Affording Your Life with Attorney General Keith Ellison

Latest Episodes:

S4E1: All about inflation, price gouging, and the banking crisis May 17, 2023

Show notes

Welcome back to Affording Your Life! We are kicking off Season 4 by talking all about inflation, price gouging, and what the recent bank failures mean for everyday people.

My guest today is Dr. Lindsay Owens is the Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative. Widely known for her ability to communicate pressing economic concepts and arguments, Lindsay has been credited with changing the way we understand inflation, by leading the charge to expose—and articulate—the role of firm pricing power and corporate profiteering in price increases.

Follow Lindsay on Twitter: @owenslindsay1 / Learn more about Groundwork Collaborative: groundworkcollaborative.org.

Contact the Minnesota Attorney General's office at 651-296-3353 or visit ag.state.mn.us.

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S3E10: All about the Fairview/Sanford Merger - Part 2 Mar 29, 2023

Show notes

For the season three finale, we're continuing last week's conversation about the Fairview and Sanford Health merger. Carrie and Elizabeth are back to talk more about the Fairview and Sanford Health merger. Carrie is the Manager of the AGO’s Charities Division and Elizabeth is an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil, Wage Theft, and Antitrust Division.

Affording Your Life will be back for Season 4 on April 12.

Contact the Minnesota Attorney General's office at 651-296-3353 or visit ag.state.mn.us.

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S3E9: All about the Fairview/Sanford Merger - Part 1 Mar 22, 2023

Show notes

In November 2022, Fairview and Sanford Health announced their intention to merge their organizations. As part of that process, our office is conducting a review of the transaction. Here to help us understand the merger and what it means for Minnesotans, I have Carrie Washington and Elizabeth Odette. Carrie is the Manager of the AGO’s Charities Division and Elizabeth is an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil, Wage Theft, and Antitrust Division.

Today's episode is the first episode of our series on the merger. Tune in next week for part two!

Contact the Minnesota Attorney General's office at 651-296-3353 or visit ag.state.mn.us.

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S3E8: Advocating for residential utility customers w/Joe Meyer Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

Today’s guest is Joe Meyer, the Manager of the Residential Utilities Division here in the Minnesota AG’s office. Joe and his team advocate for residential and small business consumers when they have issues with their utility services and take action against utility companies when they violate the law and hurt Minnesotans.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit affordingyourlife.substack.com

S3E7: Protecting consumers w/Parker Maertz Mar 08, 2023

Show notes

The mission of my office is to help Minnesotans afford their lives with dignity and justice, and our Consumer Action Division is critical to advancing this mission. Today’s guest is Parker Maertz, the Manager of our office’s Consumer Action Division. We are going to talk about the function of the Consumer Action Division and how our office can help you.

To file a complaint, visit ag.state.mn.us or call our office at 651-296-3353.

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S3E6: Fighting worker misclassification w/Burt Johnson Mar 01, 2023

Show notes

In 2021, a study from the Midwest Economic Policy Institute found that nearly 25% of construction workers in the Minnesota experienced some form of wage theft, costing taxpayers more than $135 million. I called Burt Johnson, my friend and the General Counsel for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters to discuss the problem of misclassifying workers, how it hurts workers, and what the Carpenters Union is doing to protect their members.

Contact the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters

If you are a victim of wage theft: Call our office at 651-296-3353 or visit ag.state.mn.us to file a complaint.

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S3E5: Organizing with workers against wage theft w/Claudia Lainez (COPAL) Feb 22, 2023

Show notes

This week on Affording Your Life, I am joined by Claudia Lainez, to talk about her experience growing up in El Salvador and her work as an organizer, fighting against the injustices faced by workers, including wage theft. Claudia is the Worker's Center Coordinator at COPAL, a grassroots organization that seeks to impact the quality of life for Latinos in MN.

To learn more about COPAL or get in touch with the Worker's Center, visit copalmn.org or call 612-427-2011 and follow COPAL on Facebook.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit affordingyourlife.substack.com

S3E4: The importance of enforcing wage theft w/Terri Gerstein Feb 14, 2023

Show notes

For the first episode of 2023, I called my friend, Terri Gerstein to discuss the issue of wage theft, the importance of prosecuting employers who steal from their workers, and the next frontier for worker protections.

Terri Gerstein is the Director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at the Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program, and also a Fellow in the Program. She recently completed an Open Society Foundations Leadership in Government fellowship. Previously, she worked for over 17 years enforcing labor laws in New York State, including as the Labor Bureau Chief for the New York State Attorney General’s Office, and as a Deputy Commissioner in the New York State Department of Labor. Before her government service, Terri was a nonprofit lawyer in Miami, Florida, where she represented immigrant workers and also co-hosted a Spanish language radio show on workers’ rights.
Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian, and The Hill, among others; a complete listing can be found here. She has also appeared on Democracy Now, Univision and Telemundo. She’s a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Follow Terri on Twitter: @TerriGerstein

Visit Terri's website: https://www.terrigerstein.com

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit affordingyourlife.substack.com

S3 E3: The Fight for Fair Housing: Manufactured Home Communities Sep 08, 2022

Show notes

Manufactured home communities provide a great source of affordable housing that can be modern and well-maintained, nothing like their outdated public perception. However, keeping housing conditions healthy and thriving requires vigilance and a willingness to challenge ownership and management companies that don't keep their end of the deal. Assistant Attorney General Katherine Kelly and Investigator Nina Grove lead our office's Special Outreach and Protection Unit, which has protected the rights of hundreds of renters in the past year.

We visited the residents of Viking Terrace in Northfield, Minnesota to hear about how they stood up to shoddy management— and won. Katherine and Nina also discuss how our office can help anyone finding themselves in a similar situation.

Special thanks to the community members that shared their experiences with us: Jorge and George Zuccolotto, Dawn DeLacruz, Nathaly Sanchez Hernandez, Mar Valdecantos, and Pastor Abe Johnson of Emmaus Baptist Church.

To file a complaint with the Attorney General's Office, visit our website or give us a call at (651) 296-3353 (Twin Cities Calling Area) or (800) 657-3787 (Outside the Twin Cities), Monday through Friday. Referenced in the episode are our publications on what to expect when the rules of manufactured home parks change, the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants, and the manufactured home parks handbook. These publications and more can be found on our website, several in different languages.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit affordingyourlife.substack.com

S3 E2: Reproductive Rights and the ERA Jul 25, 2022

Show notes

The recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned 50 years of precedent established by Roe v Wade, creating fear, chaos, and confusion across the country. To dig deeper into what it all means, and how it is re-igniting the fight for equal rights, I chat with Sarah Stoesz, Sharon Lau, and Betty Folliard.

Sarah Stoesz is President and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States. Over twenty years of leadership, she has built PPNCS into one of the largest Planned Parenthood affiliates in the country, starting with Minnesota and South Dakota and then adding North Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska, providing health care to more than 100,000 patients each year.

Follow PPNCS on Twitter: @ppnorthcentral

Sharon Lau is the Midwest Advocacy Director of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance. She is a committed and passionate women’s rights advocate with 21 years of experience working with non-profit health care providers and advocacy organizations.

Follow Whole Woman's Health Alliance on Twitter: @WWHAlliance

Betty Folliard is the founder of ERA Minnesota. She is a nationally known speaker, thought leader, political strategist, and policy maker at the local and state levels.

Follow Betty on Twitter: @Bfolly

Please rate, subscribe, and share the show.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit affordingyourlife.substack.com

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