ensuring access to jobs for people with disabilities.

“It’s just a personal passion of mine to make sure that we’re not discriminating with people because they add so much value, not only to the workplace but just to our society,” Wade said.

University offers accessibility guidance to students and employers

The University of Minnesota also has support systems for students who struggle with medical conditions or disabilities.

The Disability Resource Center (DRC) provides accommodations not only to students in classrooms but also to their employers via the University’s partnership with the UReturn service, University access consultant Todd Helmer said. UReturn is a designated office to support any employees with disabilities or medical conditions.

Helmer said the DRC’s consultants help guide students with disabilities to pursue accommodations both in their classrooms and employment.

“The consultant role really reflects the fact that we are not prescribing but we are engaging in this interactive process that is much more it can be reflective of those two different countervailing demands of the job,” Helmer said.

Interim DRC Director David Fuecker said consultants also help build students’ confidence in advocating for themselves in a workplace environment.

“They are discussing helping build skill for that student to set for self-advocacy all the way through school and with the hope that that is ingrained by the time they’re done with school,” Fuecker said.

Besides reaching out to students to work for the University, Helmer said UReturn and the DRC help connect students with resources outside of the University. Helmer added they do outreach all the way from orientation to graduation for all students.

“We have a presence on campus in many different areas including having helped with career services when they’ve had questions or even had opportunities for us to do outreach through like an educational opportunity,” Helmer said. “We’ve had access consultants working with the different career services offices as well.”

Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) Evan Rowe said the department offers accessibility services for a spectrum of physical and cognitive conditions.

For visually impaired people, DEED will translate utility bills and other documents into braille or translate written materials into audio recordings, Rowe said.

“Our emphasis is on making sure that we can serve the individual in the way that is best for the individual,” Rowe said.

Rowe added the DEED also works with employers to help answer questions such as how to change a work environment to better fit someone’s accommodation needs or how to attract people to their workplace.

“We’ve gotten a much more nuanced and deep understanding of disability, that every individual is an individual,” Rowe said. “We work really hard to deliver people their services that don’t treat you as a kind of a catch-all category, but as a human being.”

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Employment challenges persist for people with disabilities

Q&A with 2025 Minneapolis mayoral candidate DeWayne Davis

Rev. DeWayne Davis announced on Oct. 17 that he will be running for Minneapolis Mayor in 2025, making him the first candidate to announce his campaign. 

Davis, who moved to Minneapolis in 2013 with his husband, said before becoming a pastor at All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church and Plymouth Congregational Church, he was a Congressional legislative assistant for 15 years. Davis said these experiences in public service motivated him to run for mayor. 

Incumbent Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has not announced plans to seek a third term, as he told Axios reporter Kyle Stokes that he is “not making any announcement right now” on if he will run again. 

Minnesota Daily: What made you want to run for Minneapolis mayor? 

Davis: “I think I’ve been marching toward this. I didn’t think that this was in view, but sort of being right there on the ground, meeting people, and then this is the key — we can, again, we can be highlighted by the idea of public service we can talk about, it’s theoretically or academically, but these are actual people with actual bodies. Then when George Floyd was killed, and every which way I could, I said, ‘I wanted to be a part of trying to really begin to see how it is that not only we got to this place, where we would be ground zero for the killing of unarmed black people, and ground zero for an uprising, ground zero of a real indictment of a failure to deal with the issues that got us here.’ I just offered my service, and as I got even deeper, the one thing I came to the conclusion was we had lost sight of the real human toll of not dealing with our issues. The second thing is that I think it’s time to turn the page. The cynicism of politics, the pitting of one group against the other — too many elected officials, too many people, that’s their go-to. And I said, let’s bring everybody into the conversation. Every part of the city, especially my part of the city, where I have heard directly from people.”

Daily: What recent experience do you have that you believe will make you a good candidate for mayor? 

