NSS Weekly: From a Ban on Cryptocurrency Kiosks to Benefits for Secret War Vets, Here Are Bills the Minnesota Legislature Passed

Transcript

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INTRO: You are listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota, produced by AMPERS, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota.

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HOST: This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. I’m Chantel SinGs.

This week, we continue our coverage of the legislative session by exploring some of the lesser-known bills that passed. Then, we look at what residents in northern Minnesota are thinking about the future of their natural areas. And black bears are expanding their territory in some parts of the state. But first, here are some of the stories that made headlines this week.

Measles cases are climbing in Minnesota. The state’s health department now confirms 17 cases so far this year, compared to 26 in all of last year. Health officials say measles spreads very easily, especially in schools, childcare centers, and other group settings. Families are urged to check and update MMR, measles, mumps, and rubella, vaccine records. Two doses of MMR provide strong protection. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and a rash that usually starts on the face. Anyone who thinks they may have measles should call a clinic before leaving home and potentially spreading the disease.

About 270,000 students at Minnesota state colleges and universities will pay an average of six-and-a-quarter percent more across the system’s 33 colleges and universities. Officials say that works out to an increase of about $360 at colleges and $580 at universities. Tuition for the nearly 70,000 students across the University of Minnesota’s five campuses are paying between four and six and a half percent more. Both college systems blame the state legislature for not granting their funding requests this year.

A Mankato-area company says it has a new way to turn food and farm waste into fertilizer. Easy Environmental Solutions says its EasyFEN system converts local organic waste into terreplenish, a liquid microbial fertilizer. The company says the technology could help communities make more fertilizer locally and reduce dependence on petroleum-based products. More U.S. field-testing is planned. University of Minnesota Extension notes that biological soil products can be promising, so farmers should test field by field.

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HOST: This year’s legislative session was marked by bipartisan disagreement in a tightly divided House and Senate, while many of the headlines focused on fraud, immigration, and gun control. As we continue our coverage of this year’s session, we look at some of the bills that did manage to get bipartisan support. Producer Ngoc Bui has more on what passed under the radar.

LEGISLATIVE SESSION: Go ahead and state your name and begin your testimony.

NGOC BUI: It's been nearly 15 years.

HANNAH LOPRESTO: My name is Hannah LoPresto.

NGOC BUI: Since Hannah LoPresto’s high school band teacher.

HANNAH LOPRESTO: I'm a victim survivor of grooming and sexual assault.

NGOC BUI: Began grooming her.

HANNAH LOPRESTO: Early on, this teacher made me feel special by asking me to help him organize music or move instruments after class. Over the course of the four years, he slowly began to isolate me from friends and family, normalized touching me and communicating as if we were close friends.

NGOC BUI: That was LoPresto testifying at a legislative hearing in March of this year. During her statement, she said the attention eventually became abuse.

HANNAH LOPRESTO: On the morning of my last day of high school, he sexually assaulted me in the band lesson room.

NGOC BUI: The abuse continued into her early college years, and it wouldn't be until 2022, a decade after the grooming began, that she was finally able to share the story with law enforcement, which also prompted the Minnesota Department of Education, or MDE, to investigate the allegations as well.

HANNAH LOPRESTO: BUT because my abuse had occurred over three years ago, I was never interviewed by MDE, and the evidence of my abuse was not considered.

NGOC BUI: After the investigations, the teacher who abused LoPresto was able to keep his teaching license, even after the police report concluded there was probable cause.

HANNAH LOPRESTO: Often, when I share that I was groomed and sexually assaulted, most people focus in on the sexual assault as being the most horrific and impactful, but for me the five plus years of grooming were even more harmful to my long-term health and well-being.

NGOC BUI: It's why LoPresto testified several times this session to push for legislation to make grooming a criminal offense, and thanks to her courage and effort.

LEGISLATIVE SESSION: There being 133 ayes and zero nays, the bill is passed as amended by the Senate, and its title is agreed to.

NGOC BUI: Minnesota is now the 14th state to have a law of this kind. It was one of the few bills that got bipartisan support during a session defined by partisan gridlock.

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NGOC BUI: But establishing new protections on certain issues seemed to be something lawmakers came together around. Like grooming, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle threw their support behind a ban on cryptocurrency kiosks. These are ATM machines that convert cash into digital currency. The bill came as a response to scores of people, especially older adults, being scammed through these kiosks.

