Minnesota News Network

If you got an extension for renewing your driver’s license because of the COVID pandemic, you’ll need to have your license renewed by March 31st, state officials announced today. They’re encouraging people not to procrastinate because the current five-week processing time could grow due to an expected last-minute crunch. Driver and Vehicle Services will start sending letters this week to about 300-thousand Minnesotans who still need to renew. And be aware that if your drivers license expires this March 1st or later, you must renew by the specified due date.

The day before rolling out his state budget plan, Governor Tim Walz today reviews its largest component — K-12 education — with influential members of a special task force including former state Supreme Court Justice Alan Page. But at this early point in the legislative session, school closures from COVID overshadow the debate over a dollar amount for education funding. Republican Senator Carla Nelson from Rochester points to “parents not being able to work because they don’t have their children in school. We have a lost generation, some have said, of these young kids not learning to read.”

A bill sponsored by Nelson would leave the decision on whether students are back in the classroom solely with school boards and community leaders, cancelling the governor’s emergency powers. But Democratic leaders say the state Health Department must still have oversight because risks from the COVID pandemic remain high.

Two men from Saint Paul have pleaded guilty to federal arson charges in connection with a fire that destroyed the Third Precinct Minneapolis police station during riots after the death of George Floyd. Prosecutors say 25-year-old Davon De-Andre Turner and another person lit an incendiary device and took it into the building. They say 23-year-old Branden Wolfe admitted he pushed a barrel into a fire that had already been set in the entrance, with the intent of accelerating the blaze. Wolfe and Turner will be sentenced this spring. Two others, Bryce Williams and Dylan Robinson, have also pleaded guilty to federal arson charges.

Minnesota is getting bump of a quarter-million doses to its allocation of COVID-19 vaccine, bringing the total to roughly 871-thousand doses, which includes around 523-thousand already shipped to Minnesota providers so far. About 214-thousand people in Minnesota have received their first dose of the COVID vaccine and over 49 thousand have received their second booster dose as well.

The annual pro-life march and rally outside the Minnesota Capitol is virtual on this 48th anniversary of Roe -v- Wade due to COVID. In a Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life video just released, 6th District Congressman Tom Emmer warns, despite efforts to protect the unborn, “I know that the 117th Congress will bring a new assault on this liberty, but I stand ready to defend them.” M-C-C-L’s Scott Fischbach says although the U-S House and Senate majorities and the president are opposed to their efforts, “Hopefully the Supreme Court could be a backstop for us, with the three new appointments on the U-S Supreme Court.”

M-C-C-L continues its push at the Minnesota Legislature to ban government-funded abortions. Meanwhile a new group on the scene, UnRestrict Minnesota, wants to repeal laws that they say force health care providers to tell patients “the politically-motivated scripts of anti-abortion lawmakers.”