Republicans in the Legislature, including Senate assistant minority leader Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, have introduced legislation (HF4687/SF4630) inspired by the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory.

The bill contains a mishmash of conspiratorial pseudoscience, including references to made-up phenomena like “xenobiotic electromagnetism and fields,” with just enough parroting of actual science to give it a veneer of credibility.

It requires county sheriffs to investigate citizen complaints of “polluting atmospheric activity,” and grants the governor the authority to call up the National Guard and ground any aircraft suspected of spreading pollutants.

“I graduated on June 1, 1996. That was 10,167 days ago, and it has been 10,167 days that I have not used algebra,” Farnsworth said on the Senate floor.

Laboratory results for a helium reservoir discovered in northern Minnesota suggest concentrations of the sought-after gas are the highest the industry has ever seen.

Thinking about moving to Duluth. How is healthcare there?

After months of wondering, speculating — and writing letters to ask — why Kathy Cargill was buying up so many properties on Duluth's Park Point, the city's mayor and residents may have an answer from the apparently peeved member of the billionaire Cargill family.

She told the Wall Street Journal she was planning to beautify and modernize the neighborhood, but the pushback, including a message from Mayor Roger Reinert, has made her change her mind.

"I think an expression that we all know — don't pee in your Cheerios — well, he kind of peed in his Cheerios right there, and definitely I'm not going to do anything to benefit that community," Cargill said in an interview with the publication.

Consumer Affairs' 2024 edition of "The worst roads in America" features a big Minnesota brag that, for many residents, may induce a mixture of pride and a bit of astonishment.

The consumer news platform ranks Minnesota's roads as best in the nation, describing them as "the smoothest" and "safest," according to data from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.

"An especially admirable achievement since Minnesota's cold temperatures, significant snowfall and proximity to the Great Lakes create a hazardous set of conditions that can be tough on roads and drivers," writes author Kaz Weida.

Take a seat in the Break Room, our weekly round-up of labor news in Minnesota and beyond. This week: Employers rarely penalized for misclassifying workers; Minneapolis sends Uber and Lyft packing; Workers sue manure company for wage theft; Striking workers would get unemployment benefits under state bill; state legislatures have few working-class lawmakers; St. Paul educators ratify contract; Biden says U.S. Steel should stay in American hands; and Texas judge knocks down joint-employer rule.

Dozens of Minnesota counties, including Hennepin, Ramsey and much of the rural western part of the state, shrunk in population between 2020 and 2023, according to data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

But dozens more have grown, with the highest rates seen in the outer ring Twin Cities suburbs and parts of Minnesota’s lake country.

The law was confusing enough — and troubling enough — that some bars and restaurants decided it was safer to keep hemp-derived beverages off the menu.

At issue was a provision in the state’s recreational marijuana law signed last May that would have prohibited bar servers from selling a patron alcohol and THC beverages in the same five-hour period.

The first confusion was over when bars would start enforcing the “five-hour rule.” Some thought immediately after the bill’s passage, but the myriad effectiveness dates contained in the 300-page bill said it wasn’t to become law until spring 2025. Regardless, the larger issue was this: While a server might know that a patron who they’d served a beer to couldn’t then be served a THC-seltzer, they would have no way of knowing if other patrons had one or the other at another bar.

There was no state flag for Minnesota prior to and during the U.S. Civil War. The original version was from the late 1800s, decades after the Civil War and it was the Great Seal on a white flag.

The first legal sale of recreational marijuana in Minnesota was made on the Red Lake reservation on Tuesday to a tribal employee before a throng of journalists and tribal leaders.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2466388

Minnesotans are now able to legally possess and grow their own marijuana for recreational purposes, after the Minnesota Legislature approved a 300-page bill earlier this year, and Gov. Tim Walz signed it into law shortly thereafter. It became official Tuesday.

In addition to preserving the area’s rich history, the Beltrami County Historical Society may now be making it.

Recently a court granted the museum permission to break up arguably its most important collection — the John Morrison collection — so that culturally sensitive artifacts could be repatriated back to the Indigenous communities from where they originated.

Emily Thabes is the society’s executive director. Sitting in the museum she gave an overview of the building’s own history.

“We're in the Great Northern Depot in Bemidji, Minnesota, so this was the last depot that was built by James J. Hill,” Thabes said. “It was built in 1913, so it's 110 years old this year and this building was converted into the history center in 2000.”