AARP: People are losing a lot. There are now hundreds of cryptocurrency ATMs in Minnesota communities, and scammers are using them quickly to steal money from their victims. It could be any kind of scam.

NGOC BUI: The state says just in 2025 there were 70 cases, totaling more than half a million dollars. The legislation has already been signed into law by Governor Tim Walz, and will take effect on August 1.

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NGOC BUI: Another issue lawmakers acted on this session: veterans benefits for people who served in the Secret War in Laos, which took place during the Vietnam War.

LEE PAO XIONG: And America could not enter the country of Laos, and so they recruited Hmong and other ethnic groups to fight on behalf of the Americans. So that's why we're trying to get that through.

NGOC BUI: Li Pao Xiong wrote the legislation. Last year, the legislature passed a bill to officially recognize people who served in the Secret War as veterans in Minnesota. It automatically applied to those who had received citizenship through the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000. This year, state lawmakers considered new legislation to create a process to determine eligibility for those who weren't automatically recognized.

LEGISLATIVE SESSION: Support the bill. House File Number 3919 an act relating to Veterans Affairs, modifying benefits available to veterans of the Secret War in Laos.

NGOC BUI: The bill passed in early May.

LEE PAO XIONG: Now the governor signed it. It will be available. You can go on the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs website. So when you type in SGU, it'll tell you how to go about doing, how to apply, and so they will also, the Veterans Affairs Office, will also work closely with all of the veterans to help them fill out the application at the federal level.

NGOC BUI: Although Xiong says the number of Secret War veterans may be small, these benefits will be meaningful.

LEE PAO XIONG: One of the key things is really to recognize people for their contributions, serving as surrogate soldiers of the American armed forces during the Secret War in Laos during the Vietnam War.

NGOC BUI: With their work done, lawmakers wrapped up the session on May 18. It will be a quick turnaround to the November midterms, when all seats in the legislature will be on the ballot. This is Ngoc Bui for North Star Stories.

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HOST: Legislators are now returning to their districts, and media attention is turning to the governor’s desk for the final signature on new state bills. To learn more about some of the new laws and what comes next for state politics, we’re joined by Professor David Schultz, a distinguished university professor in the Departments of Political Science, Environmental Studies, and Legal Studies at Hamline University. He is an expert on American and Minnesota politics, as well as election and constitutional law. Thank you for joining us.

DAVID SCHULTZ: Thank you for having me.

HOST: Professor, from your perspective, what are some of the lesser known bills that were passed or not passed this session?

DAVID SCHULTZ: Well, you know, it's an interesting session, if you think about it, is that we entered into, you know, the second year of the biennium with a very polarized legislature, and both sides had staked out turf. Democrats wanted to talk about guns, they wanted to talk about ICE, they wanted to talk about Trump. Republicans wanted to talk about fraud, taxes, and so forth. And so there was a standoff. What became really interesting at the end, and I was surprised by this also too, is that in a very odd way the system almost worked. And what I mean by that is that at the end they agreed to the bonding bill, which I wasn't expecting them to do. So both sides walked away getting something and not getting something. I think that's called compromise. Looking forward, both of them have issues they can now run on for the 2026 election. Most people are not making that interpretation. That's the argument that I would make.

HOST: You mentioned compromise, this is something we don't hear much in today's politics.

DAVID SCHULTZ: You're right, I mean, usually now when people run for office, they're not going to say, "If elected, I'm going to go off and compromise and negotiate.” That's not very appealing. It's kind of war language. We're going to go and we're going to get the other side, etc. etc. But this time, raw necessity forced them to have to compromise. And if you think about one of the things that legislators want to do in an election year is pass the bonding bill, because the bonding bill sends money back home to your home districts, because not to pick on legislators, but they want to be able to say, for example, “That new bridge, or that pothole, or that building, I got money to bring home to help my constituents.” And an election year, that's a really good thing to be able to say. And if we're trying to provide any kind of like lessons learned or something like that, I know Civics 101 where we're going to call it here, is that sometimes you just have to negotiate to get things done.

HOST: The political cycle often feels never ending, and now we're heading into a midterm election, and a new governor. What should people be watching for?

