Bluestem Prairie

After 28-year public safety career, Lower Sioux member Juliet Rudie will lead state's MMIR Office

Monday on the Minnesota House floor, Moorhead DFL state representative Heather Keeler, reminded lawmakers that it was the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women National Day of Action and Awareness--and that the legislature had created the Office of Missing And Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) last year.

Keeler, a citizen of the Yankton Dakota tribe, had authored the bill in the House that created the office--and was rolled into the final Public Safety and Judiciary Omnibus bill. Senator Mary Kunesh, a descendant of the Standing Rock Sioux, was the Senate author.

Now the leadership position has been filled by an enrolled member of the Lower Sioux Community in Morton. 

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety issued a press release announcing the appointment, Director Named to Lead Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office:

The director of Minnesota’s new Office of Missing And Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) has been named. Juliet Rudie, a tribal member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community and lifelong Minnesota resident, will lead the first office of its kind in the nation.

 

The MMIR office will be housed in the Department of Public Safety Office of Justice Programs (DPS-OJP) and will focus on missing and murdered Indigenous relatives. The office will work with the 11 sovereign tribal nations in Minnesota; federal, state, and local law enforcement; federal and state agencies; and community-based organizations and advocates. Additional staff for the office will be hired in the coming weeks. 

​

Ms. Rudie’s career in public safety spans almost 28 years. She began as a patrol officer with the Saint Paul Police Department in 1990, later serving as a sergeant assigned to various divisions including Juvenile Investigations, Missing Persons, and the Director of Training. Ms. Rudie joined the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office in 2011, serving as an Inspector, Undersheriff of the Administration Division and Chief Deputy. Ms. Rudie will begin her new duties as director of the MMIR Office on Feb.28. 

 

“The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office continues the work of addressing the root causes of the epidemic of violence faced by Native women, girls, and two-spirit relatives,” said Governor Tim Walz. “Ms. Juliet Rudie brings a wealth of experience to this role and this office to help coordinate the efforts of tribal nations, law enforcement, federal and state agencies, and communities, so we can ultimately end this crisis.”

 

“For far too long, Native women and girls, men and boys, and two-spirit relatives have been disproportionately impacted by violence. It is through generations of advocacy from elders, mothers, sisters, and friends that we are able to launch the first-of-its-kind Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, now under the leadership of Ms. Juliet Rudie,” said Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. “We have made critical strides in the last few years in Minnesota to better address and disrupt these cycles of violence, and I look forward to the MMIR Office making more progress under the direction of Ms. Rudie.”

 

“We need to shine a light on the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people and seek justice for Native Americans,” said DPS Commissioner John Harrington. “Ms. Rudie will lead the work of this new office to promote the empowerment of Native American women and pursue safeguards for Native American women, relatives, and children. The programs and services will foster safety, equity, healing, civil and human rights of Indigenous peoples and communities in Minnesota.”

 

The first-in-the-nation MMIR office was a recommendation of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Task Force, which found that while Native Americans make up 1 percent of Minnesota’s population, they account for approximately 9 percent of all murdered girls and women in the state during the last decade. Anywhere from 27 to 54 Indigenous women and girls were missing in Minnesota in any given month from 2012 to 2020.

 

Legislation to establish the MMIR office was signed into law by Governor Tim Walz in 2021. The office will also help develop and implement future legislation and transformative social justice policies. . . .

Here in South Dakota, Two MMIW liaison funding bills are moving forward to fund a similar position created last year. 

 

Newscenter 1's Darsha Nelson reported in Indigenous community marks MMIW Day of Action with prayer, remembrance:

On Monday, groups across the United States and Canada marked the “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women National Day of Action and Awareness.” The Red Ribbon Skirt Society gathered supporters in downtown Rapid City for a candlelight vigil.

The occasion also recognizing recent grief, with two young women from the Oglala Sioux Tribe having been found dead in the past ten days. Cheryl “Tia” Long Soldier (age 27) and Shayna Youngman Afraid Of His Horses (age 17) were both reported missing before being found dead on the Pine Ridge Reservation. . . .

Let's hope the South Dakota position gets the funding needed.

Related posts:

• South Dakota AG Ravnsborg unable to fund office for missing Indigenous persons
• Native News Online: State rep Heather Keeler aims to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day
• Not just a "bargaining chip" for Paul Gazelka, MMIR office finds place in public safety deal
• Via Star Tribune op-ed page: update on Minnesota's MMIR (MMIW) Office
• [VIDEO] Shakopee Town Hall discussion about state rep. Keeler's effort to establish MMIR office
• House Judiciary Finance & Civil Law Committee sends bill for MMIR office to Public Safety
• For National American Indian Heritage Month: Keeler to MnHouse; Kunesh-Podein to MnSenate
• Minnesota's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force releases report

Photo: Juliet Rudie, from KEYC's report, Morton woman to lead new office on missing, murdered Indigenous Minnesotans.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

No irony: South Dakota last in nation to adopt Juneteenth as a state holiday

At the Argus Leader, Morgan Matzen reported last week in Juneteenth now an official South Dakota holiday as Gov. Kristi Noem signs HB 1025:

Gov. Kristi Noem signed a bill into law Thursday that includes Juneteenth as a legal state holiday in South Dakota.

South Dakota was the last holdout to name the nineteenth day of June a state holiday, with North Dakota approving legislation April 13, 2021 and Hawaii declaring the holiday with legislation on June 16, 2021.

Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S., when three months after the Civil War ended and two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, word of freedom was spread to enslaved Black people in Texas.

Some historians say word of liberation was deliberately withheld from the enslaved people so slave owners could complete one final cotton harvest.

While Noem proclaimed Juneteenth holidays in 2020 and 2021, there was a push in the 2021 legislative session, and again this year, for South Dakota to finally declare it as an annual, official state holiday. . . .

There's something oddly discomforting that South Dakota is the last state to make Juneteenth a state holiday. We certainly hope folks--especially the kiddoes--are told about the history of the holiday.

A good start is the NPR piece from 2021, Slavery Didn't End On Juneteenth. What You Should Know About This Important Day.

Image: Juneteenth. Via Dakota News Now.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Another IA newspaper editorial board questions ethanol industry, carbon capture pipelines

It's a shibboleth of American politics that those venturing in the Iowa presidential primaries must bow at the altar of ethanol. 

But for some Iowans, that may now longer be the password to unlock their hearts and votes. 

We posted on Sunday about the Des Moines Register's farewell ethanol editorial in We agree: It's time to move on from ethanol.

A friend mentioned that wasn't the only editorial board questioning the ethanol industry's plans, and suggested we look at the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Indeed.

In Carbon capture in Iowa: A lifeline or a pipe dream? we read:

In absence of smarter rules to limit the environmental impacts of farming, Iowans should be wary of new lifelines for the ethanol industry.

Three companies looking to invest in carbon-capture infrastructure in Iowa are running into opposition from environmentalists and property owners.

The three proposed carbon pipeline projects would go underground under thousands of miles of Iowa land. They would carry carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to be sequestered in out-of-state storage sites.

Iowans ought to be cautious about these CO2 pipelines. The underlying technology has potential but given the existing environmental and ecological situation in Iowa, it may be unwise to pursue these projects as currently envisioned.

Ethanol blends such as E10 and E15 are better for the environment than traditional gasoline but they carry costs beyond emissions. Ethanol incentivizes mass production of corn, far outpacing what the market would demand without federal biofuel mandates in place. That leads to a host of land use and water quality issues, exacerbated by Iowa’s lax agriculture regulations.

If Iowa had better laws to mitigate the risks of intensive row cropping — like mandatory buffer strips along waterways, restrictions on planting in the flood plain and limits on spreading manure, as a few examples — pipelines serving ethanol production would be easier to support.

With their multicounty scope, the projects also are running up against property rights issues. At least one of the companies involved, Summit Carbon Solutions, has signaled it would need eminent domain authority, meaning they weren’t able to work out voluntary deals with affected land owners.

Eminent domain should be a last resort. Any project that seeks to condemn private property should meet extremely high standards for public benefit.

The Gazette editorial board has traditionally backed ethanol, but we have also been staunch advocates for water quality protections. We find it increasingly difficult to throw our support behind projects and policies that will give cover to a system that ends up eroding our soil and putting fertilizer in our water.

“Let’s face it. This system is designed to provide cheap commodity grain to large corporations that also want to sell stuff to the farmers. That whole scheme has got to change if we’re going to get the environmental outcomes that we want,” Chris Jones, a University of Iowa water quality researcher, said during an Iowa Ideas conference panel last year.

The whole scheme has got to change but for now the whole scheme is leaning heavily on the ethanol industry. More than half of Iowa’s corn, or 1.5 billion bushels, goes to ethanol, according to the Iowa Corn Growers Association. Some of the byproducts have other uses but much of that corn would not be grown if not for renewable fuel mandates and tax incentives. The natural resources that corn affects could be preserved.

On one hand, the ethanol industry is a boon for Iowa’s agriculture economy. On the other hand, it’s ultimately a detriment to our soil and water. In absence of smarter rules to limit the environmental impacts of farming, Iowans should be wary of new lifelines for the ethanol industry.

The pipelines are being vetted at the same time Gov. Kim Reynolds is pressing for a law to require most gas stations to eventually upgrade their pumps to supply higher blends of ethanol. Her proposal appears to have broad bipartisan support.

These efforts should be considered in a broader context about the future of energy policy in Iowa and the United States. If the status quo for automobile fuel persists for the life of the infrastructure, pipelines and new pumps certainly appear to have a positive environmental impact. Each pipeline would enable sequestering millions of tons of CO2 per year, The Gazette’s Erin Jordan reported last month, which is significant.

“This proposal to use carbon pipelines would improve it a lot. It would really get to where ethanol could be viewed as a green fuel — much, much lower than petrol gasoline — so that's the promise of it. My own view is if ethanol is going to continue, let's say for another decade or two, then we need to reduce emissions from it,” Jerald Schnoor, UI and environmental engineering professor, told the editorial board in a recent interview.

But we should hope and expect biofuels and electric vehicles to advance in the next couple decades past the need for the current level of corn-based fuel that imposes such costly externalities. In the big picture, there is a balancing act at play here between the short-term benefits of current biofuels and the long-term benefits of transitioning to much cleaner sources.

Emerging industries sometimes need support to grow to maturity, like ethanol got with the Renewable Fuel Standard in 2005, requiring fuel to contain certain levels of renewable contents.

Federal and state governments have an important role to play in supporting new technology, even in the long run if market conditions require it. But we can’t prop up every energy source in perpetuity — these pipelines, for instance, would only be viable thanks to billions of dollars in federal tax credits.

We have to focus limited resources on what works best and be willing to cut loose the things that don’t.

Is corn-based ethanol America’s forever fuel, the thing that will enable the country to solve its transportation emissions problems? If that was ever a real possibility, it’s looking increasingly unlikely.

Ope.

As a kicker, here are a couple of tweets about the cornography:

New @PNASNews study's eye-popping #environmental impacts of corn: fertilizer use surged by 3-8 %, water pollutants rose by 3-5%, and domestic land use carbon emissions are, at best, equivalent to gas, and likely 24% higher.
My latest @CivilEats storyhttps://t.co/HddFSVerik

— Virginia Gewin (@VirginiaGewin) February 14, 2022

here's a little sumthunhttps://t.co/sGbM1OgRw3

— Jonesingforthetruth (@RiverRaccoon) February 11, 2022

Related posts:

• We agree: It's time to move on from ethanol
• Coming soon from a cornfield near you: mammoth carbon capture pipeline system.
• Mother Jones: USDA Secretary Vilsack’s son works for a controversial ethanol pipeline project
• Iowa county boards scorn construction of CO2 pipelines, use of eminent domain to build them
• Digest of news about carbon dioxide pipelines

Photo: Corn kernels.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

MN House Ag committee hears Ecklund bill requiring more CWD safeguards in farmed deer

We watched Monday's hearing on International Falls DFLer Rob Ecklund's HF2814, which would establish additional safeguards against the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease at Minnesota deer farms.

Here's our corrected embed of the House Information Services YouTube of the hearing (the one on the Minnesota House Information Services Youtube channel originally began about 13 minutes into the hearing, though now it also doesn't , ):

At Session Daily, Brian Hall reports in Deer farmers could face more requirements to safeguard against chronic wasting disease:

In a continuing effort to eradicate and control the spread of chronic wasting disease, Minnesota deer farmers could be forced to test their entire herd.

Sponsored by Rep. Rob Ecklund (DFL-International Falls), HF2814 would require owners of farmed white-tailed deer to test their animals for the disease by October. Additional testing would be required for animals who test positive for chronic wasting disease.

The bill includes a $250,000 appropriation to the Board of Animal Health for the testing and would establish a requirement for a soil test before sale or transfer of land where the disease was detected while farming cervids, including deer, moose and elk

Following a 9-3 vote by the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee Monday, the bill was sent to the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee without recommendation, in part, due to questions surrounding the testing used for the deer and soil.

The real-time quaking-induced conversion test has not been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Approval is expected in the near future,” Ecklund said. “We go to great lengths and take all precautions in protecting our meat and food supply. The RTQuIC test is one more tool that we have available to protect the industry.”

Several Republicans felt the bill was being considered too early given the test hasn’t been approved by the USDA.

Rep. Paul Anderson (R-Starbuck) said that the bill was originally going to be laid over before a late addition recommended it be moved on. Because of the time, Anderson said members didn’t feel an urgency in putting amendments forward.

“Given what we’ve heard today, we do need to slow down,” said Rep. John Burkel (R-Badger).

Ecklund said there’s approximately 3,500 captive white-tailed deer in the state.

“If we do find any problems through the use of this technology, then we would know the areas in the state that need the most attention,” he said.

The companion, SF3037, is sponsored by Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville) and awaiting action by the Senate Agriculture and Rural Development Finance and Policy Committee.

“We’ve been fighting CWD for five years,” Ecklund said. “I’d like to get to the bottom of what’s going on here.”