Emily Thabes is executive director of The Beltrami County Historical Society. She said the old Great Northern Railroad Depot was turned into a museum in 2000. This year it will turn 110 years old.

But it’s some of the items in the building which has focused her attention recently.

A few years ago, a First Nations tribe in Canada sent the historical society a letter enquiring about a ceremonial water drum.

The museum no longer had the artifact, but it forced the staff to re-examine what was in their archives and in particular the John Morrison collection which contained about 2,000 artifacts from numerous tribes throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The collection also includes the largest number of Red Lake artifacts outside of the reservation.

Morrison who was half Native American, acquired much of his collection during the 1920s and 1930s although many of the artifacts predate that. At the time he owned the trading post in Ponemah on Red Lake. He later served as the local school’s first headmaster as well as the postmaster.

In the 1960s shortly before his death, Morrison donated his collection of artifacts to the historical society. It became the foundation of the museum itself. Morrison also recorded descriptions of some of the objects.

Upon hearing of the Red Lake artifacts former Red Lake executive administrator, Thomas Cain Jr., had to see them for himself. He says it used to be that trading posts like Morrison's sometimes took objects as surety for things people needed until people could pay, much like modern-day pawn shops. Red Lake Reservation

Red Lake Reservation encompasses nearly 800,000 acres across northern Minnesota with four primary communities; Red Lake, Redby, Little Rock and Ponemah.

“The families were more than likely hungry for food. So that's an example of how a lot of these artifacts end up where they do is through hunger, starvation, poverty,” Cain said. “You know, people got to eat every day.”

In Morrison’s recordings he describes how he came into possession of many of the artifacts, including some regalia.

“The jacket was not originally a part of the costume. And I got that I think in 1920, along there I traded some of the Indians around there when I had the store,” he said in the recording. “The headdress I bought from a Catholic priest from the Pine Ridge Reservation (in South Dakota).”

Among the objects in the collection were 150 to 200 objects protected under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act or NAGPRA.

Passed in 1990, the federal law protects human remains, funerary objects or objects of cultural patrimony. It applies to institutions that receive federal dollars, all except the Smithsonian Institution which follows different guidelines.

According to Thabes, the Bemidji collection contained all of those kinds of items except human remains.

“We've had these items for some time and of course the law has been in place for some time,” she said. “But the will that Mr. Morrison left regarding the items and how he wanted those items to be treated put restrictions on us about being able to follow NAGPRA guidelines.” A box with artifacts

Much of the Morrison collection is stored in boxes. Emily Thabes said the items have been blessed by Indigenous members from the communities they were taken from.

Basically, Morrison said the collection could not be broken up.

Last year after consulting with area tribal members the historical society secured the help of a Twin Cities law firm and a consultant. And in an unprecedented move, with help from volunteers and the county, they successfully argued in court to amend the will, allowing the repatriation process to move forward.

“We put forth the right argument regarding why we wanted to make the change,” Thabes recounted. “Because it's a significant thing to not follow a will but it is a more significant thing not to follow the rights of Native American people.”

Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe member, Jim Jones Jr., is a NAGPRA expert. He served 22 years with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. As a former culture resource director, he's been involved in countless repatriations. He says it's uncommon to see an institution do what Beltrami County's did.

“The items that were identified were in fact sacred items. And so, the institution knowing what those items are, working with tribal communities realize that, 'Hey, we shouldn't have these, the right thing to do is to return them back to the tribal communities,’” Jones said. “It’s rare that you see something like that because if you don’t have a tribal community or you’re a private collection or private museum, there’s no law that mandates that you have to return those items.”
A hand holds a horn

Emily Thabes displays a hand-carved powder horn that is part of the John Morrison collection. Most of the pieces were gathered during the 1920s and 1930s while Morrison operated a trading post in Ponemah, Minn.

Jones hopes other institutions follow Bemidji's lead.

Following NAGPRA guidelines the Beltrami County Historical Society created an inventory and sent letters summarizing the items to nine tribes they know are affected. However there may be others. The items will also be entered into an online registry with descriptions and photos when possible.

Thabes said the organization now looks forward to whatever next steps develop. Personally, she says, she’s grateful how this experience has changed her worldview.

“If this was my grandmother, right? This is literally pieces of my grandmother, that's how I have to think about these things. Would I want her to be on display somewhere?” Thabes asked.

“No, of course not. Nobody wants that. So, if we think about things from our basic human needs, desires and instincts, because that's where we all are. Then I think that helps to guide where we need to go.”