
From lane-splitting to the state fossil, these are Minnesota's newest laws
The big picture: A long list of laws taking effect, including changes targeting those three groups, will impact Minnesotans' lives in ways big and small.
State of play: Many of the new provisions, including tens of billions of dollars in spending, passed as part of the two-year state budget last month.
Zoom in: Here are some of the notable new laws, according to an annual list released by the Minnesota House's Public Information Services.
💧 Venues hosting ticketed events for 100 or more attendees must provide free water and allow people to bring sealed or empty water bottles inside.
🏍️ Motorcyclists can legally pass between lanes of traffic under a new lane-splitting law that supporters say is aimed at improving flow and reducing accidents.
The fine print: They have to be traveling in the same direction and going 25mph or less.
📲 Some kids featured in online videos or photos posted by "content creators" will be guaranteed a portion of the profits — which must be deposited into a trust account until they turn 18 — under a first-of-its-kind law meant to protect young people from exploitation.
🦫 In news that lovers of paleontology and astronomy will appreciate: Minnesota now has a state fossil (the giant beaver) and constellation (Ursa Minor, aka the Little Dipper).
🤒 Employers may request a doctor's note after a worker takes two or more days off under the state's guaranteed paid sick time law.
The original law allowed workplaces to ask for documentation after three days.
📆 Districts can move the first day of school up to Sept. 1 — instead of the traditional post-Labor Day start — for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 academic years, when the holiday falls in the second week in the month.
Other changes encourage school boards to add a student representative and allow students to carry — and use — anti-overdose medicines like Narcan on campus.
🎣 Open season for largemouth and smallmouth bass now lasts all year.
🛥️ As we reported last week, boaters under 21 need a permit to operate a vessel without supervision.
👶 Pediatricians must tell parents about signs of infant abuse and give instructions on how to report suspected issues.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
US envoy Witkoff to meet Israeli, Qatari officials in Rome for hostage deal talks
If sufficient progress is made, Witkoff will travel from Rome to Doha towards the end of the week to secure a deal, according to reports. US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will meet with Israeli and Qatari officials in Rome on Thursday to discuss hostage and ceasefire deal talks, sources told The Jerusalem Post. Axios reported that Witkoff will meet with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and a senior Qatari envoy. If sufficient progress is made, Witkoff will travel from Rome to Doha towards the end of the week to secure a deal, Axios reported, citing a US and Israeli source. A senior security official told Walla on Tuesday that "We are in the midst of negotiations - really in the final stretch." Witkoff said last Wednesday that ceasefire negotiations were going well. Trump, during a bill signing ceremony in Washington, thanked Witkoff and also commented on progress, "We have some good news on Gaza and some other things that we are working on." Talks in recent weeks have largely focused on IDF deployment in Gaza during a ceasefire, with the Post learning last week that Israel had effectively conceded control over the Morag Corridor, based on the maps it presented to mediators. Focus on IDF withdrawal The impending potential deal with Hamas may include the government agreeing to an IDF withdrawal to virtually the same Gaza security perimeter that Israel held in January, sources acknowledged to the Post on Monday. In January, the IDF withdrew from all deeper portions of Gaza it had been in, in Gaza City, Khan Yunis, Rafah, and central Gaza to a security perimeter of around 700-1,000 meters around the Israel-Gaza border. Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report. This is a developing story.


San Francisco Chronicle
7 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘We don't deserve this.' Women held in limbo at ICE's downtown S.F. center awaiting bed space
Three women who were detained by federal immigration officers at court Wednesday were held overnight inside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's downtown San Francisco field office and remained there Thursday afternoon because there were no available beds at migrant detention facilities, one of the women and her attorney told the Chronicle. The 27-year-old Colombian woman from San Jose said in an interview she was held overnight in a cell on the sixth floor of 630 Sansome St., along with two other women who were also detained on Wednesday afternoon at the U.S. Department of Justice's San Francisco Immigration Court. She described the room as a small space with a toilet, a bench, a thin mattress and a small window where she could see officers standing outside. ICE representatives did not immediately respond to questions about the woman's arrest and detention. The Chronicle is not naming her, per its anonymous source policy, due to her fears of retaliation. The women are among many immigrants who have been held at the San Francisco ICE field office in recent weeks while officials make arrangements to transfer people to detention centers, said Jessica Yamane, an immigration attorney with Pangea Legal Services and Santa Clara County's Rapid Response Network. Some have been held for days, she said, a source of additional trauma as they already face uncertainty over what will happen to them. Yamane said ICE representatives told her that the woman was being held at the field office because there were no available beds at migrant detention facilities. Detained migrants from the Bay Area are typically transferred to detention centers in Southern California. Immigration attorneys and advocates have reported overcrowding and deteriorating conditions at ICE detention facilities across the country. An ICE representative told NPR that 'some ICE facilities are experiencing temporary overcrowding due to recent increases in detention populations' and implementing measures to manage capacity. ICE typically places immigrants in holding cells in its field offices for a few hours at a time before transferring them elsewhere, but there have been reports of longer stays and overcrowding in these facilities as well. Yamane said the overnight detentions at the 630 Sansome St. building reminded her of when immigration officials used the upper floors of the building as a detention center for Chinese immigrants post-World War II. 