He later added: “If we had something in our swine population, if we had something in our turkey population, if we had something in our cattle population, it would be all hands on deck to make sure that we were addressing this.”

Ecklund sent out a statement on the hearing:

Today, the House Agriculture Committee held a remote hearing to discuss two bills authored by Rep. Rob Ecklund (DFL – International Falls) aimed at preventing the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) among Minnesota’s wild white-tailed deer population, as well as other animal diseases. Committee members also received an update from the Minnesota Board of Animal Health (BAH) and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) regarding the concurrent authority over farmed white-tail deer.

“We’ve been dealing with CWD in Minnesota for several years and the spread remains deeply concerning among Minnesota’s wild deer population. Now, farmers and livestock producers are facing emerging threats from diseases like avian influenza and African swine fever,” Rep. Ecklund said. “With live-testing technology for CWD now at our doorstep, along with further investments in the U of M’s Veterinary Diagnostic Lab (VDL) with its proven track record as a critical research tool, it’s time to take bolder action to protect wild white-tailed deer and other animal populations.”

The legislation, HF 2814, includes several new requirements for deer farm owners. The bill requires live-animal testing of farmed deer for CWD no later than October 1, 2022, with further testing requirements for those testing positive. In certain circumstances, the farms would be required to depopulate the premises of all farmed Cervidae. Additionally, for farms where CWD is present, a soil test for evidence of CWD is required prior to the sale of the premises. Finally, the bill includes a $250,000 appropriation to the BAH to coordinate live-animal testing with the U of M Veterinary Diagnostic Lab. The committee approved the bill which will next be considered in the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

Rep. Ecklund is author of a separate bill to invest $1.5 million in the VDL at the U of M. In addition to CWD, the VDL would use the increased capacity to test for African Swine Fever and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. The committee held the bill over for possible inclusion in a future Agriculture finance bill.

Video of the hearing will be available on House Public Information Services’ YouTube Channel. Documents and other information from the hearing will be available on the committee webpage.

Related posts:

• [VIDEO] COVID in whitetail deer: MNHouse Ag Committee question & PBS NewsHour report
• Minnesota Board of Animal Health: Chronic Wasting Disease endemic area update map
• The curious focus on a deer farmer's record of petty crime on the part of the BAH exec director
• Strib: Fighting Chronic Wasting Disease one of five top outdoor issues to watch in 2022
• MN DNR: Positive test on 1 Brainerd Lakes area deer extends CWD management to 2024
• CWD news: DNR to rescind rule temporarily banning farmed deer movement into/within MN
•  MN DNR: December CWD hunts offer deer hunters additional harvest opportunities
• CWD update: MN Center for Prion Research & Outreach's MN-QuIC field-deployment paper
• Minnesota CWD update: Changes for deer hunters in southern Red River Valley
• MN DNR: CWD suspected in a wild deer harvested along northwestern MN border
• Minnesota Chronic Wasting Disease news digest: upcoming firearms hunt spurs coverage
• Watch MNHouse Environment Committee hearing on CWD, EAB & local government water grants
• DNR: Chronic wasting disease testing is mandatory for MN deer opener in CWD zones 
• CWD: Outdoors writer bags skinny doe, responds to American Cervid Alliance guy's letter
• State rep Tim Miller: MN state public officials beholden to radical anti-livestock enviro groups
• MN Deer Farmers Association sends House environmental committee chair a letter
• DNR temporarily bans farmed deer movement into & within MN to protect wild white-tailed deer
• CWD update: DNR Commissioner's letter to BAH Director on regulation to protect state's wild deer
• Bemidji Pioneer: Must-read article on illegal dumped CWD deer remains in Beltrami County
• Statement: Minnesota DNR learns of 2 deer farms that received deer from CWD+ farm in Wisconsin
• Hunters, tribes, conservation groups and St. Louis County call on state to get rid of deer farms
• Tune in to House Enviro Committee hearing tomorrow morning for latest CWD information
• MN DNR press release: Return to mandatory testing in chronic wasting disease zones this season
• South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks: CWD detected in mule deer in new area, Perkins County
• UMN MNPRO’s latest research detects CWD prions in cervid muscles using RT-QuIC
• MNReformer Radio podcast interviews Jamie Becker-Finn on Chronic Wasting Disease politics
• Listen to MN House environment committee chair Rep. Rick Hansen talk CWD on Matt McNeil Show
• Special Board of Animal Health meeting to review farmed Cervidae rulemaking postponed
• Bad news from the North: CWD sweeps through Alberta & Saskatchewan deer & elk herds
• Forum News Service: MN Deerhunters Association wants to end deer farming
• Just in: House DFL Lawmakers urge resignation of Minnesota Board of Animal Health President
• Star Tribune: Deer farming and "CWD-infested dump site on public land" in Beltrami County
• Are deer farmers posing against MN DNR rule pausing movement of captive whitetails?
• MN DNR temporarily bans movement of farmed whitetails in state to protect wild deer health
• 5 more MN deer farm herds exposed to CWD; Beltrami carcass dump site inquiry continues
• News release: U of M testing finds presence of CWD prions at Beltrami Co. carcass dump site
• BAH: Southern Minnesota CWD investigation identifies new infection in Beltrami County
• Concerned about CWD in MN deer? Learn about new research from MNPRO's Peter Larsen 
• Some of the science at the center of Update on Chronic Wasting Disease Efforts hearing
• VIDEO: MNHouse passes bill for process to extend funding for ENRTF projects for one year 
• Session Daily: Experts want to study how CWD flows in state's waterways 
• Sen. Andrew Lang seems behind the curve on current funding & progress of CWD test research
• VIDEO: University of Minnesota scientists share CWD research, search for test with lawmakers
• Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund plan from U of M for CWD diagnostic test 
• Peter Larsen slideshow: Development of Advanced Diagnostic Tests for CWD by U of M 

Photo: Wild white-tailed deer in the woods.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen

We agree: It's time to move on from ethanol

Everyone knows ethanol and other "renewable' biofuels are king in Iowa, but there's a rebellion afoot.

The editorial board of the Des Moines Register today published Ethanol has been a boon for Iowa's economy. But it's time to pivot and figure out what's next, and the arguments should resound across borders into the offices of agencies and legislatures in Minnesota, South Dakota and other midwestern states.

What the board urges Iowa lawmakers to consider works as well for policy and budget creators in other corn growing states:

What one word do other Americans associate the most with 21st-century Iowa? The possible answers certainly include "ethanol."

The biofuels research and production boom that took off in the 2000s was transformational for Iowa's agricultural economy. Iowans could rightfully take pride in the farmers, agribusiness people, scientists and investors who built a homegrown industry that lessened the nation's reliance on foreign oil.

Ethanol wasn't a new idea, but large-scale use of corn for a domestically made gasoline blend meant huge new markets for crops and potential benefits for the environment. It also catalyzed hopes that research could produce even bigger things, such as cellulosic-ethanol production methods that could use plants grown on land not suitable for food production.

The largest ambitions haven't been achieved, however, and biofuels' warts have become only more prominent. That is hardly a revelation — scientists and other experts have pointed for years to such problems as overproduction's devastating cost to water quality and the industry's inability to wean itself from tax credits and other artificial incentives.

And now, it's difficult to credibly dispute that electric vehicles are the "next big thing."

But neither of the main political parties in Iowa is acting on that message. Rather than using the state's pocketbook and policies to push for ideas on what should come next for the state's farmland and biofuels workforce, Democrats and Republicans seem poised to make the first bill they send to Gov. Kim Reynolds this year a measure promoting biodiesel and requiring gas stations to install pumps that can dispense higher blends of ethanol. . . .

Instead of tossing more eggs into the biofuels basket — including both this bill and the wrongheaded proposals to crisscross carbon pipelines all over the state — Iowa and its leaders would be better served to figure out what comes after ethanol.

The state won't be able to use its own laws and influence in Congress to perpetuate the "need" for biofuels forever. We have to find another way.

Reynolds tweeted Thursday that Biden "is again pouring taxpayer dollars into EV charging stations while ignoring a readily-available renewable energy source grown here in IA. This is why we need increased access to E15."

In 2007, we would have applauded her. In 2022, this sentiment is myopic. We need to pivot and, at the very least, talk about when and how to rip off the Band-Aid.

Numerous hard questions need answers. What can soften the blow of a seemingly inevitable reduction in demand for corn and soybeans? How can monocultured farmland be restored to greater soil health? How can we avoid falling into "greenwashing" traps and prioritize real environmental benefits over profit-making?

We're confident Iowa's farmers, agribusiness people, scientists and investors can think, work, experiment and innovate their way to finding the answers.

But Iowans cannot afford for their elected officials to avoid those questions in favor of propping up bottom lines until the bottom falls out.

We've posted about those "wrongheaded proposals to crisscross carbon pipelines" around the region, more eggs into the biofuels basket. In November, we posted Coming soon from a cornfield near you: mammoth carbon capture pipeline system. In early January, we noted Mother Jones: USDA Secretary Vilsack’s son works for a controversial ethanol pipeline project and  Iowa county boards scorn construction of CO2 pipelines, use of eminent domain to build them. Most recently, a Digest of news about carbon dioxide pipelines.

 

Lately, we/re seeing more about subsidizing ethanol sales (there's HF1422/SF1178) and the AGRI Biofuels Infrastructure
Financial Assistance Program Annual Report 01/15/2022. The executive summary of the later:

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Growth, Research, and Innovation (AGRI) Biofuels
Infrastructure Grant Program was established by the Legislature during the 2021, 1st Special Session (Session
Law Chapter 3). The purpose of the program is to provide grants to retail petroleum businesses that enable the
installation of replacement or new retail petroleum dispensers, fuel storage tanks, and other equipment to
dispense biofuels to the public in accordance with the biofuel replacement goals established under the
Petroleum Replacement Promotion statute (MINN. STAT. 239.7911).

A retail petroleum dispenser selling petroleum for use in spark ignition engines for vehicle model years after
2000 is eligible for grant money under this clause if the retail petroleum dispenser has no more than 10 retail
petroleum dispensing sites and each site is located in Minnesota. The grant money must be used to replace or
upgrade equipment that does not have the ability to be certified for E25. A grant award must not exceed 65% of
the cost of the appropriate technology. A grant award must not exceed $200,000 per station.

This program is funded through the AGRI Program (MINN. STAT. 41A.12). Funding is $3 million in Fiscal Year (FY)
2022 and $3 million in FY 2023. In addition, a gift of $1 million was provided to the program by the Minnesota
Corn Growers Association (MCGA).

There are other proposals that might reappear. Last year, Session Daily's Nate Gotlieb reported in Lawmakers consider increasing MN biofuel standard:

Gasoline in Minnesota could generally be required to contain more ethanol in coming years, a move supporters say could reduce emissions of greenhouse gas and toxic chemicals.

Sponsored by Rep. Luke Frederick (DFL-Mankato), HF1433 would require Minnesota service stations to sell gas containing at least 15% ethanol by volume — or E15 gasoline — by 2022.

The bill could require the sale of E25 gasoline — gas containing at least 25% ethanol by volume — beginning in 2031. In addition, it would create a new Department of Agriculture-run biofuels education and marketing program. 

The bill on Wednesday was laid over by the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee for possible omnibus bill inclusion. Its companion, SF1178, is sponsored by Sen. Torrey Westrom (R-Elbow Lake) and awaits action by the Senate Agriculture and Rural Development Finance and Policy Committee. . . .

That part of pro-ethanol legislation died but may revive.

What comes after ethanol, the Register editorial board asked:

What can soften the blow of a seemingly inevitable reduction in demand for corn and soybeans? How can monocultured farmland be restored to greater soil health? How can we avoid falling into "greenwashing" traps and prioritize real environmental benefits over profit-making?

Let's hope some in St. Paul--and Pierre--can go beyond those answers in "favor of propping up bottom lines until the bottom falls out" and find other solutions for farmers and rural communities.

Photo: Dirty snow--"snirt"--in Roberts County, South Dakota, where pastures and conservation acres have been plowed up for the expansion of the biofuel and CAFO dairy industries. February 2022. Photo by Sally Jo Sorensen.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Party On! South Dakota Republican elected leaders think Pandora Papers totally bogus

Last year, we posted about the Pandora Papers in posts like South Dakota rivals notoriously opaque Europe & Caribbean jurisdictions in financial secrecy and Pandora's box in South Dakota: "My concern is that … we become like Switzerland or Panama" and  Oversight? Noem turns down national media spotlight at House Ways and Means Committee.

Now we learn from the Mitchell Republic's Christopher Vondracek in South Dakota's GOP leadership skeptical of trust industry revelations in Pandora Papers:

Republican legislative leaders expressed heavy skepticism on Thursday, Feb. 10, about an explosive report published last fall that suggested trusts in South Dakota were shielding the money of wealthy, international con men.

"I don't buy the report that was presented last fall," said House Majority Leader Kent Peterson, R-Salem. "It's a great industry in South Dakota. It's fantastic jobs."

The so-called Pandora Papers last year revealed that international moguls have stored their money in South Dakota-based trust companies, enabled by the state's generous pass-through laws. The most critical look came in an Oct. 4 article by The Washington Post with the assistance of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who reviewed 11.9 million confidential documents, which, "come mostly from the Sioux Falls office of Trident Trust, a global provider of offshore services."

The state's top political brass, from U.S. Sen. John Thune to Gov. Kristi Noem , issued defenses of the industry or cast doubt on the reporting. But scrutiny has remained from national and international media about ties between the secretive industry and tony foreigners, including family members of an Dominican Republic sugar magnate .

Legislative leaders have, until Thursday, largely been silent on the topic.

Pressed by reporters at a Thursday, Feb. 10, news conference about the absence of a perennial bill brought the a governor's task force on the trust industry, Senate Majority Leader Gary Cammack, R-Union Center, said he was assured by the industry that they vet potential clients to safeguard against bad actors.

"We just had a presentation from some of the folks in the trust industry, and after that presentation, I have every confidence in the world that sort of thing is not happening in South Dakota," said Cammack. . . .

