Workers sort packages at the Amazon AGS5 facility on October 27, 2022, in Appling, Georgia. Two U.S. Senate Democrats plan to introduce a bill to address quota systems they say lead to injuries for warehouse workers. Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images. WASHINGTON  — Two Democratic U.S. senators announced Thursday they plan to introduce a piece of legislation that would require large companies to disclose quota practices to workers and prevent those quotas from interfering with a worker’s health. “The Warehouse Worker Protection Act would put an end to the most dangerous quotas that plague war ..read more

Getty Images. Two-thirds of Minnesotans say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to the latest public opinion data from the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonpartisan pollster. The survey shows 26% of Minnesotans say abortion should be legal in all cases, with an additional 41% saying it should be legal in most cases. Twenty-four percent say it should be illegal in most cases, with just 6% saying it should always be illegal.  Those breakdowns are similar to U.S. averages.  Minnesota is one of the states that’s most protective of access to abortion. Last ye ..read more

University of Wisconsin-Madison protesters sit around tents on May 1, 2024, as police work to dismantle their encampment on Library Mall. Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner. WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden responded Thursday to weeks of protest on college campuses calling for a ceasefire in Gaza with a brief statement that the right to protest should be protected, but “not the right to cause chaos.” “We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said from the White House’s Roosevelt Room. “In fact, peaceful protest is in the best tradition of how ..read more

UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, about a cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary. Screenshot from committee webcast. I hope Minnesotans read about the testimony of UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty at the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance Wednesday. It’s an eye-opener about the corporate practices of our Eden Prairie health insurance/big data/whatever behemoth.  Witty was on the receiving end of scathing comments from a bipartisan group of senators — and justifiably so.  The health insurer — which kee ..read more

High-voltage transmission lines provide electricity to data centers in Loudon County, Va., home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers. Lawmakers in Virginia and other states are rethinking how incentive programs for data centers may impact the electric grid, clean energy goals and utility rates for other consumers. Photo by Ted Shaffrey/The Associated Press State Sen. Norm Needleman championed the 2021 legislation designed to lure major data centers to Connecticut. The Democratic lawmaker hoped to better compete with nearby states, bring in a growing industry, and provide paych ..read more

The Feeding Our Future trial is being held at the Diane E. Murphy United States Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer. FBI Special Agent Jared Kary heard a park in Circle Pines was closed due to construction, and yet people were getting reimbursed by the federal government after claiming to serve meals to 2,000 children per day there.  The FBI investigation would grow into a sprawling $250 million fraud case, the burly, silver-haired FBI agent told jurors Wednesday. The money was meant to feed hungry children as schools and child care centers closed ..read more

Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, discusses her legislation to ban "junk fees" — undisclosed charges tacked on to a bill at the end of a transaction — ahead of the Senate floor session on May 1, 2024. Photo by Madison McVan/Minnesota Reformer. The Senate passed a bill Wednesday to curtail service charges and undisclosed fees tacked onto a customer’s bill at the end of a transaction.  The legislation would require companies to incorporate any service charges or other non-tax mandatory fees into the prices it advertises. Restaurants would still be allowed to charge a mandatory gratui ..read more

UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, about a cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary. Screenshot from committee webcast. WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill lawmakers from both parties on Wednesday grilled UnitedHealth Group’s CEO over the largest-ever cyberattack on the U.S. health care industry, which has crippled payments to providers and pharmacies and left millions of patients clueless about whether their information is now on the dark web. A Russia-linked cybercrime organization dubbed “BlackCat” infiltrated a vulnerabl ..read more

The Feeding Our Future trial is being held at the Diane E. Murphy United States Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer. The director of Minnesota’s nutrition program testified Tuesday that she became concerned about an unusually high number of reimbursement claims soon after a pandemic relief program started to feed children under looser rules.  Emily Honer, director of Nutrition Program Services for the Minnesota Department of Education, testified all day Tuesday during the first federal trial of seven defendants out of the 70 people charged with de ..read more

At least nine ride-hailing apps have made plans to enter the Twin Cities market since Uber and Lyft threatened to leave over Minneapolis' minimum pay rates. May 1 was supposed to be a big day in Minneapolis for emerging ride-hail companies, with at least nine startups saying they would launch in the Twin Cities and claim the market share surrendered by Uber and Lyft over minimum pay rates for drivers set by the Minneapolis City Council. But nearly two months after the City Council passed those rates — delaying enactment until May 1 and then July 1 — just two transportation network companies a ..read more