Minnesota Senate DFLers and Republicans are no closer to an agreement on gun control or school security after hours of public hearings this week that included emotional testimony from parents of children affected by last month’s shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

DFL Gov. Tim Walz has said he wants to call lawmakers back to the state Capitol for a special legislative session on guns in the wake of the shooting. But the reality remains that in a narrowly divided Legislature, Democrats will need Republican support to pass the gun control legislation they say the state needs to avert future tragedies.

This week only reinforced that point as the second meeting of the Senate Gun Violence Prevention Working Group wound down on Wednesday. Chair Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, reviewed a list of DFL-endorsed gun control proposals, including a ban on so-called assault weapons, all of which Republicans opposed.

“It’s not just the Democrats’ job to pass an assault weapons ban,” Latz said. “We will try, but it should be and is an obligation of every member of the Legislature to take steps to go after the weapons, not just the people.”

Familiar political debate

A person armed with a semiautomatic rifle killed two children and injured 21 others at Annunciation School, prompting calls for greater restrictions on guns in Minnesota.

It’s brought an all-too-familiar political debate to the forefront of Minnesota politics: Does the government need to bar the public from possessing weapons capable of rapid fire, or should more be done to stop people with mental illness from spiraling and committing violent acts?

Senate and House Republican proposals center on the latter, and include boosting funding for school safety and mental health services and increasing mandatory minimum sentences for gun-related offenses. They argue that an assault weapons ban or other policies, such as requiring training before purchasing a firearm, are unconstitutional.

“I truly believe we need to do things now … we all want to protect our kids, we all want safe schools, but the issue is how do we get there,” said Sen. Jeff Howe, R-Rockville. “We can pass all these gun laws, which I believe will be tied up in court and won’t take effect, if they ever take effect, for years.”

State laws on guns overturned

This year alone, Minnesota saw three of its gun laws overturned as a result of lawsuits.

Gun rights groups won their legal battle to reduce the minimum age to obtain a permit to carry a gun to 18 and overturned a state ban on binary triggers — a modification that can greatly increase a semiautomatic weapon’s rate of fire by allowing it to shoot both when the trigger is pulled and released.

In another ruling, the Minnesota Supreme Court said a decades-old law banning certain guns without serial numbers didn’t apply to homemade “ghost guns” as long as federal law doesn’t require a serial number.

Still, DFLers remain skeptical of an approach that does not account for weapons, and questioned how Republicans could get behind boosting funding for mental health services when they had rejected program funding boosts in the past.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Sen. Bonnie Westin, DFL-Plymouth, called measures like armed guards or police officers at schools “security theater” and doubted their effectiveness.

“I don’t think we are … ever going to completely rid ourselves of gun violence, but there are things we can do that will reduce the risk that will reduce harm,” she said. “And I’m willing to have this conversation as well … but we also have to talk about guns.”

No guarantee of meaning action

Latz commented that there could be room for consensus on a proposal to provide funding for public and private schools to pay for school resource officers introduced at the end of the Wednesday hearing by Sen. Andrew Mathews, R-Princeton.

Asked if he believed calling 200 or so state lawmakers back to St. Paul was worthwhile even if there was no guarantee of any meaningful action, Latz told reporters he still saw purpose in getting elected officials on the record.

“I think it’s valuable to vet these issues and to hold legislators accountable so their constituents know where they are on these issues,” he said. “I also think there’s a reasonable possibility of getting some of these things passed, and I think we have to try.”

Republicans claimed their proposals on school safety and mental health would have an “immediate impact” and complained that they hadn’t been given enough time to prepare bills and more detailed explanations since the DFL-majority Senate called for the meetings last week.

Sen. Eric Lucero, R-St. Michael, also pointed out that the DFL controlled state government during the 2023 and 2024 sessions, but failed to pass an assault weapons ban. Some DFL senators from largely rural northern districts, like Grant Hauschild of Hermantown and Rob Kupec of Moorhead, have been hesitant to support sweeping gun control bills in the past.

Talk and even emotional testimony did little to change minds this week in the Senate working group, and no GOP members have signaled interest in gun bills.

