MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – A Minnesota training program that teaches police how to identify drug-impaired drivers is under fire following allegations that a participating officer gave marijuana to a test volunteer.

The allegation, leveled by another officer in the program, followed reports from anti-Wall Street demonstrators that police plucked Occupy Minneapolis members from a plaza in downtown Minneapolis for the training, gave them marijuana and watched them use drugs.

Minnesota has launched criminal and internal public safety investigations into the single allegation and suspended the program, in which officers use citizens off the street as test subjects. There are similar programs in 48 states.

Authorities have not directly connected the Occupy allegations to the investigation, but have said officers identified test subjects at the plaza where Occupy has been meeting as well as other locations.

Forest Olivier, an Occupy protester, testified at a Minneapolis City Council committee hearing on May 2 that he went with police to a training site voluntarily several times.

“They gave me a full bag of weed and they gave me a pipe to smoke it out of,” Olivier told the hearing.

A 35-minute video produced by Minnesota independent media groups, including Twin Cities IndyMedia and Occupy Minneapolis, and released this month showed uniformed officers picking up and dropping off young adults from the plaza in marked squad cars.

MINNEAPOLIS, May 10 (Reuters) – The Minnesota House on Thursday gave final approval to a $975 million plan for a new stadium for the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings in downtown Minneapolis.

State representatives voted 71 to 60 to approve a plan worked out in a legislative conference committee that raised the Vikings contribution to the project by $50 million and reduced the state’s share by the same amount.

The conference committee report could only be voted up or down. The Senate was expected to vote on the plan later on Thursday.

The Vikings have played at the Metrodome since 1982 and lobbying for a new stadium began more than a decade ago, before owner Zygi Wilf bought the team in 2005. The team agreed to the increase in its share of the construction costs.

Talks intensified as the team’s 30-year lease at the Metrodome neared an end and were bolstered by the collapse of its inflatable roof in a heavy snowstorm in 2010 that forced the Vikings to play two home games elsewhere.

This session is the farthest a plan has advanced in the legislature.

Forbes valued the Vikings at nearly $800 million last year and the team’s value would be expected to rise significantly if a new stadium is built.

MINNEAPOLIS, May 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve should consider raising interest rates as soon as this year, one top Fed official said on Wednesday, even as another warned it will take years at current growth rates before the economy regains full employment.

The differing views, from Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota and Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto, show how the jobs outlook lies at the heart of disagreement at the Fed over how long the Fed should keep rates near zero, as it has since December 2008.

“We need more growth in order for more jobs to be created and in order for that unemployment rate to come down to that 6 percent rate which I view as maximum employment,” said Pianalto, a voting member of the Fed’s policy setting panel who supported its decision last month to promise low rates through late 2014.

At the 2.5 percent annual pace of growth that she expects, returning to full employment could take several years, she told an audience in Lexington, Kentucky.

But Kocherlakota, speaking in Minneapolis, argued that a decline in unemployment and an increase in inflation over the past year mean the Fed should be tightening policy – not today, but soon.

“I would say in six to nine months down the road we should begin to be thinking about initiating our exit strategy,” said Kocherlakota, who is not a voting member of the Fed’s policy-setting committee this year. “I don’t see a need for additional accommodation.”

On Friday, a government report showed the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent last month because more people gave up looking for work.

NEW YORK/LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) – Raw sugar futures extended their losses to reach a 20-month low in choppy dealings on We dnesday, pressured by a global surplus and risk-off selling, while arabica coffee dropped to the lowest since August 2010.

Cocoa futures turned up a shade.

The euro neared a three-month low, while safe-haven U.S. and German government debt rose as the rising cost of fixing Spain’s banks and a political impasse in Greece fuelled fears the euro zone debt crisis would deepen. A stronger dollar weighed on greenback-denominated commodities.

Raw sugar futures pared their losses after touching a 20-month trough, as recent upward revisions to the expected 2011/12 global surplus weighed on the market that returned to technically oversold levels on the 14-day relative strength index.

“There’s broadbased liquidation. The Greek situation has everyone very nervous,” said Sterling Smith, analyst with Country Hedging in Minnesota.

“We really have outside influences moving the market today. The market has huge supplies.”

ICE July raw sugar eased 0.11 cent, or 0.5 percent, to 20.26 cents a lb by 12:17 p.m. EDT (1617 GMT), after hitting the lowest for the spot position since September 2010 at 20.13 cents a lb.

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Minnesota state senators advanced a $975 million plan late on Tuesday to build a new domed stadium for the Minnesota Vikings that increased the National Football League team’s proposed contribution to the project.

State senators adopted numerous other changes to plans negotiated by state, team and Minneapolis city officials for the proposed downtown Minneapolis stadium, including adding fees for parking, suites and league merchandise sold at the stadium.

Senators voted 38-28 to advance a plan after considering about three dozen amendments over 10 hours of discussion. The bill differs from one the state House advanced on Monday.

Legislators said they expected a conference committee on the plan, leaving a stadium agreement far from assured.

The Vikings have played at the Metrodome since 1982 and began a drive for a new stadium more than a decade ago, before owner Zygi Wilf bought the team in 2005. This session is the farthest a plan has advanced in the legislature.

This session’s drive toward a stadium deal was jump-started in April after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell met with Governor Mark Dayton and other state political leaders.

