Star Tribune
Lower Sioux Indian Community has grand opening of $2.3 million industrial hemp facility meant to solve housing shortage using hempcrete
MORTON, MINN. – Eight-foot-tall stalks of hemp swayed in the in a field on the prairie here, ready for harvest. But these plants won’t get anyone high. Instead, they’ll be turned into hempcrete, a building material that members of the Lower Sioux Indian Community hope can solve a housing shortage.
The Lower Sioux Community opened a $2.3 million facility to process industrial hemp in Morton on Thursday. The 10,000 square-foot facility will process hemp grown by farmers on the reservation and turn the woody stalks into building material for homes.
Joey Goodthunder, a tribal member, said he mostly farmed corn and soybeans before growing an interest in hemp five years ago. Hemp comes from the same cannabis species as marijuana, but Goodthunder’s plants are bred to have less THC.
“No, you don’t get high when you walk through the fields,” Goodthunder said, shortly before mounting his tractor and mowing the field of hemp.
Goodthunder said he hopes the Lower Sioux Indian Community’s industrial hemp project can help alleviate a housing shortage of about 100 homes on the reservation. The tribe completed its first hempcrete house, a duplex, this summer. The house had its first two occupants move in last week and is believed to be the first of its kind in Minnesota.
“How cool is it that I plant the seed and I see it going into a wall for homes here?” said Goodthunder, hemp coordinator for the tribe.
At the industrial hemp facility’s opening on Thursday, a worker sprayed hempcrete into a wooden housing frame, using a tool that looked much like a leaf blower. The hempcrete, which looked like sawdust but was wet to the touch, started to clump together in the wall. When it’s dried, the material looks much like particle board.
A block of hempcrete pictured on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. Hempcrete is made from hemp stalks broken up into wood chips and blended with a lime-based binder and water, before being installed onto the structural frame of a building. Members of the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Morton, Minn., said they hope hempcrete building materials can help with a housing shortage. (Jp Lawrence)
“It is super strong,” said Danny Desjarlais, hempcrete construction project manager for the Lower Sioux Community. Desjarlais, 39, said he has worked in construction for much of his life. He said he’s been obsessed with hemp, which he believes is healthier for the environment than current building materials, for three and a half years.
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.
