Author: News Desk

WASHINGTON – The Democrats battling for Rep. Angie Craig’s congressional seat are locked in a last-minute scramble for delegates – but it’s not certain any of them will win the coveted DFL endorsement.

State Sen. Matt Klein, former state Sen. Matt Little and state Rep. Kaela Berg are all wooing the 186 DFLers who will gather in an auditorium in Burnsville High School on May 9 to determine their favored candidate.

Craig is vacating her House seat because she is running for U.S. Senate, and that set off a hot race among DFLers who have experience representing parts of that district in the state Legislature.

But since at least 60% of the votes are needed to win their party’s endorsement, all three Democrats may walk away empty handed.

And if there’s no endorsed candidate, it is probable that all three will continue to battle each other for a chance to win August’s DFL primary. That means a long summer of heated — and costly — campaigning is likely ahead.   

Related: Minnesota DFL bill aims to withstand legal challenge over whether people can sue federal agents

Little, however, is confident he’ll take home the prized endorsement. He says he has commitments from 56% of the delegates and party officials who will cast their ballots at the district convention and accuses rivals Klein and Berg of colluding to thwart his efforts to reach the threshold of 60% support.

“Matt Little has a loose relationship with the truth,” said Ava Wampold, Berg’s campaign spokeswoman.

Wampold also said Little’s delegate count “is unfounded and dishonest” and that Berg’s campaign is confident that she will win the endorsement.

Klein’s campaign also said it doubted Little’s delegate count.

Yet Little won the DFL’s 2^nd District precinct caucus straw poll in February and his time as Lakeville mayor and a term in the state Senate has given him name recognition in the state, said Dan Hofrenning, a political science professor at St. Olaf College.

Democrats likely, but not certain, to win

The 2^nd Congressional District includes the south Twin Cities metro area and runs south nearly to Mankato, encompassing all of Scott, Dakota and Le Sueur counties as well as parts of Rice and Washington counties.

Craig, who positioned herself as a moderate Democrat in the U.S. House, has represented that district since 2019. But, for nearly 20 years before that, the district was represented by Republican lawmakers.

Related: D.C. Memo: As the midterm races heat up, so does the campaign fundraising

Demographics, and Craig’s determination to keep the seat in her party’s column by crossing the line and supporting GOP initiatives from time to time, has turned a “purple district” into one that leans Democratic.

In midterm elections, the party out of power in the White House is usually favored, giving Democrats a likely historical lift in November.

President Donald Trump’s falling approval ratings, the unpopularity of the war with Iran and persistent inflation are also issues expected to help Democrats, who may wrest control of the U.S. House from the GOP in the midterms.

Yet a Democratic win in the 2^nd District, while likely, is not assured.

Hofrenning said the 2^nd District is a “bellwether” and the results of the race will show whether Democrats have a sweep election in November.

Republicans seeking the seat include state Sen. Eric Pratt of Prior Lake and, until recently, Tyler Kistner. Kistner — who has run against and lost to Craig — left the race after the Marine Reserves activated him earlier this month for deployment to the Middle East.

Kistner’s departure prompted another Republican candidate to enter the race, business owner Jeremy Westby, who was running in the neighboring 3^rd District and switched over to enter the 2^nd District race.

But the real contest right now is among the Democrats who want Craig’s seat.

Following Craig’s playbook  

Klein, 58, is a Mayo Clinic doctor who said he served his last shift at the hospital on Feb. 1 so he could campaign.

He is the most moderate of the Democratic candidates running for Craig’s seat and considers himself a “Blue Dog” in reference to a group of conservative and moderate Democrats whose numbers have rapidly shrunk in Congress.

Klein said he is running, like most other Democrats, on the issue of “affordability,” especially when it comes to health care.

He said his biggest accomplishments in the state Senate are pushing through legislation that “kicked payday lenders out of the state” and his efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable.

Related: DFL on the offensive as the Legislature returns

He said he would campaign for the 2^nd District seat, and represent it, like Craig, who sought bipartisanship when possible. “She wrote a playbook and I’m trying to follow it,” he said.

His campaign said Klein will keep running for Craig’s seat even if another Democrat wins the party’s endorsement. “We are going to the (August) primary,” said campaign spokesman Dominic Ciresi.  

Klein said his 35 years as a doctor is a “political asset.”

“Doctors are adept at building relationships of trust with people of all different backgrounds,” he said.

He also said his life in medicine has given him “a deep understanding of health care delivery.”

Recently, Klein was scrutinized for placing a $50 bet on the predictive market Kalshi that he would win his race.

Klein said his friends told him there were bets on the Democratic contest in the 2^nd District and he placed his wager out of curiosity. He said he was told in March that his bet was a violation of the platform’s rules, agreed to a 5-year suspension and paid a $540 fine.

Before learning of his violation, Klein had sponsored a bill to limit certain prediction market activity.

While he hopes the 2^nd District will remain in Democratic control in midterms that favor his party, he said he cautions people against becoming “overconfident.”

“November is an eternity away,” Klein said.

He lives with his wife Kris in Mendota Heights and has two adult sons.

In the clouds and the statehouse

Berg, 52, who considers herself a progressive Democrat, said experience as both a state legislator and a working flight attendant who has struggled financially gives her an edge in the race.

She said she lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Burnsville, had no health insurance during the pandemic, has had to buy groceries for her two sons from a dollar store and cut prescription medication in half to make it last longer.

An active union member, Berg has positioned herself as an alternative to the “multimillionaires” whom she says dominate Congress and can, because of her background, excel at promoting the Democratic proposals to bring down the cost of living.

“People are ready for a different type of candidate,” she said.  

After three first responders were fatally shot in Burnsville in early 2024, Berg sponsored legislation in the state House that would increase the penalties for  those who make “straw purchases,” or buy a gun for someone else who is not allowed under the law to own one. The gunman who killed the first responders obtained his weapon through a straw purchase.  

Berg also sponsored legislation that banned “binary triggers,” which fire one round when a trigger is pulled and another round when the trigger is released.

A delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during the 2016 presidential election, Berg said, “I’m definitely a progressive.”

Related: Explaining GOP and DFL points of view on fraud

But she also said the more moderate Craig was deft in the way she ran for re-election and cast votes in Congress. “She created a pathway for a more progressive candidate to take the seat,” Berg said.

She also said she would make a decision about continuing her campaign after the May 9 convention.

Berg has the backing of Emily’s List, a political action committee that helps elect Democratic female candidates who support abortion rights. That could help Berg’s campaign fundraising and provide experts in communications and in training and recruiting campaign staff.

While Little and Klein are both pro-abortion rights, Yari Aquino, who helps advise candidates for Emily’s list, said Berg “meets the moment that we are in.”

Fighting ICE on TikTok

Little, 41, an attorney who specializes in personal injury and malpractice cases, raised his profile during Operation Metro Surge.

He spent one or two days a week following federal immigration agents and posting some of those encounters on TikTok, including one of ICE agents converging at his home in New Market Township.

Another TikTok video featured Little’s wife, Coco, who said she had to carry her U.S. passport to the grocery store because the Trump administration “is targeting people like me.”

Confident that he will be favored at the DFL district convention, Little is asking his Democratic rivals to quit the race if he — or anyone else — wins the endorsement.

“I will abide by the DFL Party endorsement, and I call on all the candidates in the race to abide,” Little said. “We need a united party to win this seat and take control of the House in November.” 

