NSS Weekly: The Minnesota Legislature – A House Divided

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 Gracie J.

In this week's newscast, federal legislation that could reopen mining in the Boundary Waters. We get reaction from one of the state's tribal communities impacted.

As the legislative session nears its end, we look at how this historic session is unfolding. And, with the weather warming up, we'll give you some great places in the state you should visit this spring.

But first, a look at headlines from the past week.

The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is condemning the U.S. Senate's vote to roll back Boundary Waters mining protections, saying the federal government did not consult tribal communities putting treaty rights at risk. US lawmakers voted 50 to 49 to overturn federal mining protections on more than 225,000 acres upstream of the Boundary Waters. The band says members have treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather there and that Congress acted without meaningful consultation. Minnesota tribal leaders, conservationists and many outfitters who call the Ely area 'home,' warn copper-sulfide mining would cause permanent damage. Tribal attorney and land defender Tara Houska told North Star Stories that:

TARA HOUSKA: It would be devastating for our region, period. I mean, it's some of the most pristine water on earth. Pepole see something like that and think about the dollar signs they can get out of it.

HOST: Republican congressman Pete Stauber pushed for the bill and says repealing the mining ban is a win for jobs and critical minerals. President Trump still has to sign the bill, and any project would still need state and federal approvals.

Scammers are trying to get your money in northern Minnesota. The Saint Louis County Sheriff's Office is warning about scam calls and texts. The scammers are calling people in the area pretending to be deputies or jail staff. They demand payment for things like parking tickets or bail and threaten victims with legal trouble if they don't pay up. Deputies say the demands are fake and say you should never send money, share credit card numbers, or click payment links in a text.

Five tornadoes officially touched down in Rochester and Olmstead County, part of a rare supercell thunderstorm event in southeastern Minnesota. A supercell storm is the strongest form of a thunderstorm and produces the most hail and tornadoes. Forecasters say that despite being incredibly strong, the storms didn't cause any injuries or deaths.

JEFF BOYNE/NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: What happens a lot of times when you get supercell thunderstorms, they actually allow us to forecast much sooner.

HOST: National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Boyne says the supercell storm development gave them enough time to brief Olmstead and the surrounding counties' emergency management as well as school officials the day before.

JEFF BOYNE/NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: Many of the schools actually released early before the storms became severe.

HOST: Meteorologists say early detection and warning systems are key. They remind everyone that the safest place during severe thunderstorms and tornadoes is in an interior room on the lowest level of your home.

Minnesota needs more hemp growers, just not for cannabis products. Only 30 people have filed for permits to grow industrial hemp this year. That's less than half of last year's applicants, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Fewer farmers are growing hemp since Minnesota legalized recreational marijuana. But hemp is still in demand. It's used to create many products from cloth to building materials and biodegradable plastics.

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While there are just a few weeks left in the legislative session, and in response to a school shooting, the killing of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman, and the federal crackdown on immigration, political tension is running high. As Reporter Ngoc Bui explains, when you combine that with the fact that the House of Representatives is split evenly between the parties, many say this session is likely to end with little to show.

NAT SOUND - LEGISLATURE: The clerk will take the role.

NGOC BUI: It's become a familiar story at the Capitol there

NAT SOUND – LEGISLATURE: Being 67 ayes and 67 nays, the motion does not prevail.

NGOC BUI: Few bills are advancing this session as the House chamber faces a dead split between the Republicans and the Democrats. It's the first time since the late 1970s that the house has been tied.

MATTHEW BLAKE: What you're seeing nationally is definitely happening in Minnesota, where there's this partisanship to such an extreme that it does become impossible to get most things done.

NGOC BUI: That's Matthew Blake who covers state government for MinnPost, a local independent nonprofit newsroom here in Minnesota. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have banded together and refused to stray from party lines. That's meant few pieces of legislation have made it very far in the house. Meanwhile, in the Senate, the Democrats are leaning into their slim, one vote majority to push their priorities.

MATTHEW BLAKE: Because of that control, the DFL in the Senate has been able to advance some of its key policy proposals, one of which is an assault weapons ban, which passed through a Senate Judiciary Committee. There's also a package of bills trying to curb federal immigration enforcement officers.

