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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

'Sota-Ricans Say Help Still Desperately Needed

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Monday, October 16, 2017   

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A jam session this week in St. Paul will raise money to help Puerto Rico recover from the devastation of Hurricane Maria, which hit almost a month ago.

The death toll still is climbing and most of the island still is desperate for safe drinking water. Musician Maria Isa Pérez-Hedges, who calls herself a 'Sota-Rican, has been organizing donations to El Fondo Boricua. Borikén is the indigenous name for Puerto Rico.

"El Fondo Boricua is right now focusing 100 percent on hurricane relief - medicine and shelter and elecrticity, water - those essential things to just be able to live," she said. "And then, the future of the long-term goals are rebuilding."

Pérez-Hedges is among musicians who will perform starting at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Black Dog Cafe in downtown St. Paul as part of the fundraiser for El Fondo Boricua. The St. Paul Foundation administers the fund, and the donation page is on its website.

Some of Thursday's performers have relatives on the island. Pérez-Hedges just got through to a great aunt last week.

"There's never been anything this fearful that she's experienced in her 82 years of life," she said. "The island has been devastated. There's a major exodus happening."

Pérez-Hedges said the hurricane was a wake-up call to Americans who might have forgotten that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, too. Her father and grandfather were veterans, and she described her whole family as "hard-working taxpayers." She said people may not realize that, although Puerto Rico is poor, it was in tropical bounty.

"Avocados, mangoes, plantains, bananas, oranges, grapefruit, tobacco, coffee," she said. "Everything that was grown there is completely wiped out."

She said she's been moved and encouraged by an outpouring of support from fellow musicians, labor unions and small businesses that have helped with fundraising.

More information is online at givemn.org.


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