Davis: “The first thing would be my ministry. My ministry, both at All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church in south Minneapolis, which is a church that has a ministry primarily for LGBTQ+ people, located near Lake Street in that area where we are surrounded by human need. Then my ministry with Plymouth Congregational Church, which has a large food shelf and a mental health drop-in center. Those meet experiences, again, where in our ministry we are touching people at their most vulnerable. We are touching people with desperate human needs. But here’s the thing that I think has gotten lost — this is not just the city government or state government, but I think it’s government writ large. Because the government and our elected officials I think have not made the case for how a constructive relationship between government and people could work to provide what they need… As a minister, when that need comes to me, there’s only so much that we can do as churches. We go far, but we do everything we can to meet people who are hungry, people who are having mental health challenges, and all that’s true is all about people in recovery. But at some point, we need partnership from the government. And so sometimes I think ‘Oh the churches will feed, oh the churches will do it.’ Yes, we’re going to do it. But we keep seeing that need get deeper and bigger. And so the experience I had was, OK, I’ve marshaled all the resources I can in this church. I’ve convinced all the members. I preach, ‘You’ve got to help. You’ve got to help.’ And people are helping. People are volunteers. OK, now we’ve got to go to a much larger level. I think that is what I could even sort of make sense of that I needed to go a little bit further in what I was doing.” 

“The second experience was in the aftermath of George Floyd. And this is a part of the deep disappointment. Now, you don’t want to react to your deep disappointment, but look, we were ground zero for the worst thing that people could visibly see. We don’t see it, but we are horrified by the news. But we were visible. But what did not happen, and what I wanted to see was I wanted a coordinated effort, especially by our city leadership, to bring us all together, not blend on fear or defensiveness. But bring everybody up and say, ‘Look, there’s a reason we got here.’ The reason is important because we are always quick. ‘Minneapolis is the most livable city. It’s the most walkable city. Oh, it’s a great city. It’s the greatest city. It’s the happiest.’ I think what was really convincing to me here is we did not, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, we did not bring everybody together. We did not have a coordinated policy response that would say to the world, ‘Look what we went through and look how we responded.’ As a matter of fact, there were no ideas, different levels of government had to sort of step in. Again, no coordination, no sitting down. ‘Let’s figure this out.’ I was very frustrated about that. That experience, I think, also put a fire under me.” 

Daily: Most of your experience is in religious work, how will religion affect your policy-making, if at all?  

Davis: “I make a distinction between religion and my faith. Religion is an institution. And institutions have to protect themselves. The behavior you see in organized religion or in the church is often institutional behavior. ‘What do I need to do to maintain the institution?’ I have no interest in maintaining the institution. I’m driven by my faith. What that means is I’m driven by the values and commitments that I discern from Jesus. Those commitments are the liberation of others. It is the doing of justice in the context of empire. I am not interested in forecasting any religious commitments. I’m not interested. I’m not carrying water for a denomination or religion. I’m not carrying the water for Christianity. I don’t think I need to do that. I’m also not an apologist for Christianity. I’m a Black man, a descendant of slaves, Christianity played a definite role in enslavement.”

Daily: What are the main issues you like to address as Mayor? 

Davis: “I want us to keep in mind is, and this touches on two things, one, a city that is known for its economic growth and its livability. One of the things we have to remember, the externality or the outcome of that growth, is increasing poverty and inequality. It just happens. You go anywhere. Anytime you’re going to have economic growth, you’re going to have poverty and inequality. What has been going on is we are so interested in getting that economic growth. Nationally, statewide, locally, we want that growth. We want people to have good jobs. And so we’re so focused on that. We forget that the more growth we’re going to get, we’re going to miss somebody. And we’re going to leave somebody behind. We’re going to do what a city does. We’re going to try to attract business. We’re going to try to attract innovation. But we should also be very intentional about mitigating poverty or the unintended consequence that someone gets left behind. And then invest in that.”

Daily: What do you expect to be one of the main challenges for you during your mayoral campaign? 

Davis: “There are a couple of challenges. One, I have to earn people’s votes. People want to get to know me. And I know there are some pros and cons with having the ‘Reverend’ around your name. And so I’m very interested in that. Also, look, I am a Black gay man. I know that carries with it a whole series of assumptions, stereotypes and biases. I’m aware of it. So people certainly get to judge me. This is the way it works, they can judge me about it. The challenge is getting my story out there and letting people know. Another challenge is that I don’t have an existing political organization. We are building it as we go. That means that there are others, anybody, many others who might want to jump in or really jump in. Already got what they got and they know what they’re doing. What they can do with what they have. I’m in the middle of learning and putting it together. I’m surrounded by great people, great volunteers. And it’s encouraging.”