Little said he differs from the other Democrats running for the 2^nd District seat by being “the strongest” on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the only candidate who has publicly called for an end of U.S. military help to Israel.

He also said that, during his single term in the state Senate, he represented “difficult” areas of the district for Democrats, including Lakeville and southern Dakota County, which would help him win a race against a Republican opponent.  

As for why he’s running for Congress? Little said he wants his young daughter to know he was fighting “when everything was going wrong.”

The post Klein, Little and Berg hunt for DFL delegates as they wrestle for 2nd District seat appeared first on MinnPost.

WASHINGTON — Ryan Kopperud, the vice president of a Duluth-based cider company that makes THC-infused drinks, said a federal ban on the popular beverages slated to go into effect in November is already taking its toll on what has become a booming industry in the state.

“We are starting to feel the pressure and contraction already, and it’s only going to get worse through the summer,” he said. “We are racing towards a cliff.”

Last November, Congress outlawed hemp-infused edibles — including drinks, gummies and even some CBD products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. The ban, contained in a massive spending bill to fund the federal government, gave the industry a year to adjust to the restrictions.

But the industry pushed back, and its allies in Congress have sponsored a number of bills in an effort to keep what’s become a $30 billion-a-year industry alive.

Related: Going undercover, young customers went uncarded in 1 in 3 attempts to buy hemp-derived THC in Twin Cities

Next week, for instance, the U.S. House will consider an amendment to the farm bill sponsored by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., that would push the date of the new restrictions for  another year.

Another Kentucky Republican, Rep. Andy Barr, may also try to amend the farm bill with legislation that would allow the continued sale of THC-infused edibles but outlaw “artificial” or “synthetic” THC that does not exist in the hemp plant. Barr’s bill would also set a national cap on the potency of products.

In addition, the legislation would require producers of THC edibles to be licensed, set age restrictions and implement a ban on marketing strategies that could appeal to children.

To Kopperud, whose company, Wild State Cider, produces the Birdie and Odder brands of hemp-derived THC, Congress’ new restrictions were aimed at “bad actors” who sold products of dangerously high levels of THC — often with the use of “artificial” THC — and sometimes marketed those products to children.

But he said Minnesota assiduously regulates hemp-based THC products, setting limits on potency — for drinks it’s 10 milligrams of THC — and implements testing and age restrictions.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a bill this week that would protect the states that allow the sale of hemp-derived products, like their home states. The legislation would allow these states to “opt out” of the new federal hemp regulations and allow THC-infused products that are produced in one state to be sold in all other states that also allow THC edibles and drinks to be sold.

“I’ve heard loud and clear from brewers, farmers, and small businesses in Minnesota — a federal ban on hemp products will be devastating,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “Minnesota is a national leader in hemp products, and Congress should recognize that leadership and commitment to consumer safety.”

Jonathan Miller, general counsel at the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, said the Klobuchar-Paul bill “comes at a critical moment.”

“This legislation would provide invaluable protection for farmers, small businesses, and consumers who rely on these products for their health and wellness,” Miller said.

Klobuchar is also a co-sponsor of a bill that would delay implementation of the hemp regulations for two years.

Other bills supportive of the hemp industry and the THC-infused edibles industry have also been introduced, but they have not had much traction and a lot of pushback.

The marijuana industry, whose products are legal to all adults in 24 states but not legal under federal law, seeks a “level playing field” with the hemp-made products that were made legal in the 2018 farm bill. (Just this week, the Justice Department took the unusual step of reclassifying medical marijuana from a highly restricted Schedule I drug to a much less restricted Schedule III drug.)

“Congress has already settled on the issue,” said Cory Harris, a marijuana industry lobbyist, referring to Paul’s unsuccessful attempt to strip out the hemp-language in November’s spending bill. 

Harris said hemp contains cannabinoids and he hoped Congress would not consider hemp “a less intoxicating cousin” to marijuana.

While producers of hemp-THC infused products like Kopperud hope to counter a looming threat to their businesses in the farm bill next week, Harris said there’s no chance of that happening.

“I don’t see any changes to hemp policy being made on the floor in the farm bill,” he said.

The nation’s alcoholic beverage makers, who have seen sales drop as young Americans drink less alcohol, also joined the marijuana lobby in trying to rein in THC-beverage and edible manufacturers.

If the reclassification of hemp goes into effect Nov. 13, Minnesota consumers will still be able to purchase THC-infused drinks and gummies. But big retailers like Target will no longer have them on their shelves.

And selection of these products will be limited.

For Kopperud, who now sells his beverages in 18 states, the new ban on interstate commerce would be devastating.

Related: Hemp industry fighting federal ban with bills to regulate, not outlaw, THC gummies and drinks

Manufacturers of THC-infused beverages and gummies in Minnesota would also face hurdles securing financing and access to capital since they would be manufacturing products that are illegal under federal law.

And the federal alcohol licenses of breweries that make many of the THC-infused drinks and distributors might also be at risk.

There’s talk of having a carveout from the new restrictions for THC-infused beverages. Harris said that “over time” that might happen, but not before the new restrictions are put in place in November.

Meanwhile, Kopperud and others in his industry are hoping consumers of their products are lobbying lawmakers. And they are preparing for the worst.

“People will go bankrupt,” Kopperud predicted. “This is an economic extinction and it is coming.”

In other news:

▪️ State government reporter Cleo Krejci has a story about the onslaught of lawsuits spawned by Operation Metro Surge and what happened to them. 

▪️ Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, a master campaign fundraiser, has benefited from donations collected for her by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as have many lawmakers. But a growing number of Democrats are distancing themselves from that pro-Israel lobby.

▪️ The Minneapolis City Council might not agree on much, but Metro reporter Trevor Mitchell found that they were united on one thing – they would like to approve the mayor’s appointments.  

▪️ Data reporter Shadi Bushra writes about a Lakeville-area programmer who has created an app that summarizes bills in the state Legislature into plain English and translates them into more than 30 languages to promote greater civic engagement. 

Please send any comments or questions. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.

The post Minnesota’s THC beverage makers hoping House will nix ban on their products in next week’s farm bill vote appeared first on MinnPost.

Over the past few years, Kentucky sheep farmer Daniel Bell has been expanding his flock. Eventually, that meant he needed to build a new barn. His land is far from the power lines he’d need to heat it, so he figured rooftop solar would be ideal.

To help pay for it, he wanted to apply for a renewable energy grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP — only to find that the Trump administration had effectively halted grants through the program. Bell said that made it impossible to proceed with the idea on his land.

“For me, it’s just been about freedom. Freedom to lower bills, freedom to control my own assets,” he said.

Many farmers work on the thinnest margins, fighting to stay profitable. Some, looking to cut costs on electricity, turn to the federal government for a little extra cash to help them install solar panels on top of barns, grain elevators, or offices. Others turn to commercial renewable energy leases as both an alternative income stream and a way to put fallow land to work.

Within the first year of President Trump’s second term, two federal programs critical to the growth of solar energy production — the REAP grant and loan program and the clean energy tax credit — have been rolled back. To document how those policy changes are affecting farmers, The Associated Press and Grist analyzed data on both commercial-scale solar projects and small-scale rural energy development across the country. They found that, so far this fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture hasn’t awarded a dollar in rural energy grants or loan guarantees. Reporters contacted roughly a quarter of the nearly 300 developers that have proposed projects on agricultural land in the last two years, and found that they are either preparing their businesses to do future projects without federal support, or have already lost millions in investment because of the administration’s new tax credit policies.

