Star Tribune
Minnesota pharmacies want permission, funding to administer vaccines post-pandemic
Pharmacies received emergency authority during the COVID-19 pandemic to vaccinate most Minnesotans, and now they want funding and permission to make that gig permanent.
Leaders of Minnesota’s struggling independent and small chain pharmacies gathered with DFL lawmakers Tuesday at the Capitol to advocate for the expansion, arguing that it would preserve vaccine access in rural and urban areas and help keep pharmacies in business. Bipartisan bills cosponsored by 25 lawmakers would allow pharmacies to provide flu and COVID-19 vaccines to anyone 3 and older, and other recommended vaccines to anyone 6 and older. They also would engage in practice agreements with doctors that would allow them to collect lab specimens, interpret basic test results, and modify or discontinue drug therapies.
The medical landscape has changed since the pandemic, and some clinics are relying on their local pharmacies to take on more vaccinations, said Jason Miller, clinical program manager for the Coborn’s pharmacy chain. Many clinics didn’t want to risk purchasing much of the COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year when it switched from being federally funded to commercially available, he said, so families had to go to pharmacies if they wanted those shots.
“We would take a significant step backwards in terms of access to care for residents in Minnesota” if the legislation isn’t passed, Miller said.
Even before the pandemic, pharmacists could provide flu shots to Minnesotans 6 and older, and other recommended vaccines to people 13 and older. But they received permission under a federal emergency order to provide COVID-19 and other vaccines to those 3 and older during the pandemic, and to empower pharmacy technicians to administer the jabs. The terms of that federal order are slated to expire at year’s end.
The legislation would also ensure that pharmacists are paid by Minnesota’s Medical Assistance program at the same rate as doctors to administer vaccines and basic tests for strep and other infections. The program for low-income Minnesotans and those with disabilities provides health benefits to roughly one-fifth of the state’s population.
The proposal is one of three that DFL lawmakers championed Tuesday to stabilize Minnesota’s pharmacy industry, which has lost a third of its independent pharmacies and a fifth of its small chain pharmacies since 2018. Other bills would increase the payment rates by which pharmacies are paid for dispensing medications and administering basic health care services. Fiscal notes estimate the three bills combined would cost a total of nearly $2 million next year and $3.4 million the year after that.
Customers of St. Paul Corner Drug stood with pharmacists and lawmakers to advocate for the changes, citing problems they had getting their medications when their health plans switched them to chain or mail-order pharmacies. Dave Little, 74, said his local pharmacy was much more helpful filling his prescriptions to manage glaucoma and prevent stroke, and that a mail-order company had a “glitchy” website and “illogical” policies that made him jump through hoops to get refills.
“At my age, you start to lose your ability to jump through hoops,” he quipped.
The Minnesota Medical Association, representing the state’s doctors, said in a statement that it supports the financial relief for pharmacies but believes pediatric vaccinations are best provided during well-child visits with doctors. As a compromise, the legislation would prevent pharmacists from providing vaccines other than COVID and flu to preschoolers, and require them to counsel parents about the benefits of well-child visits.
Star Tribune
US confirms North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for training and possible Ukraine combat
WASHINGTON — The U.S. said Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, calling the move very serious and warning that those forces will be ”fair game” if they go into combat in Ukraine.
The deployment raises the potential for the North Koreans to join Russian forces in Ukraine and suggests expanded military ties between the two nations as Moscow seeks weapons and troops to gain ground in a grinding war that has stalemated after more than two years.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called it a ”next step” after the North has provided Russia with arms, and said Pyongyang could face consequences for aiding Russia directly. His comments were the first public U.S. confirmation of North Korea sending troops to Russia — a development South Korean officials disclosed but was denied by Pyongyang and Moscow.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. believes that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers traveled by ship to Vladivostok, Russia’s largest Pacific port, in early to mid-October.
”These soldiers then traveled onward to multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Kirby said. ”We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability.”
Kirby said they could go to western Russian and then engage in combat against Ukraine’s forces, but both he and Austin said the U.S. continues to assess the situation.
Exactly what the North Korean troops are doing in Russia was ”left to be seen,” Austin told reporters in Rome.
He added: ”If they’re co-belligerents, their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue, and it will have impacts not only in Europe, it will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific.”
A 36-year-old Alexandria man was sentenced to about four months in jail after pleading guilty to secretly recording employees at a hospital where he previously worked as a custodian.
Corey R. Johns was arrested in May 2023 and charged with one gross misdemeanor count of interfering with privacy. He pleaded guilty in June, and on Monday Douglas County Judge Michelle Clark sentenced Johns to 364 days in jail.
Johns will serve 120 days in the Douglas County Jail and have the remaining 244 days stayed for two years of probation. Clark also ordered Johns to attend a sex offender treatment program. He was ordered not work in a location where women routinely change clothes, possess pornographic material or have unsupervised contact with vulnerable adults or anyone under the age of 18.
According to the criminal complaint filed against Johns, Alexandria police responded to a call at Alomere Health in May 2023 after three female employees found a phone propped up by a shoe and pointed toward the changing area in a locker room. Before police arrived, Johns asked the women to give his phone back to him, the complaint states.
Johns told police he started recording employees in February and had also recorded in a co-ed locker room. At the jail, staff found a pen on Johns that he said was another type of recording device he had used, according to the complaint.
After the arrest, a spokesperson from Alomere Health said Johns was no longer affiliated with the organization.
“The safety and security of our staff has always been of the utmost importance. We are devastated that this has occurred and even the thought of this behavior by anyone is reprehensible,” the spokesperson said in a written statement. “The Alomere Health Human Resources team is working directly with employees who may have been impacted.”
Star Tribune
Nearly 10-year term for man who posted pic of him driving 150 mph before causing fatal wreck
A man has received a nearly 10-year term for documenting himself driving 150 miles per hour and posting his feat on social media moments before he crashed into the rear of another car southeast of St. Cloud and killed a passenger in the other vehicle.
Hunter M. Buckentine, 24, of Avon, Minn., was sentenced Monday in Sherburne County District Court after pleading guilty to criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the collision about 1:10 a.m. on Aug. 19, 2023, along Hwy. 10 in Clear Lake Township.
With time in jail after his arrest, Buckentine is expected to serve the about 6¼ years of his 9⅔-year term in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Buckentine was heading west on Hwy. 10 near SE. 97th Street in his Infiniti Q50 and struck a Chevy Cobalt from behind, according to the State Patrol. The impact sent the Cobalt into a ditch to the right, where it rolled several times, the patrol said. Buckentine’s car left the road, caught fire and hit a line of trees.
The Cobalt’s passenger who died was identified as Jordan D. Kramer, 34, of Clarissa, Minn. Kramer died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt, the patrol said. Another passenger, Candice C. Pooler, 39, also of Clarissa, sustained critical injuries, according to the patrol. The Cobalt’s driver, Lindsey K. Soiseth, 35, of Lake Lillian, Minn., also survived her injuries.
Also suffering noncritical injuries were Buckentine and his passenger, 21-year-old Trenton C. Michels, 22, of Becker, Minn., the patrol said.
Court records show that Buckentine’s driving history includes three convictions for speeding and another for careless driving in connection with him crashing his car in May 2022 east of St. Cloud in Santiago Township.
