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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Julie Sandstede (DFL)

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Legislative Update - February 6, 2019

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

 

Dear Neighbors,

I hope you and your family have been able to withstand the bitter cold spell we’ve experienced. If you had the unfortunate experience of having frozen pipes or other damage to your home, the Minnesota Department of Commerce has some tips here.

Despite the cold, here at the Minnesota House, it’s been business as usual with a full schedule of productive committee hearings. On the House Floor Monday, we passed the first bill of the session which would allow homeowners to reject restrictive covenants in their property title based on race, religion, or another protected class. While enforcement of these has clearly been unconstitutional for a long time, this bill will make it easier to have racist language in a home’s historical record removed. As we recognize Black History Month, this serves as a reminder of the past to help us hopefully inform a better future.

Visit with Commissioner Ricker

A week ago Friday, new Minnesota Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker returned to our shared alma mater when she visited our Hibbing public schools. I greatly appreciate Commissioner Ricker taking the time to engage with teachers, students, parents, school staff, and community members to continue building on our state’s excellent schools.

Hibbing High School in particular is an example of what’s possible when we invest in education. HHS holds up to its title as the “Castle in the Wilderness” that we can be proud of both with regard to both the breathtaking physical structure and the results delivered in the classroom. We don’t expect every school to have a grand auditorium like ours or marble staircases, but every student needs the opportunity to achieve, and HHS serves as a constant reminder that we can continue with this vision that our children are our most valuable resource.

In the very near future, our House Education Finance Division will be touring the state to gain a better understanding of how we can deliver the resources needed to ensure every child, no matter where they live, can gain an excellent education.

State Moves to Say “No” To Essar

Last week, the Minnesota DNR gave indications that they are working to debar Essar Global, parent company of the former Essar Steel project, from conducting business with the state of Minnesota. After the many broken promises and manipulation of the process on the part of Essar for many years, this was welcome news. I encourage Governor Walz and his administration to continue monitoring this situation closely, and ensure that when it comes to developing our natural resources, only companies that operate with integrity and in a fully transparent manner get to do business here. Rep. Rob Ecklund from International Falls and I released a statement which you can see here.

Caller-ID Spoofing

Sometime this year, it’s estimated that the percentage of all calls received that are actually spam robocalls will eclipse half. The rapidly rising volume of these calls is made worse by “spoofing” techniques in which scammers will mask their phone number to appear to be from the area code of the recipient.

While the FCC and FTC have attempted to work with telecom providers to stop this practice, more urgent action is needed. I’ve introduced a bill to address this issue by banning the practice of blocking or altering a number on caller-ID to make a telemarketing call. For many of us this is an annoyance; for others, it has grave consequences.

We’ve all heard stories of individuals swindled out of hundreds of dollars, or even thousands, from crooks claiming to represent government agencies, like the IRS, or claiming to be a family member in trouble. For certain businesspeople who mainly communicate by cellphone, it results in untold time lost answering robocalls. Other businesspeople have had their number coopted by robocall spoofers, leading to further headaches. I hope to have this bill before the House Commerce Committee soon.

Opioid Epidemic

Our state’s opioid crisis continues to cause terrible tragedies across our state, with far too many of them happening in northern Minnesota and in our tribal communities. Communities are pleading for solutions to protect Minnesotans from falling into the trap of addiction, and giving those who have the opportunity to recover.

Action is already underway to end this crisis. One bill would create an Opioid Overdose Reduction Pilot Program to help ambulance services deliver some follow-up care to those who experience overdoses. Another bill would create an Opioid Stewardship Advisory Council which would implement comprehensive education, prevention, treatment, and recovery strategies. The council would be funded by registration fees from pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors which, by and large, have escaped responsibility for helping to solve this crisis, even though they have profited a great deal from it. Currently, this fee is a meager $235 for each company. Under the bill, the state Board of Pharmacy could raise $20 million per year to fight the crisis. Families are counting on this help and with bipartisan support, I’m confident we can get this done.

Drill Core Library Tour

Along with key DNR leaders, I got the opportunity to tour the DNR Drill Core Library. The library has over 3 million linear feet of drilled core samples.

 

We also got to observe a new piece of technology on loan to the library. A Corescan imaging machine, acquired with the support of Iron Range Resources, serves as an MRI machine of sorts, able to analyze core samples more efficiently and accurately compared to traditional methods. There are 1,600 samples including gold from International Falls; titanium and vanadium from the Longnose deposit; Mesabi Range stratigraphy; and manganese and cobalt from the Emily District. With gold actively being mined 50 miles across the border in Canada, this could give us a tremendous insight into developing potential new natural resources here in Minnesota.

Please continue to contact me with your ideas, input, or if I can ever be of assistance. It’s an honor to represent you.

Sincerely,

Julie Sandstede

State Representative


Rep. Julie Sandstede
411 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155

www.house.mn/06a
 
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Phone: 651-296-0172
E-mail: rep.julie.sandstede@house.mn
Legislative Assistant: Josh Kilgard, 651-296-3918