Minnesota News Network

Find ways to stop an epidemic of violence against Native women — that’s the assignment for a special task force established by the Minnesota Legislature that has its first meeting today (9am-4pm) in Saint Paul. Representative Mary Kunesh-Podein, a Democrat from New Brighton, is helping spearhead the effort that brings together people from a variety of backgrounds. “I’m going to really count on some of the members who work directly with the community, especially community women who have been victims and survivors,” she says. “I think the heart of the matter is the historic violence against our Native communities, and why it has taken 400 years to address it.”

Governor Tim Walz will do a ceremonial re-signing this morning of the bill setting up the task force to spotlight the group’s efforts.

The task force will have a December meeting in northeast Minnesota, travel to northwestern Minnesota in March, then to southwest Minnesota in August of 2020.

Republicans in the Minnesota Senate roll out their plan this morning to address the high cost of insulin, even as Democrats push for a state-run assistance program partially funded by fees on drug manufacturers. House Speaker, Democrat Melissa Hortman contends, “This is not a complex product to produce. It’s a life-saving product. People’s lives are dependent on being able to access affordable insulin, and so the pharmaceutical industry has a responsibility to participate.”

Republicans have said the end of the insulin price crunch is in sight after several large H-M-O’s took steps to limit out-of-pocket costs for their members. Hortman responds, “We have to look at the population that is not insured, and those who will not be using those insurance programs that have recently been announced.”

Hortman says, “We need Republicans and Democrats to come together on a solution before Governor Walz would call us into special session.” So far agreement has been elusive, after a tentative deal fell apart in the closing hours of the special legislative session in late May.

A former police officer from Warroad has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a girl a number of times when she was 16 and 17 and stalking her while on duty in his squad car. The Star Tribune reports 30-year-old Joshua Demmerly entered an Alford plea, acknowledging there’s sufficient evidence to convict him but maintaining he’s innocent. Prosecutors say Demmerly told the teen there was a felony investigation of her under way and he could offer protection from it. In another instance, Demmerly allegedly turned on his squad car’s emergency lights, turned off its camera and arrested the victim in front of others at a party.

A Willow River man is charged with criminal vehicular homicide after the S-U-V he was driving on a road marked for no motor vehicle traffic went into the Kettle River Monday afternoon, drowning one of his passengers. Preston Prokasky and another passenger were able to make it to shore. Prokasky, who also faces controlled-substance charges, made his first court appearance today (Wed) and is due back September 24th. The victim is 47-year-old Eugene Oestreich from Willow River.

Senator Amy Klobuchar is touting a jump in her poll numbers to eight percent in a post-debate survey in Iowa. Carleton College analyst Steven Schier says Klobuchar’s presidential campaign now has new life. “Iowa is essential to her strategy. She has to finish well there in order to proceed further in the presidential selection process,” Schier says. “So this is a good day for Amy Klobuchar.”

But Schier adds fellow Democratic moderate Joe Biden is still “very much in her way” and puts a ceiling on how far Klobuchar can move in the polls. “She has to hope at some point that Biden begins to slide so that she can move up,” Schier says. He adds that Biden isn’t an overwhelming favorite, but so far has been holding his own at the top of the field.

Klobuchar is beginning a campaign sweep of so-called “blue wall” states including stops in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

State regulators say they’ll proceed “as soon as possible” with a court-ordered “re-do” of the environmental impact statement for the proposed Enbridge Line 3 pipeline. Nancy Norr with the group Jobs for Minnesotans is confident it will *not* find new or extreme risks of potential spills in the Lake Superior watershed. She says it’s “actually a project that is designed to create greater integrity of the pipeline and to protect the environment and all of the waterways that it crosses.”

The re-start of the approval process comes after the state Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Native American and environmental groups’ objections to the pipeline’s route and other issues — but Winona LaDuke with Honor the Earth says, “At any turn in Enbridge’s path ahead in attempting to do this pipeline, we will challenge them. We will challenge them at every turn.”

Officials at Fort Snelling State Park say they’ll look at ways of reducing flood risk after an unprecedented six-month closure of Minnesota’s busiest state park — but admit it won’t be easy because it’s in a major river floodplain. Rachel Hopper with the D-N-R says it’s a comprehensive discussion occurring throughout the state park system, “given that we know that with climate change, more persistent, heavy rainfalls happen and can lead to greater flooding across the state.”

But Hopper stresses any changes would be a “very long-term effort.”

An account clerk at Inver Hills Community College is suing the AFSCME state employee union, claiming she was pressured into signing a union membership card in violation of a recent U-S Supreme Court ruling. Attorney Daniel Suhr says his client, Susan Halloran, was not told her options. “If it’s going to be a truly free choice, then it has to be an informed choice,” Suhr says. “You have to have basic information about what your rights are and what your dues will be.”

Suhr says shortly after his client signed the union card on a computer tablet, she told the union she did not want to be a member or pay dues, but they said she was locked in for a year. The AFSCME union declined comment. Officials at the state college and university system, also named in the lawsuit, were not immediately reachable.