Minnesota News Network

A woman whose son died because he couldn’t afford sufficient insulin says she’ll be at the State Capitol in 2019, lobbying lawmakers to address the high cost of a drug that’s essential for those with diabetes. Nicole Smith-Holt says, “It’s not a Democrat/Republican situation. I think that… anybody with a heart still pumping can understand that this is a crisis, that we need to make changes.”  Smith-Holt says her 25-year-old son Alec couldn’t afford 13-hundred dollars for insulin and supplies. She says to get health insurance, it would have cost him 450 dollars a month with a 76-hundred-dollar deductible.

“I’m not gonna stop telling my story,” says Smith-Holt.  “It’s an important story. It has the potential to save other lives. We need to make some drastic changes.”

One of three men in an Illinois militia group accused of bombing a Bloomington mosque last year makes his first appearance in federal court in Minnesota today. Another defendant pleaded *not* guilty before a magistrate judge Tuesday and it’s not clear when a third defendant will appear in Minnesota, where the cases will be tried. No one was hurt in the explosion at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center, but people were in the building for morning prayers.

A warning from a long-time state legislator as lawmakers eye a projected 1.5-billion-dollar budget surplus. Outgoing House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jim Knoblach from Saint Cloud says “things can change very, very quickly,” pointing to large deficits that followed surpluses in the early 2000’s and at the start of the Great Recession.  Knoblach says, “As we look to an economy where we do see a few storm clouds perhaps on the horizon, I just wanted to bring up this history so people have it in mind.”

Fellow Republican Jerry Hertaus from Greenfield responds, “We might be in a much healthier circumstance this time with a larger budget reserve.”  But analysts say even the two billion dollars currently in the state’s “rainy day fund” might not be enough if there’s a major economic downturn or deadlock over the federal budget.

A jury in Chisago County has found a man guilty of third-degree murder and other charges for crashing his snowmobile while drunk into a second-grader who was helping his family put up a fish house on Chisago Lake. Prosecutors say Eric Coleman had three prior D-W-I charges with license revoked, and his blood alcohol was more than twice the legal limit when he plowed into eight-year-old Alan Geisenkoetter at 60 miles an hour. Prompted by the crash, lawmakers closed a loophole in state statute by passing “Little Alan’s Law.” It prohibits those convicted of D-W-I in a motor vehicle from operating a snowmobile, A-T-V or boat.

A new coalition of metro area groups called “Keep Minnesota Moving” will push at the State Capitol not only for more funding for transit in the Twin Cities, but also in Greater Minnesota. Will Schroeer with East Metro Strong points to a MN-DOT report that says rural Minnesota has 120 million dollars in transit needs over the next several years.  “We think that should be funded. If those needs exist — and I’m sure that they do — then let’s fund those needs,” he says.

Coalition leaders say the group does not have a stance on a gas tax increase — something Governor-elect Tim Walz says he’ll propose.

Tears at the State Capitol as a group of mostly Democratic lawmakers heard from Minnesotans affected by the high cost of insulin.  “My son would still be alive today, if his treatment was affordable,” said James Holt Junior, whose 25-year-old son died because he had to ration insulin. Nicole Smith-Holt says to get health insurance it would have cost her son $450 a month with a $7600 deductible.  She says, “I can imagine how scary it was for Alec to leave that pharmacy without his life-saving insulin, and he left that day because he did not have the 13-hundred dollars that the pharmacist was charging him for insulin and supplies.”

Senate Democrats are pressuring Republicans to pass a bill as soon as possible in the 2019 session. GOP leaders are not immediately available to comment.