NGOC BUI: Blake said, however, even if these bills make it out of the Senate…

MATTHEW BLAKE: The gun and immigration enforcement measures likely won't become law, because whatever the Senate does will be held up by the House.

NGOC BUI: Shortly before lawmakers went on a mid-session break, Blake said there was a moment when it seemed like maybe something was finally going to happen in the House.

NAT SOUND – LEGISLATURE: There's a motion at the desk The Clerk will report the motion.

MATTHEW BLAKE: You had the Democrats bringing forward a bill to ban military style assault weapons and also high-capacity magazines.

NAT SOUND – LEGISLATURE: Pursuant to rule 4.30, Greenman.

MATTHEW BLAKE: So they use the procedural maneuver to bring this to the House floor, and this parliamentary maneuver that the DFL came up with, which, again, seemed exciting in the moment, actually kind of just led to a pretty stale gun control debate.

NAT SOUND – LEGISLATURE: We have a choice to not be numb, but to take action, or we can continue to tell families that we are sorry, but there's nothing we can do. But what we know is other countries do not have this problem.

NAT SOUND – LEGISLATURE: You know that this would not stop tragedies from happening. You all know that there is nothing stopping someone from acting on hate in their heart.

NGOC BUI: The vote ended like several others in a 67- 67 tie. During the hearing, Republican Representative Danny Nadeau spoke about the standoff between the two sides.

REPRESENTATIVE DANNY NADEAU: We're split in this legislature, and it's super frustrating to be able to try to do anything. Very few of us are getting bills passed out of committees, and I'm not sure that you know, having you know, these motions of urgency are actually helping us build those relationships to try to do anything or not.

NGOC BUI: DFL House Speaker, Representative Zack Stephenson, also had thoughts after the hearing.

REPRESENTATIVE ZACK STEPHENSON: It is incredibly frustrating and disappointing that not one House Republican was willing to side with the average Minnesotans, not to mention the families and parents of Annunciation children.

NGOC BUI: MinnPost reporter Matthew Blake says this impasse likely won't be resolved until the midterms in November.

MATTHEW BLAKE: I think both parties are thinking that this deadlock will be broken during the election.

NGOC BUI: But with weeks left of the session, there's still work to do, and Blake predicts the conversation between lawmakers is likely to move behind closed doors.

MATTHEW BLAKE: So you might see these negotiations at the end, and they might then come in these kind of omnibus policy bills at the end, where a whole bunch of fragmented measures kind of coalesce into this one bill that's kind of this grand compromise between lawmakers.

NGOC BUI: Omnibus bills are packages of legislation that can include bills that have been postponed for later consideration. So far this session, there are several omnibus bills emerging, including a human services omnibus, public safety, cannabis, among others. Despite the divide, there is one issue Blake says both sides seem to be agreeing on.

MATTHEW BLAKE: Both parties are prioritizing fraud.

NGOC BUI: That's led to a proposal to establish an Office of Inspector General. Blake says the focus of lawmakers could also soon change.

MATTHEW BLAKE: That might be a shift we see is that more of the key issues will deal with tax and spending measures.

NGOC BUI: Lawmakers have until May 19 to finish their work. This is Ngoc Buoy for North Star Stories.

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HOST: The last time the Minnesota House of Representatives was evenly divided was in 1979. But, since that time, rather than passing individual bills, lawmakers often use an omnibus bill. combining most bills from a committee into one giant bill that can be thousands of pages long and pass with a single vote. With the House being tied, the omnibus bill process could make it even more difficult to pass legislation this session. To learn more about this process and what's ahead for the rest of the session, we're joined now by Ryan Dawkins, an assistant professor of political science at Carleton College. He is an expert in American politics and research methods. Thank you so much for being here today, Professor Dawkins.

RYAN DAWKINS: Thanks for having me.

HOST: So how does this split in the Minnesota House shape what lawmakers can and cannot accomplish before the end of the session?

RYAN DAWKINS: The most obvious reason, of course, is that it leads to perpetual gridlock, and it creates a perverse incentive for neither party to want to make concessions to the other party, because it creates an incentive structure where each party wants to engage in a messaging strategy with their eye towards the next election. And so it just makes legislative productivity, in general, is just going to be really low for this session, especially now, because this isn't a budgeting year for the legislature, so productivity is already going to be slower than usual, and so nothing actually has to get done, you know, in terms of budgetary issues. So, you know, given the split in the house, it's mostly all about messaging at this point.

