Good morning, and happy Thursday.
Another group is suing over a law passed by the DFL majority during Minnesota’s recent legislative session. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports: A trade association that represents makers of generic medicines sued Wednesday over a new Minnesota law intended to hold down prescription drug price increases. The Association for Accessible Medicines sued in federal District Court, claiming the price-control law passed this year violates the federal commerce clause. The law took effect on Saturday. This case is just the latest legal challenge to actions taken in the 2023 session. Lawsuits have also been filed around bills approved for higher education, voting rights and campaign finance. In pushing the prescription drug bill, Minnesota lawmakers said they were attempting to stop what they see as excessive increases in prescription drug costs. Among the measures used to determine an excessive spike is when an increase is more than $30 for a 30-day supply or a course of treatment lasting less than that. The new law carries steep penalties — up to $10,000 per day per violation — or requires manufacturers to pay a $500,000 penalty if they pull their products out of Minnesota to avoid compliance. The group representing generic and biosimilar drug makers argue in their case that Minnesota lacks power to regulate prices in this fashion and could harm the supply chain for medication.
For the second year in a row there was late night mayhem in Minneapolis on the Fourth of July. MPR’s Tim Nelson and Matt Sepic report: Authorities in Minneapolis arrested more than a dozen people, including a teenager who fired a fireworks barrage at a Minneapolis police car, during a night of chaos wrapping up the Fourth of July. Minneapolis and park police arrested at least 16 people, almost all of them minors, after a night that police termed a riot at one point. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said officers came under repeated fire from Roman candles and other aerial fireworks among throngs of gawkers. “There were definitely instances of very dangerous behavior, very egregious behavior and it is very frustrating, because it is increasingly challenging to deal with,” O’Hara said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
Months after a ransomware attack on Minneapolis schools, administrators have not delivered on their promise to inform individual victims. Unlike for hospitals, no federal law exists to require this notification from schools. The Associated Press reached families of six students whose sexual assault case files were exposed. The message from a reporter was the first time anyone had alerted them. “Truth is, they didn’t notify us about anything,” said a mother whose son’s case file has 80 documents. The lasting legacy of school ransomware attacks, it turns out, is not in school closures, recovery costs or even soaring cyberinsurance premiums. It is the trauma for staff, students and parents from the online exposure of private records — which the AP found on the open internet and dark web.
A state legislator from northern Minnesota has agreed to plead guilty to a driving while intoxicated charge relating to a February stop near his home. Fourth-term Republican Rep. Matt Grossell filed a petition in late June with a district court in Clearbrook County seeking a stay of any jail sentence, an agreement to be on probation for two years and a fine of $400. Grossel said he has also undergone treatment and would attend a victim impact panel. Grossell, a former police chief, was stopped near Gonvick for speeding by the Minnesota State Patrol. A blood-alcohol content test found him to be at almost twice the legal limit. In his plea petition, he admitted to impairment. The Clearwater County Attorney has agreed to the plea. A judge will have the final say in his sentence.
Duluth officials are celebrating a nearly $8.2 million federal grant that will help rebuild another section of the city’s popular Lakewalk pedestrian and bike trail that hugs several miles of the Lake Superior shore, reports MPR’s Dan Kraker. A series of stor ms in 2017 and 2018 battered the trail, ripping up pavement, strewing huge boulders across the path and eroding the shoreline. This new funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation will help rebuild the most-used section of the Lakewalk, a two and a half mile stretch that extends farther up the lakeshore, past Leif Erikson Park and the city’s Rose Garden, to 26th Avenue East. “This is a grant that is specifically focused on increasing connectivity, decreasing barriers of access, and linking the most incredible natural resource we have with our most important economic development assets behind it,” said Duluth Mayor Emily Larson. Duluth is responsible for 20 percent of the project’s cost, about $2 million.
In a reminder to legislators that they should carefully craft bills, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers used his broad partial veto authority to ensure that state schools will get higher funding for the next 400 years. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports: The surprise move will ensure districts' state-imposed limits on how much revenue they are allowed to raise will be increased by $325 per student each year until 2425, creating a permanent annual stream of new revenue for public schools and potentially curbing a key debate between Democrats and Republicans during each state budget-writing cycle. Evers told reporters at a press conference in the Wisconsin State Capitol on Wednesday his action would "provide school districts with predictable long-term increases for the foreseeable future." Evers crafted the four-century school aid extension by striking a hyphen and a "20" from a reference to the 2024-25 school year. The increase of $325 per student is the highest single-year increase in revenue limits in state history. | 