Related: REAP grant program freeze hits Midwest, GOP district hardest

Bell, for his part, decided to go a different route: Instead of building on his own property, he asked to build two new temporary barns on land owned by a commercial solar operation where he’s paid to graze his sheep beneath solar panels to keep the grass down. If the business approves his request, the barns could draw cheaper power from their operation. But not every farmer has that opportunity.

The effects of these policy shifts are uneven. Some solar projects are stalled because of permitting hangups. Some are right on schedule. And some are moving faster than anticipated, as developers race to break ground before tax credits expire. But, taken together, the findings reveal how the collapse of federal support for solar has spread across American agriculture from major corporations to family farms. 

The abandoned solar projects

The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed by President George W. Bush, enacted a 30 percent investment tax credit for large-scale clean energy projects, boosting the solar industry. The tax credit was extended for eight years under President Obama and later extended under President Trump in 2020.

When President Joe Biden signed the 2022 landmark climate bill, the tax credit was extended again through 2032 or when specific emissions targets were reached. Last July, when Congress passed President Trump’s tax bill, the timeline for the clean energy tax credits was again reset — in reverse. Now, commercial solar projects must be under construction by July 2026 or placed in service by the end of 2027 to remain eligible for the credit. 

At least 126 solar projects proposed since the beginning of 2024 are awaiting regulatory approval, according to a Grist and Associated Press analysis of the latest information developers supplied to the Energy Information Administration. Each is located near or on agricultural land, with at least one-fifth of the surrounding area used for grazing fields or crops, and would together supply about 20 gigawatts of electricity if built. That’s enough renewable energy to power about 4.5 million homes, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The new timeline, though, has prompted some developers to abandon projects after concluding they couldn’t move fast enough to meet the new tax credit cutoff.

Bogdan Micu, CEO of the German solar developer Alpin Sun, said it had to abandon projects representing about $6 million in investments in about 1,000 megawatts in the U.S. Northeast. “Well. We lost our projects,” Micu said.

“There was no way for us to speed up that process” to meet deadlines, he said.

REAP grant and loan program gutted

Through the REAP grant and loan program, the USDA assists farmers, ranchers, and rural businesses interested in renewable energy — like installing solar to lower utility costs. According to Richa Patel, a policy specialist at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, REAP has funded more than 19,000 grants totaling more than $1.8 billion since its inception nearly two decades ago, and backed tens of thousands of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects across the country in that time. The program was supercharged by funding from the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, and up until then, when some congressional Republicans began to question the REAP grant structure, was largely supported by both parties. But for many of the farmers whose awards or applications were affected as Trump took office again, the past year has made farm country’s already-dire economic landscape even more difficult to weather.

Elisa Lane, a flower and fruit farmer in Hampstead, Maryland, will never forget the anxiety she felt last February when she heard the Trump administration had frozen the $30,576 REAP grant she’d been awarded in 2024 to install solar panels — with no explanation. 

“Man, was that so stressful,” said Lane, who spent months worried she’d be “on the hook” for the amount that she’d already contracted a solar company to install. It was supposed to alleviate the stress of her energy bills, which she said ran around $500 a month before getting solar.

In March 2025, the agency announced it would release already-awarded REAP grants and loans — but there appeared to be some fine print. The USDA invited recipients to voluntarily revise their proposals to align with Trump’s executive order by “eliminating Biden-era DEIA and climate mandates embedded in previous proposals.” 

Although she was anxiously waiting on the funds, Lane decided not to revise her proposal after a local USDA representative advised her to proceed with her project without revising. (The representative assured her she would receive the payment, according to emails seen by Grist and the AP.) Later that spring, she heard from the USDA that the payment would be released and she could move forward with construction. So she did, putting up the full $70,000 it cost to install the panels. By August, they were up and running on her land. By September, she received her reimbursement check covering about half of the project fee from USDA — more than half a year after the funding was first frozen.

In the span of roughly seven months, the USDA froze the program’s grant funding, invited grantees to reapply without climate and DEI language, imposed sweeping new restrictions on solar on farmland, and closed future application cycles. 

“It was so disruptive,” she said. “I just want to have a farm and be able to focus on my business.” 

Now, she’s doing just that. The panels, to Lane, represent a long-term investment into bringing down her farm’s enormous energy bill. 

Although things eventually worked out for Lane and other recent REAP grantees, the Grist and Associated Press analysis of USDA Rural Development data found the program has not committed a single dollar in renewable energy development since September. Even though the agency said it anticipated it would do so last October, USDA never reopened the REAP grant application cycle. Its loan guarantee program — geared toward larger farm and rural business projects — has remained open, though the analysis found that the agency has awarded no new agreements this fiscal year. 

Then, on March 31, the USDA announced a suspension of all REAP grant awards so the agency may update regulations within the program to comply with an executive order issued by the president last July. The agency noted that it “will not be making further grant awards until the new regulations are in effect,” but added that REAP guaranteed loans “will continue to be awarded in this time.” 

In response to a request for comment, a USDA spokesperson said the “suspension of REAP grant awards is temporary,” but did not provide further details on how long grants will be paused. When asked why the USDA has not yet issued any loans this fiscal year through the program, the spokesperson said the agency “continues to administer REAP in accordance with current guidance” and is “prioritizing program integrity and alignment with Administration direction as it conducts its review.” 

Robert Bonnie, the former undersecretary for farm production and conservation at the USDA under the Biden administration, said any loss in the program’s funding is going to be felt throughout rural America. Part of the USDA’s role over the long term, he said, has been to channel investment into rural parts of the country while making rural prosperity part of the climate agenda. 

“In places like Iowa and Texas, renewables matter — not just for additional power and lower power bills and clean energy, but also matters for farmers’ pocketbooks,” said Bonnie. “Anything you do to pull back on that is hugely problematic.” 

Racing to beat the tax credit deadline

For RIC Energy North America, a renewable energy developer based in New York City, the changes to the solar tax credits triggered an all-out sprint to advance every project in the pipeline, said CEO Jon Rappe. But new projects after that will essentially stop, he said.

The company has about 150 solar projects in its North American portfolio, with the bulk of those developments on fallow land, hayfields, and former farmland. “Now, some companies are probably going to go out and continue to sign sites, and take some risks, in case there’s an extension of tax credits or something like that,” Rappe said. “But the next generation of projects is not going to happen unless there’s some change at the federal level.”

One of RIC Energy’s projects is to develop 15 acres of solar on Tim Covert’s land in the primarily agricultural town of Sheridan, New York. The community solar project, where small-scale arrays would allow low-income residents to subscribe to get monthly credits on their utility bill, offers a new source of steady revenue for Covert, a former dairy farmer who has been battling cancer over the last year and struggled to work as a result. 

“I’m 100 percent cancer-free, but with the treatments, there’s some side effects that take a little while to get rid of,” he said, which include brain fog, muscle soreness, and depleted energy. ”So it would be great if they did have it done by fall, and I started getting money.”

Under the agreement, the bigger payout, which Covert said equals roughly a quarter of his income as an electrical contractor, won’t start until the project is completed and online — and Covert isn’t sure when that will happen amid the shifting federal landscape. At the moment, he’s getting a small stipend simply for leasing his land. He’s been told that construction could start as soon as the end of May, though “it seems to be changing a lot.” RIC Energy, for its part, told Grist and the AP that the construction is slated to begin late summer to early fall. 

“I don’t think they’re going to stop now, because they have quite a bit of time and money invested in this thing already,” he said. “So I don’t see them pulling the plug.” 