Daily: Why do you believe Mayor Frey shouldn’t have a third term? 

Davis: “I have worked very closely with the Mayor and we’ve worked very well together and I always appreciate his willingness to hear me out and I can say he has always been willing to hear my advice or my complaints. But I just simply think it’s time to turn the page. I think we have an opportunity to recast, rethink, reimagine Minneapolis for a different era. It’s time to turn the page on a real sort of city politics that in many ways either thrived on the conflict or politics or campaigning as sort of like the status quo and really get back to a period where our city includes the council. We were all always in conversation, always trying to figure out the way. Look, we couldn’t disagree. We’re intelligent people with different ideas. That’s not the problem of a democratic order that people disagree. The problem becomes when we turn people into permanent enemies because they disagree.”

This interview has been edited for clarity, grammar and length.

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Q&A with 2025 Minneapolis mayoral candidate DeWayne Davis

More states looking to abolish the Electoral College

With the presidential election ahead, the Electoral College will make or break who takes the presidency, but many are unhappy with that system.

More states are signing up for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would allocate a state’s electoral votes to the national popular vote, effectively eliminating the Electoral College System. Currently, 16 states and the District of Columbia have signed a version of the Compact.

The presidential election is decided using the Electoral College system where each state is given electoral votes based on their population. A candidate with the most votes in a state wins that state’s electoral votes.

For the Compact to go into effect, all states that have signed up for it must combine for at least 270 electoral votes. The compact currently has 209. For a state to sign up, the Compact must be approved by the state legislature.

Minnesota joined the Compact in Feb. 2023 after Gov. Tim Walz signed the bill.

Those who support the Compact argue that the Electoral College forces presidential candidates to focus their efforts primarily on battleground states, while other states don’t receive the same attention.

Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman (D-Champlin), who authored the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact bill in the Senate, said in a statement that the Compact helps strengthen our democracy by ensuring that presidential candidates visit all states, not just battleground states.

This is about fairness and ensuring that every American’s voice is heard in our most important election,” Hoffman said in the statement.

Minnesota State Rep. Mike Freiberg (D-Golden Valley), who authored the bill in the House, said in a press release the Electoral College does not equally value all citizens’ votes and gives more importance to those in swing states. Freiberg added the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would ensure fairness in elections.

“No one’s individual vote should matter more than anyone else’s, and by joining this compact, we will take a big step to ensure fairness in our Presidential elections,” Freiberg said in the press release.

Not everyone wants to ditch the current system, according to  Save Our States founder Trent England.

England said it is necessary to keep the Electoral College because it balances the voting power any state has, as California and New York would have too much influence in deciding the winner.

England said the Electoral College forces political candidates to spread out their campaigns nationwide. This pressures Democrats and Republicans to be active in every state, not just swing states, England added.

“The electoral college forces candidates to win basically on a state-by-state basis; they have to reach out farther around the country than they would otherwise have to do, which means they wind up with a lot bigger, broader, more diverse coalition,” England said.

More conservative states will need to be convinced to join the Compact if supporters hope to hit their 270 goal.

Aaron Scherb, director of Legislative Affairs at Common Cause, said though the Electoral College forces presidential candidates to expand their campaigns nationwide, the reality is many spend most of their time in the swing states.

“Nearly all of the presidential campaign visits are to only a handful of seven states,” Scherb said. “Which have a little bit less than 20% of the population. So it means essentially 80% of Americans are kind of ignored.”

Without the Electoral College, England said it is possible that politics would become more regional and the level of election fraud suspicions would rise.

“Parties would become much more regional which could easily make them more radical or disdainful of their opponents,” England said.

Scherb said with the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, voters outside of those swing states will no longer be ignored and have their voices heard.

“Presidential campaigns would have to compete for everybody’s votes, which we think would be a good thing,” Scherb said. “More voices would be heard, you know, more issues would be represented in campaigns.”

Though the Electoral College is around 230 years old, England said the founding fathers’ concerns about ensuring widespread political balance are still present today.

