5 things to know today: Security tax, Department criticism, Program oversight, Duck numbers, Drawing Room (2024)

We're learning more about new security measures coming to the Northern Cass School District.

Voters approved a safety and security mill levy on Tuesday, June 11, by a slim margin. A total of 211 voters, 52%, said yes, and 195 voters, 48%, said no. It needed 50% approval to pass.

The levy will produce about $700,000 in taxes over the next five years, allowing the district to purchase safety locks and door handles for classrooms, a new intercom system, and more.

Superintendent Cory Steiner says the building and grounds committee will meet to decide on a final plan for ordering the new security features.

One of the first priorities will be installing a new camera system for school buses and the building.

"We'll have to start figuring out what the timeline is for ordering, installation, and all the fun parts. The hard work really starts now," Steiner said.

Read more from WDAY's Jay Dahl

Senate Photography

After the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor on Thursday issued a report on a multi-million-dollar pandemic-era fraud scheme, a top Republican lawmaker blasted the state Department of Education and said it was evident two years ago that accountability measures were lacking.

The nonprofit Feeding Our Future was supposed to be providing federally funded child nutrition programs, but instead stole up to a quarter of a billion dollars in public funds, according to the Department of Justice.

Although the first schisms of fraud began to appear some two years ago, recent developments have again brought issues related to Feeding Our Future to the forefront.

Last week, a Minneapolis jury convicted five people, all connected to a restaurant in Shakopee, according to MPR News reporting . They were named in a 43-count indictment dating back to September 2022, with charges including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering.

And Thursday, the Office of the Legislative Auditor issued its report that said the Minnesota Department of Education improperly monitored Feeding Our Future, creating “opportunities for fraud.”

Read more from Forum News Service's Korrie Wenzel

Contributed / Minnesota Senate Media Services

A new report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor concluded that the Minnesota Department of Education failed to properly oversee a food program that led to rampant fraud and dozens of people charged in federal court.

The OLA's report focused on MDE's lack of oversight over the Twin Cities nonprofit Feeding our Future, saying that the department knew of red flags years before federal charges were brought against 70 people involved in an alleged $250 million fraud.

"We found MDE’s oversight of Feeding Our Future to be inadequate," Legislative Auditor Judy Randall and Special Reviews Director Katherine Theisen wrote in their report. "In fact, we believe MDE’s actions and inactions created opportunities for fraud."

Earlier this month, a Minneapolis jury convicted five of seven defendants in the first trial regarding a federal investigation into the nonprofit and the FBI is investigating a possible plan to bribe a juror in that case.

Read more from Forum News Service's Mark Wasson

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s 77th annual spring breeding duck survey conducted in May showed an index of about 2.9 million birds, down from 3.4 million last year.

The 2024 breeding duck index was the 30th highest on record and stands at 17% above the long-term (1948-2023) average, according to Mike Szymanski, migratory game bird supervisor for Game and Fish in Bismarck.

“By and large, all species were flat to down. Mallards, for instance, were down about 19%, pintails were down about 29% and blue-winged teal down roughly 13%,” he said. “These species being down from last year is one thing, but when you compare it back to what we consider to be one of our best periods for breeding ducks in North Dakota (1994-2016), we’re down a lot more than that. So, overall, mallards, pintails, blue-winged teal, gadwall, wigeon and northern shovelers are down anywhere from 24% to 49% from that 1994 to 2016 time period.”

Szymanski said the decline in breeding duck numbers has a lot to do with the loss of land enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and perennial grasses on the landscape used for nesting cover by ducks.

“While our overall duck population count this year was about 2.9 million birds, that hardly compares to 5.4 million in 2002, our record-high,” he said. “So, we’re down considerably and were getting into this realm of a lower average where we probably won’t be above 3 million breeding ducks very often based on our landscape conditions.”

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Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum

Downtown Fargo has a new draw.

Drawing Room Fargo, a contemporary speakeasy, opens to the general public Thursday, June 13, in the lower level of 309 Roberts St.

Co-owners Taylor Snelling and Joseph Brunner see it as the perfect complement to their first-floor fine-dining restaurant, Mezzaluna.

“Great reaction; positive feedback so far,” Snelling said Wednesday, June 12, as bartenders and wait staff prepared for a final friends and family event.

“The biggest thing I wanted was just a different space from how we operated upstairs, more relaxed,” Snelling said.

The only way to get to the Drawing Room is by an elevator, in the hall just outside Mezzaluna. Get in, press the button for the basem*nt and hang a left when the doors open. Just down the hall on the right side you’ll see a sign by a plain door that reads “Apartment Storage.”

That’s the place.

Speakeasy cred established.

Read more from The Forum's Helmut Schmidt

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of "staff." Often, the "staff" byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.