Star Tribune
Tribal CEO alleges he was fired for speaking out against pot venture
Derek Dorr thought the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe could lose millions in federal contracts and break the law if the tribe got into the marijuana business, and said he brought his concerns to tribal leaders and the U.S. State Department last fall.
Dorr was promptly fired as CEO of tribal-owned Makwa, which handles contracts with the State Department and other government agencies, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week.
“The timing of his discharge was not a coincidence — it was a reprisal,” the suit alleges. “Cannabis remains a prohibited substance under federal law, and Makwa is a company in the business of federal government contracting.”
Dorr is seeking potentially millions of dollars in damages and lost compensation.
A lawyer for Makwa, Molly Ryan, said the company denies the claims and will “vigorously defend the allegations of the lawsuit.”
Several Minnesota tribes have started growing or selling marijuana since the state legalized recreational cannabis last year. Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures (MLCV) is building a 50,000-square-foot cannabis growing facility near Grand Casino Mille Lacs in Onamia and has plans to build more in the future.
The tribe-owned company’s executive said this spring he sees a potentially $100 million opportunity in cannabis.
Tribes have sovereignty to set their own rules around cannabis, but they are still subject to federal law — as are states that have legalized marijuana. However, a lack of federal enforcement guidelines keeps the industry in legal “limbo,” lawmakers wrote earlier this year.
Dorr, who founded Makwa in 2019, said by the time he learned of the band’s cannabis plans, he believed MLCV “had already violated federal law, impacting Makwa’s [compliance] and federal contracts in the process,” according to the lawsuit. MLCV is the parent company of Makwa.
“For the majority of Makwa’s customer base, contracting with Makwa while MLCV was engaged in the cannabis industry would be out of the question,” the lawsuit says, since many of Makwa’s customers are involved in national security.
When Dorr spoke with an official at the State Department on Oct. 11, “the deputy director’s reaction to the possibility of Makwa’s proceeds supporting the development of a cannabis business was extremely negative,” according to the lawsuit.
Dorr was fired Oct. 26, and he declined a severance agreement, according to court filings. His 10-year contract allowed Makwa to fire him with or without cause.
Dorr later filed a complaint with a federal agency and sought a $12 million settlement the company rejected.
“Makwa has not engaged or invested in cannabis-related businesses,” Nicole Truso, an attorney for the company, wrote in a letter in January regarding the proposed settlement. “Mr. Dorr’s fixation on the legality of marijuana at a federal level is misplaced and nonsensical.”
The Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General has taken no action on Dorr’s complaint.
The Minneapolis school board on Tuesday night appointed Lucie Skjefte, chair of the district’s American Indian Parent Advisory Committee, to fill the vacant District 3 board seat in the city’s center.
Her selection ultimately came down to chance.
Skjefte emerged from earlier ranked-choice voting in a tie with Fatimah Hussein, and the two then deadlocked, 4 to 4, in a live board vote before a coin was flipped in Skjefte’s favor.
They were among four finalists to succeed Faheema Feerayarre, who resigned in September, too late for the seat to be placed on the November ballot.
The move throws two new members into the mix as the school board works to erase an anticipated budget deficit and dig into a “transformation process” that could include closing and merging schools.
Greta Callahan, a former president of the teachers chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, won election last week to the District 6 seat.
During an appearance before board members last Thursday, Skjefte, who is a Red Lake tribal member, spoke of her work as an Indigenous graphics designer and as director of operations for the Mni Sota Fund, a community development group that seeks to empower Native people.
She said she’d aim to “reach out and create spaces for every voice, especially for those from historically marginalized communities.”
Star Tribune
What to know about Forest Lake’s Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to serve as defense secretary
In picking Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense, President-elect Donald Trump has selected a military veteran and popular conservative media personality with a large following of his own.
Hegseth, 44, has developed a close rapport with Trump, who also reportedly considered him for a post in his first administration. Hegseth has lobbied Trump to release service members accused of war crimes.
Here are a few things to know about Hegseth.
He’s a Fox News personality and author
Co-host of Fox News Channel’s ”Fox & Friends Weekend,” Hegseth has been a contributor to the network for a decade. He developed a friendship with Trump through the president-elect’s regular appearances on the show. In a statement, a Fox News spokesperson complimented Hegseth’s military knowledge, saying his ”insights and analysis especially about the military resonated deeply with our viewers.”
He’s also written a number of books, several for the network’s publishing imprint, including ”The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.” In announcing Hegseth’s nomination, Trump complimented that book, noting its ”nine weeks on the New York Times best-sellers list, including two weeks at NUMBER ONE.”
Hegseth has served in the military, although he lacks senior military or national security experience.
Election offices in more than half of Minnesota’s counties have been targeted with emailed bomb threats since Nov. 8, the office of the Secretary of State said Tuesday.
The threats come as election workers are still in the process of verifying the results of the 2024 election.
In a statement, Secretary of State Steve Simon said his office is coordinating with local, state and federal partners to “ensure that our election officials can complete this important work and that those responsible for these threats are held accountable.”
“Threats of violence against election workers, aimed at disrupting our democracy, are absolutely unacceptable,” he said.
Turnout was high in Minnesota in 2024, but it was lower compared to the 2020 presidential election.
Unofficial 2024 results show about 76% of registered voters cast a ballot, down from the record-breaking 79.96% turnout in 2020, the office of the Secretary of State said last week.
The unofficial results, however, are higher than the 74.72% turnout recorded in 2016.
