A dozen east-metro school districts are asking voters this fall to renew existing levies or provide new funding for school operations, facilities improvements and classroom technology.
Odd-year elections are popular for school levies, and this year there are 18 tax requests before voters in the suburbs surrounding St. Paul. Ten are for operating money and the remaining eight would fund capital improvements.
Scott Croonquist, executive director of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, which collects levy information from its 40 members each year, said the number of districts asking voters for funding was typical for an odd-year election. Across the metro 20 districts have levies on the ballot.
“I think it is a reflection of the funding system we have in Minnesota,” Croonquist said, noting it was a “partnership” between the state funding and local property taxes. “While the state provides the majority, local referendums provide critical resources.”
Minneapolis StarTribune: Minneapolis police chief announces new leadership team
The Minneapolis Police Department’s front office got a makeover.
New police Chief Medaria Arradondo has tapped deputy chief Mike Kjos to be his No. 2, he announced Monday as part of a shake-up of the department’s top leadership. The moves, which included the naming of three new deputy chiefs, come nearly two weeks after Arradondo was confirmed as the city’s 53rd police chief.
Arradondo was appointed by Mayor Betsy Hodges last month to serve out the unexpired term of Janeé Harteau, who was ousted amid a public uproar over the shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond by Minneapolis officer Mohamed Noor.
Kjos, the only holdover from Harteau’s front office, will become assistant chief. Earlier this year, the popular Kjos took over as deputy chief of patrol after serving as inspector of both the 1st and 4th precincts. A 29-year veteran of the department, he has also worked as a patrol officer and supervisor in downtown, and both the South and North sides.
More than one-quarter of serious cases of nursing home abuse are not reported to the police, according to an alert released Monday morning by the Office of Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services.
The cases went unreported despite the fact that state and federal law require that serious cases of abuse in nursing homes be turned over to the police.
Government investigators are conducting an ongoing review into nursing home abuse and neglect but say they are releasing the alert now because they want immediate fixes.
These are cases of abuse severe enough to send someone to the emergency room. One example cited in the alert is a woman who was left deeply bruised after being sexually assaulted at her nursing home. Federal law says that incident should have been reported to the police within two hours. But the nursing home didn’t do that, says Curtis Roy, an assistant regional inspector general in the Department of Health and Human Services.
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