Well then. Read the rest of their views at the Mitchell Republic to learn there's nothing to see here folks. Move along.

Screengrab: from the video image at the Washington Post. "A trove of secret files details the financial universe where global elite shield riches from taxes, probes and accountability. (Sarah Hashemi, Luis Velarde/The Washington Post). Read more at the Washington Post in Foreign money hides in U.S. trusts. Some of it is tainted.

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MNReformer opinion: If drinking water can go bad in Bemidji, it can be contaminated anywhere

A strong column from the Minnesota Reformer that's a good companion to yesterday's Bluestem post Bills banning use of PFAS approved by bipartisan MNHouse environment committee vote.

From the Reformer:

If drinking water can go bad in Bemidji, it can be contaminated anywhere

by Rita Albrecht

As the First City on the Mississippi, Bemidji is a community that values our natural resources and works hard to protect them. Our drinking water has always been safe, abundant, and provided without treatment. We took it for granted.

Sadly, the city of Bemidji was compelled to invest in a water treatment plant after learning our drinking water was contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), “forever chemicals” that are linked to a variety of health problems including some cancers, thyroid disease, and infertility.

How and why this happened is a cautionary tale for every city and township in Minnesota as we continue to learn how to live in a world that we now know is awash in PFAS. As the mayor of Bemidji for eight years through 2020, I served during the time Bemidji faced this crisis. We needed to make quick, tough decisions to protect our neighbors who relied on our city for clean drinking water.

When our City Council and staff first learned about the contamination, we faced a steep learning curve to figure out what it meant for our community and how to fix it. We also needed to understand how our water supply was contaminated in the first place.

Bemidji was first notified about possible PFAS contamination in 2008, when the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency conducted a survey of fire departments around the state to identify possible locations where PFAS-containing firefighting foam had been used for training purposes. We learned that the Federal Aviation Administration-approved firefighting foam used at the Bemidji Airport contained PFAS, and that the chemicals had seeped into the five municipal drinking water wells located near the airport. (Use of that firefighting foam was discontinued in 2009.)

Well testing in 2009 detected PFAS in low concentrations, but later testing by the Environmental Protection Agency showed the concentrations were increasing. When the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) conducted testing again in 2015 and 2016, two of Bemidji’s five wells were above the EPA’s health advisory level for PFAS. We needed to act.

We immediately shut down two wells and blended water in the remaining three to reduce the concentration of PFAS. But as contaminant levels continued rising and emerging science led MDH to lower the PFAS limits considered safe for drinking water, we had to shut down another well. We were at a critical decision point; we could not function on just two wells.

We hired an engineering firm to help identify and test short- and long-term solutions. We considered several options. At first, we thought we could dig new wells; but costs, an efficient location, and finding quality water proved insurmountable obstacles.

We finally determined that building a new water treatment plant to remove the PFAS was the most viable solution. Plus, continuing to pump from the contaminated wells would prevent further migration of PFAS contamination in the aquifer. This was especially important given Bemidji’s location at the top of the Mississippi River watershed.

The problem was that building a new water treatment plant was expensive. Bemidji had been given no reason to prepare for such a cost so there wasn’t money for it in our budget. We also didn’t have time to wait for state bonding assistance, nor could we in good conscience force a 42% rate hike on utility users to cover the cost.

Still, we had to act.  Bemidji decided to construct a smaller-capacity water treatment plant with a more affordable price tag that would successfully remove PFAS, as well as iron and manganese, from enough of our drinking water to meet our short-term needs. The $7 million facility was paid for with a 15% water rate increase. The state subsequently provided $10.1 million for Bemidji to cover the cost of a plant expansion that would increase capacity to meet Bemidji’s future water needs. Unfortunately, the estimated cost of the expansion has grown to $12.5-13 million.

Operating the plant isn’t free and it was only after lengthy legal negotiations that 3M, which produced products with PFAS, agreed to pay the city of Bemidji $12.5 million to run the plant. 

The stressful and costly challenge our city faced with PFAS was uncharted territory in Greater Minnesota. Finding a solution was difficult and required a good deal of investigation, learning on the fly, investing in outside expertise, and navigating unknowns.

The prevalence of PFAS in waters across the state makes this an issue for all Minnesotans, and one our whole state needs to be better positioned to address. Just this month, the city of Woodbury had to shut down municipal wells because of PFAS contamination. What city will be next?

We need comprehensive action to address PFAS contamination, so cities do not have to struggle like Bemidji to provide an essential city service: safe water. The Legislature should step up and fund needed research to better understand how these chemicals are entering our environment; support policies to curb using PFAS in various consumer products; and provide the support and funding needed to help communities address and treat existing PFAS contamination.

PFAS pollution in the East Metro has received a lot of attention, but this is a serious concern across the state. Residents in the land of 10,000 lakes deserve confidence in their drinking water. We must do more to ensure Bemidji’s story doesn’t repeat itself elsewhere.

Rita Albrecht served ten years in Bemidji city government; two years as a council member and eight years as mayor. She was first elected mayor of Bemidji in 2012 and served four, two-year terms through 2020. Albrecht retired as NW Regional Director at Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in 2019. She was appointed to the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources by Gov. Walz in 2021. Albrecht and her husband live in Bemidji and have two grown children and five grandchildren.

This column is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

If you enjoy the work published by the Minnesota Reformer, please consider making a donation here.

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South Dakota tribal college part of NASA plan to build housing for use on the moon and Mars

A mid-winter surprise from South Dakota News Watch. The story notes: "On Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, the South Dakota House Commerce and Energy Committee will consider a bill to provide $300,000 in state matching funds to satisfy the NASA project requirements." 

Let's hope the legislators can look up and see the future in this one.

South Dakota tribal college part of NASA plan to build housing for use on the moon and Mars

by Bart Pfankuch

Sinte Gleska University, a tribal college in Mission, S.D., may soon enter into a partnership with NASA that would result in new science education programs, more affordable housing for state reservations and the development of 3D housing that could someday be used on the moon or Mars.

The National Aeronautic and Space Administration has already committed to the partnership and allocated an investment of roughly $250,000 to the project that has a working title of “Enhancing Research in Additive Manufacturing Processes for Lunar Application and Planetary Use in Tribal Housing Development.”

On Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, the South Dakota House Commerce and Energy Committee will consider a bill to provide $300,000 in state matching funds to satisfy the NASA project requirements.

NASA hopes to enlist faculty, staff and students at Sinte Gleska and other South Dakota colleges to learn to use 3D printing technology in the design and construction of concrete homes that can be built rapidly and potentially at a third of the cost of conventional wood housing. The homes would provide new affordable housing options in high-need reservation areas of South Dakota.

NASA would then monitor the condition of the homes in high heat and freezing temperatures to determine if the homes can withstand the environment on the moon or Mars. NASA also wants to learn whether 3D housing can be built remotely, possibly on another planet, by designers on Earth.

The university and three Indian tribes — the Yankton, Crow Creek and Oglala Lakota Sioux tribes — form the South Dakota side of the partnership. The total project funding will include purchase of a high-tech 3D printer that is used to design homes that are built through layered liquid concrete applied by machines.

The proposed project is seen by supporters as a way to improve the lives and prospective futures of thousands of Native Americans in South Dakota and make lasting, positive change in their communities where affordable housing is a critical need.

The program is also seen as a way to create a cutting-edge curriculum for students at Sinte Gleska and other South Dakota universities, and possibly spur creation of other industries related to 3D home construction.

“It’s a pretty exciting opportunity for the state and the tribes to work together in a possibly game-changing economic development project,” said Ross Garelick Bell, a registered lobbyist in South Dakota who has spent five years bringing all sides of the project together. “They [Sinte Gleska] could become a major player in the 3D housing industry, and it would be putting South Dakota on the map in terms of learning these new technologies.”

The use of 3D printers in homebuilding, also known as “additive construction,” is still relatively new and is similar to other 3D printing technologies that use computer-aided design to create plans for products made from plastic, liquids, concrete or solid powders.

In 3D-printer home construction, designs for exterior and interior walls and other components are programmed into a computer. The design data is then sent to a machine with an exterior arm that quickly expels liquid concrete into uniform layers that ultimately form vertical or horizontal walls or panels, including rounded or curved features. The homes can then be topped with a traditional roof and siding, and interior walls can be covered with paneling or wood so concrete is not visible. Walls can be constructed with hollow cores that can be filled with insulation.

Companies that use the technology say homes can be built in a few days, potentially at a third of the materials cost of a wood-frame or hand-built home.

NASA is investing money in 3D printing in hopes that the technology can be used to build structures and possibly homes on the moon and Mars. The investigative lunar project is called Artemis Mission, and the Martian project is called the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, or MEPAG. NASA also has a project team called Moon to Mars Planetary Autonomous Construction Technologies.

As proposed, the Sinte Gleska project could potentially use 3D printer technology supplied by ICON, a Texas-based home manufacturing and research firm that describes itself on its website as “the construction technologies company using construction-scale 3D printing to tackle the global housing crisis and prepare to build on other worlds.”

ICON’s 3D printer series, known as Vulcan, has already been used to design and construct six small homes for formerly homeless residents of Austin, Texas, as well as several other larger homes now being occupied in the region, a 3,800-square-foot concrete barracks at Camp Swift in Bastrop, Texas, and a 20-foot-diameter concrete rocket landing pad for NASA that took only 21 hours to design and construct.

ICON’s latest project is to use 3D printer technology to build 100 concrete homes in conjunction with national home-building company Lennar. The company is working with NASA to build a structure called Mars Dune Alpha, a 1,700-square-foot building that is simulating mission operations on Mars.

Watch the ICON company video of its 3D printer designed home being built with Lavacrete, a proprietary concrete material developed by ICON in the YouTube below:

Shawn Bordeaux, director of the Institute of Tribal Lands at Sinte Gleska University, said the project with NASA would provide the tribal college with high-tech resources and enhance its ability to engage in new research that will increase job prospects for students, mostly Native Americans, in science and technology fields.

“It would be awesome for our students because it will provide them with a skill set that will make them very employable,” said Bordeaux, who is also a Democratic state representative from Mission. “People will seek them out to do this kind of work in the future.”

Bordeaux said the houses that will be built would help alleviate a lack of good-quality affordable housing that has existed for years on the Rosebud Indian Reservation and in other Native communities and reservations.

“It’s about research, but it’s also about housing, because we need to fix our housing program,” Bordeaux said.

The partnership with NASA would also give Sinte Gleska and South Dakota Indian tribes new prestige and a sense of pride of being part of a forward-looking project with truly interplanetary objectives.

“It’s the mission to Mars,” Bordeaux said. “We are literally getting funds to aid a mission to Mars; we’d be part of that effort, and how exciting is that?”

Rep. Rocky Blare, R-Ideal, the prime sponsor of HB 1281, said the project has the potential to jump-start educational opportunities and economic development in a remote part of South Dakota where growth has been slow.

“For the segment of the population and areas this will be focused on, in central South Dakota and on reservations, any opportunity like this will be celebrated,” he said.

Blare said he is confident the funding allocation for the project will pass in committee and hopefully be approved by the full Legislature.

“People are excited to see what this is,” he said. “This is pretty exciting and should go through.”

Photo: A complete 3D designed home is constructed from a concrete-like material, which can be seen in layers on the outside walls, but is finished to look like a traditionally built home and not a typical concrete block home. Photo: Courtesy Ross Garelick Bell.

Story republished with the permission of South Dakota News Watch.

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Bills banning use of PFAS approved by bipartisan MNHouse environment committee vote

Watching the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee on Thursday afternoon, we were deeply impressed by vice chair Ami Wazlawik, DFL-White Bear Township, present three bills to ban the manufacturing, distribution and sale of products in cosmetics, cookware and ski wax that contain PFAs.

One of our tweets was quoted by committee member Sydney Jordan, DFL-Minneapolis, who flipped our comment to praise Wazlawik:

In the People's House, we are here to do the People's work. Thank you @amiwazlawik for your leadership to ban PFAS in cookware, cosmetics, and ski wax! https://t.co/a2AIhcPjAP

— Sydney Jordan (@SydneyJordanMN) February 10, 2022

UPDATE 2/11: At the Minnesota Reformer, Ricardo Lopez has another take in DFL bills would ban PFAS in cookware, cosmetics and ski wax. [end update]

UPDATE #2 2/13: At MPR, Kirsti Marohn reports in Bills would ban ‘forever chemicals’ from cosmetics, cookware, ski wax:

After the Minnesota Legislature passed a ban on so-called “forever chemicals” in food packaging last year, a DFL lawmaker wants to extend the ban on PFAS to more consumer products — cosmetics, cookware and ski wax.

The bills, authored by Rep. Ami Wazlawik of White Bear Township, Minn., cleared their first hurdle in the state House last week. . . .

Heintzeman said many Republicans are concerned about PFAS and believe they are a “dangerous problem,” but feel they should be addressed at the federal level.

“Having a patchwork of law all over the United States – every state passing their list of products that fall into a category that they find to be objectionable or not – seems to be a recipe for disaster,” he said.

Wazlawik said the federal government has been slow to take action on PFAS, and she doesn’t believe Minnesota should wait. She noted that Maine recently passed a broad ban on non-essential uses of PFAS in products. . . .

Lots more at MPR.[end update #2]

At Session Daily, Brian Hall reports more in Bills banning use of PFAS approved by House environment committee:

While some lawmakers would like to prohibit the use of dangerous, long-lasting chemicals known as PFAS across the board, the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee took the first step in outlawing the use of the chemicals common in cosmetics, cookware and ski wax.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances have been linked to a range of adverse health effects, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The man-made chemicals have been found in groundwater and surface water in Minnesota, according to the Department of Health.

Rep. Ami Wazlawik (DFL-White Bear Township) sponsors three bills to ban the manufacturing, distribution and sale of products in cosmetics, cookware and ski wax that contain PFAS, beginning Jan. 1, 2024. All were approved Thursday and referred to the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee.

HF2906 was approved 13-3. HF2907 and HF2952 were approved 12-4. There are no companion bills in the Senate.

