The Minnesota Senate gave preliminary approval this week to legislation that would keep private the records from a state panel that is deciding the awards to 35W bridge collapse victims.
Describing the changes as mostly technical, Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, said the legislation would keep the public, including companies that might be sued by the bridge victims, from being able to review the notes of members of the panel. Latz said the change would prohibit other parties that "may want to see what the panel members thought about the validity of a particular claim." He said the move would treat the panel's internal notes like those of a judge.
"Judges don't release their notes at the end of a trial," said Latz, who said the move was supported by the panel and the state attorney general's office. He said that, even with the changes, the amount of the individual awards given to victims would be public.
But Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, said he was concerned about keeping information from the public regarding the much-debated collapse in August 2007. "I think we're moving a little too fast to seal up things on a bridge that collapsed under somewhat dubious or mysterious conditions," he said
MIKE KASZUBA
Committee OKs phase-out of chemical in toys Two Senate committees heard testimony this week about a bill to ban a controversial chemical from children's products. Bisphenol-A is used in plastic in products including water bottles, sports equipment and CDs and DVDs. Its use in children's products, from toys to formula containers, would be phased out by Jan. 1, 2013, under legislation proposed by Sen. Sandy Rummel, DFL-White Bear Lake.
"This is a bill to protect little children," Rummel said at the joint hearing Monday of the Environment and Natural Resources and Health, Housing and Family Security committees.
Some studies on lab animals have shown an increase in adult illnesses such as heart disease and obesity as a result of exposure to extremely low levels of the chemical at an early age, even before birth, said John Peterson Myers, founder, CEO and chief scientist of the nonprofit Environmental Health Sciences.