HOST: Can you explain a little more about the omnibus bill process and the pros and cons that go with it?

RYAN DAWKINS: Omnibus bills are bills that bring together smaller pieces of legislation that aren't necessarily related to one another, but brings it into a large package that only requires one up or down vote. And so this has become the norm in most legislatures at the state level, as well as in Congress, because it allows for a streamlining of the legislative process. It also creates an incentive for members of Congress to pass needed legislation while limiting the debate on any one measure. And so oftentimes, what people will do is they will put together a bunch of stuff that needs to pass, and then they will add to it things that they want to pass, and people will be hesitant to vote against it, even if there's provisions they don't like, because it's with things that must pass. It also can be a mechanism for getting unpopular things or highly partisan items on to getting that stuff passed in Congress or in the state legislature in this is this is the case.

HOST: So with just weeks left in this session, what is the most likely path for the remaining legislation and which issues are most likely to survive in the final omnibus bills?

RYAN DAWKINS: I mean, of course, I don't have a crystal ball, so I'm hesitant to try to predict the future too much, but with that said, I would anticipate probably not as much is going to pass as I think either party would hope. The best chances is probably going to be the inspector general reforms dealing with issues of fraud, because there does seem to be at least a bipartisan agreement there that there's a problem. It's just a matter of coming to an agreement as to what the appropriate solution is going to be. Aside from that, I'm pretty skeptical of other measures getting passed.

HOST: Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Professor Dawkins.

RYAN DAWKINS: Thank you for having me. It was nice chatting.

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HOST: After the break, Black women make up about 7 percent of Minnesota's population, but account for 40 percent of domestic violence victims. We'll hear the story of a family looking for justice, and what one organization is doing to help bring those numbers down.

This is North Star Stories, voices from where we live, produced by AMPERS with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. We'll be right back.

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You are listening to North Star Stories. I'm Gracie J.

In other news from across the state, the state's African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act is set to take effect next year. The original intention of the legislation is to remove fewer black children from their homes by tightening the criteria regulating when children are placed in foster care. It also requires social workers to make active efforts to keep families and relatives together. But now some lawmakers want to change some of the new regulations, shift some financial responsibilities from counties to the state and delay the roll-out until 2028. Democrat representative Jessica Hansen says the law is intended to reduce the disproportionately high number of black children removed from their families and placed into the foster system.

REP. JESSICA HANSON: There's unintentional harm happening that can't wait another year to be addressed.

HOST: Republican representative Dawn Gilman proposed the delay, saying it is an unfunded mandate that some counties cannot afford.

REP. DAWN GILLMAN: This is not to slow any progress, but to prevent unintended consequences.

HOST: The changes failed on a split vote in committee but it may be included in a larger bill later this session.

As climate change challenges the Northland, a multi-agency coalition is asking the public to weigh in. The Northland Climate Resilience Collaborative is entering its second year of four … moving from partnership building to community engagement. The project brings together city, state, and tribal governments to plan for climate threats like flooding, forest change and infrastructure needs. Cook County Soil and Water Conservation District conservation technician Stephen Janasie told AMPERS member station WTIP—

STEPHEN JANASIE: Climate change is such a massive issue, so the fact that we're building this relationship between all these organizations is really critical.

HOST: The project brings together city, state and tribal governments to plan for climate threats like flooding, forest change and infrastructure needs.

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HOST: Earlier this month, advocates, families, and Lawmakers gathered at the State Capitol to raise concerns about disparities affecting Black women and girls, and the ways their families are impacted in the aftermath of violence. In 2023, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to create a state agency to address the high rates of violence against Black women and girls. Reporter Katharine DeCelle spoke to a family about their own tragedy and the agency's director about the impact it's having in our state.

KATHARINE DECELLE: In Minnesota, black women and girls face murder rates nearly three times higher than white women. It's not just a statistic. It's someone's family member, and it can happen in a place like this, a neighborhood park.

MAIA YANG: She was out with friends, and it was a nice barbecue. They were playing softball, baseball, kind of like a prom send off as well. So there was many children, uncles, aunts, parents out there.

