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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Mission Readiness Releases Battle Plan for MN Kids' Fitness

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Thursday, April 30, 2015   

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Calling the decline in the physical fitness of children an issue of national security, today a group of more than 500 former military leaders releases its battle plan for improving the health of Minnesota's children.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Harry Sieben of Hastings is a member of the organization Mission Readiness. He notes that, for a variety of reasons, 70 percent of children in this country are not qualified to be in the military.

"The biggest reason is that they're physically unfit,” he states. “I guess a blunt way to say it is they're too fat, and we'd like to turn that around somewhat, if we can."

Sieben says to do that requires more work on several fronts, including providing healthier meals at school, where children consume up to half of their daily calories.

Sieben says another key is for Minnesota to make it easier for children to get regular physical activity at school and in the community.

"A way to do that is to have safe biking and walking routes to school,” he says. “Another could be physical education standards in school."

State lawmakers are currently considering proposals to set new school physical education benchmarks and to fund
Safe Routes to School programs.

Sieben says he's hopeful the ideas will gain passage as the Legislature approaches the end of the 2015 session.






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