DAVID SCHULTZ: This entire session has to be read as a prelude to the 2026 elections, because the entire state legislature is up for election, as well as the governor, lieutenant governor, auditor, attorney general, everybody, everybody's up for election at this point. And both the Democrats and Republicans were using the legislative session to basically preview the themes that they want to be able to run upon. I mean, in a very ironic sense, here, think about it, what if, for example, the Republicans had gotten everything they want on fraud, or the Democrats had gotten everything they wanted on guns, what would they run on? There's almost a perversity in the idea of saying don't get everything that you want, because then you've lost an argument. So the fact that both sides can still talk about guns, can still talk about fraud issues, makes these the issues that not only played out during the legislative session, but makes these the issues that are going to define the governor's race, as well as all the legislative races this year.

HOST: The house and senate are evenly split, and this has made for a very partisan legislative session. Does this reflect the state of mind of the people in Minnesota?

DAVID SCHULTZ: In some ways, we're kind of a microcosm of the United States, you know, and we know that Congress is divided. We know that the votes for president are very divided. I mean, the US House of Representatives has the thinnest majority that we've had since the 1930s and we're kind of a good picture of this. Even when the Democrats had the trifecta prior to the previous election, had you merely shifted less than 10,000 votes across, I think, what, three house seats, the Republicans would have had control of the house, or shift, I think it was something like maybe 10,000 votes across two senate seats, state senate seats, Republicans would have had control of the Senate. So even though the Democrats had a trifecta, it masked a real significant divide in the state. I mean, for many people who live, let's say, in the seven-county metro region, you know, in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, they're thinking the world is all Democrat. Go 30 miles, 40 miles, out of the Twin Cities, the world is all Republican. I mean, we live in a very, very divided state, geographically, politically, in lots of different ways. And that's a mirror of the United States at this point. The only thing I want to add here, if I were to come up with a really nice way of describing how Minnesota politics and national politics have shifted, let's say, over a 50-year period, and I've been doing a lot of talks about this, 50 years ago, in 1976, public opinion in Minnesota was a bell curve. Few people on the left and right, most people in the center. Now, Minnesota politics looks like a bimodal curve, or if that helps, a double hump camel's back. Goes up, goes down, the center goes up. What we're seeing is the two parties moving further and further apart, fewer people identifying in the center, and that's the picture. And to me, the question is how do we make decisions in a state where public opinion is no longer a bell curve evenly distributed with most people that center, and instead in a world where we've got the extremes pushing further and further apart? That's the challenge. At least this year, I think Minnesota did a reasonably good job navigating that bimodal curve.

HOST: Professor, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Have a good day.

DAVID SCHULTZ: My pleasure. Thank you. Have me on again anytime.

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HOST: After the break, northern Minnesotans still have questions about how the lifting of a mining ban will impact the region. This is North Star Stories: Voices from Where Wel Live, produced by AMPERS with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. We’ll be right back.

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HOST: You are listening to North Star Stories. I’m Chantel SinGs.

Residents in the northern part of the state are still trying to understand what a recent U.S. Senate vote overturning a 20-year ban on mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness means for the region. Reporter Maija Hecht has the story.

TAYLOR BUNES: I don't know if we're there yet, but if we have the technology to send guys on a joyrider on the moon, we can probably figure out how to mine copper nickel environmentally soundly.

MAIJA HECHT: The federal decision to remove a ban on mining upstream of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, or BWCA, is stirring strong reactions amongst Minnesotans. Some say the acid mine drainage that could come from copper sulfide mining in the area is just not worth the risk to the immense freshwater ecosystem downstream. Others cite demands for metals in the global tech and energy market and support Minnesota's potential to supply international demands.

TAYLOR BUNES: I make a good portion of my living mining or building mining facilities. Nobody I know wants that area ruined.

MAIJA HECHT: Lifelong outdoorsman Taylor Bunes was born and raised in Minnesota's Iron Range. He's made more than 40 trips into the Boundary Waters over the years.

TAYLOR BUNES: I didn't go get my logbook. First trip was with my folks in 1983. It's a very valuable area, needs to be protected, and it's not that it's untouched by a man. It’s just peace.

MAIJA HECHT: When it comes to the future of mining near the BWCA, Bunes says the conversation is no longer about whether it should happen, but when and how.

TAYLOR BUNES: Boy, this is going to sound kind of jaded, but when industry finally decides that they want that copper there, they're going to get it.

