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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.

Caucus-Goers Asked To “Think Great Lakes”

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Monday, February 4, 2008   

St. Paul, MN – Twenty-four hours and counting until Super Tuesday, when two dozen states, including Minnesota, have a say in the presidential process. The Great Lakes states represent more than one-quarter of the delegates at stake in tomorrow's primaries, and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers from these states is asking candidates to commit to restoring and protecting the Great Lakes waterways.

Minnesota's spokeswoman for the coalition is State Senator Ann Rest, who says another priority is federal legislation to ban water diversion and set up fair water use rules.

"The legislators are very concerned about diversions from the Great Lakes for uses that don't benefit the Great Lakes; and there is concern about ballast water discharges."

Ballast water dumped from oceangoing ships can introduce nuisance aquatic species into the lakes, which can quickly replace existing species and pollute beaches. Rest says, in addition to the environmental pluses of protecting the lakes, a Brookings Institute study confirms another upside.

"There would be a direct economic benefit from having clean lakes that would amount to about $50 billion and thousands of jobs. It's a matter of encouraging tourism and making sure that we have good habitat for fish, rather than having these nasty, invasive species introduced and ruining the fishing in our Great Lakes."

Rest says it's important that voters make their clean water priorities known to the candidates, starting with tomorrow's caucuses and primaries.

"Democrats and Republicans should urge the major candidates to support Great Lakes restoration, not only as a legacy for our children and grandchildren of responsible stewardship, but also because the economic benefit to the Midwest States is so enormous."

For more information on the Great Lakes strategies, visit www.healthylakes.org.

Other Great Lakes states involved in Super Tuesday are New York and Illinois. Michigan held its primary on January 15.


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