Samantha Siedow

The Minnesota House and Senate have voted to respond to the avian influenza epidemic, but they still have to agree on the scope of the effort.

The House included more than $3 million in funding for bird flu prevention in its budget bill, which passed on a bipartisan vote of 130-3 on April 24. Overall, the bill increases funding for the entire agriculture budget by $17 million. 

Commonly referred to as “bird flu,” avian influenza has decimated poultry farms and spread to dairy cows across the U.S. As of April, there have been 70 confirmed human cases in the U.S., with the first reported death in January of this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The Minnesota House passed an omnibus agriculture bill on April 24 that includes a second round of funding for a University of Minnesota seed bank project that university officials say they didn’t have a hand in developing.

The bill would spend $250,000 in each of the next two fiscal years on the project which is meant to create a repository for a variety of seeds, including grains, grasses and legumes, that were grown in Minnesota prior to 1970. Seeds brought to the state by immigrants for crops traditionally grown in their native countries are also meant to be included.

In a push to expand protections against child exploitation as technology advances, the Minnesota Legislature is considering passing a bill to tackle the rise of artificial intelligence-generated child sexual abuse material and child-like sex dolls. 

Currently, it is not illegal in Minnesota to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create images of child sexual abuse or to own sex dolls modeled after children.

SF 1577, sponsored by Sen. Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton, would amend the state's sex offender registry laws and sex crime punishments to include those who create, possess or distribute AI-generated child sexual abuse material. The bill also proposes legal restrictions on the possession of sex dolls resembling children under the age of 12. 

In the face of state budget constraints, the Senate Education Finance Committee has proposed eliminating funding for STARBASE, a program that provides STEM education to elementary school students across Minnesota.

STARBASE Minnesota, a nonprofit organization, provides science, technology, engineering, and math education to students in grades four to six across the state. 

The program offers schools science, technology engineering and math education kits for educators, along with access to free resources and programs. One of its offerings is a five-day field trip for fifth-grade students to learn about STEM careers.

A pilot program that aims to address a shortage of cancer care in rural Minnesota would receive funding under legislation being considered at the State Capitol.

The “rural cancer gap” describes a trend in preventable deaths from cancer being higher in rural areas than in urban communities. Though death rates for cancer are falling overall, rates are falling more quickly in urban areas than rural communities, according to the Rural Cancer Institute.

Supporters say two bills being considered in the Minnesota House and Senate could help significantly reduce the number of teens dying from opioid overdoses.

Minnesota is feeling the effects of a nationwide increase in opioid-involved overdoses after the emergence of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid drug 50 times stronger than heroin. Opioid poisoning rose to be the third highest cause of deaths in youth aged 13-17 over the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a 2024 University of Minnesota study. 

A memorial to Native American military veterans could soon be erected on the grounds of the Minnesota Capitol under a bill that was advanced by a state Senate committee on Friday. 

The measure authored by Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, would create a task force for establishing the memorial at the Capitol.

The 13 member task force would be appointed by the Commissioner of Veterans Affairs and include one veteran from each of Minnesota’s 11 federally recognized tribes.

A proposal at the Minnesota Capitol to increase criminal penalties for people who assault firefighters, paramedics and other emergency medical personnel was aired in a Senate committee after a man received a nine month sentence for attacking a Hennepin County paramedic last July. 

Tyereh Dontrell House received the sentence after throwing a large concrete slab at the paramedic’s head. 

Shane Hallow, a Hennepin County paramedic and the president of the Hennepin County Association of Paramedics and EMTs (HCAPE) said the incident reflects an alarming increase in both the amount and severity of violence faced by first responders on the job.

A program that aims to help small businesses in rural Minnesota and in other parts of the state would get another two-year funding boost under a bill being considered at the State Capitol. 

Legislation sponsored by Sen. Sen. Susan Pha, DFL-Brooklyn Park would renew a $7.4 million “one-time” increase in funding to the Small Business Assistance Partnerships Program that it first received two years ago. That funding was in addition to the $5.45 in base funding allocated to the program.

Nathan Burr, a member of the Minnesota National Guard, went to a resort near Ely called Veterans on the Lake for the first time in 2019 to reconnect with his wife and two young children, fresh from a year-long deployment in the Middle East . 

“I've done four deployments but only one with kids, and it's a completely different thing,” Burr said.

A year later, Burr heard the organization that runs the resort needed board members, and after conferring with his wife, decided to give back to the organization after a stay that had meant so much to him and his family.