Wazlawik said Maine is the first state to ban all non-essential uses of PFAS in products by 2030.

“That was actually an approach that I preferred to take in our state, but I knew we didn’t have the support in the Republican-controlled Senate to actually get that done, despite the fact that we know these chemicals are harmful and that they are in our environment and they’re expensive to clean up,” Wazlawik said. “We tried to take this approach to sort of tackle some of the low-hanging fruit knowing that we didn’t have the support in the other body to be able to pass a more comprehensive bill, which I would have preferred.”

Rep. Josh Heintzeman (R-Nisswa) disagreed with the assertion that Republicans are the obstacle to banning PFAS. Heintzeman agreed that the chemicals are a concern and that laws should maybe be approached at a federal level.

“It’s not that there’s any opposition necessarily to trying to work on this issue because we all recognize that PFAS is a dangerous problem,” Heintzeman said. “These chemicals, no question, need to be more closely looked at.”

Heintzeman later added: “I think this is something we could work on in a bipartisan way. This approach as referred in testimony today, targeting retailers as the enemy and potentially levying fines of over $10,000 if you cumulatively have many days of violations, that doesn’t seem to be the answer in my opinion.”

Civil penalties could reach $10,000 per day of violation, according to the nonpartisan House Research Department. Defendants could also be required to compensate the state for the value of cleanup, loss or destruction of wildlife and other damages.

Tony Kwilas, director of environmental policy for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, said there are more than 4,000 chemicals that are considered PFAS and not all have adverse effects or need further study. He said there are more than 6,000 current uses of PFAS.

“I don’t believe the science is out there yet,” said Rep. Tama Theis (R-St. Cloud). “I don’t believe that we’ve got the data that absolutely says we’re on the right path with the bill.”

Theis drew an analogy between the science of PFAS and vaccine-created damages and sounded rather silly.

The Session Daily article doesn't include the testimony of those in favor of the bills. All three bills passed with bipartisan support.

Here's the House Information Services YouTube of the committee hearing:

We'll miss seeing Wazlawik in action, particularly on PFAS issues. In September, Rilyn Eischens reported for the Minnesota Reformer in DFL Rep. Ami Wazlawik won’t seek reelection in 2022:

Wazlawik served as vice chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee during the 2021 session. She authored legislation to restrict uses of a carcinogenic chemical called trichloroethylene in 2020 after the state found that Water Gremlin, a manufacturer in her district, had released dangerous levels of the chemical in violation of state law for years.

Wazlawik also introduced a bill to ban the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — also known as PFAS — in food packaging, which was signed into law. . . .

Photo:  Rep. Ami Wazlawik, DFL-White Bear Township. Photo: Minnesota House.

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Retiring Rep. Tim Miller will work for Brian Gibson at Pro-Life Action Ministries sister group

Representative Tim Miller's new anti-abortion bills in the Minnesota House might not have a catch to become law before his end-of-term retirement, but Bluestem thinks they'll help with cred with his new employer. Willmar Radio reported on Tuesday, Miller to work for branch of Pro-Life Action Ministeries:

Representative Tim Miller has revealed what his next step will be after leaving the legislature. The Prinsburg Republican says he will be working for Brian Gibson with Pro-Life Action Ministries, in anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court throwing out Roe-versus-Wade which made abortion legal in the U.S. Miller says all the states around Minnesota have bills ready to go to abolish abortion once The Supreme Court acts, but Minnesota does not...

In the first audio clip, Miller notes that Gibson approached him to lead a new "sister group" in Minnesota.

At the Star Tribune, Emma Nelson reports in Abortion fight takes on fresh urgency at Minnesota Capitol:

A slate of proposals before the Minnesota Legislature this session seek to limit abortion access, including a measure that would prohibit the procedure early in pregnancy and outsource enforcement of the law to private citizens.

"It does give me optimism and absolutely, there is an increased energy," said Rep. Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, who has introduced four bills this session that would make it more difficult to obtain an abortion in Minnesota. "Those of us that have had a passion for this — it's been a long haul, but we're in a window of time where we have a great opportunity to have influence over this." . . .

Miller plans to retire from the Legislature after this session, but he isn't giving up on his proposals, including the ban similar to the one in Texas. They include making it a crime to provide an abortion once a heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest. Minnesota currently prohibits abortion after viability, with some exceptions, but does not define a timeline for fetal viability.

His other bills would require providers to read a script before prescribing a medication that causes abortion and require an in-person appointment with a provider before obtaining a prescription.

"Maybe someone can carry these bills forward," he said. "But my convictions before God are that I need to defend life, and so I'm going to continue to do so. What happens outside my influence — I can't control that." . . . 

Pro-Life Action Ministries "Who We Are" web page tells the group's story. A key focus is "side walk counseling" outside abortion providers.

Guidestar features the organization's 990 filings with the IRS and other information here.

In January 2021, the Catholic Spirit reported With or without Roe, pro-life efforts in Minnesota face serious challenges.

We're curious what the sister organization's mission will be. 

Related posts:

• We won't have Tim Miller to kick around anymore--at least as a MN House member
• New House Republican Tim Miller shares unique understanding of gas tax in legislative update
• State rep Tim Miller: MN state public officials beholden to radical anti-livestock enviro groups 

Screengrab: A Tim Miller Facebook post in 2014. Perhaps those lawn ornament voters are what Stop the Steal folks mean when they talk about fraud in elections.

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South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem oppressed by random tyranny of Google Alerts feed

We have rarely been so hyperaware of the seditious influence of tech and the internet as when we received two Google Alert items in a single email:

• Trump endorses Noem's reelection bid in South Dakota | TheHill

  The Hill
  Former President Trump on Tuesday gave South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) his "Complete and Total Endorsement" in her reelection bid.

• Kristi Noem's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Week - Democrats.org

  Democrats.org
  Poor, poor Kristi Noem. Politically isolated, under investigation, and stymied by lawmakers in her own party, it's been a tough week for the South ...

Let's peer inside those alerts. From the first, Trump endorses Noem's reelection bid in South Dakota | TheHill:

Former President Trump on Tuesday gave South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) his "Complete and Total Endorsement" in her reelection bid.

"Kristi Noem has done a great job as Governor of South Dakota," Trump said in a statement. "She is strong on Borders, the Second Amendment, preserving land and Energy Dominance, Medical Freedom, and kept South Dakota open during COVID. She fully supports our great Law Enforcement, Military, our wonderful Vets—and is a fighter for the incredible people of South Dakota. Kristi has my Complete and Total Endorsement!" 

Noem, who is up for reelection in 2022 and has been rumored to be a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024, has been an ardent Trump supporter. The president repeatedly called for Noem to primary Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) after Thune refused to validate Trump's claims that the results of the 2020 presidential election were not legitimate. 

The South Dakota governor said that she was "honored and humbled" to receive Trump's endorsement.

"Since being elected Governor, I have worked to bring President Trump's America First agenda to the state level in South Dakota by cutting burdensome regulations, keeping government out of the way of South Dakota small business owners and job creators, and supporting South Dakota law enforcement," Noem said, according to the Argus Leader. "I look forward to continuing to fight for our shared agenda if elected to serve a second term as Governor of the great state of South Dakota."

Noem gained national attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for refusing to implement restrictions to limit the spread of the virus and for criticizing other Republican governors for imposing restrictions in their states.

And from Democrats.org, the Democratic National Committee? In Kristi Noem's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Week:

Poor, poor Kristi Noem. Politically isolated, under investigation, and stymied by lawmakers in her own party, it’s been a tough week for the South Dakota governor. 

The knives are out in South Dakota, as Kristi Noem is politically isolated and facing multiple investigations of her conduct. 

Daily Beast: “The Republican Knives Are Out for South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem”

Daily Beast: “State political insiders suggest Noem is basically alone in Pierre, and that even if she remains beloved by large swaths of the Republican base, her image has taken a serious dent among the very people she needs to get things done.”

Daily Beast: “Policy fights aside, Noem is also under pressure thanks to a pair of investigations into her past conduct—some of which have been set off by members of her own party.”

Last Wednesday, Governor Noem suffered another blow as Republicans in her state legislature blocked her extreme anti-abortion bill. 

Newsweek: “South Dakota Republicans Halt Kristi Noem’s Abortion Bill, Shock Governor”

Insider: “The bill would have banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is around six weeks of pregnancy and sometimes before some women realize they are pregnant. The proposal also sought to use lawsuits brought by private citizens, rather than criminal charges filed by state prosecutors, to enforce the bill.”

Associated Press: “But it quickly met resistance when groups opposed to abortion access raised issues over her bill draft and Republican lawmakers on the House State Affairs committee declined to give it a hearing — a move rarely seen in the Legislature that signaled defiance of the governor.”

And just when it looked like things couldn’t possibly get worse, a new report revealed that Kristi Noem accepted campaign donations from a convicted murderer and a right-wing extremist.

Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “Noem’s latest finance report found multiple donations totaling $10,000 from Louisiana man Charles Pilkinton, who was convicted of homicide in 2010 after admitting to shooting a man in the head two years earlier and pleading down from second-degree murder charges.” 

Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “The 2021 year-end filing also shows $4,000 in contributions from a Florida man named Steve Alembik, a known right-wing extremist with a history of using racially and ethnically disparaging language to attack Democrats and progressives.”

Well jeepers. The Democratic National Committee missed a few other fumbles.  There's South Dakota GOP senators reject trans student bathroom ban, an Associated Press story in our Google Alerts, for example. Apparently picking on transgender people only goes so far, even in South Dakota.

Why do Google Alerts pick on conservative women? Oh why, oh why?

Photo: Governor Kristi Noem.

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SD News Watch: Improving education top goal of Native American agenda in 2022 SDLeg session

Another interesting article from South Dakota News Watch. 

Representative St. John is one of our state representatives and we're pleased she and Rep. Peri Pourier, D-Pine Ridge, have both written bills to fund a missing/murdered indigenous persons specialist in the South Dakota Attorney General's office.

Improving education top goal of Native American agenda in 2022 South Dakota legislative session

By: Bart Pfankuch 

 

February 8, 2022

One way to understand which issues are most important to the South Dakota Native American community — the state’s largest minority group — is to examine the bills that are filed each legislative session by the handful of Native lawmakers serving in statewide office.

This year, about three dozen bills were filed that directly touch on Native American topics, most proposed by Native legislators but a few by non-Natives.

A review of those measures reveals that one issue tops all others in importance — education, both improving education for Native children and teaching Native history and culture to all South Dakota students. Protecting the inherent treaty rights of Native Americans is also high on the list, as are protection of Native culture and an effort to enhance investigation of cases of missing and murdered indigenous persons.

Sen. Troy Heinert, D-Mission, has made education and care for elders the primary focus of his lawmaking efforts in 2022. Heinert is the prime sponsor of a bill to allow for creation of several Lakota-based language and education schools, and another to put Indian education management back into the Department of Education rather than in Tribal Relations, where he said progress has stalled. Heinert also has a bill to pave the way for a nursing home to be built on the Lower Brule Indian Reservation, which passed in committee.

Heinert’s proposal to open schools using Lakota language and based on Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings on or near reservations is a way to try different cultural and educational approaches to teaching Native children who often struggle in traditional K-12 public schools, Heinert said.

The legislative process has become a critical way for Native issues to be studied, discussed, understood and hopefully acted upon in South Dakota, Heinert said.

“A lot of these issues have been burning for a long time, and our colleagues and the public aren’t going to know about them unless we bring them forward,” said Heinert, the Senate minority leader. “It’s our job as Native legislators to educate our colleagues about these things that are important.”

Other bills related to education would have mandated that the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings, a state-developed curriculum on Native history and culture, be taught in South Dakota public schools. That bill has already failed in committee. Other education proposals would allocate $1.5 million to improve Native student achievement, create scholarships at tribal colleges, create tuition assistance for prospective Native teachers, and require greater focus on reporting of the status of Native education in state schools.

More than 20 bills were filed this session by Rep. Shawn Bordeaux, D-Mission, and several have already been killed in committee.

Yet Bordeaux remains committed to his causes, noting that Native voices often go unheard in South Dakota and that filing so many bills was a way to bring important Native issues to the attention of the Legislature and the public. His proposal to make hunting, fishing and state park entrance free for tribal members failed in committee.

“We’ve got poor people in pockets across the state, and Native people across the state,” he said. “All I’m trying to do is get those folks and their issues to be engaged upon by state government.”

Rep. Tamara St. John, R-Sisseton, said she is confident in passage of her bill to allocate $70,000 to the state Attorney General’s Office to hire a liaison to aid in investigations of missing or murdered indigenous people.

The position was approved last year but never funded, so St. John hopes her bill will fund a state employee who can coordinate casework between state authorities and the Native community, as communication between them can sometimes be less than effective. For instance, state officials may have difficulty working with tribal police or individuals to get photos of missing people or adequate information to expedite investigations.

“I think at times, with rising cases of murdered or missing indigenous people, there often isn’t an assigned person working on that within the tribe, just as there isn’t a person working specifically on that within the state,” St. John said. “It can be very confusing for everybody, given that emotions are running high, so ideally this liaison person would be able to reach out to the tribes and work closely with the AG’s office.”

Her measure, House Bill 1194, was passed 10-1 by the Joint Appropriations Committee and is moving forward in the legislative process.

Below is a look at all the bills filed in the 2022 legislative session that address issues related to the Native American community in South Dakota.

LIST OF BILLS RELATED TO NATIVE AMERICAN ISSUES FILED IN 2022 SOUTH DAKOTA LEGISLATIVE SESSION

The deadline for South Dakota lawmakers to file bills has passed, so South Dakota News Watch reviewed all bills filed and found that three dozen House or Senate measures were related to Native American issues. Here is a glance at the bill numbers, the prime sponsors, the intent of the legislation and the status of the bills as of Feb. 7, 2022. If no action is noted, the bill has not yet had a committee hearing.

HOUSE BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS

HB 1140 — Rep. Shawn Bordeaux, D-Mission; would permit tribal ID card to be used for voter registration (failed in committee).

