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Insight News • March 30, 2026 - April 05, 2026 • Page 1
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March 30, 2026 - April 05, 2026
Vol. 53 No. 13 • The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
From Left: Senators Bobby Joe Champion, Zaynab Mohamed, Susan Pha, Eric R. Pratt
Senate panel tables $100M business relief bill days before deadline Senators clash over geographic equity, CDFI reach, and whether to fund an economic impact study; tabled bill may be dead Editor
By Al McFarlane A $100 million relief package for Minnesota businesses devastated by federal immigration enforcement operations faced procedural milestones Monday that included a sharp debate over who gets the money, how it gets delivered, and whether the state should study the damage before acting on it. The question of whether to allocate $250,000 to study the impact of the ICE actions in Minnesota, may have been the death knell for the hopes of entrepreneurs and agencies for whom the legislative relief would have been a lifeline.
The Senate Jobs and Economic Development Committee heard Senate File 4535, the Minnesota Business Recovery Loan Program, authored by Senate President Bobby Joe Champion (DFL-Minneapolis) — then passed a contested amendment and tabled the bill with the suggestion it could face a later vote on whether to advance to the Finance Committee. Senator Champion said, however, the bill would not again be brought before the committee for approval. The 5-4 vote on both the amendment and the motion to lay over signals a closely divided committee and a bill whose path to the floor remains uncertain. Sen. Zaynab Mohamed (DFL-District 63) — the committee's vice chair, led the hearing's most pointed line of internal questioning.
The bill: $100 million to channel capital through CDFIs
SF 4535 proposed a $100.25 million one-time appropriation from the Minnesota Forward Fund — $100 million for direct business relief and $250,000 originally set aside for a comprehensive statewide economic impact study. The money would flow through Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and nonprofit lenders as grants or loans to provide working capital for businesses experiencing economic harm from immigration enforcement activities, particularly Operation Metro Surge, which began in December 2025. The funding is structured in two geographic streams: •
•
$82 million to certified CDFIs serving the seven-county metropolitan area $18 million to the Minnesota Initiative Foundation
network for Greater Minnesota Under the bill, CDFIs could draw from the pool and receive 100% reimbursement for qualifying loans made to eligible businesses — a structure designed to enable rapid, decentralized deployment through lenders that already have relationships in affected communities. Loan eligibility requires businesses to demonstrate a revenue loss greater than 30% compared to the same period in the prior year, with losses attributable to staffing shortages, reduced customer access, or other stability factors tied to federal enforcement activity. Businesses must have a permanent physical location in Minnesota and be owned by a permanent resident. Loans carry zero interest with potential for 100% principal forgiveness after five years. Loan tiers are determined by business size:
The amendment: study out, money in (passes 5-4)
The hearing's first significant action was the adoption — on a 5-4 vote — of an amendment that deleted Section 2 of the bill, which had authorized a $250,000 comprehensive eco-
nomic impact study, and redirected those funds directly into the business relief pool, bringing the total direct relief appropriation to $100.25 million. The amendment crys-
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Mahama leads historic UN vote declaring slave trade humanity’s gravest crime Ghana’s president wins 123-nation majority for landmark reparations resolution NEW YORK, March 25–26, 2026 — In one of the most emotionally charged sessions the United Nations General Assembly has seen in years, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama stood before the world’s nations and made history. Addressing the assembly during a plenary session to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade at UN headquarters in New York, President Mahama called on member states to adopt a landmark resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity, describing it as a
“There is no such thing as a slave.” — President John Dramani Mahama
critical step toward justice and healing. Mahama did not come to the podium simply as Ghana’s head of state — he had
been named the African Union Champion on Reparations, carrying the weight of an entire continent’s demand for acknowledgment.
President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama “There is no such thing as a slave”
President
Mahama
opened his eight-page address with a provocative declaration: “There is no such thing as a slave.” He explained that the victims of the trade were human
beings who were trafficked and then enslaved by people who
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