Minnesota News Network

A funding bill approved in the U-S Senate includes new money for research into a universal flu vaccine. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced the Flu Vaccine Act earlier this year. It provides additional resources over the next five years to help develop a more effective, universal flu vaccine. Klobuchar says it will provide critical research at the National Institutes of Health to finally develop a universal vaccine so Minnesotans and all Americans can be better protected from all variations of the flu. The current vaccine is about 60-percent effective at best. Minnesota had 65-hundred flu-related hospitalizations last season and five pediatric deaths.

The Mayo Clinic announced plans Tuesday to expand the Gonda Building in downtown Rochester. Mayo Clinic and Pontiac Land Group will expand the Gonda Building to support the growing need for additional clinical space, which includes an 11-floor expansion, in which four floors will be a premier hotel space.

The Singapore-based real estate developer, Pontiac Land, will help accelerate the long-planned expansion. “Mayo Clinic is experiencing increased requests for care across our campuses, and meeting the current and future medical needs of our patients is our top priority,” says C. Michel Harper Jr., M.D., executive dean of practice, Mayo Clinic. “We’re experiencing significant patient care space constraints on our Rochester campus, so we’re excited that this collaboration with Pontiac Land allows us to reach our expansion goals earlier to ensure that we have the infrastructure in place to provide the best possible care to our patients for generations to come.”

The 11-floor expansion includes four floors for new clinical space and seven floors for a premier hotel space. The four-floor clinical space expansion provides an additional 200,00 square feet of space. The Mayo Clinic plans to invest $190 million into the clinical expansion and use the additional space for expansion to the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and Outpatient Procedure Center. Initial plans are for construction to begin by the end of 2019 or early 2020, with the project completed by the end of 2022.

Harsh words from State Representative Matt Grossell, a Republican from Clearbrook, about opponents of the controversial Enbridge Line 3 pipeline blocking a bridge south of Bemidji Tuesday morning.  Grossell says, “I understand people want to… exercise their right to freedom of assembly, which is just fine. But don’t break the law while you’re doing it.”

Native American protesters say Enbridge wants to put “this new poisonous black snake” where the Mississippi River begins and they’re protecting their water and burial sites. Police cleared the blockade off the bridge. Organizers say there were no arrests.

Grossell says the Enbridge Line 3 project has gone through all the vetting that’s been asked for and required.  “It’s ridiculous,” he says. “It’s getting to a point of, when do the people that want to go to work, get to go to work?”  Opponents say crews come from out-of-state to work on the pipeline and women face increased risk of harassment and potentially life-threatening assaults — while native communities have only limited authority to prosecute offenders.

A working group looking for ways to fix problems with sex-assault investigations in Minnesota began its work Tuesday — less than two months before an election that will, at the very least, shuffle the deck in the governor’s office and legislature. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson — who assembled the group — argues despite that, its work will endure.  “Credibly deep bench of experience,” she says, “and by coming up with these solutions… I think that should be a real signal to policymakers that this is something that this group can collectively agree on [and] hopefully policymakers can as well.”

Swanson herself leaves office in January after an unsuccessful bid for governor in the primary election. As to rumors she could mount a write-in campaign for Minnesota attorney general, given allegations against DFL-endorsed candidate Keith Ellison:  “That is a ‘no.’ That is a ‘no.’ That is an absolute ‘no.’ People have too much time on their hands sometimes I think develop conspiracy theories. That is a ‘no.'”

The Minnesota Correctional Facility-Faribault remains on lockdown after an inmate assault on four corrections officers. A Department of Corrections spokeswoman says the offender punched an officer around 11:30 Monday in the dining hall. Three more officers responded to the assault and were also injured. The corrections officers were taken to the hospital for evaluation. The inmate was removed from the general population and placed in restrictive housing. D-O-C officials say the incident will be fully investigated and the offender will be held accountable. The Faribault prison was also under lockdown last month. This attack comes two months after an inmate killed Officer Joseph Gomm at the Stillwater prison.

Around 650 soldiers with the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Red Bull Infantry Division are deploying to the Middle East this week. A departure ceremony is being held Thursday at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul as well as a “Serve Our Troops” farewell dinner for families at the RiverCentre. The Red Bulls will train at Fort Hood, Texas for a month and then be primarily stationed at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait until late July of 2019. The troops will be responsible for operations in about ten Middle Eastern countries in support of Operation Spartan Shield. Command Sergeant Major Joe Hjelmstad of Battle Lake said: “our citizen-soldiers will return to their families and employers with new skills and experience that will make them even more valuable members of their communities.” Many of these Red Bull soldiers have deployed overseas before to locations including Iraq, Kosovo, and Bosnia.