Even amid the shifting policies, some clean energy developers say they are winning out. Solar energy is still one of the cheapest forms of energy out there, and energy is in higher demand than ever, partly due to AI data center construction. What’s more, tax equity sometimes made financing projects more complicated, so in some ways losing the tax credit also broke down a barrier to getting things done, said Nick Cohen, president and CEO of Doral LLC, a large-scale solar energy and battery storage developer with about 450 megawatts in operation and about 16,000 more planned or in construction.

It’s “a very exciting time if you’re a large enough developer that was in the right place at the right time doing large projects,” he said. 

“All the new rules really favor the big guys like us.” 

__________

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/american-farmers-bet-on-solar-then-trump-changed-the-rules/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

The post Some US farmers say federal rural energy grants cut by Trump were ‘about freedom’ appeared first on MinnPost.

WASHINGTON – This reporter took a small vacation and tried to return home on Sunday.

That turned out to be much more difficult than expected. Aware of reports of long lines at airports to clear Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, I arrived at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport about four hours before my scheduled 5:30 p.m. flight to Washington D.C.

But that was not nearly enough time. The TSA line snaked all around the airport and all around the parking garage as hundreds of travelers were desperate to make their flights. Being New Orleans, a jazz ensemble played on a large dais in the middle of the airport, but it seemed incongruous considering the high anxiety and confusion within.  

Joining other airports across the country, there were few TSA agents on duty to handle the normal crunch of Sunday travelers and scores of other airline passengers, including me, missed their flights and desperately tried to book another with the help of harried airline counter agents, many of whom were working double shifts.

It was chaos. The breakdown of the nation’s air transportation system is reverberating in Congress, which is struggling with a solution even as the political stakes are high.

Related: TSA workers at MSP receive Trump resignation offer

Having missed paychecks because of the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which administers TSA and other vital government agencies besides those tasked with immigration enforcement, TSA agents are quitting or calling in sick.

That prompted President Donald Trump to order the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the nation’s airlines, despite their lack of training in the screening of airline passengers. But Trump’s aim was to show he is a man of action and he called his idea brilliant, like the invention of the paper clip.

After deploying ICE agents to airports did not shrink the lines, Trump late Thursday said he would use his emergency powers to find other monies to pay TSA agents.

That seemed to break a logjam in the U.S. Senate, which had not been able to approve a DHS funding bill because congressional Democrats demanded new rules for immigration enforcement agents after they fatally shot Alex Pretti and Renee Good in January.

Early Friday, the Senate approved a bill that would fund DHS and the rest of DHS except for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The bill was approved by voice vote by a few sleepy senators who were still on the floor.

But that bill must go back to the U.S. House, which had earlier approved a bill that would fund DHS without carving out the immigration enforcement agencies, which had received a bonus payment of $75 billion in last summer’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Conservatives in the House, however, are demanding that any new bill that funds DHS include the Save America Act, legislation that would require voters to have government IDs to register and cast a ballot.

During those hours in a TSA line on Sunday, and then again in the early hours of Monday, I participated in and overheard a lot of conversations about the DHS shutdown, which began on Valentine’s Day.

There was disbelief that a government agency that also funds the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was shut down. There was also a lot of  sympathy for TSA workers and agreement that employees must be paid for the work they perform.

And there was total contempt for those who expected TSA agents to come to work, day after day, as bills pile up and grocery and gas money becomes scarce.  

As soon as TSA agents were spotted at their stations (in greater numbers) early Monday, there was huge clapping and cheering from my fellow queue mates, many of whom had slept at the airport – and even napping in line on floor.

There was much gratitude that those agents began their shifts about a half hour before their normal 3:30 a.m. starting time to try to move as many passengers through their checkpoints and to the gates.  

Stranded passengers did not blame congressional Democrats or Republicans. Or Trump. They blamed “the government.” A government that did not seem to care about their predicament, and by extension, the problems of everyday Americans.

If Congress doesn’t pass a final funding bill by Saturday night, the DHS funding lapse will become the longest shutdown of any federal agency in U.S. history — exceeding the 43-day government-wide shut down that ended in November.

More ethanol, please 

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday issued a waiver that allows the sales of fuels blended with 15% ethanol, or E15, to be sold for a while, an advantage for Minnesota’s corn growers whose crops are used to make the fuel.

The agency said the waiver would start on May 1 and last until May 20, noting that 20 days is the maximum they can authorize the use of gas blended with more ethanol under the Clean Air Act.

But the nation’s farmers want more.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall called for Congress to pass a bill that would make a year-round availability of E15 permanent.

“Biofuels play an important role in meeting America’s energy needs and are a win-win for farmers and drivers,” Duvall said in a statement. “E15 gasoline saves consumers 10 to 30 cents per gallon at the pump and creates markets for American-grown crops. Permanent sales of E15 blends would increase demand for corn by roughly 2.4 billion bushels a year.”

Nonetheless, Duvall thanks the EPA for making E15 available for a short period of time this  summer. He also tipped his hat to Sen. Amy Klobuchar for her “call for quick action to enable year-round E15 sales. “

In a release, Klobuchar, who is running for governor and is the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said she had asked the Trump administration “to allow for year-round sales of E15 in order to bring down prices at the pump and support our farmers.”

Related: How a food shelf helped MSP TSA officers during last fall’s shutdown

Rep. Angie Craig, D-2^nd District, who is running for Senate and is the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, also weighed in. She’s introduced legislation in the U.S. House that would allow for year-long sales of E15.

“While a temporary waiver for the summer sale of E15 is welcome news and will bolster domestic markets for corn and sorghum farmers and hopefully provide some relief at the pump, it falls far short of the promise of permanent year-round E15,” Craig said in a release. “House Democrats have urged the Republican majority to make year-round E15 the law of the land. What are Republicans waiting for?”

In case you missed it:

The Minnesota Legislature, like Congress, has become enamored of huge “omnibus” funding bills. But Matthew Blake reports that the legality of a 2024 omnibus bill that ushered in a host of new programs is under review by a court of appeals that is weighing a challenge by the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.

Metro reporter Trevor Mitchell had a story about how the Minneapolis City Council is struggling to find funding sources for rental assistance for residents affected by Operation Metro Surge.

There was also a story this week about the intense lobbying to delay a Senate vote on a bill that would lift a Biden-era moratorium on sulfide mining in the Boundary Waters watershed. 

And Greater Minnesota reporter Brian Arola had a story about a coalition that is lobbying state lawmakers to curb data center development in the state.

Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.

The post D.C. Memo: Learning from the nation’s airport chaos appeared first on MinnPost.

Farmers in the market for fertilizer and motorists filling up at the pumps are experiencing a similar feeling this spring. 

Sticker shock. 

“With the war in the Middle East, fertilizer, particularly nitrogen, has jumped just like gasoline and diesel fuel has,” said Wesley Beck, a corn and soybean farmer in St. James.

Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a response to the U.S. and Israel’s war with the Middle Eastern power, is cutting off shipping lanes for fertilizer and other key commodities. This is happening just as Minnesota farmers ready their fields for spring planting, and the war is expected to result in less farm production and higher food prices.  

Iran is using its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow passageway in the Persian Gulf — as an economic weapon to upend world markets. The strait’s shipping lanes are now under threat by Iranian firepower. 

That has led ship operators to stop using those shipping lanes, resulting in a backlog of about 3,000 vessels, according to S & P Global Market Intelligence. Spikes in gas and diesel prices, and fertilizer, have followed.