Sen. Keri Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, thanked parents of the victims of the Annunciation School shooting for coming forward to share their experiences. Asked if any of the testimony had changed her mind on the need for an assault weapons ban, she told reporters: “No.”

Legislative margins

Walz continues to meet with legislative leaders of both parties for private talks on what a special session might look like, though Latz admitted there will need to be a bipartisan consensus for anything to pass.

The House is set to return to a 67-67 tie between the DFL and Republicans after a Tuesday special election to pick the successor of Rep. Melissa Hortman, the former DFL House speaker killed by a gunman in June.

Two vacancies in the Senate have left DFLers holding 33 seats to Republicans’ 32. Special elections for those vacancies this November could change the balance of power or preserve the DFL’s one-seat majority.

But right now, they still need 34 votes to pass any bills.

If a special session were to happen right now, DFLers would need one Republican vote in both chambers to get any bill to the governor.

However, the governor has said he felt a sense of urgency about the issue and would call lawmakers to the Capitol before the regular session is scheduled to start in February.

“The public is asking us to do something,” he said last week. “I will call the special session one way or another.”

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By DAMIAN J. TROISE

NEW YORK (AP) — StubHub received a lackluster reception on Wall Street Wednesday.

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The ticket marketplace’s stock fell 6.4% from its initial public offering price of $23.50 per share on its first day of trading. The company’s shares are trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “STUB.”

StubHub offered just over 34 million shares and raised approximately $800 million. At the closing price, the company has a market valuation of about $8.1 billion.

StubHub plans to use proceeds from the sale to pay down debt and for general corporate purposes.

The company, which is based in New York, said buyers in more than 200 countries and territories used its platform to purchase more than 40 million tickets in 2024. It was co-founded in 2000 by current CEO, Eric Baker. He will remain CEO and maintain control of the company.

EBay bought StubHub in 2007. Baker left the company ahead of that sale and founded international online ticket exchange Viagogo in 2006. EBay sold StubHub to Viagogo in 2020 for $4.05 billion, essentially returning it to Baker, who then changed the name of the combined company to StubHub Holdings. It is among the largest platforms for secondary ticket sales. Its competitors include SeatGeek and Vivid Seats.

StubHub reported just a 3% increase in revenue to $827 million during the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024. That puts the company on pace for slower revenue growth after notching a 29% jump for all of 2024.

StubHub President Nayaab Islam, left, and CEO Eric Baker pose for photos outside the New York Stock Exchange before the company’s IPO, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Live Nation, which dominates the primary market for ticket sales through Ticketmaster, reported a 1.8% jump in revenue to just under $23.2 billion in 2024.

StubHub has come under criticism along with the broader ticketing industry over hidden fees and inflated ticket prices. The attorney general for Washington, D.C., sued StubHub last year, accusing the ticket resale platform of advertising deceptively low prices and then ramping up prices with extra fees. The company is also facing pricing and fee inquiries in Pennsylvania and New York.

Ticket prices for concerts and sporting events have been among the sharper rising costs for consumers over the last few years. Ticket prices rose 5.2% in 2024 after rising 6.8% in 2023, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s consumer price index. Rising ticket prices outpaced the broader increases for overall inflation in both years and that trend has continued through 2025.

The IPO market is on track for its best year since 2021. Other notable debuts this year include the design software company Figma, the buy now, pay later company Klarna, Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin and the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, which is majority owned by the Winklevoss twins.

This story has been corrected to show the correct figures for 2024 revenue for Live Nation.

The St. Paul Police Department plans to keep 16 vacant jobs unfilled next year, with nearly half of them community engagement cadets, under the mayor’s proposed budget, the police chief told the St. Paul City Council on Wednesday.

No current officers or other police department employees would lose their jobs.

Mayor Melvin Carter presented his 2026 budget proposal on Sept. 4. The city council is now receiving weekly informational presentations from the city’s departments before it finalizes the budget in December.

Carter’s $887 million proposed budget for the coming year would rely on a 5.3% property tax levy increase, roughly comparable to this year’s 5.9% increase and about average for the decade.

