By J. Patrick Coolican | Editor in Chief
Good morning, Reformers.
Breaking: Attorney General Keith Ellison has given approval to the North Memorial-Sanford hospital company merger.
This year’s late Labor Day highlights how Minnesota’s archaic law requiring (with some limited exceptions) schools to open after the holiday needs to be changed. The late start is part of the reason our students only receive 165 days of instruction, compared to the national norm of 180. That’s three weeks. (Hour counts here are similarly lower.) Recent literacy and numeracy assessments suggest we have students who could use that extra time.
Laura Yuen of the Star Tribune and I — both parents of young children — have written columns about it in recent years. (Mine, hers, gift link.)
The three weeks also increase the cost child care for working parents. Three weeks is about $1,000 per child, at least.
The powerful State Fair lobby, as well as the lake resorts, will resist the change. The simple compromise is local control. Another key obstacle, however: We can’t expect teachers to work another three weeks without requisite compensation, and as the Strib reports today, 7-county metro homeowners are looking at another round of significant property tax increase.
Alec Stewart, one of the 15 people federally indicted for conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers, speaks during a press conference condemning federal surveillance Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
By Madison McVan
A defense attorney in the conspiracy case against 15 Minnesotans asked a federal judge Thursday to order the government to release more documents related to the Department of Homeland Security’s wide-ranging surveillance campaign of anti-ICE activists, labor unions and nonprofits in Minnesota.
Attorney Kevin Riach, who represents defendant Isaac Sant, asked U.S. District Judge David Schultz to order the federal government to turn over information including downloads of undercover agents’ phones and laptops; all reports related to surveillance of Minnesota unions, nonprofit organizations and activists; and communications between local prosecutors and their bosses in Washington, D.C., among other records.
On the top floor of the federal courthouse in Minnesota — the largest courtroom in the state, according to Riach — nearly every member of the “Minnesota 15” and their attorneys crowded into the space behind the counsel tables, and supporters filled the courtroom. All 15 have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to assault or impede federal agents.
By Peyton Haug
When planting season arrived in the spring, the cost of the fertilizer had nearly doubled from the previous year.
“You know how electric cars have range anxiety? We farmers have nitrogen anxiety,” said farmer Les Anderson.
That’s when Anderson, who previously served as president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, leaned on a product he had spent recent years experimenting with at his Cannon Falls corn and soybean farm — one that departs from traditional sources of fertilizer.
The alternative is made by Pivot Bio, a company selling farmers a self-sustaining, non-synthetic, bacterial source of nitrogen, with the aim to lower the nitrogen levels that are the source of significant water pollution in farm states.
The company moved to Minnesota from California in early 2026.
A good news story from the Reformer!? Yes.
By Michelle Griffith and Alyssa Chen
Dozens gathered at Pearl Park in Minneapolis on Thursday to drop off food, plant trees and assemble care packages for homeless youth in memory of the children and families scarred by the deadly mass shooting at Annunciation Church and School one year ago.
The Annunciation community attended a private service in the church, which rang its bells at 8:26 a.m. — to mark the moment the attack started — to honor 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, who were killed in the shooting.
The shooting wounded 29 other people, and the shooter died by suicide at the scene.
Christine Anderson, whose two grandchildren were at Annunciation the day of the attack, said she spent all Thursday morning at Annunciation helping students decorate cookies for first responders before she went to the public remembrance to join others in healing.
“We have a hopeful path into the future,” Anderson, 73, said. “We are all in this together, and the connectedness I’ve felt with this community has been important to me.”
IN OTHER NEWS
Judge reinstates pause on Trump order limiting mail ballots | Reformer via States Newsroom
Canadian tariffs to further raise prices, a top concern for voters | Reformer via States Newsroom
Trump has widened scope of anti-immigrant policy in second term | Reformer via States Newsroom
Trump vs. the bond market | Ezra Klein show, gift link
OH BY THE WAY
In spite of myself: Enjoy the State Fair.
Thanks to the Reformer team for getting through a newsy week, and especially Deputy Editor Max Nesterak, who is filling in for me until after Labor Day. I’m helping out with newsletters while on vacation visiting family. Where am I? Here’s your clue. They’re from here.
Have a great weekend all! JPC
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