Good morning, and happy Tuesday.

State-funded efforts to recruit people to become police officers are under serious consideration at the Minnesota Capitol amid a debate over how much to provide to would-be officers and what expectations the state should set in return, MPR’s Brian Bakst reports . The overlapping priorities won’t guarantee that the DFL-led House and Republican-led Senate will reach agreement on a plan to send to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. But the prospects are enhanced, given that leadership in both chambers is pushing for incentives. House DFL leaders added their plan to the mix Monday. The bill was set for its first hearing Tuesday, but that was canceled Monday night. The bill would authorize expedited training programs, signing and retention bonuses, tuition help and other job placement assistance for would-be officers. Senate Republicans have been advancing similar ideas and have already passed a bill to conduct a marketing campaign to get people to consider policing. Bonuses for new officers who stick around a certain amount of time could reach $10,000. Minnesota faces a severe crunch when it comes to filling law enforcement jobs.

So why was the hearing on the bill canceled?  Deena Winter of the Minnesota Reformer reports a key DFL lawmaker on criminal justice issues said he was out of the loop and offered reservations.  Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul, who chairs the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Committee, said the bill has merit but is inadequate. He said it was “perplexing” that nobody pushing the bill has talked to him about it. “I only happen to be the public safety committee chair,” he said. “Apparently it’s OK to work with individual legislators but not the chair of the public safety committee. It just doesn’t smell right.”

Gov. Tim Walz is expected to officially call a special election today to fill out the term of Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died last week.  The date of the election is already known. It will fall on Aug. 9,  the day of the state primary election.  So there could be two 1st District races on the ballot that day: The one to fill the seat for the final four months and the primary to decide candidates for November’s election if there are multiple candidates from a party. And at least one potential candidate will not run. State Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester was on early lists, but she told Brian Bakst Monday that she’s staying out. Nelson said the compressed timetable and the back-to-back elections were a factor.  “Running at two elections at once and then running again in November for the general for Congress, I just feel like I can do more, I can serve more in the Minnesota Legislature,” Nelson said. Some names to watch on the GOP side: former state party Chair Jennifer Carnahan, who is Hagedorn’s widow; state Rep. Jeremy Munson, Austin city council member Jason Baskin, former state Rep. Brad Finstad. DFLers are also searching for a candidate and could turn again to two-time nominee Dan Feehan or state legislators from the area. One of them, Sen. Nick Frentz, didn’t entirely rule it out but strongly indicated he’s running for his current job again.

Smart Politics reports it’s been a long time since Minnesota has had a special election to fill a seat in the House: Minnesota has held 175 elections for the nation’s lower legislative chamber since its last special – most in the nation. Hagedorn is just the fourth Minnesota U.S. Representative to die in office out of 142 men and women who have served in the position since statehood, joining Democrat Carl Van Dyke in May 1919, Farmer-Laborite Ole Kvale in September 1929, and Republican August Andresen in January 1958. NOTE: DFLer Bruce Vento died in office in October of 2000, but so close to the November election that no special election was needed. He had already announced he wouldn’t seek another term.

MPR’s Tim Pugmire sent me this: A $1 billion plan to provide bonus pay to pandemic frontline workers is on its way to a vote in the Minnesota House.  The legislation cleared its last committee Monday when members of the Ways and Means panel approved it on a 17-11, party-line vote. Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, said an estimated 667,000 eligible workers would be expected to apply for one-time payments. “This bill has been a longtime coming, and we finally need to show appreciation and support and honor our frontline workers,” Frazier said. There are 15 eligible professions in the House bill. The list includes health care workers, childcare providers, school employees, retail workers and more. Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, raised concerns about transparency. She wants recipient names and the amount they receive made public. “If we’re going to do something like this, we need to make sure that there isn’t – we don’t come back later and find out all sorts of fraud. We want to make sure the people that are supposed to be getting the funds are actually getting them, and not others that aren’t.” Frazier told Scott that he is open to making some adjustments in the bill before the final vote. Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, said transparency needs to be balanced with privacy. Liebling said she is concerned that making the names public could deter people from applying. ”I think the bill strikes a good balance, and I would not want to see individuals have their private data exposed for a one-time check like this,” Liebling said.

Republicans in the Minnesota Senate are pushing legislation to allow nurses to practice in other states. Under the bill, Minnesota would be able to join 39 other states in the Interstate Nurse Licensure Compact. Nurses would be licensed in all member states. Republican Sen. Carla Nelson of Rochester said Monday that the change would help address staffing shortages in hospitals and long-term care facilities. She said the pandemic validated the need for her bill. “It will increase access to care, protect patient safety and reduce costs, all at the same time that it supports state-of-the-art health care delivery for today and in the future,” Nelson said. House Democrats oppose the bill. The Minnesota Nurses Association is also against it. That labor organization described the proposal as outsourcing and “a thinly-veiled attack” on the bargaining power of its members. 

The Stillwater prison remained on lockdown Monday following a weekend attack on two correctional officers, Minnesota Department of Corrections officials said. The Pioneer Press reported the attack happened around 4:40 p.m. Saturday at the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Stillwater in Bayport following a “routine search” of an inmate’s cell, said Sarah Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for the DOC. One of the officers was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul for treatment; the other was treated at Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater. The inmate, who was not identified, was transferred to the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Oak Park Heights’ maximum-security administrative control unit and could face charges, Fitzgerald said. The union that represents corrections officers, AFSCME Council 5, issued a statement Monday saying in part: “Since the attack, both correctional officers have been released from the hospital and one has not returned back to work yet as a result of his injuries. Our union remains gravely concerned with the increase in assaults on correctional security staff. These attacks must never become normalized, nor viewed as routine and/or acceptable acts. Attacks on staff also cannot be met with a response as usual. These attacks are unacceptable and we call for accountability of those who commit these violent attacks on staff who conduct their work every day with integrity and bravery.”