Charlene Briner will step down as interim director of the Office of Cannabis Management, according to an announcement from the governor’s office this week, with General Counsel Eric Taubel serving as interim director for the time being.

Briner’s resignation comes after repeated halts to the cannabis industry’s launch, which was intended for this month but is now slated for early summer. The office was created in August 2023 following the Legislature legalizing recreational marijuana and is responsible for overseeing Minnesota’s new regulated cannabis market.

“Charlene Briner has gotten Minnesota’s emerging cannabis industry off the ground in a safe and responsible way,” Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement. “It’s no easy task to build a regulatory framework around an entirely new industry from scratch, but under Charlene’s leadership, Minnesota laid the foundation for a successful marketplace for years to come.”

Taubel served as the Office of Cannabis Management’s general counsel for the last year and oversaw the drafting of cannabis regulations and tribal compact negotiations.

He will assume the interim director role after Briner’s last day on Jan. 17.

Briner has steered the agency since Walz’s first pick for a permanent director quickly resigned in September 2023 over reports that her hemp business was selling illegal products.

— Forum News Service

State allocates funds for bird flu research

Gov. Tim Walz approved funds Friday from the state lottery-generated Environment and Natural Resources Fund for researchers at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine to study the flu. The funding proposal was made by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, a bipartisan committee of 10 lawmakers and seven citizens who decide where money from the Environment and Natural Resources Fund are allocated.

The commission said the U researchers will partner with the Animal Humane Society and other organizations to ramp up testing and better understand the threat of the bird flu beyond Minnesota’s wild and domestic bird populations.

“Rapidly evolving threats like HPAI don’t go on hiatus between funding cycles,” Nancy Gibson, co-chair of the commission, said in a statement. “We are grateful that the LCCMR can provide Minnesota’s wildlife professionals with timely support ... that allows them to do what they do best — putting their expertise to work bolstering Minnesota’s immune system against HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza).”

Project leader and U researcher Arno Wuenschmann called bird flu a “ticking time bomb” for animal and human health, according to Gibson’s statement.

Previous outbreaks typically ended in months, but the current outbreak of bird flu is two years in and has spread beyond birds to domestic and wild mammals in Minnesota, including dairy cows, red foxes, black bears and domestic cats, as well as humans, the statement said.

On Monday, the first U.S. bird flu death was reported in Louisiana.

— Forum News Service

Judge allows recording of Sen. Mitchell’s trial

A Becker County judge has granted a request allowing Minnesota news outlets to record the jury trial of a state senator charged with burglary.

In an order dated Monday, District Judge Michael Fritz granted requests from MPR News, WCCO, KARE, KSTP, KMSP, Valley News Live/KVLY and the Minnesota Star Tribune to gather video and audio recordings from Sen. Nicole Mitchell’s

trial.

“As an elected member of the Minnesota state Senate, Ms. Mitchell is a public figure, and there is therefore a heightened public interest in this case,” Fritz wrote.

Mitchell, a first-term DFLer from Woodbury, was arrested last year at her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home. She was charged with burglary and is accused of attempting to take several items of sentimental value that she said belonged to her late father, including his cremated remains.

Mitchell has said the incident was a misunderstanding and she has pleaded not guilty. She has refused calls from Republicans and some Democrats to resign her Senate seat.

Fritz declined a request for media outlets to livestream or live broadcast the proceedings. He also said that the media cannot show members of the jury or witnesses who object to being recorded.

The trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 27.

— Forum News Service

Man pleads guilty in business fraud

A Burnsville man has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after federal authorities say he concocted a fraudulent scheme against a California company that netted him $1.2 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.

Thomas Thanh Pham, 53, claimed to be a broker who could connect a California-based electronics man

ufacturing company in San Jose with his alleged business affiliates in the same industry, court documents show.

As a supposed broker and CEO of Enterprise Products LLC, Pham defrauded the San Jose company by claiming he could facilitate multimillion-dollar manufacturing and repair contracts between the company and other large electronics companies.

He supplied bogus documents, including fabricated contracts, correspondence and business proposals, as part of his scheme and required the company to pay him a deposit of more than $1.2 million and sign a contract with him, court documents show.

To “give the impression” he was fulfilling his end of the bargain, Pham delivered 20 sample electronics devices but failed to disclose that the devices were stolen. Although the victim company demanded a refund, Pham used the funds for a series of “unauthorized uses and transactions.”

Last week, Pham pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

The case was the result of an FBI investigation.

— Kristi Miller