"Minnesota regulators, for the first time, are considering banning or restricting a controversial class of insecticides that have been linked to honeybee deaths.

The possibility, disclosed this week by the state Department of Agriculture in a revised outline for a study of the chemicals, followed an outpouring of public concern over the dramatic decline in honeybee populations in recent years.

“Obviously people are very interested in this,” said Gregg Regimbal, an official with the department’s Pesticide & Fertilizer Management Division. “It’s a very complex issue and it’s highly charged.”

More than 400 citizens wrote the agency earlier this year with comments on the proposed review of a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, which have been linked to bee deaths around the world."

Tony Kennedy reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune October 28, 2014. [2]