The roiling of the global market in fertilizer has prompted the White House and Congress to seek new help for farm country. That includes expanding the use of biofuels and even adding $15 billion for impacted farmers to a $200 billion spending bill aimed at funding the Iran war.

Related: How far can $12 billion for farmers go? Not far enough to offset high fertilizer prices, disrupted markets

Fertilizers are the single biggest expenditure for many farmers each year. Leading fertilizers include phosphate, nitrogen and potassium, or potash. 

Nitrogen is the fertilizer most impacted by the Iran war, although phosphate prices have also surged because of tariffs the Trump administration has placed on Morocco, which holds more than 70% of the world’s known phosphate rock.

But it’s the price of nitrogen-based fertilizer that concerns Minnesota farmers now, especially those like Beck who grow corn.

“Corn is the most nitrogen-dependent crop,” said Gretchen Kuck, an economist with National Corn Growers Association.

And nitrogen is the fertilizer corn growers use now, before the summer growing season. Phosphorus and potash are usually spread in the fall.

Although many Minnesota farmers purchased their nitrogen fertilizer already, locking in prices ahead of time, there are often some in-season needs for nitrogen. And the war means it’s a bad time to be a buyer. 

“If you look at the cost of fertilizer versus the price of corn, we’re at historic margins,” Beck said. “That’s putting the squeeze on Minnesota farmers.”

A domino effect for fertilizer prices

The war’s roiling of fertilizer and diesel prices has perhaps been an unintended consequence for the Trump administration, which has already had to provide U.S. farmers with $12 billion in additional farm aid because of the impact of its tariff policy on overseas markets. 

But disruptions in one part of the world can create a domino effect on the other side of the world. Along similar lines, hits to the corn industry have far reaching ramifications as the crop is used in thousands of consumer products and is a massive source of livestock feed. 

Sizable percentages of phosphates and urea, a dry pellet form of nitrogen, travel through the Middle East to get to the United States. About 12% of urea and 17% of phosphates used in American farmland is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report published in the North Dakota State University Agricultural Trade Monitor.

“The bottom line: the Strait of Hormuz accounts for a meaningful share of both U.S. urea and phosphate consumption, and the greater risk is price transmission from global markets, where the disruption is far more severe,” the report concluded. 

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The United States isn’t the most exposed country when it comes to fertilizers shipped through Hormuz. India, Brazil and Australia all rely on it more, demonstrating how much global economic interest there is in the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran.

Kuck said many U.S. farmers have already purchased nitrogen fertilizer, but the war’s impact on global fertilizer markets will increase in severity as the conflict with Iran continues.

About 50 major farm groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the American Soybean Association, recently wrote to President Trump asking for help.

Their letter said the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz and the subsequent increase in the cost of fuel and fertilizer are “further straining a farm economy that already had its back against the wall due to record inflation, trade uncertainty, rapidly declining crop prices and catastrophic natural disasters.”

George Goblish, a farmer in Redwood County, said the pressure will ramp up on farmers if the conflict stretches into late this year or early next year. As of now, the Minnesota farmers most hurt by the fertilizer price spikes are those needing nitrogen this spring. If sky high prices persist into the fall, however, everyone applying potash and phosphates would feel the pain. 

“If the prices stay high there will be cutbacks in fertilizer, cutbacks in yield, and then other crops may need to be grown,” Goblish said. 

How easily can farmers pivot to other crops? 

Corn covers more acreage in Minnesota than any other crop. It’s quite common, though, for farmers to plant other crops, and those could be less impacted by turmoil in the Persian Gulf. 

Soybeans are a prime example. Since it’s a legume, soybeans don’t usually need nitrogen fertilizer. A symbiotic relationship with bacteria enables them to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into useful ammonia. 

Goblish expects some farmers to consider switching from corn to soybeans, wheat or other options if issues persist.

“Some waited until spring for fertilizer hoping that spring prices will be lower than fall prices,” he said. “That’s not happening this year. Odds are those acres will be switched to beans.” 

Kuck said the decision to switch crops will be made by individual farmers based on their circumstances, including whether soybean farmers, who’ve seen a key export market in China evaporate because of Trump administration tariffs, have enough capacity to store excess beans.

But she said an insoluble problem is the sharp rise in the cost of diesel, which spiked along with gasoline after Iran shut down shipments in the Persian Gulf.  

“With fertilizer you can switch crops,” Kuck said. “But there’s nothing you can do with diesel.”

The price of No. 2 diesel, the indicator for fuel used by farmers, rose from $3.50 to $5.38 per gallon from the end of 2025 to last week.

“Fuel is going to be a major issue,” Goblish said. “People complain about the fuel price at the pump; well, filling up for spring work is about 6,000 to 8,000 gallons of fuel.”

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Meanwhile, Beck would consider converting some of his 700-800 acres of corn to soybeans if he hadn’t planned so far ahead. In actuality, decisions on what to plant this year were made last year.

“You tweak it a bit each year, but our family has been here for 150 years doing this and we try to take a long-term view of things in crop rotation,” he said. 

Farmers to the White House 

Hundreds of farmers and representatives of farm groups gathered Friday on the South Lawn of the White House for an event Trump organized to announce new relief efforts aimed at blunting the impact of the Iran war.

Trump announced an ​update ⁠to renewable fuel standards and said he would seek additional relief for ⁠farmers ​from Congress. 

He also rolled out other initiatives, including enhanced loan guarantees for farmers and eased production monitoring requirements the administration says will help farmers by allowing the manufacturers of diesel vehicles to switch to a different diesel exhaust fluid sensor.

Meanwhile, farm organizations, in their letter to the president last week, appealed to the Trump administration to include new relief for farmers as part of a defense spending bill when it is sent to Congress.

Minnesota Reps. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, and Brad Finstad, D-1st District, are behind a bipartisan effort to advance a new bill called the Fertilizer Transparency Act, which would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to publish fertilizer prices weekly on its website, giving farmers access to timely and accurate market data.

Related: D.C. Memo: Scotus upends Trump tariffs that have impacted exports in addition to hiking fertilizer prices and other inputs

“By shining a light on price trends and improving access to reliable information, we’re putting more control back in the hands of the men and women who feed and fuel the world,” Finstad said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Craig, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said “President Trump’s tariffs and war with Iran have increased fertilizer costs even as farmers lose markets and commodity prices remain low, putting farmers in an impossible position.”

Craig has also been pushing Congress to allow year-round sales of E15, a fuel blend that contains 15% ethanol, which is produced from corn and sorghum. 

Kuck said the nation’s corn growers are “open to temporary solutions “ to the distress in farm country. “But we want a permanent solution and permanent market” for farm products, she said.

“The outlook for all crops is pretty dire,” she said. “We’re looking at minimizing losses rather than maximizing profits.”

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration sued Minnesota and its school athletics governing body on Monday, carrying out a threat to punish the state for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.

The lawsuit is part of a broader fight over the rights of transgender youth. More than two dozen states have laws prohibiting transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports and some have barred gender-affirming surgeries for minors. Courts have blocked some of those policies.

In the lawsuit filed Monday, the Justice Department alleges the state Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League are violating Title IX, a federal law against sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal money.

“The Trump Administration does not tolerate flawed state policies that ignore biological reality and unfairly undermine girls on the playing field,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the lawsuit “a sad attempt to get attention” over an issue that has already been in litigation for months. He said he’ll keep fighting.