'It's been the same mechanism of terror through detention that have broken people's spirits for generations,' she said. On Thursday afternoon in a cold visitation room, the Colombian woman told the Chronicle through a glass window that plainclothes ICE officers arrested her as she exited a courtroom at 100 Montgomery St. around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. An asylum seeker, the woman said she had just attended her first courthouse appointment, where the judge rescheduled her appointment for October because she didn't have an attorney. 'Everything was going well. I didn't see any risk because the judge gave me another date,' she said. Two men identified themselves as ICE agents, handcuffed her and walked out the building through a back door, she said. They forcefully pushed her into an unmarked car and told her they were taking her to the ICE field office, she said. 'They were hurting me,' she said, tears falling down her cheeks. 'I hadn't done anything wrong.' She was placed in a cell with two other women. During the interview with the Chronicle, an immigration official walked into the visitation room to drop off a meal — a bean and cheese burrito, a breakfast bar and bottled water. She said ICE officials have not told her where she will be sent. 'They're treating us like criminals,' she said. 'We don't deserve this treatment. We are just trying to do the right thing.' She said she flew to Mexico and crossed the U.S. border in December 2022, fleeing violence she experienced in her hometown of Bogota. In the U.S., she moved in with her boyfriend in San Jose and worked at a local restaurant and delivered food via UberEats with her partner. Their dream, she said, was to save enough money to open their own auto repair and body shop. 'It's a dream that I don't know will happen now,' she said.


New York Post
9 hours ago
- New York Post
Trump's economic agenda leading to decades-high wage increases, capital expenditures and record tariffs revenue: Treasury
WASHINGTON — President Trump's handling of the economy has succeeded in bringing some of the biggest increases in a decade or more to tariffs revenue, blue-collar wages and capital investments, a senior Treasury official told The Post. Those 'ABCs' — described as 'America First' trade, a 'Blue-Collar Boom' and a 'Capital Expenditures Comeback' — are also rebutting Trump critics who claimed the president's tax-and-tariff agenda would upend the global economy, said Joe Lavorgna, who serves as counselor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. As the US agreed to another trade deal with Japan this month, Lavorgna pointed to Treasury revenue from tariffs topping $200 billion in fiscal year 2025 — a record — and approaching 'more than $300 billion' by the end of the calendar year. Blue-collar workers have also seen real wage growth of 1.7% since Trump took office, Bessent previously told Post columnist Miranda Devine on 'Pod Force One,' the highest level of any presidential administration since at least Richard Nixon. 'These are … the laborers, the backbone of the market,' Lavorgna added. 'They didn't graduate from fancy colleges — in most cases probably they didn't graduate from college at all — that are punching a time check when they come into work.' 4 President Trump's handling of the economy has succeeded in bringing some of the biggest increases in a decade or more to tariffs revenue, blue-collar wages and capital investments, a senior Treasury official told The Post. / MEGA In the first half of the year, he noted, capital expenditures surged 16.6% — the largest two-quarter gain since 1997, excluding the rebound coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Business equipment production also rose 11% (annualized) in the second quarter after jumping 23% in the first quarter of the calendar year. 'We think it's tied into the One Big Beautiful Bill,' Lavorgna claimed, pointing to provisions that allow businesses to write off production expenses and other investments. 4 Blue-collar workers have also seen real wage growth of 1.7% since Trump took office, Bessent previously told 'Pod Force One,' the highest level of any presidential administration since at least Richard Nixon. REUTERS Last week, Trump touted more than $100 billion in investments for the artificial intelligence and energy industries at a summit in Pittsburgh, one of several events that have spurred economic growth. Japan's trade deal also pencilled in $550 billion in US-based investments. 'If you have more capital, people can produce more,' he went on. 'You're raising productivity and lending standards, living standards … at the same time, people are taking on bigger paychecks … that reinforces the blue-collar boom.' 4 Lavorgna said the largest growth sectors domestically have been in communications equipment, computers and AI. Akarawut – The economic shifts are still keeping core inflation to around 2%, while the current consumer price index hit 2.7% over the past year, per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some trade deals have yet to be inked that could affect those rates — including an anticipated deal with the European Union, which Trump recently threatened with up to 50% duties. Lavorgna said the largest growth sectors domestically have been in communications equipment, computers and AI. 4 Last week, Trump touted more than $100 billion in investments for the artificial intelligence and energy industries at a summit in Pittsburgh, one of several events that have spurred economic growth. Getty Images 'As these trade deals have come through and these other countries such as Japan have committed to making major capital investments in the US, it's clear that the tariffs have had their desired effect,' he said. 'We've got the revenues. We haven't had the inflation, and we're getting the capital commitments of reshoring here. So to me, it's a win-win-win.'