The 2026 budget would expand investment in housing programs, such as office-to-housing conversions and down-payment assistance, without laying off city employees. To accomplish those goals, Carter’s proposal would trim hours at some recreation centers and freeze hiring for dozens of open city positions.

The police department’s proposed budget for next year is $146 million, which is about $3 million more than this year’s budget. Just over 92 percent of the budget is salaries and wages, and next year’s budget increase reflects already-negotiated salary increases in the contract with officers, Police Chief Axel Henry said.

Homicides, shootings are down

St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry speaks to City Council members. (Claudia Staut / Pioneer Press)

The department’s priorities are reducing gun violence and violent crime as a whole. “A lot of good news on that front,” Henry told the council Wednesday. “Every major felony crime category in the city is dropping, and it is dropping in consecutive years.”

There have been eight homicides in St. Paul this year, compared to 19 in the city at this time last year. Forty-nine people have been injured in nonfatal shootings, according to preliminary information; there were 77 as of this date last year.

The reduction in violent crime means the department has not needed to call in investigators and crime-scene analysts as much on an overtime basis.

Police overtime spending from the general fund was down 30 percent for the first half of this year compared with the same period last year.

In downtown, the Dale/University area and other places — where some people are dealing and using drugs in public, contending with mental illness and involved in quality-of-life crimes — the police department has shifted officers’ hours and focus, Henry said.

“Obviously, the goal would be that we do something in prevention. No one wants to arrest our way out of the opioid crisis,” Henry said. “But we also know in the short term, one of the ways that we can compel people to seek … treatment … is to arrest them for the lower-level crimes that they’re committing, and then say, ‘Hey, you have a choice. You can face the consequences of that crime. Alternative number two, which is you go to drug court, and you basically go seek treatment.’”

Funding officers

Carter, in previously deciding how to use one-time federal funding for public safety, asked Henry if starting a nonfatal shooting unit could reduce such shootings and also push down homicides.

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“I said, ‘Absolutely,’” Henry recounted Wednesday.

Nonfatal shootings were previously handled by homicide investigators. Designating investigators to solely solve nonfatal shootings led from a clearance rate of 38 percent at the end of 2023 to 71 percent for 2024 cases, according to the department.

The federal funding will run out at the end of 2026, “but they have been so effective” Henry told the council he would not “get rid of or disband that group.”

Meanwhile, due to a grant that’s expiring, 11 other officers who’d been grant-funded will need to be funded by the department next year.

Down to 8 parking enforcement officers

St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry, top left, speaks to city council members during a meeting regarding the mayor’s 2026 budget proposal for the police department. (Claudia Staut / Pioneer Press)

Keeping 16 vacant positions open will save about $1.4 million next year, according to the department.

There are currently 17 community engagement cadets working for the police department. They’re young people who are in college, “on a pathway program to become police officers,” according to Henry.

The seven vacant cadet positions that will remain open next year is “not saying that I don’t value that position,” but comes down to making difficult budget decisions, Henry said.

Parking enforcement officers, who are in college for law enforcement and are a pipeline to becoming a St. Paul police officer, are a “way to illustrate some of the issues with our budget,” Henry said.

There is enough work for about 24 parking officers during two shifts, but the budget doesn’t allow for that many, Henry said. The police department had 12 at one point and, in the last year, the number was reduced to 10. Next year, there will be eight.

“We would like to see those (numbers) obviously stay up,” Henry said, but it’s understandable that they have to reduce them “when we’re doing budget crunches.”

Council Member Anika Bowie, whose ward includes Allianz Field, said she hears from people who live in the neighborhood and are frustrated about cars parked for a long time or in handicap parking spots.

“If we’re going to be a city that’s going to have more events, more concerts, more festivals … all those things that helps generate our economy … we want to make sure that the residents here aren’t compromised with having adequate parking,” she said.

‘Retirement boom’

The department is authorized to hire up to 619 officers, which will drop to 616 in next year’s proposed budget. But the department hasn’t had close to that number for some time because hiring hasn’t kept up with people leaving. There were 562 officers on the department’s payroll as of Sept. 8.

The police department brings on new officers through one or two training academies each year, and this year a third is starting in October. There is not funding earmarked in next year’s budget for two academies.

