Good morning, and happy Friday to you. Here’s the Digest.
1. The Minneapolis City Council is preparing to attach a 5-cent fee to bags at stores in the city. The Legislature passed a law earlier this year preventing the city from banning plastic bags, and the measure is designed to make shoppers bring their own bags. From this story about the proposed ordinance: It requires retailers to collect a fee for any bags they provide to customers, including plastic, paper, compostable and reusable bags. There are exceptions, including bags used to package bulk grocery items, dry-cleaning bags and bags used for carryout at restaurants. Customers who use public assistance to buy food won’t have to pay the fee. ( Star Tribune)
2. Minnesota’s minimum wage for most employers will rise by 15 cents an hour in January. This is the first time that Minnesota’s minimum wage will rise automatically to keep in line with inflation. It stems from a law change in 2014. The floor wage for large employers will rise to $9.65 per hour from $9.50 now. Smaller employers with revenues below $500,000 per year will be required to pay employees at least $7.87 an hour. That’s also the minimum youth and training wages starting next year. (MPR News)
3. The final environmental impact statement for Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project says all proposed paths would all have disproportionately negative effects on American Indians in the state. The report compiled by the state Department of Commerce does not make a recommendation on which route is best for the $2.9 billion project that is proposed to replace a pipeline that runs from northwestern Minnesota to Superior, Wis. The report doesn’t say which is the best choice of the company’s proposed route and four alternatives. (Star Tribune)
4. Leaders of the South Washington County Schools apologized Thursday for a massive, accidental release of private student information sent out in an email attachment Wednesday from the district’s transportation department. The attachment contains names, grades, identification numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, bus routes, pick up and drop off times, pick up and drop off locations, and schools of attendance for some 9,000 students. “Some of the information is classified as private educational data and should not have been sent to the parents of other students in the district,” Superintendent Keith Jacobus told parents in a letter. He described it as an employee error. (MPR News)
5. Republican congressman Erik Paulsen is trying to build support for an overhaul of the U.S. tax code. Paulsen and colleague U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, said that they expect by the end of the year to send President Donald Trump a major tax bill that he will sign. It will lower tax rates for families and businesses, they said, and also make the tax code simpler. But it’s a big job, and there are a lot of hurdles in the way of getting it done. (Star Tribune)
