Daily Digest for July 7, 2020 Posted at 7:45 a.m. by Michael Olson
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Good morning.
Minnesota Senate president was among hundreds of thousands of businesses nationwide to get a boost from the Treasury Department's Payroll Protection Program.
According to reporting by the AP: Miller Scrap, co-owned by GOP state Sen. Jeremy Miller of Winona, got a $200,000 loan that helped the business through the worst of the pandemic downturn without laying off a single employee or cutting benefits, said Miller, the company's chief financial officer.
The government on Monday identified some 650,000 mostly small businesses and nonprofits that applied for taxpayer money from a program designed to soften job losses due to the coronavirus.
The Star Tribune’s Jeff Meitrodt reports, “From car dealers to construction companies, Minnesota employers hauled in a total of $10.2 billion through the popular Paycheck Protection Program, ranking the state No. 15 in the U.S., according to data released Monday by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The program, which is credited with lowering unemployment this spring, helped employers bring back more than 51 million jobs in the U.S. at a time when the economy was crashing.”
Supreme Court rules state 'faithless elector' laws constitutional The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Monday state laws that remove or fine Electoral College delegates who refuse to cast their votes for the presidential candidate they were pledged to support. The vote was unanimous.
"The Constitution's text and the nation's history both support allowing a state to enforce an elector's pledge to support his party's nominee — and the state voters' choice — for President," Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court.
Although many Americans think that they elect the president and vice president, in fact, it is the Electoral College, an arcane intermediary mechanism dreamed up by the founders, that formally determines who wins the election.
-- Nina Totenberg, NPR
Sen. Tammy Duckworth tells NPR she still hasn't been assured by the secretary of defense that the administration won't block the routine promotion of impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.
Duckworth said last week that she would hold up the promotions of more than 1,100 senior Army officers unless Secretary of Defense Mark Esper guaranteed in writing that if
Vindman is on a Pentagon promotions list, as expected, the White House won't interfere with his advancement to full colonel.
Any senator, regardless of party, can place an informal hold on a matter to prevent a motion from reaching the floor. Such an action can signal a possible filibuster.
-- Scott Neuman, NPR
Tune in: At 9 a.m. today, Kerri Miller takes a deeper look at the pivotal role women will play in determining the outcome of the November election.
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