The Senate Appropriation Committee has announced $1 million in health care and education funding. The projects include:

• Apple Tree Dental, Minneapolis: $150,000 to expand the physical capacities and staff of the Center for Dental Health and Mobile Dental Offices to serve more patients and people with special health needs. This project will help improve dental health care for the underserved in Minnesota.


• Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency, Virginia: $100,000 to establish a program to advance employment through securing transportation to worksites and to provide employment education and training. This project will help low-income individuals acquire and keep new jobs.


• Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare, St. Paul: $100,000 to construct a Surgery Simulation Center that will allow physicians and other health care professionals to practice complex surgeries in a simulated environment. This project will help improve patient care.


• Metro Alliance for Healthy Families, Dakota County: $300,000 to fund an evidence-based home visiting program for at-risk infants and toddlers and their families. This project will improve the health, development, and school readiness of at-risk children.


• The Refuge Network, Cambridge: $150,000 to expand support services for residents of a domestic violence shelter and to fund outreach and education to children in schools on dating violence and family violence prevention; to hire new staff member to work with children at shelter. This project will help reduce the strain on existing publicly-funded services.


• Saint Elizabeth's Medical Center, Wabasha: $100,000 to upgrade infrastructure, facilities, and technologies to strengthen capacity and better serve patients. This project will help improve patient care.

The committee also approved $33.4 million for flood mitigation, water, and energy projects.

• Fargo-Moorhead Flood Protection: $20,000,000 to support a feasibility study, planning, engineering, and design of a flood diversion for Moorhead, MN and Fargo, ND.

• Lewis and Clark Regional Water System: $10,000,000 to allow continued construction of a water treatment and distribution project to serve 20 cities and rural water systems in southwest Minnesota, northwest Iowa, and southeast South Dakota, including Worthington, Luverne, Lincoln-Pipestone Rural Water System and Rock County Rural Water District.
• Roseau River Flood Diversion Project: $2,500,000 for the construction of the flood mitigation project on the Roseau River in Roseau, Minnesota.

• Harriet Island Dredging: $200,000 to support dredging the lower harbor near St. Paul's Harriet Island.

• White Earth Tribal Biomass Biofuel Project: $700,000 to support biomass energy development on the White Earth reservation, including construction of a wood pellet plant and research on the potential for ethanol production on the reservation.

Sen. Franken also requested, and has received approval for, $3.15 million for crime fighting and youth initiatives.

• Dakota County Criminal Justice Integration Information Network Enhancements: $600,000 to create new programs to allow law enforcement personnel to acquire information, analyze crime, implement automated license plate recognition, and to allow citizens to report crime online.


• St. Louis County Public Safety Interoperability for Law Enforcement: $500,000 to buy portable and mobile radios to meet the FCC's regulation of making all public safety radio frequencies narrowband compliant. This project will help improve interoperability between first responder agencies and would improve public safety.


• City of Duluth Forensic Technology Task Force Project: $175,000 to acquire equipment and resources to investigate and prosecute Internet Crimes Against Children.


• Native American Law Enforcement Summit Indian Crime Awareness Research and Evaluation: $375,000 to assist Minnesota Indian tribes in collecting, analyzing, and sharing crime data. This program will reduce crime, enhance community quality of life, and encourage business growth in Minnesota tribes and surrounding communities.


• Ramsey County Young Adult Offender Transitions Project: $200,000 to provide transitional services to young adults being released from incarceration. This mental-health treatment, housing advocacy and placement, employment training, and connection to community agencies will help prevent these young adults from re-offending.


• Winona State University National Child Protection Training Center: $500,000 to fund the National Child Protection Training Center, which assists universities in training future child protection professionals. These funds will contribute to the training of prosecutors and other professionals who respond to child abuse cases.


• White Earth Court Team for Maltreated Infants and Toddlers: $200,000 to fund a Court Team to work with abused and neglected infants within the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. This court team will make recommendations to protect the health and welfare of children, which will improve their development and outcomes both immediately and over time.


• Bolder Options Rochester Expansion: $100,000 to assist in expanding this successful youth mentoring program to Rochester.


• Radio Consoles for Sherriff's 9-1-1 Dispatch Center in Hennepin County: $500,000 to acquire radios that will enable the County, which provides dispatch to 36 communities and more than 1.2 million people, to continue important dispatch services.

The Appropriations Committee has approved $48 million for construction projecs around Minnesota.

• Northstar Phase II Project: $1,500,000 to complete construction of the Northstar Line from Big Lake to St. Cloud.


• Harriet Tubman Center East: $600,000 for the renovation of a building in order to consolidate family violence prevention work, counseling and community education, youth and family services, and administrative support, and relocate two domestic violence shelters.


• US Highway 212 Expansion: $400,000 to complete safety upgrades to two remaining segments of 2-lane US Highway 212 between I-494 in the Twin Cities and Norwood Young America.


• US 52 Interchange and Overpass: $400,000 to remove the only 2 traffic control signals on US 52 between Rochester and the Twin Cities located at Cannon Falls.


• White Earth Tribal Transit Service Bus Garage Facility: $500,000 to support construction of a bus garage facility to house the buses in operation.


• Highway 14 Project: $250,000 to fund lane expansion of Highway 14 between Owatonna and Dodge Center.


• Cedar Ave Bus Rapid Transitway: $500,000 to support construction of the Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transitway in the corridor from the Mall of America Transit Station in Bloomington to CSAH 70 in Lakeville.


• RR Whistle Free Zone Project: $400,000 to support construction/installation of four-quadrant crossing arms or medians at five crossings within the cities of Goodview and Minnesota City.


• Interchange CSAH7/TH23: $1,000,000 to support construction of an interchange on TH23 at CSAH 7 in southwestern Lyon County.


• TH 610 - CSAH 81 to I-94: $250,000 to support design, construction, and right-of-way acquisition for the construction of Trunk Highway 610 from CSAH 81 to Interstate 94 in the City of Maple Grove.


• TH 13 and CSAH 5 Interchange: $250,000 to support modernization of the TH-13 corridor through the construction of a grade-separated interchange at TH13 and CR 5.

Finally, several financial service appropriations were also approved.

• AccountAbility Minnesota: $125,000 for financial services assistance, St. Paul, MN.


• Central Corridor's Hmong Business Center: $150,000 for providing opportunities for small business owners and neighborhood revitalization in St. Paul, MN.


• Comprehensive Downtown Economic Development Plan and Program: $125,000 for the city of St. Cloud.