Good morning, and congratulations for making it to Friday. It’s the second anniversary of the assault on the U.S. Capitol.
DFLers at the Minnesota Capitol are pushing to codify reproductive rights in state law. A bill cleared its first committee on an 11-8 party line vote Thursday. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports: After the Supreme Court last year overturned the federal right to an abortion and left a patchwork of legal abortion options around the country, Minnesota lawmakers are considering cementing the right in state law. Minnesotans have a constitutional right to abortion under a 1995 state Supreme Court case, but some say that’s not enough. “I see the reality of people forced to travel out of state for abortion care. 18 states have bans or near total bans on abortion. Minnesota's abortion access is critical right now, for Minnesotans and for people across the country,” said Dr. Sarah Traxler, the chief medical director for Planned Parenthood North Central States. Traxler told the House Health Finance and Policy Committee that she’s seen a 13 percent increase in patients coming from other states after several outlawed or restricted abortion. And she said even with the court’s ruling, providers and patients face uncertainty. The proposal drew blowback from several people and anti-abortion groups. Sherry Litz of Hastings wore a shirt that read “abortion is murder” across the back as she testified. “These are lives that they’re killing. These are lives that they put to death. These are human lives,” Litz said. “Babies are gifts, and God help us because there’s going to be judgment on us.”
Another abortion related story from MPR’s Michelle Wiley: A Ramsey County District Court judge is considering arguments by a group seeking to intervene in the abortion rights case of Doe v. Minnesota. Back in July, Judge Thomas Gilligan ruled to overturn many of the state's abortion restrictions, including a mandatory 48-hour waiting period and parental notification. Attorney General Keith Ellison's office declined to file an appeal in the case. Now, a group called Mothers Offering Maternal Support is attempting to intervene. In part, they say, because the attorney general did not provide adequate defense. One of the key questions is if the group can intervene at this stage. Gilligan seemed skeptical during a court hearing Thursday. “We're now finding ourselves here while the case is pending up at the court of appeals,” the judge said. “Final judgment has been entered, and it is final, and it's now up on appeal. I'm struggling to figure out how this could possibly be timely.” Gilligan said he'd provide a written decision soon.
DFL supporters of legalizing marijuana in Minnesota introduced their bill Thursday.MPR’s Brian Bakst has the story: The legalization effort, which has been percolating for years, would set up a regulatory framework and permit cannabis use for any reason for people 21 and older. Backers outlined the 243-page bill and said it would begin an arduous path through the DFL-controlled Legislature next week. A prior proposal made it through the House two years ago but it has never prevailed in the Senate; Gov. Tim Walz says he would sign a bill. Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, said the proposal would go through intense vetting this session, requiring a look by nearly every committee. It covers everything from cultivation to legal sales to taxation to expungement for past offenses. The bill creates the Office of Cannabis Management, a new state agency to monitor all things involving cannabis and hemp. Stephenson said the element to wipe clean the records for certain marijuana-related crimes could start sooner than cannabis sales. But even those, he said, would begin “in a matter of months, not years.” “Cannabis should not be illegal in Minnesota,” Stephenson said at a Capitol press conference. “Minnesotans deserve the freedom and respect to make responsible decisions about cannabis decisions themselves. Our current laws are doing more harm than good. State and local governments are spending millions enforcing laws that aren’t helping anyone.”
Members of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to formally accept Summit Carbon Solution’s route permit application for what could be Minnesota’s first carbon capture pipeline.MPR’s Kirsti Marohn reports that even as the PUC launched the permitting process it also ordered an environmental review of the project. Summit Carbon Solutions filed for a permit in September for a liquid carbon dioxide pipeline stretching 28 miles from Green Plains Ethanol Plant near Fergus Falls to Breckenridge and then into North Dakota. It’s part of a $4.5 billion project collecting carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants in Minnesota and neighboring states, then storing the greenhouse gas deep underground in North Dakota. Accepting the application as complete starts the permitting process and allows more chances for public engagement. The commission ordered the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which is the state’s most comprehensive form of environmental review. The decision follows months of pressure from landowners, tribal representatives, labor organizations and other stakeholders asking for a more robust environmental analysis of the project’s impacts to water sources, farmland and neighboring communities.
In Washington, there’s still no speaker of the House.The New York TImes reports: Representative Kevin McCarthy of California pressed on Friday for a deal with right-wing holdouts that could deliver him the speakership after days of failed votes on the House floor, bowing to their demands to dilute his own power and give them more influence in a Republican majority so far defined by dysfunction and disarray. After a humiliating three-day stretch of 11 consecutive defeats in an election that is now the most protracted such contest since 1859, Mr. McCarthy dispatched his emissaries Thursday night to finalize terms with the ultraconservative rebels, including agreeing to conditions he had previously refused to countenance in an effort to sway a critical mass of defectors. They included allowing a single lawmaker to force a snap vote at any time to oust the speaker, a rule that would effectively codify a standing threat that Mr. McCarthy would be at the mercy of hard-right lawmakers at all times, and could be removed instantly if he crossed them.
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