Business and Economy

Protesters disrupted Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s budget proposal speech several times, with one protester saying they wanted money for victims of police brutality and other crimes.

The brand new Frogtown Community Center gymnasium provided the backdrop for Mayor Melvin Carter’s 2020 budget address. The mayor said he has a plan to close the budget gap — largely caused by salary growth for city workers and public safety staff.

Neel Kashkari joined the program and discussed what’s going on in the economy regionally and nationally. 

State economic officials say the July unemployment rate edged up to 3.4 percent. However, the rate for labor participation remained steady, suggesting that businesses are still on the lookout for employees.

Investors paused to catch their breath Thursday after the stock market suffered its worst drop of the year the day before. Consumer spending is still strong, despite signs of a looming recession. 

Hy-Vee said in a news release Wednesday that it launched an investigation after it detected unauthorized activity on some of its payment processing systems — activity that the company thinks has stopped.

The number of pigs in China is falling rapidly due to an epidemic of African swine fever. It's affecting farmers and consumers across the world, because China produces half of the world's pork.

Wildlife managers from across Minnesota say DNR leadership is mismanaging the upcoming timber harvest in a way that risks altering state forest lands for the animals that depend on them.

Some worry a trade war is hurting the global economy, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell below 2-year Treasuries — which have a strong track record of predicting a recession.