Talks to replace the stadium intensified as the team’s 30-year lease at the Metrodome neared an end and were bolstered by the collapse of its inflatable roof in a heavy snowstorm in 2010 that forced the Vikings to play two home games elsewhere.

MINNEAPOLIS, May 7 (Reuters) – Minnesota state representatives advanced a $975 million plan on Monday to build a new domed stadium for the Minnesota Vikings in downtown Minneapolis that would require a much higher contribution from the National Football League team than previously planned.

Representatives voted 73-58 after more than eight hours of discussion to approve a stadium funding plan with several changes from a deal negotiated by the governor, bill sponsors, the city of Minneapolis and the Vikings.

The Vikings have been lobbying the legislature and others for more than a decade to replace the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis where the team has played since 1982.

The stadium plan next goes to the state Senate and with the changes. Representatives said they expected the plan ultimately to end up in a conference committee for further negotiations.

The deal, as brought to debate on Monday, called for a $427 million contribution from the Vikings, $398 million from the state and $150 million from Minneapolis with state appropriation bonds issued for the public contribution.

Representatives voted to increase the Vikings contribution to the stadium by $105 million and cut the state contribution by that amount. The House also voted to require the Vikings to give the state a bigger payback if the team is sold, sign a longer lease and cover overruns in operating costs.

The Vikings were valued at nearly $800 million by Forbes last year and a new stadium would be expected to increase the team’s value significantly.

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – A bomb scare that shut a terminal at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for 90 minutes on Friday morning was caused by a passenger carrying what he said was a water filtration system in his checked baggage, an official said.

Police questioned and released the man without charges after the materials were determined to not be explosive, airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said. He declined to identify the man because he was not charged.

“The questionable items in the bag were two PVC pipes capped at both ends filled with a granular material,” Hogan said. “There were also a number of wires in the bag that were not connected to the pipes.”

“The individual claimed it was a device for water filtration,” Hogan said.

About 1,000 people were cleared from Terminal 2 at the airport after the materials triggered an alert for a possible explosive substance, Hogan said.

The police bomb squad from Bloomington, a suburb adjoining the airport, was called to the airport, took the materials and the terminal was reopened soon after, Hogan said.

Airport police released the man after the materials were found not to be explosive and he was rebooked on another flight, Hogan said.

By David Bailey

(Reuters) – The Minnesota Legislature revived efforts on Friday to agree on funding for a new stadium for the National Football League Vikings after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell met with the state’s top political leaders to renew discussions.

A $975 million plan to build a stadium for the team stalled on Monday night when a House committee voted against advancing it even to consideration by the full House, sparking concerns the team could consider moving.

Legislative leaders said the stadium talks were complicated, but they would push for a vote this year by the full House and Senate after meeting with Governor Mark Dayton, Goodell and Art Rooney II, Pittsburgh Steelers president and chairman of the league’s stadium committee.

“There were no implied threats or any threats at all,” Goodell told a news conference. “What we talked about is the importance of creating a solution that works for the team and works for the community.”

Goodell said the Vikings’ owners were frustrated, but committed to the community. The owners have never threatened to move the team.

“They recognize for them to continue to operate here successfully and to field a competitive team, they need a new stadium,” Goodell said.

By David Bailey

(Reuters) – A Michigan woman who continued to take food stamp benefits for months after winning $1 million in the state lottery has been charged with welfare fraud, officials said Tuesday.

Amanda Clayton, 25, of Lincoln Park in suburban Detroit, received public assistance through March of this year despite winning $1 million from the Michigan lottery in September, the state attorney general’s office said.

Prosecutors accused Clayton of collecting $5,475 in food and medical benefits from August 2011 through March that she would not have received had she reported the lottery winnings and income from a job she held from June through October 2011.

“It’s simply common sense that million dollar lottery winners forfeit their right to public assistance,” Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said in a statement.

Clayton was charged on Monday with two counts of welfare fraud. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

A state court judge set bond for Clayton at $10,000 in a court appearance on Tuesday.

, April 12 (Reuters) – Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Narayana Kocherlakota on Thursday repeated his call for the U.S. central bank to start reversing its ultra-loose monetary stance some time in the next six to nine months as the recovery picks up.

“Conditions will warrant raising rates some time in 2013 or, possibly, late 2012,” Kocherlakota said in remarks prepared for delivery to the White Bear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. The remarks were very similar to those he made Tuesday. .

Kocherlakota, who does not vote on Fed policy this year, is on the hawkish end of the policy spectrum at the U.S. central bank, more focused on the threat of high inflation than on the dangers of high unemployment.

Investors have been inundated this week with conflicting views from Fed officials, including influential vice chair Janet Yellen and New York Fed President William Dudley, who both supported the Fed’s decision this year to extend its low-rate pledge to late 2014.

“The evolution of monetary policy is a collective decision made by the Committee in its meetings,” Kocherlakota said. “No individual speaker can tell you what those decisions will be.”

Kocherlakota suggested that part of the reason for a slow recovery despite near-zero interest rates is that people are being overly cautious in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

“I think the probability of an event like that is much lower than it was and the safeguards we have in place are better,” he said in answer to a question from the audience. “But I think it is very much in the nature, once you live through an event like that to have it scar you.”