Latest news with #BringMeTheNews
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Pickets at 13 Minnesota hospitals as contracts expire for thousands of Twin Cities nurses
Pickets at 13 Minnesota hospitals as contracts expire for thousands of Twin Cities nurses originally appeared on Bring Me The News. More than 15,000 nurses at hospitals in the Twin Cities and 2,600 nurses at hospitals in Duluth have been negotiating a new contract that has yet to come to fruition, and the deadlock is resulting in an "informational picket" outside 13 hospitals in Minnesota on Wednesday. Contracts for Twin Cities nurses expired last week and those for nurses in Duluth are set to expire on June 30. The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) has announced that workers will participate in a picket amid concerns that hospitals are operating at unsafe staffing levels that compromise patient care and push many nurses to leave the profession. "Nurses are doing everything they can to keep patients safe, but we are being stretched beyond our limits," Chris Rubesch, a nurse and president of the MNA, said in May. "Patients are facing longer waits, and overworked staff are facing dangerous conditions." Additionally, nurses fear for their physical safety at current staffing levels. Healthcare workers are five times more likely to be injured by an assault on the job than the average American worker, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That report also shows that healthcare workers saw a steady rise in the rate of nonfatal workplace violence from 2011 to 2018. A 2002 study reported that in hospitals with a high patient-to-nurse ratio, each extra patient assigned to a nurse is associated with a 7% increase in the likelihood of death within 30 days of admission, per Minnesota Public Radio. Additionally, that study showed that the stress of each new patient assigned to those nurses was associated with a significant increase in the risk of burnout. The current staffing levels "prioritize maximizing revenue rather than protecting patients," the union claims. "MNA nurses are sounding the alarm: hospital executives are treating staffing like a budget line, not a life-or-death issue," the MNA said in a statement. "On June 4, the public will see what solidarity looks like and what happens when nurses step up to protect their patients." In a statement to Bring Me The News, Allina Health reiterated that there will be no disruption to patient care during the picket, adding, "Now, more than ever, negotiations must reflect the reality of rising costs, declining reimbursements and uncertainty around programs like Medicaid. We remain focused on a responsible contract agreement that ensures we can maintain access to care and the high-quality services people depend on." The pickets will take place at 11 Twin Cities hospitals, including Children's Minnesota/United Hospital at 33 Smith Ave. N in St. Paul and, later in the day, at Fairview Southdale Hospital at 6401 France Ave. S in Edina. In Duluth, nurses will hold informational pickets at Essentia and Aspirus St. Luke's hospitals. "The nurses' union is expending considerable energy on events such as this when that energy would be better spent at the negotiating table, completing these talks," says Paul Omodt of Omodt & Associates, a PR company that specializes in crisis management and represents several of the hospitals involved in the negotiations. "There are important topics left to discuss and we remain ready to negotiate in good faith. We encourage the nurses' union to bring forth all the counterproposals that are due to move these talks forward." The MNA's action is separate but in step with a picket that took place at four Allina clinics on Tuesday morning among unionized doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. This group unionized in October 2023, forming the largest private-sector doctors' union in the country with roughly 600 members at Allina clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is still at the table, negotiating for the group's first contract. The contract negotiations have slowed, with a significant point of friction being that primary care physicians are looking to be compensated for administrative work that includes paperwork and responding to patient emails, the Star Tribune reports. A representative for Allina tells Bring Me The News that it is negotiating in good faith with the Doctors Council SEIU and seeks "to reach responsible agreements that maintain competitive pay and benefits for our providers while ensuring that we can sustain our caring mission during these extremely uncertain economic times." Allina has proposed cutting compensation for union members, while the system reported $5.8 billion in revenue in 2024, the Minnesota Reformer reports. Wednesday's informational picket is not a strike or work stoppage inside the hospitals. All participating nurses are picketing during their off-hours, per the story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Federal operation at Minneapolis restaurant draws crowd of protesters
Federal operation at Minneapolis restaurant draws crowd of protesters originally appeared on Bring Me The News. A federal law enforcement operation involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at a Minneapolis restaurant Tuesday was not related to immigration enforcement, according to local officials. A large crowd gathered outside Las Cuatro Milpas, a taco restaurant at Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue South, beginning around 11 a.m. Tuesday as armed, masked agents and vehicles displaying HSI (Homeland Security Investigations), a division of ICE, converged outside the business. Video and pictures from the scene showed agents from several federal agencies, including the FBI, DEA and ATF. In a statement on social media shortly before 2 p.m., Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said no arrests have been made in connection with the operation. "While we're still gathering details, this incident was related to a criminal search warrant for drugs & money laundering and was not related to immigration enforcement," he wrote. Sign up for our BREAKING NEWS newsletters The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office says that it has assisted with the operation, which was not related to immigration. As part of ICE, HSI investigates a "wide range of crimes, including narcotics smuggling, human trafficking, and financial crimes," according to its website. From the HCSO: "HCSO partnered with federal agencies on a criminal investigation and part of that investigation included the execution of multiple search warrants at multiple locations in the metro area, including a business in the area of Bloomington Ave. and Lake St. in Minneapolis. HCSO's role in the incident today was solely focused on that. This incident was not related to any immigration enforcement. HCSO has no involvement in civil immigration. HCSO enforces criminal statutes and works on criminal investigations. We work with federal partners regularly on those criminal investigations." News of the arrival of federal agents quickly spread online, resulting in a growing crowd of protesters outside the premises, chanting at agents to go home. Among those present at the scene are Minneapolis City Council members Jason Chavez and Aisha Chughtai, as well as mayoral candidates Jazz Hampton, Omar Fateh and DeWayne Davis. In a statement, the Minneapolis Police Department said it is awaiting more information about the federal law enforcement operation. "Here's what we do know: MPD was NOT involved in any immigration enforcement activities today, nor were we given advance notice of any such operation," the agency shared. "Any claims to the contrary are false." MPD's statement continues: "After a federal law enforcement operation was already underway, a crowd began to form, and MPD officers arrived to ensure the crowd and the surrounding area remained safe." Em Cassell, editor of Racket MN, reports that those in the crowd have been pepper sprayed by law enforcement. Note: Details provided in this story are based on law enforcement's latest version of events, and may be subject to change. View the to see embedded media. View the to see embedded media. This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lil Wayne will bring 'Tha Carter VI' tour to Target Center