HB 1141, 1142 — Bordeaux; waives fees for Native Americans to hunt, fish or visit state parks (failed in committee).

HB 1143 — Bordeaux; requires training on Native American laws for lawmakers and staff (failed in committee).

HB 1144 — Bordeaux; would remove offensive place names, including “scalp” (failed in committee).

HB 1146 — Bordeaux; allows tribal relations committee to issue subpoenas (failed in committee).

HB 1147 — Bordeaux; provides penalties for businesses that do not accept tribal IDs for identification (failed in committee).

HB 1150/HB 1181 — Bordeaux; prohibit use of cyanide in mining for gold, silver and uranium (both failed in committee).

HB 1170 — Rep. Peri Pourier, D-Pine Ridge; requires teaching of Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings in social studies (failed in committee).

HB 1182 — Bordeaux; would provide 10% of national forest revenues to Native American tribes (withdrawn).

HB 1183 — Bordeaux; prohibits use of school mascots offensive to Native Americans (failed in committee).

HB 1184 — Bordeaux; allows playing of Lakota Flag Song or honor song at graduations (failed in committee).

HB 1185 — Bordeaux; permits wearing of beaded cap at graduation ceremonies (passed by committee).

HB 1186 — Bordeaux; provides free tuition for tribal members at regental colleges and technical schools.

HB 1187 — Bordeaux; prohibits use of police chokeholds and creates database of police-misconduct cases (failed in committee).

HB 1188 — Bordeaux; creates a scholarship program at tribal universities.

HB 1189 — Bordeaux; provides $1.5 million for Native achievement schools program.

HB 1190 — Bordeaux; creates tuition-assistance program in Department of Native Education for teacher certification.

HB 1191 — Bordeaux; would develop Lakota Language child learning centers.

HB 1192 — Bordeaux; provides $500,000 to support development of Indian horseracing relays.

HB 1194 — Rep. Tamara St. John, R-Sisseton; provides $70,000 to the Attorney General’s Office to fund a specialist on missing/murdered indigenous people (passed by committee).

HB 1195 — St. John; directs the Indian Education Advisory Council to make annual report to governor and State-Tribal Relations Committee.

HB 1196 — St. John; designates the Dakota flute as the official indigenous musical instrument of South Dakota (passed by committee).

HB 1248 — Rep. Steven Haugaard, R-Sioux Falls; provides $700,000 to build Sioux code talkers memorial at state Capitol.

HB 1264 — Pourier; provides $85,000 to the Attorney General’s Office for missing/murdered indigenous persons specialist (passed by committee).

HB 1275 — Bordeaux; establishes Commission of Truth and Reconciliation on past and present state and federal government policies toward Native Americans (failed in committee).

HB 1281 — Rep. Rocky Blare, R-Ideal; provides $300,000 to a South Dakota tribal college to enhance research into 3D printing in tribal housing development.

HB 1297 — Bordeaux; requires display of tribal flags in state Capitol (failed in committee).

HB 1298 — Bordeaux; reallocates revenues from Black Hills and Custer national forests to Indian education-grant program.

HCR 6001 — Rep. Becky Drury, R-Rapid City; designates Native star quilt as official state quilt.

HR 7001 — Bordeaux; supports official inquiry into Medals of Honor given to U.S. soldiers for involvement in the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.

SENATE BILLS

SB 112 — Sen. Troy Heinert, D-Mission; would transfer the Office of Indian Education from Department of Tribal Relations to the Department of Education.

SB 139 — Heinert; provides for the creation and funding of Oceti Sakowin community-based Lakota language and curricular schools (passed by committee).

SB 147 — Heinert; authorizes construction of a nursing home on Lower Brule Indian Reservation (passed by committee).

SB 178 — Heinert; refers changing of name of Custer State Park to state Board of Geographic Names.

Photo: Sen. Troy Heinert, D-Mission, has placed a major focus on education of Native American children and protection of the elderly during the 2022 legislative session. Photo: News Watch file.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Rise Up For Peltier: South Dakotans rally in Fargo and Rapid City for Leonard Peltier

On Monday, people working for the freedom of political prisoner Leonard Peltier rallied in Fargo and Rapid City to raise support for the aging and ill indigenous activist.

For the Forum News Services, C.S. Hagen reports in Tribal leaders demand compassionate release of Native activist convicted of killing 2 FBI agents in 1970s:

Calling Leonard Peltier a political prisoner, more than 60 people gathered at the Quentin Burdick Federal Courthouse on Monday, Feb. 7, to demand his release after he tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 28.

Although multiple pleas to release or pardon Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, have been made since his arrest in 1977, supporters and family are worried that with his age and preexisting conditions, the recent diagnosis may end his life behind bars.

“I doubt that he has many years left, but with the years he has left, let him enjoy them on the outside,” said Spirit Lake Tribe Chairman Doug Yankton, adding that the tribe sent a petition to President Joe Biden to ask for clemency or for compassionate release due to Peltier contracting COVID-19.

Peltier was convicted in a Fargo federal courthouse by an all-white jury for the murders of two FBI agents during a shootout June 26, 1975, on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He is serving two consecutive life sentences.

Peltier is being held at Coleman I United States Penitentiary in Florida.

A petition, organized by Tracie L. Wilkie, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, received more than 7,513 signatures by Monday, Feb. 7. The petition calls for immediate action to release Peltier from prison, which the petition says could save his life.

“An elder is ill, and it’s time for him to come home,” Wilkie said. She was 8 years old when Peltier was incarcerated. “This has been part of my entire life.”

Nick Estes, an assistant professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico, and founder of Red Nation, an organization focused on the liberation of Native people and lands, said the evidence used against Peltier in 1977 would not hold up in court today.

A “climate of terror” was behind the events on Pine Ridge in 1975, Estes said, adding that continued incarceration was a “cruel act of revenge” for Indigenous people everywhere.

“And we all know somebody who has been affected by this virus, this pandemic and those with preexisting conditions are especially vulnerable,” Estes said.

Rep. Ruth Buffalo, D-Fargo, and a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, expanded on Estes’ sentiment by saying she was part of another petition to Biden asking for compassionate release and an additional question.

“We asked how many elderly Indigenous are being released for compassionate release,” Buffalo said. “Too many of our elders are being bypassed for compassionate release. Why is this happening?”

Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Tribal Chairman Delbert Hopkins Jr. also sent a letter to Biden asking for compassionate release or clemency for Peltier.

“I’m here to demand that Leonard Peltier be released immediately,” Hopkins said, adding Peltier has a number of additional health risks that could worsen his current condition.

“COVID-19 could kill him,” Hopkins said.

“The tribal leaders are speaking. President Biden must hear our call,” said event moderator Melanie Moniz. “We’ll rise up as our parents did, and we’ll continue until our brother comes home.”

Reporting for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Rapid City-based Arielle Zionts tweeted about the rally on the other side of the state:

Protesters rallied at the federal courthouse in Rapid City to call for the release of Leonard Peltier after he contracted COVID-19. Supporters included a woman present at the 1975 shooting + a woman who also got COVID-19 while in federal prison. https://t.co/9v67ODGPAh pic.twitter.com/7EE75UOBLb

— Arielle Zionts (@Ajzionts) February 8, 2022

Zionts reports:

Protesters marched through downtown Rapid City and rallied in front of the federal courthouse on Monday to demand the release of Leonard Peltier after he contracted COVID-19 while serving life in prison after being convicted of murdering two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975.

"He is 77 years old with a heart condition, diabetes, aortic aneurism. He does fall into the criteria for a COVID release, an immediate COVID release," said Carol Gokee, co-director of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. She added that Peltier "has more than served any time for whatever crime they came up with for him."

The Rapid City protest — led and mostly attended by Native Americans — was one of six held across the country on Monday.

Peltier, who has Ojibwa and Lakota heritage, was found guilty of murdering FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams at an American Indian Movement camp near Oglala.

Peltier, who is housed at a high-security prison in Florida, has said he participated in the shootout in self defense but did not kill the agents. He and his supporters also allege FBI agents coerced witnesses, and prosecutors withheld evidence while extraditing Peltier from Canada and trying him in North Dakota.

Native American members of the South Dakota Legislature — including the lone Republican member — The Oglala Sioux Tribe, the late Nelson Mandela, the National Congress of American Indians and a former prosecutor who helped send Peltier to prison are among those calling for Peltier's release.

Peltier has exhausted his appeals and will only be released if approved under a COVID-19 home confinement program or if the president grants him clemency.

His supporters are ramping up pressure on President Joe Biden due to Peltier's COVID status.

LaVonne Roach said she is able to relate to Peltier's plight since she also contracted COVID-19 in federal prison. The Rapid City woman served 23 years behind bars before President Donald Trump granted her clemency last year.

"The medical care in federal prisons is the worst you'll ever experience," she said. "I almost died two times in federal prison."  . .

There's more in Protesters seek medical release for man convicted in 1975 Pine Ridge shooting.

Using our personal Twitter account, we shared our thanks to native state legislators in Minnesota who are mentioned in this article published in Indian Country Today, Dear President Biden and Administration: Release Leonard Peltier.

Thank you @tamarajstjohn @jbeckerfinn, @MaryKunesh9 @RepKeeler @Ruth4Nd #FreePeltier #RiseUpforPeltier https://t.co/I1OqER5Epg

— Sally Jo Sorensen (@sallyjos) February 8, 2022

Here's the text of the petition:

Dear President Biden, Attorney General Garland, Director Carvajal, and Director Keller:

We write to request the expedited release of American Indian elder Leonard Peltier, who is 77 years old and who has served more than 44 years in federal prison, some in solitary confinement, in numerous prisons across the United States.

He suffers from severe health conditions, such as diabetes and an abdominal aortic aneurysm that can be lethal if ruptured. The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a national response to the COVID-19 pandemic authorizing the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to release elderly inmates and those with underlying health conditions from federal prisons.

Mr. Peltier is currently imprisoned at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida. Given his underlying health conditions and age, we ask he be granted clemency and immediate action be taken to release him from federal custody.

Mr. Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences in 1977 for the murders of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler. The agents were killed on June 26, 1975, during a confrontation with members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation.

Many evidentiary and procedural issues arose during Mr. Peltier’s prosecution, such as one alleged key eyewitness to the shootings later retracting her testimony and admitting that the FBI had threatened her and her family. A 1980 Freedom of Information Act ruling revealed to Mr. Peltier’s lawyers that the prosecution withheld important documentary evidence that might have assisted in Mr. Peltier’s case.

Many legal experts have criticized the trial for its numerous due process problems. Appeals for presidential consideration of clemency by many distinguished individuals and organizations have not resulted in action. This further diminishes American Indians’ faith in the criminal justice system throughout the country.

Given the nature of the case, however, support for Mr. Peltier’s case has been widespread and strong, including those who once were part of his criminal prosecution. In 2021, former U.S. Attorney James H. Reynolds — whose office handled the criminal prosecution and appeal of Mr. Peltier — joined a movement that had garnered over 275,000 signatures on a petition requesting President Biden grant Mr. Peltier clemency.

We join the October 8, 2021 letter to your offices by our U.S. Congressional colleagues — Raúl M. Grijalva, Barbara Lee, Jesús G. “Chuy” Garcia, Cori Bush, Emanuel Cleaver II, Jared Huffman, Teresa Leger Fernández, Rashida Tlaib, Pramila Jayapal, Betty McCollum, and Melanie Stansbury — requesting Mr. Peltier’s expedited release and granting of clemency.

We also join the Tribal Nations, leaders, and organizations who have supported Mr. Peltier’s case. The National Congress of American Indians has passed multiple resolutions requesting his clemency and release.

Tribal nations within our representative states and beyond have supported the call for Mr. Peltier’s clemency and release. The Oglala Sioux Tribe, where the shooting took place, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, where Mr. Peltier is enrolled, have gone so far as to propose plans for his return home, assuming the responsibilities of housing, healthcare, employment, and access to American Indian ceremonial and cultural practices.

Amnesty International, a global human rights organization with over 10 million members, supporters and activists worldwide, continues the call for Mr. Peltier's release to this day. Mr. Peltier has received overwhelming support from other internationally respected champions of human rights, including the late Nelson Mandela, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Parliament, the Belgian Parliament, the Italian Parliament, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rigoberta Menchu, seven Nobel Peace Prize Laureates (including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Shirin Ebadi), Rage Against the Machine, Pete Seeger, Carlos Santana, Harry Belafonte, Gloria Steinem, and Robert Redford. 

This list represents but a fraction of Mr. Peltier’s total supporters.

Given this overwhelming support, the constitutional issues underlying Mr. Peltier’s prosecution, and his status as an elderly inmate with severe underlying health conditions, we believe it is highly appropriate that BOP prioritizes the expedited release of Mr. Peltier. We, therefore, request that Mr. Leonard Peltier receive an expedited release and be granted clemency.

We ask you, Mr. President, to do what is right. Let Mr. Peltier go home and live his final years among his people as an act of grace and compassion.

Bluestem Prairie agrees and hopes our readers will call the White House, asking for Leonard Peltier's release.

Image: A poster for the Fargo rally.

Related posts:

• Speakers in Mankato's Reconciliation Park lament the imprisonment of Leonard Peltier
• President Biden: Honor Desmond Tutu by releasing political prisoner Leonard Peltier

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

[VIDEO] Seed money for plant-based food research and development--or too late in market?

Commodity agriculture is one heavily subsidized industry, so it was entertaining to watch a couple of Republican House members on the Minnesota House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee fret about a  bill to allocate $2 million  to create a pilot plant-based food research and development grant program in the Department of Agriculture.

But the market!  Who will break the news to the author of  SF2483, the senate companion bill, Sen. Carrie Ruud (R-Breezy Point)?

Here's the Minnesota House Information Services YouTube of the hearing:

Session Daily's Brian Hall reports in State lawmakers consider seed money for growing plant-based food industry:

Plants or meat?

The question is becoming more prevalent for consumers at grocery stores and could become more of a question for Minnesota lawmakers.

