By Max Nesterak | Deputy Editor
Good morning, Reformers.
The Trump administration is loosening federal regulations on marijuana, allowing for research on its safety and medicinal benefits.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued an order that shifts many marijuana products from Schedule I, which includes heroin, LSD and ecstasy, to Schedule III, which includes ketamine, Tylenol with codeine and testosterone.
That will open the door to greater research and provide an effective tax break for businesses that sell medicinal marijuana that is legal under state law.
Jacob Fischler from the D.C. bureau has more.
In related news, the Minneapolis City Council only narrowly voted to decriminalize drug paraphernalia on Thursday. The state legislature already did so three years ago, but Mayor Jacob Frey is expected to veto. (Reformer alum Deena Winter reporting.)
It’s the only example I can think of of the state being more progressive than Minneapolis.
Police ask demonstrators to leave outside of Springhill Suites in St. Louis Park just after 2 a.m. during a noise protest outside of hotels reportedly housing ICE agents Friday, Jan. 30, 2026.(Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
By Brian Martucci
Operation Metro Surge may have cost the Minnesota economy thousands of jobs in January and February.
Federal employment data shows Minnesota lost 5,700 hospitality jobs and 4,400 construction jobs from December to February. The respective declines represent 2.1% and 3% of total statewide employment in those sectors.
North Star Policy Action, a left-leaning research outfit, noted the significant declines in a new report this week.
“Operation Metro Surge caused serious and accumulating harm to Minnesota’s economy,” said Jake Schwitzer, North Star’s executive director, in a statement.
Lawmakers, clergy call for humanitarian release of woman in Texas detention center with ovarian cyst
By Max Nesterak
Minnesota state legislators joined U.S. Rep. Angie Craig to call for the humanitarian release of a 23-year-old Burnsville woman, Andrea Pedro-Francisco, who has been in immigration detention for 77 days while suffering excruciating pain from an ovarian cyst the size of a tennis ball.
“Every day that passes, she is more at risk of permanent harm or death. I call on every (Department of Homeland Security) official to find humanity within themselves and grant Andrea humanitarian parole immediately,” said state Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville, during a Thursday news conference in the Minnesota Capitol.
Pedro-Francisco, whose case was first covered by the Reformer, was detained by ICE on her way to work cleaning houses on Feb. 5 and quickly transferred to Camp East Montana, a crowded, disease-ridden tent detention center outside El Paso, and then to another facility, the El Paso Processing Center.
She has no criminal record or final order of removal.
By Sue Abderholden
Sue Abderholden, former longtime executive director of NAMI Minnesota, is back in our pages writing about how the fraud crackdown risks hurting vulnerable Minnesota residents.
She writes that two of the three “clubhouses” in Minnesota for people with mental illness are at risk of closure. Clubhouses provide people with mental illness a community while also helping them find housing, employment, educational opportunities and social services.
“The program reduces hospitalizations and increases employment, and members have better mental and physical health,” Abderholden writes.
IN OTHER NEWS
Republicans applaud immigrant detention — until it’s in their back yards | Reformer via States Newsroom
Court ruling limiting adult gender-affirming Medicaid coverage could have national impacts | Reformer via Stateline
OH BY THE WAY
About a month ago, a friend told me he had just finished two genealogical projects: applying for Canadian citizenship and membership of the society for Mayflower descendants. He said the Canadian citizenship application was easier.
(I also put in an application to the Mayflower Society several years ago and can confirm their scrupulousness. My admission is still pending because I haven’t gotten around to verifying the identity of one ancestor about seven generations back.)
I turned to my husband and asked him if he thought he was eligible for Canadian citizenship. Didn’t he have a French-Canadian grandpa or great-grandpa?
A week later he had a stack of papers fanned out on the bed including birth records, a marriage certificate and death certificates. He made copies for his sister and cousin, too.
For $55 each, they’re on their way to becoming newly minted Canucks, joining a swell of Americans applying for dual citizenship since our neighbors to the north made more descendants eligible for citizenship. Under a new law, anyone born on or before Dec. 15 can become citizens if they can prove a direct Canadian ancestor.
The Associated Press reports that immigration lawyers have been overwhelmed by thousands of Americans seeking help applying for citizenship since the law took effect.
We don’t have any present plans to move to Canada. Neither does my friend. But who knows …. maybe we’ll hear Montreal or Calgary calling.
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