Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday.
More police departments are pulling officers out of schools. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports: On Tuesday, Clay and Hennepin County sheriffs, along with Coon Rapids police, announced that they would pull school resource officers from local schools. The moves come after Anoka and St. Louis counties, along with Moorhead Police, said they would also remove school resource officers due to concerns about a law change. State lawmakers this year approved a broad education bill that bans some physical holds, including prone restraints of students. The law says that school employees and school resource officers can’t physically restrain students in a way that impacts their ability to breathe or voice distress — including holds that put students face down on the ground. Police groups said the law prevents school resource officers from intervening in cases where students destroy property or pose a physical threat. They’re pressing state leaders to return to the Capitol to resolve questions around the policy and how it should be rolled out. “The only way I believe to remedy this is through a special session,” said Minnesota Police and Peace Officer Association General Counsel Imran Ali. “I can't imagine a law enforcement officer in this day and age, a school resource officer having to navigate through all these different legal opinions when it just should be clear.”
DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar says a federal law setting prescription drug-price negotiations in motion is just a start. An element of the Inflation Reduction Act gives Medicare administrators power to work with manufacturers to set prices. The first 10 medications covered by the change were announced Tuesday. They include brand-name blood thinners, diabetes medicine and heart medication. Klobuchar helped push for the negotiating authority. She touted the law’s limit on how much prices can rise in the future and said that the covered drugs will go beyond the initial 10. “Fifteen more next year, 15 more the following year, 20 more in the following year,” Klobuchar said. “So it’s going to be cumulative. They’re going to keep adding more drugs. Me? I might have had more the first year but it was a negotiation among members of Congress, and I’m very happy we got this done.” The pharmaceutical industry is suing, and drug makers warn that research into new medications could be hampered by the price controls.
A former student and former employee have filed a lawsuit against the University of Minnesota over that data breach announced last week. The Star Tribune reports: Attorneys representing the pair argued that the university "knew or should have known" about an array of state and federal laws and other data security measures that "would have prevented the data breach from occurring at all, or limited and shortened the scope of the data breach." "UMN was fully capable of preventing the data breach," attorneys wrote in the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court Friday. The university declined to comment on the lawsuit.
A proposed $10 billion settlement with 3M over contamination of public water supplies is moving ahead after 22 state attorneys general dropped objections to the deal. MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports: The settlement awaiting court approval stems from lawsuits over per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS or “forever chemicals.” PFAS chemicals have been widely used in a range of consumer products, as well as in firefighting foams, and are commonly found in the environment. The chemicals have contaminated water supplies across the country are linked to serious health issues. The company has addressed concerns raised by attorneys general, said Kevin Rhodes, chief legal affairs officer for Maplewood, Minn.-based 3M. “They have withdrawn their objections. So, we're now in a position where the parties believe the settlement is fair for the class members, and the overall agreement is now before the court for preliminary approval.” | 