“It is astonishing that any president would try to target, shame, and harass children just trying to be themselves, let alone a president with so many actual problems to address,” Ellison said in a statement.

The League does not comment on threatened or pending lawsuits, spokesman Tim Leighton said.

Related: Minnesota’s legal protections make it a magnet for transgender adults, families

The administration has filed similar lawsuits against Maine and California, and has threatened the federal funding of some universities over transgender athletes, including San Jose State in California and the University of Pennsylvania.

Minnesota officials have long resisted the federal push to ban trans athletes from girls sports. Ellison filed a preemptive lawsuit last April, saying Minnesota’s human rights act supersedes executive orders issued by President Donald Trump last year. The lawsuit also says the state is already in compliance with Title IX. A ruling is pending on the federal government’s motion to dismiss that case.

The Justice Department said in a statement that Minnesota violates Title IX “by requiring girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions that are designated exclusively for girls and allowing boys to invade intimate spaces designated exclusively for girls, such as multi-person locker rooms and bathrooms.”

To buttress its claims that trans athletes have an unfair advantage, the lawsuit highlights the case of a trans pitcher on the Champlin Park High School girls varsity fastpitch softball team who helped lead the school to a 6-0 victory in a state championship game in 2025.

The Trump administration also reversed the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX, which held that its provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex also extended to gender identity.

According to the Justice Department, Minnesota’s Department of Education receives more than $3 billion annually in federal funding from the U.S. departments of Education and Health and Human Services. It says that funding is contingent on compliance with Title IX.

The lawsuit asks a federal court in Minnesota to declare the state in violation of Title IX and order it to prohibit transgender girls from competing in girls’ prep sports.

The civil rights offices at the Education and Health and Human Services put the state and league on notice last September that they faced legal action if they didn’t stop violating the federal law.

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WASHINGTON – Nationally, the price of a gallon of gasoline averaged more than $4 this week, brought on by the disruption to global oil supplies caused by the war in Iran. But motorists in Minnesota are feeling less pain at the pump.

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), which closely monitors the cost of gasoline, prices were only a little more than $3.50 a gallon in Minnesota this week, a considerable discount from the national average.

Two main factors contribute to Minnesota’s prices being among the lowest in the nation. One is that most of the oil that’s converted to gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other petroleum-based products in the state is imported from Canada, with a lesser amount coming from North Dakota.

Those nearby, dependable sources of oil are delivered to two refineries in the state through a series of pipelines that feed what’s called the “Minnesota pipeline.” It begins in Clearbrook in the northwestern part of the state and transports crude oil south to two refineries near the Twin Cities.

“Pipelines are the most effective way to transport oil,” said Jake Reint, spokesman for the Flint Hills Resources refinery in Rosemount, which refines about 385,000 barrels of oil each year.

The other refinery in the state is the Marathon facility in St. Paul Park that refines about 100,000 barrels of oil a year.  

Reint said it was more “competitive” economically to use pipelines, rather than tanker trucks or rail, to transport oil.

He said “the proximity to fuel supply and a robust pipeline and refining structure” in the state has kept Minnesota from facing the worst of the oil price shocks that began as soon as the conflict in Iran shook global markets a month ago.

“We are able to meet demands when there are significant disruptions,” Reint said.

Minnesota also maximizes the use of ethanol in gasoline produced at 18 biofuel refineries in the state, which may moderate a price spike.

The state’s gas tax, about 28 cents a gallon, is comparatively moderate when compared to many other states. California’s state gasoline tax, for instance, is nearly 60 cents a gallon, Pennsylvania’s is nearly 58 cents a gallon and Maryland and Illinois have 47-cent-a gallon gasoline taxes.

Still, Minnesota raised about $880 million in fuel taxes from the sale of 2.5 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel in the state last year. The state also raised additional revenue from taxes on jet fuel.

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Oil shock may last a while  

Iran’s dominance over the Strait of Hormuz, the only maritime route into the Persian Gulf, has become a major weapon for that nation.

One-fifth of the world’s supply of both oil and liquified natural gas usually flows through the strait on its way to markets around the world, particularly to Asia.

Since the United States attacked the nation a month ago, those energy supplies – as well as cargoes of fertilizer, food and other products – have been unable to get through the Strait of Hormuz to their destinations as Iran has threatened those vessels with drones and attack boats.

Iran, which struck a Qatari tanker in a missile attack on Wednesday, is also seeking more leverage by attacking its petroleum-rich neighbors’ oil and gas infrastructure. That could take a while to rebuild.

The conflict has left oil markets reeling and resulted in a dollar-a-gallon climb in the average price of a gallon of gasoline.  

Oil prices retreated a bit this week in the wake of President Donald Trump’s declaration that a peace deal is at hand. But they rose sharply again after the president told the nation Wednesday evening that the United States is ready to hit Iran “extremely hard” in the coming weeks.  

Some analysts have predicted that the full brunt of the market shock has yet to be felt in the United States.

That means gasoline prices could continue to climb, even in states that are able to blunt the impact, like Minnesota.

And, although AAA said the average price of gasoline per gallon in Minnesota was about $3.50 this week, that price varied from county to county.

According to AAA, the most expensive gasoline was found in Waseca, Blue Earth, Steele and other southern Minnesota counties, where it cost $3.60 or more to fill up.

Gasoline was also more expensive than the state average in the Twin Cities counties of Hennepin and Ramsey and those that surround them.

Meanwhile, AAA said the cheapest gas could be found in the counties of Polk, St. Louis, Marshall and other areas in the northern part of the state, where gasoline could be purchased for little more than $3.30 a gallon.

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There could be many reasons for the discrepancies.

Reint said there are always price variations at the retail and wholesale levels, meaning some gas stations may charge more than others. He also said “street level competition” among stations could bring the price of fuel down in some areas.

Reint also said proximity to terminals where gasoline is refined and the cost of getting 18-wheelers to deliver fuel to retail gas stations could be another factor. Another variable is the proximity of Minnesota gas stations to  markets in other states that have higher or lower prices for fuel.

That may mean that stations in northern Minnesota that are close to oil-producing Canada and North Dakota may be influenced by the lower prices of fuel across the border.

Data reporter Shadi Bushra contributed to this story.

The post Yes, gas prices have spiked during the Iran war, though Minnesota has been spared from the worst appeared first on MinnPost.

This story about Air Wisconsin providing charter services for federal immigration enforcement authorities after it was sold to CSI Aviation was originally published by Wisconsin Watch. You can find an interactive version of it here.

Air Wisconsin Airlines has not been spared by the nationwide decline of regional air service. The 60-year-old carrier laid off hundreds of employees in Appleton and Milwaukee last year after terminating a contract to provide aircraft, crews and services to American Airlines in January 2025. The airline’s planned pivot to charter service and federally subsidized connections to underserved airports didn’t pan out, prompting another round of layoffs by the spring.

But the company’s troubles didn’t entirely ground its fleet. Flight tracking data indicate that Air Wisconsin continued to provide regional air service through the end of 2025, primarily connecting its Wisconsin hubs to mid-sized Midwestern airports as it had for decades.

The sale of Air Wisconsin

In January, Harbor Diversified Inc., the Appleton-based parent company of Air Wisconsin, sold the company’s operations and 13 of its jets to CSI Aviation, a New Mexico-based air charter company and longtime federal contractor owned by former New Mexico Republican Party chair Allen Weh.