“The Electoral College, over the last hundred years, has been perfectly split between Republicans and Democrats winning elections,” England said, “I mean that’s pretty remarkable that we have a system that produces that kind of balance.”

Around five U.S. Presidents lost the national popular vote but won the Electoral College, including former Presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush.

Scherb said the Electoral College is worth changing not only for voter representation but because of its racist beginnings. The Electoral College was created in 1787 to give more influence to Southern states who got extra electoral votes because of their large slave populations while at the same time not allowing Black people to vote.

“It’s kind of a structural inequity that’s baked into our system, along with a gerrymandering, along with a number of other kind of structural reforms, the filibuster, that are kind of extremely hard to change, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try,” Scherb said.

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on More states looking to abolish the Electoral College

Republican candidate emerges for District 60B

Republican candidate Abigail Wolters for Minnesota House District 60B has emerged as the conservative challenger for incumbent House Rep. Mohamud Noor.

The heavily Democratic-leaning House seat in the heart of the University of Minnesota will be up for grabs in the Nov. 5 election. District 60B covers the University campus as well as the surrounding neighborhoods of Cedar-Riverside, Como and parts of Prospect Park and Marcy-Holmes.

Minnesota House Rep. Mohamud Noor’s (D-Minneapolis) media team did not respond to the Minnesota Daily’s request for an interview in time for publication.

Noor said in an MPR article that he is running again because he knows and understands the uniqueness of the district. Noor has been the district incumbent since 2018.

Noor chairs the Human Services Finance Committee which impacts many healthcare and social services decisions and funding in Minnesota. According to MPR, Noor is focused on creating more opportunities for affordable housing, better healthcare access and a stronger economy for voters.

Wolters said she wants to represent the area because she feels the DFL trifecta passed too many laws without Republican considerations.

“It’s important to have opposition,” Wolters said. “And I didn’t want to see this seat, the 60B seat, go unopposed again.”

Even as a young woman, Wolters said she is unphased running for office as a Republican candidate. Though historically the GOP has been dominated by men, Wolters said she believes it is no longer unique to see more women and younger people running for state offices.

“I think I have a lot of support from other legislators who are currently in the House, as well as just people active in the Minneapolis GOP,” Wolters said.

University Political Science Professor C. Daniel Meyers said the Democratic trifecta in the Minnesota Senate, House and Governor could change this November. The switch to a Republican House is more likely than the Senate because of the narrow four-seat majority Democrats have, Meyes added.

“The closeness of the Senate and really the state House races in 2022, I think, points to just how evenly split Minnesota is at the state legislative level,” Meyers said. “I would not be at all surprised if Republicans seek out a small majority in the state House. I think it probably leans Democratic but not by a huge majority.”

Meyers said those flipped seats for the Republicans are unlikely to be found in the Left-leaning metro.

Wolters, a 2021 University of Minnesota graduate, said she contacted the Minneapolis GOP around a year ago in anticipation of running locally. Wolters said she was motivated by U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) campaign.

“That campaign really motivated me a lot to see what the opposition’s like and see how I can fit into that,” Wolters said.

Wolters said one of her main priorities is improving public safety, especially in the areas around the University.

Wolters added that addressing the lack of job opportunities in Minnesota is a priority for her after she struggled to find work with her computer science degree in Minnesota compared to other states.

“I think Minnesota has so much talent if we could also have some kind of free movement or reduce some of the regulations for businesses to be able to use this talent and create really great jobs in Minnesota, especially Minneapolis, which has a huge student population,” Wolters said.

Wolters said she is also running on reducing spending in the legislature, especially when there is a budget surplus. The state government putting money into Feeding Our Future, which defrauded the state, shows the need for more responsible state spending, Wolters added.

Wolters’ struggles to find a job and seeing how high her taxes were, motivated her to become more involved politically. She said seeing a paycheck and then watching how much of that is fueled into legislature projects pushed her to run for a seat in the state legislature.

“I saw this seat was open and like I said, it’s really important to have a choice,” Wolters said. “That kind of pushed me over the edge to put my hat in the ring.”

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Republican candidate emerges for District 60B