The head of Minnesota’s largest state agency is stepping down.

Department of Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead announced Monday that she’s leaving her role on Feb. 3.

Harpstead was appointed to lead the agency in August 2019 by DFL Gov. Tim Walz.

In a statement, Walz praised Harpstead’s work to reorganize DHS.

“I am proud of her work running the most complex and wide-ranging agency in state government,” Walz’s statement said. “I am especially proud of how Commissioner Harpstead supported the enterprise-wide work to separate DHS into three separate agencies, which will make each of them more effective, more accountable, and easier to manage.”

That change led to the creation of the Department of Children, Youth and Families, the Department of Direct Care and Treatment and the Department of Human Services. Those changes will be fully implemented this summer.

Harpstead also oversaw the agency through changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her agency has come under scrutiny during her time in office. That includes its operations of the Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program, which has been under increased pressure to release more of the offenders in its program.

More recently, DHS confronted allegations of fraud by two autism centers that allegedly received a combined $20 million in Medicaid claims, which are now under investigation.

“I’m pleased that we were able to balance new, stronger process controls with greater responsiveness to community partners, worked with the DHS grants and contracts team to imagine a re-design of the agency’s thousands of grants, and built an unparalleled team of strong senior leaders,” Harpstead said in a statement.

Harpstead’s reappointment to her position went to the state Senate in 2023 but had not yet been approved.

Prior to joining DHS, Harpstead was CEO of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.

— Forum News Service

Applicants sought for artist residency

The St. Croix Watershed Research Station in Marine on St. Croix is seeking applicants for this summer’s Artist at Pine Needles residency program.

Since 2002, more than 75 artists and writers “who seek to deepen the recognizable connection between the arts and sciences and pass that understanding on to the community” have been offered residencies in the Pine Needles cabin, which was previously owned by James Taylor Dunn, a noted historian of the St. Croix River Valley. Dunn wanted the property to be used as a scholarly and artistic retreat.

Applications for 2025 will be accepted from writers and artists who focus on environmental or natural history topics. There also is an emerging-artist category to encourage and support upcoming artists; applicants must be 21 years of age or older.

The four selected artists must design and lead a community outreach project, such as a workshop, lecture or demonstration, and donate an original piece inspired by their residency experience to the St. Croix Watershed Research Station within one year of their residency.

The stipend is $650/week while in residency; up to $400 in travel support is available if needed.

Application packets are available from the research station, which is a department of the Science Museum of Minnesota, or at smm.org/scwrs/programs/artist/. The deadline is March 2; decisions will be announced by April 4.

For more information, contact Alaina Fedie at 651-433-5953, ext. 12, or researchstation@smm.org.

— Mary Divine

2 injured in crash involving school bus

Two people were injured early Sunday after a crash in Forest Lake involving three cars and a Cambridge-Isanti School District bus transporting 14 high-school students.

The crash occurred just after 12:30 a.m. in the area of Interstate 35 and West Broadway Street, said Lt. Mike Lee of the Minnesota State Patrol.

The school bus was transporting members of the Cambridge-Isanti High School Jazz Choir back from a performance in Galesville, Wis., said Superintendent Nate Rudolph. “Our driver did a great job,” he said. “There was an accident ahead of the bus. With the way the roads were, we were fortunate he missed most of it.”

The driver of one of the cars was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul with minor injuries; he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, Lee said.

One of the passengers on the school bus, a 16-year-old student, suffered minor injuries, but was not taken to the hospital, he said.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, Lee said.

— Mary Divine

Teen dirt bike driver killed in collision

A teenage boy was killed Sunday evening when his motorized dirt bike collided with a pickup truck in Blaine.

According to the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, the crash happened shortly after 6 p.m. at 103rd Lane Northeast and Sunset Avenue Northeast.

Authorities say the boy was southbound on Sunset Avenue when he crashed into the pickup as it turned west onto 103rd Lane from northbound Sunset.

A man driving the pickup and a juvenile female passenger were not injured.

The identity of the boy was not immediately released as the investigation continues.

— Staff report

Ad wars beginning in Supreme Court race

Ad wars in the hotly contested race for control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court are beginning.

Republican-backed candidate Brad Schimel is launching a $1.1 million television ad buy statewide on Tuesday, marking the first spending on TV ads in the closely watched race in the presidential swing state.

Schimel, a Waukesha County judge, faces Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford in the race for an open seat on the state’s highest court. The election is April 1.

If Crawford wins, liberals will maintain their 4-3 majority until at least 2028. If Schimel wins, conservatives will win back the majority they lost in 2023.

The race that year shattered national spending records in a judicial contest.

— Associated Press