Good morning and happy Tuesday.
University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel said Monday she is leaving to become chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh, MPR’s Matt Sepic reported. Gabel, the first woman to lead Minnesota’s flagship university, was hired in 2018 from the University of South Carolina. In public interviews for the job, Gabel spoke about the need to address student debt and address public safety concerns. In an open letter Monday, Gabel didn’t detail her reasons for leaving but said the University of Minnesota system was stronger and that its best days lie ahead. She takes over in Pittsburgh in July. She faced criticism late last year for joining the board of St. Paul-based financial services firm Securian while continuing to run the U. Some critics viewed it as a potential conflict of interest with a university vendor.
In other higher education news, MPR reports that Fayneese Miller, the Hamline University president who faced widespread criticism over her handling of a controversy involving an image of the Prophet Muhammad shown in an art history class, will retire at the end of June 2024. Miller had defended the St. Paul school’s decision last fall to not renew the contract of Erika López Prater. A student in López Prater's class appealed to administrators after an image of a 14th century painting of the Prophet Muhammad was shown in class.
President Joe Biden said his efforts to secure federal funding for clean energy projects are creating thousands of Minnesota jobs and encouraging private investment in manufacturing, while at the same time helping to reduce emissions that are causing the climate to change. MPR’s Mark Zdechlik reports during a speech at Cummins Power Generation Facility in Fridley, Biden said bills he helped move through the last Congress are working to improve the nation’s economy. “Federal investment attracts private investment,” Biden said. It creates jobs.” Cummins announced just before Biden’s visit that in addition to adding 100 jobs in Fridley, it is spending more than $1 billion across its U.S. engine manufacturing network in Indiana, North Carolina and New York to update facilities so they can produce low- to zero-carbon engines. The Biden administration noted Minnesota has added more than 185,000 jobs since early 2021. Biden also pointed to 182 projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure law and said private companies have committed to spending more than $2 billion to expand or build new facilities. “The plan is to invest in America, not overseas. In America,” Biden said. “And it’s working.” Republicans reacted to Biden’s visit before he spoke. “In Joe Biden’s economy, the pain is the point. Biden’s out-of-touch agenda is crushing hardworking Americans with higher prices and lower savings and incomes,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “What’s his solution? Send Bidenflation soaring even higher with his $6.9 trillion tax-and-spending spree.”
Top state officials and judges are slated to get back-to-back raises if Minnesota lawmakers follow through on recommendations of a bipartisan council. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports: The salary increases, some of which were folded Monday into a budget bill at the Capitol, include the first raises since 2016 for the governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor and lieutenant governor. The Compensation Council, whose 16 members are appointed by the chief justice of the state supreme court and the governor, recommended the pay hikes in a final report issued Friday. The panel’s report says pay for all of the positions have lagged inflation and salary levels in peer states. The governor’s pay would rise this July and next to an eventual $149,550 from $127,629 now. The others would also see 9 percent more this year and 7.5 percent the next. Among Minnesota’s neighbors, only the South Dakota governor makes less at $118,728. Wisconsin pays its governor $152,756. Judicial pay, where Minnesota tends to pay more than adjacent states, would also go up in two stages after last rising in 2021. Once rolled into a separate bill and fully implemented, district court judges would make about $196,000 and seats on the Supreme Court would pay at least $221,000, with more for the chief justice. The pending increases have caused another partisan rift at the Capitol, echoing past debates that caused a salary standstill in prior years.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals has rejected an attempt by the Traverse County attorney to appeal a judge's decision last year that threw out most of the state's restrictions on abortion as unconstitutional. The Associated Press reports: Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan ruled last July, in a lawsuit filed by abortion rights supporters, that Minnesota's restrictions — including a 24-hour waiting period and a parental notification requirement — violated the state constitution under a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling. Attorney General Keith Ellison angered abortion opponents when he declined to appeal, letting the decision stand. The appeals court on Monday affirmed Gilligan's decision last September that Traverse County Attorney Matthew Franzese failed to meet the legal standards necessary to qualify to intervene in the case so that he could appeal Gilligan's original ruling himself.
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