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Judge Protects Gamblers’ Rights to Destroy Their Lives, Society
Think you should be legally permitted to bet on just about every single thing that happens in the world? Well, have I got good news for you—a federal judge has temporarily halted a Minnesota law that would have prevented “prediction markets” like Kalshi and Polymarket from operating in our state.
Blame the feds. Judge Katherine Menendez ruled Monday that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission preempts state law in this area. “Kalshi and Polymarket US are designated contract markets, so the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate transactions involving those `swaps,’” she wrote in her decision.
Huh? Let Minnesota Reformer's J. Patrick Coolican break it down for ya.
“The companies have successfully persuaded the Trump administration that they are not gambling sites but a platform for futures contracts,” he writes. “Instead of speculating on the price of, say, a barrel of oil, the companies allow people to predict a sports or political or pop culture outcome.”
For some context here, please process this story by Catherina Giono of Fortune with the headline, “Americans spend more on sports bets than movies, arts, museums, and music combined.” What could go wrong?
Another New Minnesota Law in the Crosshairs
A Minnesota law set to go into effect on August 1 would ban so-called “nudification technology” and allow victims to sue anyone who uses AI to disrobe them. Only a real creep could be against that, right?
Enter xAI (an offshoot of the website formerly and basically still known as Twitter), which has asked a federal court to block the law as overly broad. As Minnesota Reformer’s Madison McVan reports, lawyers for the right-wing-dominated social media site claim that some perfectly wholesome AI slop would be affected by the law, such as an image (reproduced above) of Chris Christie and J.D. Pritzker as sumo wrestlers.
And Speaking of Elon Musk…
Is anything not DOGE’s fault? Elon Musk may have crept back into “private” life, which means using his rancid little social media site to support pogroms in Belfast and the murder of journalists, while providing a chatbot regularly used to generate CSAM. But let’s not forget that just last year, this infinitely wealthy loser was essentially handed the keys to the federal government, where he dismantled much of the regulatory state that keeps us happy and healthy.
Northern Minnesota may be among the places suffering as a result. As the Washington Post reports, the Biden admin OK’d a fire-prevention plan to remove dead trees from the Superior National Forest. Then, with the project shovel-ready, the DOGE braintrust stepped in and delayed it. The planned area included thousands of acres in and around the Echo Trail near Ely, which is currently ablaze.
“The whole community came together and supported this project because we understood the risk,” former park ranger Aaron Kania says. “And now we’re behind in getting the work implemented, and now the fires have come. That work didn’t get done, and it put our communities at risk.”
Kania is currently running for the state legislature as a Democrat to represent the area. Unsurprisingly, his opponent, incumbent Rep. Roger Skraba (R-Ely), won’t blame DOGE. “I’m still saying the Forest Service dropped the ball,” he says.
Healthcare Costs to Rise for U of M Employees
It may only be July, but employers are already finding ways to skimp on benefits in 2027. Take the University of Minnesota, one of our state’s largest employers, with 27,000 people in its employ. A reader wrote to share changes to the U’s medical plans next year, and, judging from this press release, they don’t seem great.
“The financial realities mean [the university] can no longer keep paying the same portion of costs,” according to the press release linked above. Deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums, and coinsurance will all increase in 2027. “Workers will be functionally taking a pay cut once these changes have been made, as our 3% merit pay increases don't even keep up with inflation,” our tipster writes. "Employees deductibles [will] increase 400 percent," writes a separate tipster.
All of this comes as U of M Prez Rebecca Cunningham enjoys a fat raise while tuition skyrockets.