The plant-based food industry has grown in recent years. Minnesota’s plentiful agriculture industry has taken part and could step forward in its commitment.

Sponsored by Rep. Dan Wolgamott (DFL-St. Cloud), HF2583, would appropriate $2 million in fiscal year 2023 to the Department of Agriculture to create a pilot plant-based food research and development grant program. It was laid over Monday by the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee.

The program has bipartisan support with Sen. Carrie Ruud (R-Breezy Point) sponsoring the companion, SF2483, which awaits action by the Senate Agriculture and Rural Development Finance and Policy Committee.

“We know that consumers are asking for this,” Wolgamott said. “By putting forth this pilot grant program, we’re going to make sure that it’s Minnesota and Minnesota companies, Minnesota jobs are being able to take advantage of this growing market demand rather than other states or other countries.”

The Agriculture Department would award competitive grants for plant protein processing innovations, plant-based food product formulation and other activities that accelerate the growth of commercialization of industry-advancing, plant-based food products.

According to Wolgamott, the plant-based foods market is a $7 billion industry in the United States. He said the industry is growing at twice the rate of overall food sales and has resulted in a creation of 55,000 jobs.

“Consumers are demanding plant-based foods to meet a variety of needs, whether dietary reasons or simply wanting more options for their families,” said Lauren Stone, acting policy coordinator for the Good Food Institute.

Noting the industry’s $7 billion total, Rep. John Burkel (R-Badger) wondered if Minnesota’s investment would make much impact.

“I think this bill is five years too late,” Burkel said. “I think the industry has moved well beyond the money you’re talking about.”

To be considered, grantees would be required to match the grant award with non-state funds. Stone said there would be no shortage of entities willing to participate.

Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said there are current grants for similar research, but Wolgamott’s bill would enhance and specify the grants.

Rep. Dale Lueck (R-Aitkin) offered concern of the impact on Minnesota’s meat producers.

“This proposal would look to significantly tip the scales in favor of one particular element of our food production industry in Minnesota,” Lueck said. “I would much prefer to see this on a strictly competitive basis and not single out any special group. The market will take care of itself. I’ve got some serious, serious reservations with the approach of this bill.”

Rep. Ginny Klevorn (DFL-Plymouth) believes Minnesota should consider all potential agricultural systems.

“I think it’s important to understand that diversity, land diversity, product diversity, of choice, all of these things are really good,” Klevorn said. “There’s space for us to support the existing traditional agricultural system and there’s space to support new and emerging technologies.”

At Ag Week, Jeff Beach reported in Skeptic questions lack of testimony for plant-based food bill in Minnesota Legislature:

Lauren Stone of the Good Food Institute, who was the lone testifier on behalf of the bill, noted that there are processing facilities targeting the growing market for plant-based alternatives in Dawson, Plymouth and Appleton, Minnesota.The Appleton facility is a producer of a plant-based egg substitute.

"We want people to keep eating the meat they love and have more options," Stone said.

Rep. Dale Lueck, a Republican from Aitkin, questioned why Stone was alone in testifying for the bill and wondered why crop groups weren't represented. He also asked if there weren't already competitive grants available through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture for the plant-based industry.

Ag Commissioner Thom Petersen said they would be eligible for value-added and crop research grants.

"The bill would enhance those grants and be more specific," Petersen said.

Other questions from the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee included concerns about healthiness of processed plant-based food and competition with traditional livestock and the crops grown to feed farm animals.

Lueck said the bill would benefit "a very specific area that would certainly be direct competition for some of the same people in (Wolgamott's) own district that make a living right now in the poultry industry.”

Wolgamott said he has heard concerns about such competition but said, "we want to go with consumer demand."

Ginny Klevorn, a Democrat from Plymouth, said the discussion should not be about whether meat or a plant-based protein is better. "It's not an either or," she said. "There is space for both." .  . .

Lueck's subsidies may be viewed here at the EWG's Farm Subsidies Database. Burkel, a turkey producer, does not appear to have received any federal subsidies.

At the Red River Farm Network, there's this news brief, Ag Committee Reviews Plant-Based Grant Proposal:

A bill creating a $2 million pilot grant program to develop a plant-based agriculture industry has been laid over by the Minnesota House Agriculture Committee. “Public research funded by this state will help ensure that this industry stays at home rather than moving overseas,” said Lauren Stone, acting policy director, Good Food Institute. “As the plant-based industry grows, research will help Minnesota businesses source high quality crops from local farmers.” State Representative John Burkel, who farms at Badger, said the plant-based food industry has moved beyond the need for this investment. “How do you see this $2 million moving the needle when Beyond Meat is the shortest stock in the stock market right now?” The House bill is sponsored by St. Cloud DFL Representative Dan Wolgamott. A companion bill sponsored by Breezy Point Republican Carrie Ruud is awaiting action in the Senate Agriculture Committee

We'll be watching for Lueck and Burkel to condemn other research or government intervention in the market for food.

Photo: Del Dee Foods was purchased in  2019 by a California company that uses plant protein to make an egg substitute. Plant protein had been a focus  for the Appleton MN company for the decade before the purchase. Dan Gunderson | MPR News

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Digest: news about carbon dioxide pipelines

In November, we posted Coming soon from a cornfield near you: mammoth carbon capture pipeline system. In early January, we noted Mother Jones: USDA Secretary Vilsack’s son works for a controversial ethanol pipeline project and  Iowa county boards scorn construction of CO2 pipelines, use of eminent domain to build them.

Here's more coverage on proposed carbon pipelines in the Midwest.

At the Star Tribune, Mike Hughlet reports in Carbon dioxide pipelines planned for Minnesota fall into regulatory black hole:

Two of the largest carbon dioxide pipelines in the world are slated to cross Minnesota, transporting the climate-poisoning gas for burial deep underground — yet also falling into a regulatory black hole.

CO2 is considered a hazardous pipeline fluid under federal law and in some states, including Iowa, but not Minnesota.

The pipelines — one of which would be more expensive than the Enbridge pipeline project across northern Minnesota — would primarily ship CO2 captured at ethanol plants across the Midwest.

Transporting and storing CO2 has never been done on this scale. Carbon-capture technology is still in a nascent stage. And a 2020 pipeline mishap in Mississippi caused an evacuation and dozens of injuries.

"CO2 is a hazardous material that can lead to absolutely disastrous ruptures," said Bill Caram, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a Washington state-based group. While CO2 isn't explosive like natural gas, it's an asphyxiant that can be fatal in large doses.

Right now, the CO2 pipelines don't require approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC). But the PUC in December opened a proceeding on whether it should change state regulations to deem CO2 pipelines as hazardous. The Minnesota Departments of Transportation, Agriculture, Commerce and Natural Resources (DNR) all favor such a change.

"A developing body of research has raised concerns about the safety and environmental effects of pipelines transporting CO2," the DNR said in a PUC filing Monday. "Leaks or breaks in a pipeline can cause CO2 to accumulate in low-lying areas [including basements of area residences and building], thereby displacing oxygen." . . .

There's more at the Strib.

Via the Worthington Globe, Leah Douglas reports for Reuters in Carbon pipeline proposals trigger backlash over potential land seizures:

A flurry of proposed carbon pipelines in the Midwest has triggered a battle over whether companies behind the projects should be allowed to seize land from unwilling property owners to secure a route.

Hundreds of Iowa landowners, more than a dozen state counties and a handful of lawmakers are seeking to limit the use of eminent domain law by the projects, arguing property rights and other concerns outweigh the potential benefits of the pipelines to local industry and the climate, according to a Reuters analysis of regulatory documents and interviews with people involved.

The issue has come to the forefront as the companies behind the projects seek to negotiate voluntary easements with landowners that would give them the legal right to dig, install and maintain the lines — which would transport carbon captured at biofuel processing plants for injection underground.

If the landowners refuse easements, the companies would need to turn to eminent domain to gain access to the land.

U.S. eminent domain law allows private companies to take over property if their project is deemed in the public interest and landowners are compensated. It has been used often to ensure energy companies can complete projects, like pipelines and transmission lines, that move oil, gas and power to consumers.

But the law has not yet been applied to carbon pipelines, which are primarily regulated and sited by states, rather than the federal government, according to the Department of Energy (DOE), and few of which have been constructed to date. . . .

Read the rest at the Globe. Last week in the Aberdeen American, Alexandria Hardle reported in A carbon dioxide pipeline could be coming to South Dakota. Here's why landowners are concerned:

In July 2021, Ed Fischbach grabbed his mail before beginning the drive from his Spink County home to his niece’s wedding in Minnesota. 

His wife told him he might want to look at a letter they had gotten from Summit Carbon Solutions. But not wanting to crash his car, Fischbach asked his wife to read the letter out loud to him — their property was on the route for a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline, and they might not have any say.  

Since then, Fischbach has spent time learning about the company and the goals of the pipeline. And he’s become one of the project’s most vocal critics. 

Summit Carbon Solutions is a company based in Ames, Iowa, that is proposing carbon dioxide pipelines in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa. In South Dakota, the project would take carbon dioxide emitted by ethanol plants. Carbon dioxide is a gas but it would be liquified to travel through the pipes. It would flow through the state before getting pumped a mile into the ground in North Dakota. The project is estimated to cost $4.5 billion. . . .

In 2020, a carbon dioxide pipeline ruptured in Satartia, Mississippi. About two dozen people collapsed within minutes. And because cars need oxygen to burn fuel, people could not drive away from the gas, according to a HuffPost article by Dan Zegart that came about from a 19-month investigation with Climate Investigations Center. 

Just as in Summit’s proposed project, the carbon dioxide flowing through the pipes was liquid, according to the article. But it was contaminated with hydrogen sulfide, which gave the carbon dioxide a green color and rotten eggs smell. Hydrogen sulfide is a deadly gas.

But unlike the pipe that ruptured Satartia, Summit’s proposed pipelines would not include hydrogen sulfide, said Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Powell at Tuesday's meeting in Leola. Some symptoms of exposure to high carbon dioxide concentrations include: convulsions, asphyxia and coma, according to the CDC. Carbon dioxide is also a colorless and odorless gas. And because the pipeline will only be 4 feet underground, some landowners are concerned about rupturing it, even if that’s 20 years from now. 

Landowners have also raised questions about the company’s integrity. Summit Carbon Solutions is currently proposing easements, although it does not yet have a permit to begin construction of the pipelines. If easements are not signed, Powell said on Tuesday that he’s confident the company will get a right to eminent domain.  

And eminent domain is one of Fischbach’s main concerns: Summit Carbon Solutions is a private company. 

“We don’t believe a private, unregulated company should be allowed to use eminent domain,” said Fischbach.  

District 23 Rep. Spencer Gosch, R-Glenham, told attendees at the Jan. 29 Legislative Cracker Barrel in Aberdeen that he's looking at the state's eminent domain regulations, but didn't expect to propose a bill on that topic this session, but he said he would continue to review the topic for future legislation. . . .

We'll post more about this project as we read 

Related posts:

• Coming soon from a cornfield near you: mammoth carbon capture pipeline system
• Iowa county boards scorn construction of CO2 pipelines, use of eminent domain to build them 
• Carbon capture in the news & an early March forum 
• Reuters: Before being mothballed, problems plagued Petra Nova carbon capture project
• Project Tundra's clean coal; or, does Petra Nova project's tech really reduce carbon emissions? 
• Cost of coal: Great River Energy to close Coal Creek power plant, wind power's gain.

Map: Two companies, Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator CO₂ Ventures, are proposing multi-billion dollar pipeline projects in the Midwest that would capture carbon dioxide – mostly from around 50 ethanol plants – and transport it for permanent underground storage. Via Star Tribune.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. 

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Censured for attack on AOC, Congressman Gosar endorses Mike Murphy for MN governor

Aspiring to become the endorsed Republican candidate for governor, Lexington MN mayor Mike Meyer came in fifth in the caucus straw poll on Tuesday, February 1 with 10.9 percent of the caucus attendees who cast a vote.

Since then, he's announced on his Facebook page that he's been endorsed by Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

There is no Minnesota member of congress who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, according to Wikipedia, nor did the group endorse any Minnesota congressional candidate in the 2020 election, according to Ballotpedia.

So what's in this endorsement to attract Minnesota's Republican convention delegates?

We can't answer that question. 

In recent headlines, Gosar has attract attention  in the Arizona Central's op-ed page with Rep. Paul Gosar defends a white nationalist with Jan. 6 ties. Is that really OK, America?.

And there's Sergio Olmos's report in the Guardian, ‘The most dangerous man in Congress’: how Paul Gosar became a darling of the far right.

Or maybe it's his stance on Russia and the Ukraine, noted in his column in the Prescott ENews, We Have No Dog in The Ukraine Fight – Rep. Paul Gosar.

Or perhaps Murphy is banking on Minnesotans remembering what may be Gosar's most high profile appearance in the national media: his November 2021 anime adventure featuring the killing of his colleague, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

On November 8, 2022, The Washington Post reported Rep. Paul Gosar tweets altered anime video showing him killing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden. By November 17, CNN reported House votes to censure and remove Gosar from committees over violent video targeting AOC and Biden.

Yeah, that guy. This should appeal to voters' sense of Minnesota Nice or something.

Here's an embed of the Facebook post. We encourage readers to check out the comments.

Screengrab: A February 4, 2022 post on Mayor Mike Murphy For Governor's Facebook page.

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Draz reframes PB article as Mayo Clinic trampling religious liberty; here's the Post Bulletin copy

We clicked through on the Rochester Post Bulletin article Mazeppa New Republican Steve Drazkowski shared (screengrab at the top of the post) to read the copy in the members-only article, He lost his Mayo job for failing to comply with its vaccine policy; he still doesn't understand why.

Drazkowski makes this story all about religious exemptions. Here's the place in the copy where that comes up:

At first, Kinney thought he would be cleared for a medical exemption. His Mayo primary care physician, he said, signed the form for an exemption request. But then later, the physician called Kinney at home to say he had changed his mind. After speaking with two other doctors, he had decided that Kinney should get the COVID-19 vaccine after all, Kinney said.