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“Having academies is critical to hiring those officers and then getting out of our shortage, which saves us on overtime, so we want to be investing there,” city council President Rebecca Noecker said, asking Henry if the department will be able to hold two academies next year.

“We will find a way,” he said. “… We have people in the pipeline, and we are recruiting.”

Furthermore, law enforcement is “in the middle of a retirement boom” as people reach retirement age, Henry said. At the same time, fewer people have been applying to become officers.

Over the next three years, there will be 90 to 100 St. Paul officers who will turn 55 or older and could retire.

“Keep in mind, I’m 56 so people don’t automatically leave at 55, but for most folks, that’s typically when you get there, especially if you’re hired in your early 20s,” Henry said.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

Starbucks workers in three states took legal action against the coffee giant Wednesday, saying it violated the law when it changed its dress code but refused to reimburse employees who had to buy new clothes.

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The employees, who are backed by the union organizing Starbucks’ workers, filed class-action lawsuits in state court in Illinois and Colorado. Workers also filed complaints with California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency. If the agency decides not to seek penalties against Starbucks, the workers intend to file a class-action lawsuit in California, according to the complaints.

The Associated Press left a message with Starbucks Wednesday seeking comment.

Starbucks’ new dress code went into effect on May 12. It requires all workers in North America to wear a solid black shirt with short or long sleeves under their green aprons. Shirts may or may not have collars, but they must cover the midriff and armpits. Starbucks gave each employee two free T-shirts that comply with the new guidelines.

Employees must wear khaki, black or blue denim bottoms without patterns or frayed hems or solid black dresses that are not more than 4 inches above the knee. The dress code also requires workers to wear black, gray, dark blue, brown, tan or white shoes made from a waterproof material. Socks and hosiery must be “subdued,” the company said.

The dress code prohibits employees from having face tattoos or more than one facial piercing. Tongue piercings and “theatrical makeup” are also prohibited.

Starbucks said in April that the new dress code would make employees’ green aprons stand out and create a sense of familiarity for customers. It comes as the company is trying to reestablish a warmer, more welcoming experience in its stores.

Before the new dress code went into effect, Starbucks had a relatively lax policy. In 2016, it began allowing employees to wear patterned shirts in a wider variety of colors to give them more opportunities for self-expression.

The old dress code was also loosely enforced, according to the Colorado lawsuit. But under the new dress code, employees who don’t comply aren’t allowed to start their shifts.

Brooke Allen, a full-time student who also works at a Starbucks in Davis, California, said she was told by a manager in July that the Crocs she was wearing didn’t meet the new standards and she would have to wear different shoes if she wanted to work the following day. Allen had to go to three stores to find a compliant pair that cost her $60.09.

Allen has spent an additional $86.95 on clothes for work, including black shirts and jeans.

“I think it’s extremely tone deaf on the company’s part to expect their employees to completely redesign their wardrobe without any compensation,” Allen said. “A lot of us are already living paycheck to paycheck.”

Allen said she misses the old dress code, which allowed her to express herself with colorful shirts and three facial piercings.

“It looks sad now that everyone is wearing black,” she said.

The lawsuits and complaints filed Wednesday allege that Starbucks’ dress code violates state laws that require companies to reimburse workers for expenses that primarily benefit the employer. Colorado law also prohibits employers from imposing expenses on workers without their written consent, according to that lawsuit. The plaintiffs seek damages on behalf of all Starbucks workers in those states, whether or not their stores are unionized.

Multiple plaintiffs, like Allen, said they requested reimbursement from Starbucks to conform to the dress code but were denied. Gilbert Cruz, an employee in Aurora, Illinois, requested $10 for the cost of removing a nose piercing.

Worker-led lawsuits in state courts are a shift in tactics in the multi-year effort to unionize Starbucks’ stores.

Starbucks Workers United, the labor group that has unionized 640 of Starbucks’ 10,000 company-owned U.S. stores, has filed hundreds of unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks with the National Labor Relations Board. The union filed an charge over the dress code in April.

But the board’s ability to hear cases has been curtailed under President Donald Trump. Trump fired an NLRB member in the spring, leaving the board without the quorum it needs to decide cases.