KATHARINE DECELLE: That's Maia Yang, the aunt of then 19-year-old Amariee Alowonle. On a spring day, Amari joined about 30 other young people and their families at Sanborn Park in Robbinsdale, a suburb of Minneapolis. Later that day, more than 70 shots were fired into the park in a drive-by shooting, injuring one person and killing Amariee. Amariee's Mom, Tatiana Kilgore—

TATIANA KILGORE: A friend called and said Amarie had been shot, and I wasn't really thinking that it was as serious as it actually was, that she would die from it. I still was in disbelief that she just got shot in general.

KATHARINE DECELLE: At the hospital, Tatiana stayed by her daughter's side for four days before she passed, grappling with questions about why this happened, and searching for answers about who was responsible.

TATIANA KILGORE: I'm unexperienced. Nobody's waking up and your kid's getting shot every day, so you don't know what to do in that situation.

KATHARINE DECELLE: Tatiana says in those first days, she expected urgency from law enforcement, answers, direction, support.

TATIANA KILGORE: But when I went back there, the officer is there, but it's like, call me if you need anything. And it's like, I need everything. What do you mean? Call you if I need anything, like I need you to find out what the hell happened.

KATHARINE DECELLE: She believes the investigation didn't receive the attention it needed early on, and that with more resources, Amarie's killer might have been found.

TATIANA KILGORE: It was a motive behind why whoever was shooting and who they were shooting at. I know it wasn't meant for Amarie. She has nothing to do with anything. She's an innocent child, an innocent bystander.

KATHARINE DECELLE: So she stepped into a role she never expected, reaching out to as many young people who were at the park that day as she could, convinced that someone there knows what happened.

TATIANA KILGORE: I was investigating from day one, when I was in the hospital, every information that these kids share with me, I share with the cops, I wanted to know every detail, get every screenshot.

KATHARINE DECELLE: The family began organizing, pushing for visibility, for accountability and for answers. They reached out to Minnesota's Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Office for support. Kaleena Burkes is their director.

KALEENA BURKES: Most of the cases that we received thus far are through referral. Someone in the community knows our office exists, and they connect us with a family.

KATHARINE DECELLE: The office was created in 2023 as a response to community outcry of the disparities black women and girls face in Minnesota. For example, in Minnesota, black women make up only 7% of the population, but 40% of domestic violence victims are black women.

KALEENA BURKES: I don't think black women and girls receive the same media attention. I also think when we look at resources that plays a role too. Law enforcement officers always have to choose whether or not what cases to prioritize, if you mix that with just sort of internal biases and the lack of funding, then that's a reason why there are such large disparities.

KATHARINE DECELLE: Director Burke says their office is not investigative but focuses on supporting families navigating systems that can be difficult to understand in the middle of grief.

KALEENA BURKES: We do provide support to families of homicide victims. It's super difficult, because, like myself, I haven't had a loved one that was the victim of a homicide. But you don't think what the victim left behind, who's going to support them.

KATHARINE DECELLE: Since opening in 2023, director Burkes says that they have provided support for 15 cases of missing or murdered black women or girls.

KALEENA BURKES: One of the best things about this office being open, we've encountered family members and community members that say, oh, someone finally cares. You're giving their voice a platform for families like Amarie's that support matters.

KATHARINE DECELLE: The office worked with Amarie's family to help establish a $10,000 reward for information in Amarie's case. Nearly a year later, and no arrests have been made, Amarie's mom, Tatiana, says the grief is overwhelming. But support from the office has helped her navigate the process and speak out. Recently, the Minnesota State Capitol hosted the Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Day on the hill, where Tatiana shared Amarie's story and called for people to speak up and do the right thing.

TATIANA KILGORE: Hopefully, people are starting to feel the need to speak up more, like even as I do in our community, and I feel like people are afraid to even just do the right thing. It's okay to speak out.

KATHARINE DECELLE: Amarie's aunt Maia says they continue to seek justice for Amarie.

MAIA YANG: Our family is still grieving. We're refusing to give up because we know somebody knows something. We want them to come forward. Amarie's life matters. She is loved and she's missed every single day, and we're going to keep fighting for her.

KATHARINE DECELLE: Amarie's family is working alongside the Robbinsdale Police Department and asking anyone with information about the May 4, 2025 shooting at Sanborn Park to come forward and call the Robbinsdale Police Department. For North Star Stories, I'm Katharine DeCelle.