MAIJA HECHT: According to United Nations Trade and Development, global demand for copper is projected to increase 40% by 2040 to supply raw material for energy infrastructure, such as data centers, AI systems, electric car batteries and solar panels. Twin Metals, a subsidiary of a Chilean mining company, has been trying to open a mine near Ely for over a decade.

TAYLOR BUNES: That's good for the economy, good for the world, as long as we do the best that we can to not damage that ecosystem.

MAIJA HECHT: In many ways, copper sulfide is critical to the renewable energy transition, but some wonder at what cost. Multiple independent media sources have reported that Twin Metals’ parent company has a record of pollution, endangering communities, and failure to comply with environmental protection standards. Without federal protection, many Minnesotans are looking to state regulating authorities, such as the Department of Natural Resources, commonly known as the DNR, to guide and uphold environmental review standards.

TAYLOR BUNES: We've got a pretty, pretty weighty environmental process. I trust Minnesota, in its current form to hold that company accountable.

MAIJA HECHT: Other Iron Range residents are not so optimistic about the state protecting Minnesota waters.

DENISE ESTEY LINDEQUIST: You know, they always say they'll fix it or they'll take care of it, but they don't. It's about money, and so no, I don't. I don't believe it's going to be safe.

MAIJA HECHT: Denise Estey Lindequist is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation. Every Sunday, she meets a group of women on the banks of the Mississippi River and Grand Rapids for a Nibi Walk. Nibi means water in Ojibwemowin.

DENISE ESTEY LINDEQUIST: The women that do come, I think all their hearts really are in our environment and saving the water, you know. Some of them will say this is better than church for me. Every week, somebody's talking about the Boundary Waters, ever since that law has passed, you know, still, you know, the Boundary Waters comes up.

MAIJA HECHT: These Nibi Walks are the legacy of the late Josephine Mandamin, Anishinaabe elder, known for leading ceremonial walks for water, which she carried along with her in a copper pail.

DENISE ESTEY LINDEQUIST: Our water is alive, and you know. It can die, and it does.

MAIJA HECHT: The threat is acid mine drainage. If waste rock from the proposed mine is exposed to air and water, it would produce runoff comparable to battery acid flowing through hundreds of miles of interconnected waterways. This poison could cause permanent damage. Twin Metals has promised that by using a method called dry stacking, their waste rock won't create acid pollution. However, the DNR has found those claims inadequate, citing that Minnesota's climate is too wet, among other reasons, for the method to work.

DENISE ESTEY LINDEQUIST: I have a lot of just apprehension and just a fear, really, about this place that is again so pristine.

MAIJA HECHT: Dogsled musher Kendra Anderson spends her winters traversing forests and over frozen lakes near Grand Marais,

KENDRA ANDERSON: Thinking about the beavers we feed the dogs, the fish that we like to catch on camping trips, and the fact that the entire ecosystem could very much be in harm's way.

MAIJA HECHT: And the resolution overturning the federal mining ban was led by Congressman Pete Stauber, whose district includes the Boundary Waters region.

REP PETE STAUBER (video audio): "Mister Chair, I rise today…"

MAIJA HECHT: The measure passed the US Senate by just one vote in April.

REP PETE STAUBER (video audio): "…to reverse Public Land Order 7917…"

KENDRA ANDERSON: I do not think it's taken into consideration the people and the creatures that live and work in the region. Yeah, I think there's many of us that feel very betrayed by a representative essentially selling out our protected space.

MAIJA HECHT: Before anything can move forward, Twin Metals needs to pass Minnesota Environmental Review and earn state permits. For now, the future of mining upstream of the Boundary Waters remains uncertain. This is Maija Hecht for North Star Stories.

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HOST: Minnesota is one of the largest producers of minerals, with a significant amount of iron in the country. And Taconite, a lower-grade ore, has been part of the history and economic makeup along the Mesabi Iron Range in the northeastern part of the state. To learn more about the impact of mining in the region, we are joined now by Ida Rukavina, who serves as commissioner of the Department of Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation, or IRRRB, a unique State of Minnesota economic development agency that serves the people, businesses, and communities located within the Taconite Assistance Area of northeastern Minnesota. Thank you so much for joining us.

IDA RUKAVINA: Thanks for having me.

HOST: Mining is an important part of Minnesota's economy. Can you explain how the local taconite production tax works and how that money is invested in communities?

