Star Tribune
Minnesota Senate passes marijuana legalization bill
The Minnesota Senate cast its first-ever vote to legalize recreational marijuana on Friday, pushing the proposal closer to becoming law than ever before.
Senators passed the DFL-led marijuana bill on a 34-33 vote, with all Democrats voting for it and all Republicans opposing it. The House approved its marijuana bill on Tuesday. Both the House and Senate bills now head to a conference committee where their differences will be reconciled into a final version.
“Minnesotans are ready. Attitudes are changing. Now is our time to undo decades of ineffective and damaging prohibition,” said Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, who sponsored the marijuana bill and wore a bright green suit to commemorate Friday’s vote.
Republicans argued that legalizing marijuana will do more harm than good, leading to worse rates of addiction and traffic fatalities.
“This bill simply isn’t enough. Not enough for public safety, not enough for public health, and our local governments are really, really at the bad end of the stick of this,” said Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks.
DFL Gov. Tim Walz has said he will sign the marijuana bill if it reaches his desk. Once the two bills are merged, the House and Senate will hold final votes on the compromise version.
Both bills would allow Minnesotans 21 and older to buy up to two ounces of cannabis flower, eight grams of concentrate and 800 milligrams worth of edible products at one time. Adults could also grow up to eight cannabis plants at home.
Differences to be worked out include issues around at-home marijuana possession and the tax rate for products.
Under the Senate bill, Minnesotans who grow their own marijuana could possess up to five pounds of consumable flower in their homes, while those who acquire their marijuana elsewhere could possess no more than two pounds.
The House bill imposes a private possession limit of 1½ pounds across the board.
Senate Democrats are also proposing a higher tax of 10% on cannabis products, while the House bill would enact an 8% gross receipts tax over the next four years.
The Senate bill would allow cities to cap the number of dispensaries within their limits, while the House version would not.
Freshman Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, successfully offered amendments Friday granting more money to law enforcement for drug recognition training and allowing cities to impose an even tighter cap on the number of marijuana businesses within their limits.
Hauschild pitched another amendment that would have increased the proposed tax on cannabis products from 10% to 12%, and then phased up that rate by 1% each year starting in 2028 until it reached 20%. That amendment failed, with both Democrats and some Republicans expressing concern that a higher tax could keep the black market alive.
“If the state of Minnesota approaches this and makes it so expensive and so costly and adds so much tax to it, then we might have the unintended consequence of exacerbating that illicit market even more, which we know is not going to go away entirely,” said Sen. Zach Duckworth, R-Lakeville.
DFL Sen. John Hoffman of Champlin successfully amended the bill to increase funding for addiction prevention, treatment and recovery.
Republican senators said the marijuana bill isn’t ready for prime time. They said more resources are needed to address negative impacts on public health and highway safety, and cities need more regulatory controls.
“We don’t have a reliable road test — that is key — for driving under the influence of cannabis,” Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, said during a Friday morning news conference. “Our law enforcement are against this bill.”
Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, said legalizing marijuana is a “racial justice issue” for people who have cannabis-related convictions on their records. Expunging those Minnesotans’ convictions, she said, would make a “world of difference” for them.
The bill would automatically expunge misdemeanor marijuana charges and form a committee to consider expungement of felony-level cannabis crimes.
“People should know that these convictions have a long, lingering effect on people’s lives,” Verbeten said. “This is what this bill is about. It’s about writing those past wrongs.”
The Lynx are in the hot seat.
The team lost Game 3 of the WNBA Finals series against the New York Liberty on Wednesday night 77-80, setting the stage for a decisive match at Target Center on Friday night. Fans in the arena reacted with resounding disappointment after Sabrina Ionescu sunk a three-pointer to break away from the tie game and dashed the Lynx’s chance at forcing overtime.
Before we get to the reactions, first things first: The Lynx set an attendance record, filling Target Center with 19,521 spectators for the first time in franchise history. That’s nearly 500 more than when Caitlin Clark was in town with the Indiana Fever earlier this year.
Despite leading by double digits for much of the game, the Lynx began the fourth quarter with a one-point lead over the Liberty and struggled to stay more than two or three points ahead throughout.
The Liberty took the lead with minutes to go in the fourth quarter and folks were practically despondent.
Of course, there were people who were in it solely for the spectacle. Nothing more.
The Lynx took a commanding lead early in the first quarter and ended the first half in winning position, setting a particularly jovial mood among the fanbase to start the game.
Inside Target Center, arena announcers spent a few minutes before the game harassing Lynx fans — and Liberty fans — who had not yet donned the complementary T-shirts draped over every seat.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
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