Police in New York have arrested two men for allegedly setting up a secret police station for a Chinese provincial police agency to collect information on opponents of the ruling Communist Party.

Such offices have been reported across North America, Europe and in other countries where Chinese communities include critics of the Communist Party who have family or business contacts in China. China denies that they are police stations, saying that they exist mainly to provide citizen services such as renewing driver’s licenses.

President Joe Biden has signed an executive order containing more than 50 directives to increase access to child care and improve the work life of caregivers, the White House said Tuesday.

But the directives would be funded out of existing commitments, the White House said. That likely means their impact would be limited and they’d carry more of a symbolic weight about what’s possible. The Democratic president was far more ambitious in 2021 by calling to provide more than $425 billion to expand child care, improve its affordability and boost wages for caregivers.

Minnesota House Democrats rolled out their main tax bill of the session Monday, proposing nearly $3 billion in breaks for the largest tax cut in state history, while minority Republicans noted it also contains substantial tax hikes despite an enormous budget surplus.

“Our tax bill takes steps to make our tax system more fair and more equitable, and fund the priorities that Minnesotans value most, both now and into the future,” House Speaker Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, said at a news conference.

The speaker pointed out that most of the state’s $17.5 billion surplus is one-time money. Sustainable increased funding for education, health care, transportation, economic security, and community safety and vitality will require ongoing revenue sources, she told reporters.

Bella Adams can be reached at adam51352@stthomas.edu.