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State Representative Paul Anderson
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4317
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GUEST COLUMN
Amendments examined, an important new law and more
By Rep. Paul Anderson
The Minnesota Supreme Court, on Tuesday of this week, will hear oral arguments on Secretary of State Mark Ritchie’s title changes to the Photo ID and Marriage Amendment constitutional amendments. It’s hoped the process can be expedited, and the Court will issue its ruling soon. The Legislature passed the two measures during the past session; however Ritchie changed the titles of both amendments.
A new law goes into effect on Aug. 1 pertaining to the sale of synthetic drugs in Minnesota. The penalty has been enhanced to a felony, punishable by imprisonment for up to five years, a $10,000 fine, or both. Previously, the penalty for selling these “designer drugs” had been limited to a gross misdemeanor. The bill also allows the state Pharmacy Board to adopt rulemaking more quickly, in an effort to keep up with drug-makers who make slight changes in the chemical make-up of drugs to avoid having them classified as “illegal.”
Minnesota Speaker of the House Kurt Zellers is pictured on the cover of the current issue of CAPITOL IDEAS, the national publication of the Council of State Governments. The general theme of several of the magazine’s articles revolves around the topic of what services governments can afford to provide. One discusses the ‘new normal’ states are striving for in relation to the services they offer. In another, Speaker Zellers goes one-on-one in answering questions pertaining to recent changes enacted by the Minnesota Legislature.
In addition to civic celebrations, this is also the time of year for county fairs. The Stearns County Fair ended its run Sunday in Sauk Centre. A highlight was the 4-H Livestock Auction Friday evening in the arena. An enthusiastic crowd of bidders was on hand to purchase premiums on an outstanding line-up of livestock, ranging all the way from dairy and beef cattle to chickens and sheep. The Pope County Fair gears up this week in Glenwood with its 4-H auction scheduled for Saturday morning.
There is much talk about the ongoing drought that’s affecting large parts of the country. Conditions farther south – in Missouri, Iowa, and parts of Illinois and Indiana – are bad and some corn fields have already been plowed up or chopped for silage. Minnesota seems to be the “Garden State” as more rain has fallen here … or at least in parts of the state. Southwest Minnesota is still extremely dry, while northeastern areas have received plentiful amounts of rain. Our farm has received rainfall on five separate occasions in the past week or so, but the total amount of all those events has been around one inch. Areas to the north and east have received heavier amounts. Crops on heavy soil are still green, while those on lighter ground without irrigation, for the most part, have dried up and are beyond help.
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