Air Wisconsin sent recall notices to the company’s furloughed flight attendants after the sale to CSI Aviation, and the Association of Flight Attendants — the union representing the furloughed workers — negotiated an immediate raise for returning members. In a January press release announcing the recall notices, the union noted that only a third of the furloughed flight attendants opted to return.

Neither CSI nor Harbor Diversified responded to requests for comment.

CSI is central to the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.

It has provided charter services for ICE since 2024, transporting detainees and deportees both directly and through subcontractors.

The company entered its current $1.5 billion contract with the Department of Homeland Security in November of last year.

Demand for private charters surged after 2010, when the Obama administration moved away from relying solely on the U.S. Marshals Service.

Air Wisconsin isn’t alone. Avelo Airlines began deportation flights last spring, but backed out last month following intense public backlash.

A transformed network

CSI’s acquisition of Air Wisconsin transformed the airline’s flight patterns within a matter of weeks. The airline’s website no longer lists passenger routes, but flight data collected between Jan. 9 and mid-February indicates that the airline has largely ceded its role as a Midwestern regional carrier.

Instead, the airline increasingly looks south: Destinations in Louisiana and Texas replaced the mid-sized Midwestern airports that were, until recently, the airline’s most frequent destinations.

Flight data indicates Air Wisconsin planes made at least 125 trips in January 2026, up from roughly 60 in December 2025. Thicker lines on the map indicate more frequent routes.

Many of Air Wisconsin’s new destinations are within easy reach of ICE detention facilities in Texas and Louisiana, including some of the agency’s largest.

The Minnesota operation

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is among the busiest in the country, but Air Wisconsin rarely provided service to the Twin Cities in the final months of 2025.

That changed in January, just weeks after the Trump administration dispatched thousands of federal agents to Minnesota for an immigration enforcement offensive dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

Hundreds of immigrants detained in the operation have since departed the airport in shackles, loaded onto charter flights bound for ICE detention facilities farther south.

Alexandria, Louisiana

The modest airport in Alexandria, Louisiana, is now the epicenter of ICE’s deportation flight operations. Air Wisconsin has flown to or from Alexandria at least 30 times since the airline’s acquisition by CSI, on par with the airline’s service to Madison and outpacing service to Appleton, home to the airline’s corporate headquarters.

The GEO Group, an international private prison operator, runs an ICE detention facility on the airport’s tarmac. A dozen other ICE facilities sit within easy reach. Among them is the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Mississippi, where Delvin Francisco Rodriguez, a 39-year-old Nicaraguan national, died in custody on Dec. 14, 2025. ICE acknowledged the incident in a press release four days later, though the agency did not specify the cause of Rodriguez’s death.

El Paso, Texas

Camp East Montana, ICE’s largest detention facility, sits just east of El Paso International Airport. Air Wisconsin flights took off from or landed in El Paso at least 32 times in January and early February, second only to Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport.

The camp drew national attention in early January after Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old Cuban national, died by asphyxiation after guards pinned him to the floor of a cell. The El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled the death a homicide.

Lunas Campos’ death came a month after Francisco Gaspar-Andres, a 48-year-old from Guatemala and detained at Camp East Montana, died in an El Paso hospital; ICE attributed Gaspar-Andres’ death to liver and kidney failure.

Another detainee, 36-year-old Victor Manuel Diaz of Nicaragua, died at the camp on Jan. 14 in what ICE described as a “presumed suicide” — an explanation his family questions. ICE agents detained Diaz in Minneapolis only days before his death.

Back at home in Wisconsin

Air Wisconsin hasn’t entirely withdrawn from its home state hubs. Many of the airline’s remaining pilots, flight attendants and ground crew are still Wisconsin-based, and Milwaukee remains the airline’s primary hub.

The airline is now hiring for more than a dozen Wisconsin-based positions — including legal counsel.

About the data 

Wisconsin Watch used FlightAware AeroAPI data (Sept 2025 – Feb 2026) to reconstruct patterns before and after the Jan. 9 sale to CSI Aviation.

Hubs on these maps represent the 10 airports most frequently used. While the routes align with ICE operations, the data does not confirm if specific flights carried detainees.

This story about a regional Wisconsin airline providing charter services for federal immigration enforcement authorities was originally published by Wisconsin Watch.

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WASHINGTON – Even before the Iran war was launched, Minnesota’s defense industry benefited from the Trump administration’s boost in military spending and was on track to make more money from the Pentagon than it did last year.

Now, the defense industry, which has a robust presence in Minnesota, is scrambling to meet the demands of a nation at war.

According to a MinnPost analysis of government contracts, Minnesota’s defense industry had about $24.5 billion worth of contracts with the Pentagon in fiscal year 2025, which ended Sept. 30 of last year.

Just about six months into the 2026 federal fiscal year, Minnesota’s defense contractors had more than $17.4 billion worth of military contracts and were well on their way to exceeding their performance in 2025.

Related: What’s one of Minnesota’s biggest sources of revenue? The federal government of course

Most of those contracts were signed before the United States attacked Iran at the end of February, which is leading to a further escalation in Pentagon spending.

The United States, Israel and Iran had agreed to a temporary cease-fire late Tuesday and President Donald Trump backed off of a threat to escalate a war that had raged in the Middle East since the end of February. But the accord is fragile, and the U.S. military said on Sunday that it would blockade any ships “entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas.”

In any case, military spending, which has ramped up significantly since Trump assumed office for the second time, is expected to continue to increase as missiles, ammunition and other weapon stockpiles and systems need to be refurbished.  

The “big beautiful” bill that funded Trump’s priorities last summer boosted Pentagon spending by $150 billion over the military’s $840 million annual budget in fiscal 2026.

That budget is about to grow again. The cost of war in Iran has prompted the White House to ask Congress for another large increase in military spending, about $200 billion.

The MinnPost analysis of the state’s defense contractors show that they provide the U.S. military with a wide range of  goods — from medical supplies and hospital equipment to ammunition and explosives.

One of the state’s largest contractors is Northrop Grumman, a leader in aerospace. The company, which has a facility in Plymouth, has more than $2.7 billion worth of multi-year military contracts.

“At Northrop Grumman, we have a highly skilled workforce and take great pride in supporting local employment in Minnesota,” the company said in a statement.

In February, company CEO Kathy Warden told investors at a Citibank conference that higher international military spending, as well as ramped up domestic spending and greater need for missiles, interceptors and unmanned systems, were trends affecting her company.

“We are in an unprecedented demand cycle within defense, not just within the United States, but globally,” Warden said. “And it appears that this is going to be a sustaining demand signal.”

Warden was correct in predicting the “demand signal” would be sustained, with the Iran war costing the U.S. government between $1 billion and $2 billion a day.

BAE Systems is also among the state’s large defense contractors, with nearly $45 million worth of Pentagon contracts.

“We’re proud of the role our Minnesota team plays in supporting national security, the growing local economy, and the strength of the defense industrial base,” the company said in a statement. “We continue to see strong demand across the industry and remain focused on rapidly and reliably providing next-generation capabilities warfighters need on today and tomorrow’s battlefields.”

BAE opened a new 247,000 square-foot engineering and product development facility in Maple Grove in September.

The new site will support work on new naval guns, launching systems, advanced munitions, submarine components and combat vehicles, the company said. The company began its work in the state during World War II, when its facility in Fridley produced naval guns.

Making more – and faster 

The Trump administration’s largess to the nation’s defense industry did not come without strings.

The president signed an executive order in January because he said he was committed to “ensuring that the United States military possesses the most lethal warfighting capabilities in the world.”  

