Good morning, and welcome to Thursday. Here’s the Digest.
1.A long shot legislative drive to legalize marijuana for recreational use has begun. A bill set for introduction today in the Minnesota House would establish regulations for cultivation, sales and taxation of marijuana. It would make the drug legal for people 21 and older. They could possess up to one ounce at a time for personal use but there would still be limits on smoking it in public places. Another bill would put the question to voters in the form of a constitutional amendment. (MPR News)
2.Bill Cooper, the ex-CEO of TCF Bank and former head of the Minnesota Republican Party, died Tuesday night. Cooper, 73, was known for his blunt speaking style. He was involved in Republican Party politics for years and was chair of the state Republican Party in the 1990s. He first became CEO of TCF in 1985. He reorganized the company and later moved its headquarters out of downtown Minneapolis to Wayzata. (MPR News)
3.DFL Gov. Mark Dayton says a bill moving through the legislature that would prevent cities from setting their own labor rules is an effort by businesses to hold down wages. What’s called the preemption bill cleared another committee in the state House Wednesday. Supporters say it’s necessary to avoid a patchwork of different rules around the state, but Dayton disputes that. “It’s not about 850 different cities in Minnesota passing their own different statutes,” Dayton said. “This is about the business community trying to keep wages down in Minneapolis and St. Paul.” (Pioneer Press)
4.The U.S. Senate Wednesday night voted to make President Trump’s nominee Jeff Sessions the next attorney general, bringing an end to a bitter confirmation fight that has dredged up past accusations of racism against the Alabama senator. The vote was largely along party lines, 52-47, with only Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia voting yes. Sessions himself voted “present” on his own nomination. The confirmation battle exposed how divided the Senate is, and put a spotlight on Massachusetts Sen.Elizabeth Warren, after Republicans silenced her with a seldom-used rule. (New York Times)
5. President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch said Wednesday that Trump’s tweets about the judiciary are “demoralizing” and “disheartening.” In a meeting with Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Gorsuch took exception to Trump’s remarks about a federal judge in Seattle after he blocked the president’s travel ban. “He said very specifically that they were demoralizing and disheartening and he characterized them very specifically that way,” Blumenthal said of Gorsuch. “I said they were more than disheartening, and I said to him that he has an obligation to make his views clear to the American people, so they understand how abhorrent or unacceptable President Trump’s attacks on the judiciary are.” (CNN)