Lil Wayne will bring 'Tha Carter VI' tour to Target Center originally appeared on Bring Me The News. Lil Wayne has somehow been churning out albums in his Tha Carter series for more than two decades, and that will continue this week with the arrival of Tha Carter VI on Friday. The record will be accompanied by a North American tour that has the "Lollipop" rapper dropping into the Target Center in Minneapolis on Aug. 20 – the night before the start of the Minnesota State Fair, and just in time for him to grab some Mouth Trap cheese curds on his way out of town. Tha Carter VI Tour is promising to spill "20+ years of Carter Classics" with support from Tyga and Belly Gang Kushington. That 34-city tour will kick off with an album release show at Madison Square Garden in New York on Friday. Then, Lil Wayne, who received a last-minute pardon on a federal weapons charge from President Donald Trump during his first term, will really get the tour underway with regular dates beginning on July 30. Tickets for Lil Wayne go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. on June 6. However, fans can sign up for presale access at Lil Wayne's website. Fans will be hoping the artist makes it to Minnesota, with the rapper canceling previous metro shows on three occasions: twice in 2017 due to scheduling conflicts and then plane issues, and once in 2015 due to an issue with his entourage at Myth story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
160 St. Paul students facing homelessness after federal government cuts Job Corps funding
160 St. Paul students facing homelessness after federal government cuts Job Corps funding originally appeared on Bring Me The News. The Trump administration's decision to pull funding from the Jobs Corps program will lead to the closure of the center in St. Paul that provides job training and housing for more than 160 young students. The U.S. Department of Labor announced on May 29 a "phased pause in operations" at Jobs Corps sites by June 30, with the government claiming that the training and housing program for Americans aged 16-24 was "longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve." But despite the claim of a "pause" in operations by June 30, the 162 residents and 100 staff at the Hubert H. Humphrey Jobs Corps Center have already been told the site is closing, and were initially given until Tuesday, June 3, to exit the premises. KARE 11 reports this has since been extended to June 12. "We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the program's possibilities," said Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. The St. Paul facility has been open for 44 years and the wider Jobs Corps program has been operating since 1964, providing low-income Americans aged 16-24 with free vocational training and housing to help them obtain employment. In its announcement, the Trump administration cited a "transparency" report compiled by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that stated the average graduation rate at Jobs Corps is 38.6% and the average cost per student per year is $80,264. It also raised concern about the number of "serious incident" reports filed among students enrolled in the program, which it says almost reached 15,000 in 2023. But the National Jobs Corps Association has criticized the figures, stating that "serious incidents" is a broad term that also includes "power outages and inclement weather, athletic injuries that require treatment, and adult students leaving campus without prior approval." It also shared video of a congressional hearing that revealed the cost-per-hire and per-graduate figures were taken "at the height of the COVID pandemic" when enrollment was down by more than a third due to restrictions on the number of students it could serve. Democratic Senator Jack Reed accused the government of cherry-picking data to support the program's cut. Per the Pioneer Press, there has also been criticism that the average graduation rate is misleading as its weighted down by students who leave within the first few weeks of enrolling, and those who leave the program because they have a job offer – the latter of which fulfills the aim of the program. The closure has been slammed by DFL lawmakers in the Twin Cities, with a joint statement from Senate Jobs and Economic Development Chair Bobby Joe Champion and Senate Housing Chair Senator Lindsey Port saying the decision "takes us in the wrong direction." They also criticized pulling the funding for low-income Americans while seeking to push through the extension of major tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest in President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill," which also includes significant cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. "The ripple effects from this decision will reverberate in their communities for decades. This is not only shortsighted, but it is also cruel, especially because these cuts are being made to pay for massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans," they said. "This closure is another example of President Trump overreaching executive authority: Congress appropriates funding for Job Corps, and he has no authority to unilaterally cut the program's funds," the statement added. This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Twin Cities burger and ice cream restaurant expanding to Wisconsin
Twin Cities burger and ice cream restaurant expanding to Wisconsin originally appeared on Bring Me The News. Bebe Zito is bringing its burgers and ice cream across the border. The Minnesota-born restaurant will open its fourth location at the 3rd Street Market Hall in Milwaukee. The exact opening date has not yet been announced, but representatives say it will be later this summer. Bebe Zito first opened about five years ago, but co-owner Gabriella Grant-Spangler, who attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, says that Milwaukee has long been on the shortlist for a potential expansion. While its three Minnesota locations specialize in burgers and ice cream, the new Milwaukee location will also offer coffee and baked goods. 'I've loved seeing Bebe Zito evolve over the years. The addition of a coffee and bakery element really excites me,' said co-founder and pastry chef Ben Spangler. "I've been a pastry chef for over half my life now, and I'm excited to incorporate some decadent baked goods to Bebe Zito!" The restaurant recently left the Eat Street Crossing food hall, but still has locations in Uptown Minneapolis, the Malcolm Yard Food Hall, and Woodbury story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.