Trump said the United States “makes the most lethal military equipment in the world” but that “we do not make enough of it quickly enough to meet the needs of our military and our partners.”

Trump prohibited the nation’s defense contractors from offering stock buybacks and dividends to shareholders unless they are able to produce a “superior product, on time and on budget.”

“After years of misplaced priorities, traditional defense contractors have been incentivized to prioritize investor returns over the Nation’s warfighters,” Trump said.

So, the Trump administration pressed the nation’s defense industry to expand and speed up production shortly before it launched “Operation Epic Fury” at the end of February.

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The billions of dollars spent by the Pentagon in Minnesota may not be readily apparent. Other than National Guard facilities, Minnesota does not have a military base, nor is it home to the headquarters of a major defense contractor.

But defense contractors like to spread their facilities across the United States in efforts to increase the number of their political allies in Congress. So they have a presence in Minnesota. And the Pentagon, which has the largest budget of any federal agency, needs to buy a lot of things besides weaponry to support its bases and fleets of planes, tanks and ships and soldiers, sailors and airmen.

That’s why the thousands of contracts the U.S. military entered into with Minnesota companies went to companies of all sizes, not just the subsidiaries of large defense companies.

For example, Polaris, a Medina-based company known for its snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles, has entered into more than $7 million in contracts  to make construction machinery and light trucks for the military.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Wild Hockey Club has a multi-year advertising contract that is worth about $464,000. A spokesman for the Wild said the team has had contracts with the Minnesota Army National Guard since 2008 to promote recruitment. 

Related: D.C. Memo: Trump suggests states should cover Medicare, other programs to free up funds for military

Not all Defense Department spending in the state funds warmaking efforts. 

According to the Treasury Department’s USASpending.gov, the largest contract the Pentagon signed, worth more than $13 billion, is with UnitedHealth Group, Inc., to provide health services to military members and veterans.

And the Pentagon is purchasing all kinds of other goods and services from Minnesota companies. 

For instance, Duluth Lawn Care, a landscaping company, has a multi-year contract worth more than $57,000 to do work for the Army Corps of Engineers.

And All Washed Up, a laundromat in North Minneapolis, has a contract this year worth $27,000 to provide laundry and dry cleaning services to the Minnesota Army National Guard and the 934th Airlift Wing, an Air Force Reserve unit stationed at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The Pentagon also spends millions of dollars each year on research and development at the University of Minnesota, the Mayo Clinic and other colleges and research facilities in the state.

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WASHINGTON – Despite hours of impassioned arguments from Sen. Tina Smith, the U.S. Senate ended a Biden-era moratorium on mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed.

The vote on Thursday removed a major hurdle for Twin Metals, which has battled to extract nickel, copper and other metals in Superior National Forest.

Twin Metals, which has tried to establish a mine in that area since 2019, will soon be able to request federal permits to restart work on that project after President Donald Trump, as expected, signs into law the resolution that would lift the 20-year moratorium.

The moratorium was put in place by the U.S. Forest Service in 2023 because of concerns over the environmental dangers of sulfide mining and the possible contamination of a favored destination for canoers and sportsmen.

But Twin Metals still has to clear a number of federal and state hurdles – including the reinstatement of federal leases cancelled by the Biden administration in 2022.

Related: Opponents hope clock runs out on bill to lift sulfide mining ban in Boundary Waters watershed

Smith began a talking filibuster Wednesday in opposition of the resolution and spoke for hours.

“If they want to go against the will of Minnesotans, then I am going to hold the Senate floor for hours to give them every opportunity to change their minds and do the right thing,” Smith said.

She said the use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to repeal the mining ban was “a dangerous precedent” that would allow Congress to undo any action taken by an administration.

“Future Congresses will be able to undo any order, even seven years later,” removing protections from public lands dear to both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, Smith said. 

She warned her fellow senators “what goes around, comes around.”

A CRA can overturn federal agency rules and regulations through a joint resolution of approval in both the House and Senate and a president’s signature. That means it is not bound by the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is the granddaughter of an Iron Range miner, also warned that the unprecedented use of a CRA to repeal a public land order would endanger all protected lands.

“The CRA threatens the protective status of the Grand Canyon,” she said.

Minnesota’s Democratic senators also warned of the devastating environmental impact of the copper-sulfide mining near the 3 million acre Boundary Waters. 

“In 100% of the instances (these mines) have always caused pollution,” Smith said.

Smith also said removal of the moratorium was opposed by Minnesota tribes that have treaty rights to hunt, fish and harvest wild rice in the Superior National Forest and other tribes across the nation.

Michael Fairbanks, chairman of White Earth Nation, said tribes will continue partnering with environmental, sporting and other groups to stop mining projects that “cross our boundary when it comes to our treaty rights.”

“We’re going to put up a good fight and prevail,” he said. “We’re going to dig in now.”

Smith also argued that Twin Metals, a subsidiary of Chilean mining company Antofagasta, would send any ore extracted from the Superior National Forest to smelters in China. 

But among Senate Republicans who hold a majority, the arguments of Minnesota’s Democratic senators did not win the day.

Stauber scores a win 

The resolution was approved on a 50-49 largely partisan vote on Thursday. It would not only lift the moratorium on sulfide mining in the Boundary Waters watershed, but it would also prohibit another president from re-establishing such a ban.

Yet a different Congress – with the backing of a future president – could always approve a new prohibition on mining in the Superior National Forest.

The Senate vote was a big victory for Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8^th District, who sponsored the resolution that won approval in the U.S. House in January.

“A major victory for America and Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District was secured today,” a jubilant Stauber posted on X shortly after the vote. “The Senate just passed my bill to reverse Biden’s illegal mining ban in the Superior National Forest – it’s now headed to the President’s desk!  Mining is our past, our present, and our future – and the future looks bright!”

The filibuster, which gives minority Democrats leverage in the U.S. Senate, had always prevented Stauber from winning approval of his mining initiatives in that chamber.

So, Stauber turned to the CRA. Approved in 1996, the act was aimed at making federal agencies more accountable.

Related: House Republicans vote to lift 20-year ban on mining near pristine Boundary Waters Canoe Area

Congress passed the CRA to prevent a lame duck president from pushing through massive policy changes right before a new president is inaugurated. It mandates a resolution of disapproval to be considered 60 days after a rules change. But the mineral withdrawal was implemented on Jan. 26, 2023, which prompted the resolution’s opponents to call foul.

“(This) opens a scary Pandora’s box,” said Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save the Boundary Waters. “And so this is a dark day for the Boundary Waters, no doubt, but also a dark day for public lands across the country.”

While environmentalists, conservation, sporting and tribal groups lobbied to defeat the resolution, the nation’s mining industry worked to secure its approval.

“Today we need action to reverse prior and guard against future unwarranted land grabs. We urge the Senate to pass the Congressional Review Act resolution from @RepPeteStauber reversing the improper Biden-era Minnesota land withdrawal, which blocked responsible mining on more than 220,000 acres of mineral rich land,” the National Mining Association said in a post on X Thursday. “Securing access to domestic minerals has never been more important; this CRA is a key step for national and economic security.”

Julie Lucas, MiningMinnesota’s executive director, called the vote an important step for workers, Iron Range communities and domestic mineral supply chains.

“This vote does not open a mine. It opens the door for a transparent, science-based review. Mining and environmental protections can co-exist, and our industry is committed to making sure that happens,” she said in a statement.

Reporter Brian Arola contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add comments from Michael Fairbanks and Ingrid Lyons.

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