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HOST: The Somali community has also been dealing with an increase in domestic violence in recent years. Isuroon is a nonprofit led by women with the mission of empowering Somali women in our state. We are joined now by Fartun Weli, the CEO of Isuroon. Thank you so much for joining us today.

FARTUN WELI: Thank you very much.

HOST: So first, explain to our listeners what your organization does.

FARTUN WELI: Our organization name is called Isuroon, a Somali word, it means woman who take care of herself. So its work is culturally and linguistically specific, and we start our services, crisis intervention, move to stabilization programs, and then outward mobility. So it is a journey of the ultimate goal is being financially independent and having a health and human community.

HOST: I believe you've been quoted as saying women are more willing to speak out. Why do you think that is?

FARTUN WELI: We are immigrants, we're black and brown. We also carry an Islamic faith, and we don't see being a Muslim as a barrier. We see it as a strength. We see it as a way to build trust. Sometimes we go against our own communities. Say no, we're no longer being we call it ceeb culture, which means shame culture. We have multi generation right now, college graduates, Gen Z's, millennials who are not being quiet.

HOST: What are some of the services you do offer victims of domestic violence, and how do they differ from those offered by other organizations?

FARTUN WELI: It starts with trust. Community is so important, and when the perpetrator is either a person important in the community, if she speaks against it, she will lose the whole social connection and support she has. That's why we are one stop shop. We will do, put her in a space where she's not losing the community. Number two, galvanize the relatives, the community, the parents. We bring everybody together and say, this is an accusation. This is a belief. This is something that happened to this human being, and we're going to confer to the perpetrator. So also, we don't refer. From day one that she walks in the door and whatever she needs to do, we are right there, with or without money, Isuroon supports the victims and also the family and everyone else around them.

HOST: Your organization also provides services for Drug Abuse Prevention. Do you see a connection between substance abuse and domestic violence?

FARTUN WELI: We do, and the reason is, when domestic violence and sexual abuse are not addressed, we have, right now, we have couple Somali moms that were working with other children. They lost their custody of their kids. And as we hear what was the root causes of the drugs that she's on while she was on the street, when she had six seven kids and she lost custody—we found out it started with domestic violence. It started with financial abuse. So women and girls are being groomed as we speak, financial issues, mental health issues, socially isolated, lack of economic achievement. And then once all those things are happening, if she doesn't have a space that said, "You're right, I believe you. You're not going to be discriminated against." Or in our culture, we're not going to say, "You're lying. You know, you're going to go to hell because you did this. It's your fault." Then what is she going to do? She's going to numb herself. Or even the young people will do the same thing. So there's a huge correlation between drug abuse or drug utilization and domestic sexual violence.

HOST: What do you think it's going to take to break the cycle of domestic violence?

FARTUN WELI: I struggle because part of my dream and my calling is prevention and intervention. What will it take is we have to make sure that racism in the system is addressed. The second thing is, we have to address poverty. Poverty is an issue for women, especially women of color, Native Americans and immigrant and refugee women. I'm not saying there are no other space [?] for non-ethnic women. Poverty associated systems discrimination, a system that was never built for them. We need to recognize that, and we need to build our own spaces that we can do our own jobs and our own way how to deliver culturally specific services. So letting us do what we do best in serving our own kind, and then perhaps we can teach other non-ethnic groups how to serve us better. We cannot have gatekeepers in both the nonprofit worlds, funding worlds, institution worlds.

HOST: That's all the time we have, unfortunately, but truly, thank you so much for your time, Fartun.

FARTUN WELI: Thank you so much for your time.

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And finally, as temperatures are starting to rise, it's the perfect opportunity to get out and enjoy some of our state's best attractions. Nothing says spring in Minnesota like our beautiful waterfalls. Gooseberry Falls State Park, just north of Duluth, is one of Minnesota's most visited state parks and features three incredibly impressive waterfalls. You'll find the tallest waterfall near the Canadian border at High Falls in Grand Portage State Park. The water there drops down 120 feet. If you're in the metro, stop by Minnehaha Falls, which flows into the Mississippi, or try to find Hidden Falls in St. Paul. If you're down south, head underground to see the nearly 60-foot waterfall in Niagara Cave. Or check out Minneopa Falls in Mankato. You can find a list of all the state's waterfalls at ExploreMinnesota.com.

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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.