Kinney was denied an exemption. He appealed and was rejected. He sought a religious exemption with the same results.

Kinney said he found the process contradictory and incomprehensible in another way. Soon after being hired by Mayo in July of last year, Kinney gave a blood draw that showed he had no vaccine for tetanus, mumps or measles as a result of his stem cell procedure.

Despite the absence of these vaccine protections in his system, Kinney was granted an accommodation because he worked from home....

The injustice to us seems to be the denial of the medical exemption, but as readers learn, Kinney has found lucative employment and is moving on.

UPDATE 2/5: Since the lack of earlier, non-COVID vaccinations mentioned in the newspaper article below were used for an MS treatment related medical exemption at the time Kinney was hired, they could not then be re-purposed as religious objection to vaccination. [End update]

Yes, we have a paid subscription to Forum News Service newspapers, so we are able to read the story. Matthew Stolle reported Friday:

A month after being terminated from Mayo Clinic for failing to follow its vaccine policy, Robert Kinney of Rochester betrays little bitterness over the loss of his job.

He says he would return to work if Mayo called him back.

“If my boss at Mayo called me up tomorrow and said, ‘there was a clerical error. Can you please come back to work?’ Yeah, I’d come back to work tomorrow,” Kinney said.

Kinney became one of the estimated 700 people to lose their jobs for failing to comply with the clinic’s vaccine mandate. Yet it remains a mystery to this 52-year-old father of three why he didn’t qualify for an exemption from the mandate both for medical and work-related reasons.

Kinney, a one-time Mayo quality associate, worked from home in his basement and posed no risk to the clinic’s patients or employees.

In 2018, Kinney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis by his Mayo primary care physician. Prescribed medicine that he was told could only slow the disease’s progress, not stop it, Kinney pursued a more aggressive option. In 2019, he was accepted into a clinical trial at Northwestern University for a stem cell treatment.

Kinney returned home and was found to no longer have the disease. But the Northwestern doctor was emphatic on one point.

“The doctor there said, ‘whatever you do, don’t get a vaccine or anything that will tempt your immune system to overact, because that could start your MS coming back’,” Kinney said. “‘It’s in remission, and we want it to stay in remission forever.’”

Then, COVID-19 hit, and Mayo issued its mandate that all employees and staff get the vaccine or obtain a medical or religious exemption.

At first, Kinney thought he would be cleared for a medical exemption. His Mayo primary care physician, he said, signed the form for an exemption request. But then later, the physician called Kinney at home to say he had changed his mind. After speaking with two other doctors, he had decided that Kinney should get the COVID-19 vaccine after all, Kinney said.

Kinney was denied an exemption. He appealed and was rejected. He sought a religious exemption with the same results.

Kinney said he found the process contradictory and incomprehensible in another way. Soon after being hired by Mayo in July of last year, Kinney gave a blood draw that showed he had no vaccine for tetanus, mumps or measles as a result of his stem cell procedure.

Despite the absence of these vaccine protections in his system, Kinney was granted an accommodation because he worked from home.

“The occupational health person (at Mayo) said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter, because you work at home.”

A Mayo Clinic spokesperson said the clinic is not able to discuss individual employment cases with third parties, but said the decision to include remote workers in its vaccine policy was consistent with its values.

"Mayo Clinic transitioned to a required COVID-19 vaccination program for all staff to advance the primary value of Mayo Clinic - the needs of the patient come first," said Mayo spokeswoman Kelley Luckstein. "No matter where staff are located, unexpected absences due to COVID-19 exposures and diagnoses are a threat to business continuity, and hence, serving our patients, regardless of role.

"This is a time when Mayo Clinic must stand firmly behind the evidence supporting the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines to help protect the health and safety of our patients, workforce, visitors, and communities. Based on science and data, it's clear that vaccination keeps people out of the hospital and saves lives."

Kinney can only speculate as to why Mayo’s remote employees fell under the same policy that affected nurses and doctors.

“I know I’m not as vital as a nurse or a doctor, so I can honestly see that that would be a smart business decision to say, ‘we have 90 percent of our people vaccinated,’” Kinney said. “Who is expendable? I am expendable.”

On Jan. 3, Kinney received an email from Mayo saying it was taking “corrective action” for his non-compliance with its vaccine policy. He was being terminated.

Soon afterward, Kinney returned his badge, laptop and other equipment to the clinic.

“I went into an empty (Plummer) building and just left a bag full of my stuff on my boss’s desk,” Kinney said. “It was kind of sad, because when I worked there, I took great pride in working there. When I was hired at Mayo Clinic, I thought this is a really good thing, I’m supporting the No. 1 hospital in the world.”

It hasn’t taken long for Kinney to bounce back from his employment setback. A licensed certified public accountant with two master's degrees, Kinney began teaching full-time at Rochester Community and Technical College.

“They always need someone to teach accounting and statistics,” Kinney said.

And starting Wednesday, he will begin work as a process engineer at New York University in Manhattan. He will be making twice what he was paid at Mayo and will work remotely.

Kinney said he has been invited to join a lawsuit against Mayo that some former Mayo employees have considered filing, but he declined the invitation.

“I’d rather just move on with life and be happy,” he said.

We apologize to the Forum News Service for lifting the entire article, but feel that it's important for the public to know how Draz is twisting the story to fit his political agenda. Will this be helpful in his bid for an open Minnesota state senate seat?

Related post:

•  Will ghosts of 2006 intraparty fight haunt Haley, Draz endorsement bids for Goggin senate seat?

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Screengrab: Draz reframes the story. There's more to it.

On Groundhog Day, MNHouse Preventive Health Policy Division heard about dangers of lead

After listening to session after session of Minnesota House hearings about the dangers of lead sinkers, fishing lures and spent ammunition, we think sometimes the news is just Groundhog Day all over again.

So it was this year. At the Duluth News Tribune on Wednesday, February 2, John Myers reported in Minnesota lawmakers hear dangers of lead water pipes, ammunition:

More than 40 years after the U.S. started to phase lead out of gasoline and paint because of its destructive health impacts, especially on children, lead poisoning remains an ongoing problem for both human and wildlife health.

That was the message given to Minnesota lawmakers Wednesday during a virtual meeting of the Minnesota House Preventive Health Policy Division at the Capitol in St. Paul.

Representatives heard testimony on two bills already introduced that would help homeowners pay to replace lead water pipes in their homes and to require hunters to use nontoxic, lead-free ammunition.

Lead not only restricts brain and nerve development in children and fetuses, but it is also known to cause cancer as well as heart and nerve damage in adults. Dr. Zeke McKinney, a Minneapolis physician and president of the Twin Cities Medical Society, said lead exposure and its impacts can never be reversed but can almost always be prevented. . . .

Meanwhile, HF 2556, a bill introduced by state Rep. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, a physician, would impose an outright ban on all lead hunting ammunition.

Lead can kill eagles and other raptors that ingest lead bullet fragments or birdshot, and small pieces of lead fishing tackle kills loons that ingest them, mistaking them for small pebbles needed to digest their food. Trumpeter swans, ducks and another 120 species of birds have been found to have lead in their bloodstreams.

Lead bullets that shatter when they hit a deer also are a human health concern, tainting meat even far away from the point where the bullet struck the animal. State health officials said as much as 10% of all venison donated to food shelves in Minnesota has to be thrown out because it is contaminated with lead.

“A single piece of lead the size of a grain of rice will kill a bald eagle,” said Victoria Hall, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center, which handled 1,000 wild birds in 2021. Hall said more than 85% of eagles admitted to the center for any problem have unhealthy lead levels in their blood and that as many as 30% die due to fatal lead levels.

The confounding problem with lead is that it is so inexpensive and so easy to work with. It is heavy, cheap and easy to mold into things like pellets for shotgun shells, fishing sinkers and jigs heads, tire weights (used to balance wheels) and other items. Many replacements are available that don’t have lead’s toxicity. But they tend to be much more expensive.

Tungsten, for example, is even heavier than lead and can be used for shotgun ammunition and fishing lures. But tungsten now goes for about $3.50 per pound while lead sells for about 25 cents.

Still, nontoxic bird shot and rifle ammunition, such as copper and steel, is widely available, effective and comparable in price to lead ammunition on store shelves.

“There is no safe level of lead exposure for anybody,” McKinney said.

Carroll Henderson, who headed the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource Non-Game Division from 1977 to 2018, said he discovered his first eagle that died due to lead poisoning nearly a half-century ago. Henderson strongly supports the bill to ban lead ammunition.

“The tragedy of lead poisoning has plagued me for 48 years of my career,” Henderson said. “How many more years will it take to make the right decision?”

The bill calls on the DNR to provide lead-free alternatives to hunters and buy back lead ammunition.

Kelly Straka, who heads the Minnesota DNR’s wildlife division, said her agency supports the “concept” of phasing out lead ammunition for hunting and will be part of ongoing discussions on the issue at the Capitol.

Representative of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the industry trade group for U.S firearms and ammunition manufacturers, and the NRA, testified against any ban on lead ammunition, saying there’s no evidence it impacts overall wildlife populations.

Wednesday’s hearing was informational only and no vote was taken.

There's more at the Duluth News Tribune but we think readers can get the picture. We're just hoping the Minnesota Legislature can learn to do the right thing, get out of this endless loop, and get the lead out for the sake of people and wildlife.

Here's the Minnesota House Information Service YouTube of the Minnesota House Preventive Health Policy Division information hearing on HF 2556:

Related posts

• Twenty-one conservation groups petition DNR to ban lead tackle, ammunition in state parks, SNAs (2021)
• Getting the lead out permanently: watch girl scout speak up for trumpeter swans (2021)
• Getting the lead out: Minnesota House considering lead fishing tackle, ammunition bills (2020)
• MN swans died of lead poisoning, likely from anglers' sinkers; use nontoxic alternatives (2019)
• MN rep says lead is a-okay because it's natural; or, poisoning is life on Planet Josh Heintzeman (2017)
• Lead shot debate: bald eagles keep dying and here's what the MN House had to say about it  (2017)

Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) researchers examining 58 dead bald eagles in 2012. Sixty percent had detectable concentrations of lead; 38 percent had lethal lead concentrations. Credit: USFWS.

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I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

MPD officer who killed Amir Locke disciplined for controversial 2012 Occupy MN DRE training

Update #2 2/5: Unicorn Riot's Dan Fiedt and Niko Georgiades report in Amir Locke’s Killer Gave Illicit Drugs to Protesters in 2012 Scandal:

. . .During his time as an officer in Hutchinson, Hanneman took part in the statewide Drug Recognition Evaluator training program (DRE, also known as “Drug Recognition Expert”) run by the Minnesota State Patrol. Within the program, officers gave illicit drugs to people to evaluate their reactions. This training program took place periodically in downtown Minneapolis, but in 2012 it was exposed and became a scandal, which led state authorities to relocate the training to California.

The DRE theory is that trainees can be taught to identify physiological effects similar to alcohol intoxication, but it is based on hazy science which implies the unproven ability to detect impairment. DRE programs are heavily promoted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, a key industry group.

Hanneman routinely drove his squad car into downtown Minneapolis and sought subjects from the streets who would be willing to get in the car, be brought to a building used by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDoT) and the State Patrol near the airport, and be given drugs. In many cases, officers skipped the step of driving to the building and gave drugs to people in their squad car. . . .

Some of the people they sought were unhoused, people with chemical dependency, and Occupy Wall Street protesters. According to participants, the drugs given to people ranged from cannabis to cocaine and heroin. The officers would approach them and ask if they wanted to get high without being arrested. If the person obliged, the officers would provide the drugs, and sometimes also provide a fast food meal.

After getting people high and ‘evaluating’ them, Hanneman would drive them back downtown and frequently drop them off at the Occupy Wall Street protest encampment at Peavey Plaza in 2012.

In a later lawsuit that was filed on behalf of the program participants, the Minnesota State Patrol could not be sued due to statutory immunity. As the Minnesota House of Representatives research points out (PDF), “The doctrine of sovereign immunity dates back to the English common law concept rex non potest peccare (‘the king can do no wrong’).”

Hanneman, who was also a school resource officer in Minneapolis, is currently still employed by the MPD as of February 5. [end update # 2]

Update #1 2/5: Readers of Rochelle Olson's story published early Friday afternoon, Officer who shot Locke has almost seven years with Minneapolis police would never know about the reporting in the 2014 Hutchinson Leader article, Officer says he provided drugs.

Olson reported:

. . . When he was still in Hutchinson in 2012, Hanneman was one of six officers in a narcotics training course who refused to be interviewed by state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators looking into whether one of them gave marijuana to an Occupy Minnesota protester.

Hanneman was not accused of wrongdoing, according to BCA documents, and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman declined to press charges, citing contradictory statements by witnesses among other things. . . . 

But the officer faced discipline back in Hutchinson, Davis reported in Officer says he provided drugs:

. .. Hatten acknowledged that the other Hutchinson officer taking part in the training last year was Officer Mark Hanneman. He said Hanneman received disciplinary action similar to Willers’, though they were not partnered during the training session. Both are still with the department.

 We hope the Star Tribune can bring it upon itself to check with the Hutchinson Police Department to see if more information about that disciplinary incident can be shared with its readers. [end update]

In an article published Thursday in the Hutchinson Leader, Stephen Wiblemo reports in Former Hutchinson officer fatally shoots man in Minneapolis police raid:

A former Hutchinson police officer now working for the Minneapolis Police Department fatally shot a man during a Wednesday morning raid in downtown Minneapolis.

Mark Hanneman, who worked as a full-time police officer at Hutchinson Police Services from March 21, 2012, to Sept. 12, 2015, and again as a part-time officer from July 25, 2017, to March 24, 2019, was part of a Minneapolis police SWAT team executing search warrants for a St. Paul police homicide case, according to the Minneapolis Police Department. . . .

We wondered if the paper published any other news about Officer Hanneman. 