IDA RUKAVINA: It's a little bit of a unique situation that we have. Our agency, the Minnesota Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation, was established over 80 years ago under Governor Harold Stassen, with the support of the legislature. At the time, the tax structure was a little bit different, and in the early 1940s, maybe the late 1930s, people from the iron ranges, and at the time there was the Cuyuna Iron Range, Mesabi Iron Range and the Vermillion Iron Range, all three of those had operating mines, and the communities and the civic leaders, they felt like, like the tax distribution didn't make sense for the impact to the local communities. So they went and advocated at the state level for a new system, and this agency was created. The taconite production tax is paid by the current operating mines. There are six current iron ore operating taconite mines. They pay a production tax that is in lieu of property tax. So, if you think of a normal business that's located in your town, that private business pays a property tax, which helps support these communities. With the operating iron mines, they pay a production tax that's based off of each pellet produced, and so those dollars are tax dollars. They run through the state and they're redistributed then to the communities, and I won't get into every single type of tax on the mining companies, but what I'm familiar with is the production tax, which the majority first goes and gets distributed to municipalities, to schools, and to townships and counties that are located within the taconite assistance area, and then a minority of that funding of the production tax comes to our agency to help us work with economic development, to help recruit businesses, to help support communities.

HOST: We often think of mining as extraction, but your organization works on the full life cycle of a mine. What happens when a mine comes to an end?

IDA RUKAVINA: That has also changed throughout the years, but the Cuyuna Iron Range and the Vermilion Iron Range don't have active mining. So if you've ever been to the Crosby-Ironton area, you might see what the land looks like that was impacted by mining but has now been changed. The same and similar has happened on the Mesabi Iron Range. When the ore is dug out, and when the mining company moves to a different deposit, our agency in the past was highly involved, where we actually grew trees and grew seedlings that we then helped replant. We're not doing the seedlings anymore. The DNR and the companies are working on that type, those types of programs. What our agency is invested in is working with communities to use those areas for different reuses. So, one prime example is the Minnesota Discovery Center, formerly known as Ironworld, that's in Chisholm, Minnesota, that's right on the shores of a mine pit, and people that go there can go kayaking, can go fishing, can do exploration, you know, in that area. Some other large projects we've helped fund are bike trails, so mountain biking trails, such as the Redhead Mountain Biking Trail in Chisholm, Minnesota, or the OHV Park in Gilbert. These are places where people recreate, where people go hiking, where people go swimming in old mine pits at the beach in Ore-Be-Gone in Gilbert, Minnesota. So, our agency helps communities fund some of those projects.

HOST: What does the future look like for Minnesota's mining industry?

IDA RUKAVINA: Well, it's a really important, not again, not just for the state of Minnesota, but our nation. Like the iron ore that's located here, is really strategic to help our country with national security, but also to go into the products that we produce here, right? So, manufacturing, anything that this country is that makes or manufactures, you know, has ore components to it. So, the ore that's mined here is going into cars, is going into appliances that are, you know, being manufactured elsewhere, and I think it's just a really important resource that we use wisely and make sure that we have it there for accessibility. We've been mining again since the late 1800s but there is ore there in the ground for the next 100 years. We're also particularly interested in other types of technology that's been researched and in different ways you can use what could have been designated as waste or in the past, now might be mined in a different or extracted in a different way, and be used in new products of the future. So we're really cognizant of trying to support those efforts as well that we can be more efficient and use those resources to the maximum capability that they have.

HOST: Ida, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate your time. You have a great day.

IDA RUKAVINA: Thank you for reaching out.

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HOST: And finally, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, also known as DNR, says black bears are expanding their territory south and west in the state, and a few are apparently taking the scenic route. After recent sightings in Moorhead and Alexandria, the DNR is reminding Minnesotans to be “bearwise” this summer. Black bears are usually shy and attacks are extremely rare. But bears love an easy meal. The agency says keep food and trash secure, dogs leashed, and if you see a bear, don’t run. Back away slowly, or wave your arms and yell, “Hey, bear.”

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This is it for today’s program. If you missed any part of today’s newscast, you can find this and past episodes at AMPERS.org or listen to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can also get North Star Stories daily on our website or check your favorite station's schedule. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back next week with more stories and voices from the North Star State.

OUTRO: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at AMPERS.org.