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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing two Illinois companies over problems with COVID-19 testing. His lawsuit alleges testing results were slow, and in some cases inaccurate.

Democrats in the Minnesota House held a news conference yesterday to announce a $1 billion proposal to address climate change.

They said the proposal would be spread out over 30 individual bills for introduction in the 2022 session. The topics of the bills range from home weatherization and solar power infrastructure to electric vehicle charging stations and an expansion of bus rapid transit.

Rep. Patty Acomb, DFL-Minnetonka, said bold action is needed.

“In the last year alone in Minnesota, we have seen our changing climate play out in severe droughts that impacted our entire state, a record heat wave, the summer of smoke that came from wildfires and we witnessed tornadoes in December that have never happened in our state before,” Acomb said.

Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul said he wants to plant a tree annually for every Minnesotan. That would be 5.7 million trees per year for five years. 

“There are some tried and true conservation practices that affect air, land and water, that work for carbon, trying to reduce our carbon emissions,” Hansen said.

The House DFL has another news conference scheduled this morning to announce “major economic security legislation.” Gov. Tim Walz has an afternoon news conference scheduled to also address economic issues.

State Rep. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls, has announced he is running for the Minnesota Senate. Rasmusson is serving his first term in the Minnesota House. He’s now after the seat being vacated by Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, who announced earlier this week that he won’t seek re-election.