In 2013, Terry Davis reported in Hutchinson Police and officers among those sued by Occupy Minnesota protesters:

The Hutchinson Police Department and three employees are among several agencies and more than two dozen officers being sued by six Occupy Minnesota protesters who claim they were given drugs as part of a now-suspended Drug Recognition Program.

The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Minneapolis, alleges the program was an unethical clinical trial designed to give members of the public marijuana in order to observe the subjects and their behavior while under the influence of the drugs.

Occupy Minnesota was a group of mostly young people who took part in protests for several months in and around Peavey Plaza. It was part of the National Occupy Wall Street movement protesting actions by financial institutions that are believed to have led to the 2008-2009 recession.

The suit names as defendants the state of Minnesota, the Minnesota State Patrol and several other law enforcement agencies and officers, including HPD and two of its officers, Karl Willers and Mark Hanneman. Also named is HPD’s Barb Mathwig, who oversees the department’s property/evidence room. . . .

The allegations first surfaced in May 2012. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension launched a criminal investigation into allegations that police officers, including Hutchinson’s Willers, provided marijuana to Occupy Minnesota protesters during part of the State Patrol’s drug evaluation and classification training. Willers and fellow officer Hanneman were participating in that program at that time.

No charges filed

Hatten confirmed in May that his department requested the Bureau’s investigation. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman in September declined to press charges, saying “there simply was insufficient evidence for us to file charges.”

Freeman said people making the allegations offered investigators differing accounts of what happened in May near Minneapolis’ Peavey Plaza. Additionally, their accounts contradicted other evidence, and “there was no substantial evidence to corroborate any of the allegations.”

Freeman further said there were inconsistencies in statements made by an officer who had said he saw another provide marijuana to a test subject, and the version from an Occupy Minnesota member who allegedly received the marijuana. The suit filed Friday claims one officer who stepped forward was Chisago County Sheriff’s Office deputy Andrew Mahowald, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

In 2014, Davis posted in Officer says he provided drugs:

Two Hutchinson officers were disciplined last year for their alleged involvement in an incident that took place during the state’s Drug Recognition Evaluator training program in the Twin Cities in May 2012.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper reported Thursday that one of the officers, Karl Willers, admitted to Hutchinson Police Services superiors that he gave people marijuana during the DRE training exercise in Minneapolis. . . . 

The admission apparently came about a month after prosecutors said in September they lacked evidence to charge officers alleged to have given test subjects drugs. Prosecutors also said at the time an extensive investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension found that people making the allegations gave differing accounts of what happened near Minneapolis’ Peavey Plaza.

The allegations surfaced after Occupy Minnesota protesters posted a YouTube video purporting to show police giving protesters drugs as part of the drug evaluation training program. Occupy Minnesota was a movement of mostly young people protesting as part of the national Occupy Wall Street movement that swept the country in early 2012.

When asked to comment Thursday at the Star Tribune’s article, Hutchinson Police Chief Dan Hatten initially declined, but then added that the story “needs to be done, these officers have been through enough.” . . .

Hatten acknowledged that the other Hutchinson officer taking part in the training last year was Officer Mark Hanneman. He said Hanneman received disciplinary action similar to Willers’, though they were not partnered during the training session. Both are still with the department.

[updated, 2/4 11:33 am] At Unicorn Riot, Niko Georgiades reported on Thursday in Minnesota Police Kill Man in Minneapolis Apartment, Making Three Victims in 66 Days:

Hanneman was previously a police officer in Hutchinson and was involved in a statewide intra-agency scheme to offer illicit drugs to protesters in the Occupy movement and the unhoused as part of Minnesota State Patrol’s Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) program. The program was briefly halted during the controversy and a lawsuit but continues to operate. Hanneman had since become an officer with MPD after serving a minor reprimand for his participation in DRE and recently graduating with a masters degree in criminal justice. [end update]

About the DRE controversy

Here's the Occupy Minnesota YouTube Davis mentions; it was posted by Dan Feidt, who is a founder of the Unicorn Riot collective:

At the Southwest Journal, Nick Halter reported in Occupy protesters in Minneapolis say out-of-town police gave them drugs:

Protesters part of the OccupyMN movement say that suburban and rural sheriff’s deputies picked up people from Peavey Plaza and provided them drugs as part of the state’s Drug Recognition Evaluator program.

A YouTube video (“MK Occupy Minnesota: Drugs & the DRE Program at Peavey Plaza”) posted by independent media activists and members of Communities United Against Police Brutality show several people getting into cruisers and alleging the officers provided them drugs at a Richfield Minnesota Department of Transportation facility. 

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan said he had no prior knowledge that this practice was taking place, if the allegations are true. 

“We looked at the allegations but there was nothing involving Minneapolis Police, and I’d be shocked if they were involved,” Dolan said. 

The video shows cruisers or deputies from Dakota, Fillmore, Olmsted, Chisago and Kanabec counties.

At a public hearing on May 2, activist Forest Oliver told a city committee that law enforcement officers took him to an airfield in Richfield, gave him a bag of marijuana and a pipe, and told him to smoke the marijuana. He’s featured several times on the video. 

Others on the video say police offered them all sorts of drugs, including cocaine and heroin. 

Two phone calls to the Minnesota State Patrol, which administers the Drug Recognition Evaluator program, were not returned to the Southwest Journal. 

The State Patrol, did, however, tell the Star Tribune that there was no evidence of the allegations that law enforcement officials actually gave drugs to the people they picked up. The State Patrol said the program is designed so that officers pick up people who already used drugs and does not give them drugs. 

OccupyMN protesters at a May 7 city committee hearing said that officers would drop off intoxicated people at Peavey Plaza, making their protests look bad.

Dolan said his department is looking into the allegations.

“We’ve seen the allegations or heard the allegations,” he said. “If that’s the case, we’re not very happy about that, but we’ll look into it and find out and get some answers. There’s nothing implicating Minneapolis in this.”

Asked if he knew that out-of-town agencies were giving drugs to protesters, Dolan said: “No. I think we’d probably have an issue with that.”

City Council Member Cam Gordon, who sits on the committee, raised concerns about the allegations on his blog.

“I can appreciate that it is in the interest of the public to have a well-educated police force, able to identify intoxicated people,” he wrote. “But there must be better, more ethical, alternative ways to provide them that education.”

Reporting for the Guardian in May 2012, Ryan Devereaux reported in Minnesota police under fire over claims they got Occupy protesters high:

Public safety officials in Minnesota have launched a criminal investigation following multiple claims that law enforcement officers got Occupy protesters high on drugs in a program examining the effects of street marijuana.

A state trooper has been placed on leave in connection with the allegations and the program has been suspended. One participant in the program said police got him "high as fuck".

 

The story was broken by independent journalists based in Minnesota who began recording officers picking up and returning protesters to a local park where the demonstrators have been camped out. Individuals repeatedly claimed that the police would provide them with marijuana, watch them smoke it, then observe their behavior. In several instances individuals who seemed sober when they left with police, return appearing to be under the influence.

"I got stoned with a couple cops," a protester who goes by the name Panda said on camera. He claimed he was walking near the park when an officer said he smelled of marijuana. This prompted Panda to walk faster, but then the police officer did something unusual and asked if he would like to smoke more. Panda said yes.

"I'm high as fuck," he said, following his alleged encounter.

Panda said the officers treated him to a meal after they smoked him out. "They bought me dinner," he said, claiming the police paid for a double cheeseburger from McDonalds. Panda said the police then timed how long it took him to eat the meal and observed how eagerly he ate once the burger was in his hands.

He speculated that the police wanted to "see how people act with the munchies".

Dan Feidt, an independent journalist with the Occupy movement, says he began noticing the activity two weeks ago. Feidt joined with other independent media outlets – including Rogue Media, Communities United Against Police Brutality, and Twin Cities IndyMedia – in documenting what was going on at the park.

A 35-minute video compiled by the group shows law enforcement officers from nearly a half dozen departments transporting people to and from the park. Numerous anonymous individuals interviewed in the video claim that officers had a practice of picking up people off the street who were under the influence of illegal substances, transporting them to a building at a local airport, then observing their behavior and administering evaluations as part of study.

Minnesota is among 48 states – as well as the District of Columbia and Canada – that participate in a so-called Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) program, aimed at helping officers learn how to spot impairment and troublesome drivers. The program began in Minnesota in 1991 and requires officers to perform evaluations on volunteers, generally recruited from the community, who are high.

The program does not permit officers to provide drugs to subjects, but that's exactly what Feidt's video suggests they did.

Forrest, another interviewee in the video, claims police got him high, but didn't test him because they suspected he was working with the journalists.

"They didn't test us this time. They just smoked us up this time," he said. Forrest was allegedly given a black box by the police complete with "weed, pipes and lighters." Forrest said he got high on the substance provided by police. "It was a whole bag of weed," he said.

The state patrol initially said there was "no evidence" to support the allegations made in the video but on Wednesday the Minnesota department of public safety issued a press release announcing that it had launched a criminal investigation into claims that a Hutchinson police officer provided marijuana to subject in the drug program. The allegation was made by an officer from another law enforcement agency. The DPS also announced that it was suspending the program.

Feidt says the program is consistent with police behavior he's observed at Occupy camps around the country.

"What we saw happen in many, many different cities was they would take people that had chemical dependency issues, they would take people that had mental illness issues and that kind of thing and they would basically drop them off at the Occupy site," Feidt told the Guardian.

He hopes the video will call attention to the war on drugs. "For me, the cruel and dehumanizing nature of the war on drugs has been a major issue for a long time," Feidt said. "There's public debate about this program that never really happened, so I'm really hoping that we can have a constructive debate and finally wind down this incredibly destructive system."

At Minnesota Public Radio, Laura Yuen reported Head of suspended drug training program has history of complaints and Investigation's report of Drug Recognition Evaluator program exposes inconsistency, confusion.

Public Intelligencer supplied documents after this copy in Minnesota Police Investigation of Officers Providing Drugs to Occupy Protesters:

The following document contains files related to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s investigation into allegations that law enforcement officers participating in Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) courses provided drugs to sober people they had picked up from Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis where protesters connected with Occupy Minnesota had been located since April 2012.  The officers then used the intoxicated subjects for their training course, sometimes providing them with rewards like food or cigarettes, and then returned them to the Plaza. Though the investigation confirms many aspects of the story and a Sheriff’s Deputy admitted to the DRE course instructor that he had witnessed his partner in the course providing marijuana to subjects, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension found that there was insufficient evidence to sustain charges and obtain convictions against any of the officers involved. This was partly due to the fact that 29 former officers and employees associated with the program refused to testify, blocking the investigation. For more information on the file, see Dan Feidt’s article on the documents and watch the video report he helped produced in May 2012 which played a significant role in raising public awareness of the issue and spurring the investigation.

We'll continue to update this post as we dig to find the Star Tribune story mentioned in Davis's copy-and other material related to the story. We've contacted 

While this tale may seem old, we do believe it reveals a culture of policing which doesn't respect citizens' rights and lives.

Photo: A screengrab from a video released in 2012 by the activist group Occupy Minnesota shows police taking young people away from downtown Minneapolis in squad cars. When they returned, the young people said officers from around the state provided them with marijuana to smoke. We do not allege Hanneman is in this photo. Photo by Hong Pong/Dan Feidt.

If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post.

Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.

I'm on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6

Snowmobilers, ATV & MN Four-Wheel Drive Associations seek to curb trespassing

We were impressed by a bill brought to Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Chair Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, by a coalition of outdoor groups: the Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association, MN Four-Wheel Drive Association and the Minnesota ATV Association.

They were asking for help in regulating the "trail slobs" who venture off public land and trails--and on to private property without landowners' permission, sometimes damaging crops.

Only Fosston Republican Steve Green voted against the measure, as he had a hard time reading the statutes related to the bill.

Here's the Minnesota House Information Service YouTube of the bill's hearing; since it's Hansen's bill, vice-chair Ami Wazlawik, DFL-White Bear Township, stepped up to chair the meeting.

Here's the Session Daily article (though the headline might lead readers to conclude snowmobilers wouldn't welcome a bill the snowmobile member association supports):

Watch out snowmobilers — trespass penalties could increase

By Brian Hall

Snowmobilers and users of off-highway vehicles would need to be extra careful under a bill approved by the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee Thursday.

HF2819, sponsored by Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul), would increase civil penalties and establish specific civil citation authority for trespassing while operating a snowmobile or off-highway vehicle. The bill would authorize conservation officers and other licensed peace officers to issue civil citations to drivers who violate certain snowmobile provisions.

The bill, supported by the Department of Natural Resources, the Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association and the Minnesota ATV Association, seeks to deter trespassing by raising the fines.

The penalties for violating existing off-highway vehicles, or the proposed snowmobile and trespass provisions, would more than double. The penalty for a first offense would rise to $250 from $100. A second offense would result in a $500 fine as opposed to $200. Subsequent penalties would incur a $1,000 fine. Previously, the subsequent penalties were $500.

The money would be used to increase enforcement of snowmobile laws.

“The current fine structure does not deter trespass,” said Doug Franzen, representing the snowmobilers association. “For a lot of landowners, the trespass is a very serious problem, be it ATV, snowmobile, OHV, whatever; particularly if they planted, for example, a winter wheat crop. A lot of times these machines are capable of tearing that up.”

According to Franzen, there are more than 22,000 miles of snowmobile trails in the state. Of those, 900-1,000 miles are state trails. The rest are grant-made trails developed and maintained by snowmobile clubs.

In many cases, landowners have permitted public access to their lands for recreation. But there are instances of recreational vehicle users going off the permissible trail.

“Landowners don’t like trespass,” Franzen said. “Without our landowners, at least 20,000 miles of those 22,000 miles disappear. They are doing a public service and we want to do everything to support them. In fact, we want to do everything we can to support a safe and responsible culture of snowmobiling and other outdoor recreation.”

It was referred to the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee after an 18-1 vote. There is no Senate companion.

Screengrab: From the Minnesota United Snowmobilers Association Facebook page January 2021. The clubs that groom the trails are good citizens.

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