This from Stribbers Brooks Johnson and Ryan Faircloth, “Newly legal low-dose THC edibles are increasingly easy to find at smoke shops and hemp stores around the metro. But intermingled with the legal products on many store shelves are highly potent delta-8 vapes, gummies and flower – prohibited under state law. Minnesota retailers have little incentive to quit selling non-compliant products given the lack of a licensing structure and dedicated funding to enforce the state’s peculiar legal THC market. ‘The enforcement is almost non-existent’, Jason Tarasek with Minnesota Cannabis Law said at a conference last week.”
At KSTP-TV Richard Reeve reports, “Vikings and Twins fans were gearing up for a pair of games that started just 10 minutes apart, around 6 p.m. Some were walking, but others rode on the light rail. ‘Even with one event, it can be crowded, but with the Twins and that, too, you don’t know’, noted Steve Pepera, from Farmington. ‘Two events, what it’s going to end up like.’ The Minneapolis Downtown Council estimates with two simultaneous games, plus events at the Orpheum and Guthrie Theaters, more than 70,000 people were there. A Twins spokesperson says at Target Field, there was an attendance of 21,781 people. Those numbers are a kind of test for Metro Transit. … Between July 9 and Friday, Metro Transit ran two-car trains on the Blue and Green Lines. It’s part of a bigger plan to address safety concerns, to make the cars cleaner, and to enhance more interaction between riders and Metro Transit Police.”
For KARE-TV Jennifer Hoff says, “The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) says there are no formal talks scheduled with hospital leaders this weekend as negotiations continue in an effort to avert a strike. The 15,000-member union voted this week to authorize a strike, but its leaders are still in discussions about when and if to call one at all. If they do, the union says it would be one of the largest in U.S. history. In that case, so-called rapid response agencies that retain strike nurses will be available to travel at a moment’s notice and are paid well for their time. The MNA says it’s negotiating for better pay and working conditions ‘Our patients are sicker and more complex and our nurses are taking care of more of them at one time than they used to’, said Jill Eliasson, who’s a longtime nurse and head of Travel Nurse Across America that finds travel nurses jobs.”
A BringMeTheNews story says, “Allegiant Airlines has announced it will again offer nonstop flights from St. Cloud to destinations in Arizona and Florida starting in the fall. In a Friday release, Allegiant announced it would offer service from St. Cloud to Phoenix-Mesa Airport in Arizona and the Punta Gorda-Fort Myers in Florida beginning in October and going through May of next year.”
At MPR, Matt Sepic says, “A judge in St. Paul heard arguments Friday over whether a county attorney from western Minnesota may intervene in a high-profile abortion case. Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan found that a number of restrictions on the procedure are unconstitutional in a ruling last month. Traverse County Attorney Matthew Franzese wants to take the case to a higher court after state Attorney General Keith Ellison said he would not file an appeal. … A week after Ellison’s announcement, Traverse County Attorney Matthew Franzese filed a motion to intervene in the case in an effort to appeal Gilligan’s ruling himself. Franzese, who did not make arguments at the Friday hearing, has help from the Thomas More Society, a legal group that often represents abortion opponents.”
In the Springfield (Missouri) News Leader Galen Bacharier says, “Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and a leading election conspiracy theorist, brought out a surprise guest on Sunday morning during his weekend-long ‘summit’ in Springfield: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. … On Sunday, [Lindell] trained his sights onto reporters who were present or published stories about the first day of the event, including the News-Leader, the Springfield Daily Citizen and The Daily Beast. He displayed photos of a reporter and stories on the screen, and said the News-Leader reporter ‘should come up to the stage and we can pray for him.’”
A KSTP-TV story says, “A suspect was taken into custody and there is no further concern for the Pine Island community’s public safety, according to a post from the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office at about 8:20 p.m. Saturday. The Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office was asking residents in southeast Pine Island to shelter in place, according to a post on their Facebook page. A news release sent after 9 p.m. on Saturday said that law enforcement took the suspect into custody after receiving a signed warrant from an Olmsted County judge. SWAT teams then deployed less-lethal rounds, and the suspect returned fire, reportedly striking law enforcement vehicles.”
For the Strib Christopher Vondracek writes, “The first step to buying farmland in Minnesota is probably, well, already owning farmland. It’s expensive and difficult, making the threshold for entry too high and risky for many. Especially if you’re looking at the swath of fertile acres south of the Minnesota River, the growing fields that have spawned household names such as Green Giant. The land there is known for its rich, black, productive soil and doesn’t come cheaply. ‘You aren’t going to find a lot of young farmers buying land themselves,’ said David Bau, agriculture business management educator with the University of Minnesota Extension, speaking from his office in Worthington in mid-August. ‘It’ll probably be their parents who buy the farmland.’”