Market Bucks is popular with SNAP particpants but faces GOP opposition as legislators negotiate a state budget.
| | Maria Alejandra Cardona | MPR News 2017 June 17, 2021SNAP farmers market program at risk of losing funding | |
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Good morning, and welcome to Thursday. Today will be partly cloudy with a chance of showers and thunderstorms south. Highs in the lower 80s to lower 90s. Tonight: Mostly clear with lows in the mid-50s to mid-60s. Here's what's happening in Minnesota.
GOP opposes funding SNAP farmers market program
A program called Market Bucks is under threat at the Legislature. The popular SNAP program allows participants to use benefits at farmers markets. It doesn't cost much compared to the overall $50 billion budget, but while Democrats proposed $325,000 for Market Bucks, Republicans didn't budget anything. Nonprofit Hunger Solutions is looking for funding alternatives for the program.
Nicholas Kraus charged with murder, assault in Winston Smith protester's death
Hennepin County prosecutors charged Nicholas David Kraus, 35 of St. Paul, with second-degree intentional murder and two counts of second-degree assault in connection with the death of Deona Erickson. Erickson was among those gathered in Uptown Minneapolis to protest the law enforcement killing of Winston Smith when she was struck by a car that plowed into the demonstration.
Separately, the Minnesota National Guard deployed about 100 soldiers Wednesday night at the request of the city.
Lakeville swimmer Regan Smith is headed to the Olympics
Minnesota's own Regan Smith is crushing the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb. The 19-year-old from Lakeville finished first in the 100-meter backstroke Tuesday, earning her a spot on the U.S. team to compete in Tokyo this summer.
What else we're watching:
River levels are approaching record lows in the state — and they'll likely get even lower. This is just one more sign of the worsening drought we're experiencing during the hottest June on record. Congress approved a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the day the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. This is the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day's creation in 1983. For eight days, about 100 Line 3 protesters occupied one of two spots where the oil pipeline will cross underneath the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota. After an eviction notice, people at the Fire Light Camp left their camp, though several other pipeline resistance camps remain.
— Grace Birnstengel, MPR News | Find me on Twitter @grace__ |
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