MPR News PM Update
Sept. 7, 2021

Welcome to back-to-school season!

On day one of the new academic year for many, schools and parents face another challenge: A lack of bus drivers. 

Hundreds of thousands of Minnesota students are headed back into classrooms — as the pandemic still casts a shadow over elementary and high schools and as some districts are struggling with bus driver shortages. 

In Minneapolis, the district is offering $3,000 hiring bonuses and telling parents it will pay them to drive their kids to school. For St. Paul schools, a bus contractor dropped 40 routes in the last week, prompting the district to scramble for transportation. Read more on the driver shortage and how schools are coping with it from education reporter Elizabeth Shockman.

After a judge rejected the previous language, the Minneapolis City Council drafted additional language for the ballot question on replacing the Minneapolis Police Department.

Just ahead of a looming deadline for ballots to go to the printer. a county judge struck down ballot language that aimed to remove and replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new agency, saying the wording was misleading and unworkable.

The City Council convened for an emergency meeting to revise the language this afternoon and submitted the new draft minutes before the deadline. Read the full ballot language and more here.

Subscribe to our Minnesota Today podcast to get up-to-date Minnesota news twice daily. — Jiwon Choi, MPR News

 
Lawsuit: GOP donor offered money to hush girl he trafficked
Anton Lazzaro, a prominent Minnesota GOP donor who is charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking, is now being sued by an underage girl who was one of his alleged victims.

Following the allegations Minnesota GOP chair Carnahan steps down
 
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Two decades after 9/11, Muslim Americans still fighting bias
Muslim Americans who grew up under the shadow of 9/11 have faced hostility and surveillance, mistrust and suspicion. In the 20 years since the terrorist attacks, they've also dealt with questions about their Muslim faith and doubts over their Americanness. But they've also found ways to fight back against bias.
 
Edina police: Toddler's body recovered from water by Rosland Park
Officials had been searching for 2-year-old Iklas Abdullahi Ahmed, who’d wandered away from her family during a park outing Monday afternoon. Edina police Tuesday said a water rescue team located the girl’s body in water adjacent to Rosland Park.
 

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