Star Tribune
Interim University of Minnesota President Jeff Ettinger meets with protesters
University of Minnesota Interim President Jeff Ettinger met Wednesday with members of groups organizing pro-Palestinian protests on the U’s Twin Cities campus.
This is the second straight week of protests on the campus and others nationwide, and the third day that a tent encampment — the second of its kind — has been set up on the grass near the U’s Northrop auditorium.
Protests at the U have been led by a coalition of student groups that are calling on the school to, among other things, divest from companies with ties to Israel, ban some recruiters from campus and release a statement in support of Palestinian students.
The meeting, which had initially been scheduled for about a half-hour, lasted for nearly two hours and ended around noon. The university didn’t immediately release specific details of the meeting but said Ettinger “relayed that it was a constructive meeting and that both groups involved have some things to bring back to their colleagues.”
Ettinger is also working to schedule a meeting with Jewish student organizations on campus, though representatives for both the U and some of the groups said the time is still being worked out.
About a dozen buildings along Northrop Mall remained closed Wednesday, while others on the U’s East Bank campus are accessible only to people with a university ID. Some faculty sent Ettinger a letter urging him to reconsider the closures, saying they feared they would have a chilling effect on free speech and upended the final days of the spring semester. Wednesday is listed as a study day for students, and final exams are set to begin Thursday.
The protests come at the end of the school year while the U is hosting several graduation ceremonies this week and next. The university has not announced any changes to those events.
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Trump’s new demands for a debt limit increase are ”premature.”
”This reckless Republican driven shutdown can be avoided,” Jeffries said. Republicans should ”simply do what is right for the American people and stick with the bipartisan agreement that they themselves negotiated.”
While Democrats have floated their own ideas in the past for lifting, or even doing away with the debt limit caps that have created some of the toughest debates in Congress, they appear to be in no bargaining mood to save Johnson from Trump — even before the president-elect is sworn into office.
”Here we are once again in chaos,” said House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, who detailed the harm a government shutdown would cause Americans. ”And what for? Because Elon Musk, an unelected man, said, ‘We’re not doing this deal, and Donald Trump followed along.”’
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget had provided initial communication to agencies about lapse planning last week, according to an official at the agency.
Late Wednesday, the Republicans floated a new idea for a scaled-back bill that would simply keep the government running and provide the disaster assistance to hurricane ravaged regions.
“MCPA had two totally contrary orders, one to follow federal law, and one from the Legislature to not follow federal law, and they got caught in that trap,” said Hudston Kingston, the legal director of CURE. “Luckily, the EPA is not bound by state law.”
The documents Kingston received from the case end in August. It’s unclear what has happened in EPA’s enforcement case since then.
EPA Region 5 spokeswoman Macy Pressley said the case was still active, but did not answer a list of detailed questions.
Separately, U.S. Steel is arguing in court that it should receive a legal exception to the rule it’s accused of violating.
The standard is allowed in law, but the company has to prove the change won’t harm the rice. In April, MPCA said U.S. Steel had not met that bar and denied the request. The company appealed the decision.
Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, sponsored this bill after she had to pay $500 for a wig because insurance didn’t cover it after she was diagnosed with cancer and began chemotherapy.
“I want to make sure that others who don’t have the resources can get a wig,” Dziedzich said in May. “Research shows that losing hair related to cancer has a negative impact on quality of life. Loss of self-esteem. Do you wear a cap, do you wear a scarf, what do you do?”
Landlords are now prohibited from retaliating against residents who want to establish a tenants’ rights association. Property owners must also keep common areas “reasonably maintained” and the law requires landlords to notify tenants about energy assistance programs for low-income families and individuals by Sept. 30 of each year.
Landlords must now offer alternative housing, or the right to end a lease, if construction delays on new buildings prevent tenants from moving into their units.
