Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday. 

What’s the status of that proposed health care merger that could reshape the University of Minnesota’s medical system? MPR’s Michelle Wiley reports: For nearly a year, one of Minnesota’s largest health systems has been trying to complete a merger. The proposed partnership between Fairview Health Services and South Dakota-based Sanford Health was contentious from the moment it was announced, drawing ire from union officials, private citizens and public officials alike. At the center of these concerns lay the future of the University of Minnesota’s medical school and associated institutions. The U has a long-standing relationship with Fairview. In January, the university announced the development of a destination academic medical system. But months after that initial announcement, it’s still not clear what kind of shape the proposed medical system will take, or if the university will get the funding it needs to support the transition.

The recent legislative session was a landmark year for advocates of early childhood education and child care in Minnesota. Between a nation-leading child tax credit and paid family medical leave, the state has pledged to invest at least $300 million into programs that would support child care providers and families’ efforts to find quality early care and learning for their children. But MPR’s Kyra Miles reports it’s not just state legislators who are taking a special interest in Minnesota’s early care and learning outcomes. Next year, St. Paul’s local election ballot will have a special question asking voters whether the city should levy taxes to fund early learning subsidies. On July 19, the St. Paul City Council voted 5-2 to put the proposal on the ballot in November 2024. As it’s written now, the measure orders a special election that will ask voters to authorize the city to raise the property tax levy incrementally by $2 million a year for 10 years. The total amount would be $20 million by the end of the decade with the cost being a compounding $16 a year to the average household.

One note to emphasize among the public safety information MPR’s Brian Bakst reported this week is this: Officials Tuesday warned boaters, ATV and snowmobile operators, as well as motorists, that using those vehicles while impaired on cannabis could pick up a DWI. "All the consequences that happen with a conviction of a DWI that apply to your automotive vehicle apply to your abilities to operate ATVs, snowmobiles and watercraft," said Col. Rodmen Smith from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Minnesota's law legalizing adult possession, use and growth of marijuana will take effect on Tuesday. 

Among the oversight efforts passed in the aftermath of the Feeding Our Future scandal is a new inspector general in the Minnesota Department of Education. The Star Tribune reports: State education officials say the addition of an Office of Inspector General gives them something they lacked in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud case: Investigatory power. The new office created by the Legislature this year will conduct independent investigations and is tasked with reporting fraud and misused funds to law enforcement. The office must also work with law enforcement on any investigations and subsequent prosecutions. "It does give us the really important authority to be able to investigate. We know that this is going to be critical," said Stephanie Graff, deputy commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Education. "We're confident that this new office is going to ensure that we have proper oversight of all of the programs." 

The Minnesota Reformer reports: Minnesota Senate President Bobby Joe Champion’s executive assistant moonlights for a nonprofit foundation that has been paid about $3 million by a handful of state agencies in the past three years. The DFL senator from north Minneapolis hired Shemeka Bogan in 2020 to be a legislative assistant, often the first line of contact for constituents trying to reach a lawmaker. Given the Legislature’s oversight role of the executive branch, Bogan’s dual role raises questions about conflicts of interest. In addition to her nearly $83,000 legislative salary, state records show Bogan is earning $2,000 a month as a subcontractor for the Stairstep Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 1992 to work with churches on social issues. State government payments accounted for half of the nonprofit’s funding in 2021, according to the most recently available IRS documents. So far this year, the foundation has been paid over a half million dollars by the health department, MnDOT and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency. 

The life-threatening heat waves that have baked U.S. cities and inflamed European wildfires in recent weeks would be "virtually impossible" without the influence of human-caused climate change, a team of international researchers said Tuesday. Global warming, they said, also made China's recent record-setting heat wave 50 times more likely. NPR reports: "Without climate change we wouldn't see this at all or it would be so rare that it would basically be not happening," said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London who helped lead the new research as part of a collaborative group called World Weather Attribution. El Niño, a natural weather pattern, is likely contributing to some of the heat, the researchers said, "but the burning of fossil fuels is the main reason the heatwaves are so severe."  

And the Associated Press reports:The water temperature on the tip of Florida hit hot tub levels, exceeding 100 degrees two days in a row. And meteorologists say that could potentially be the hottest seawater ever measured, although there are some issues with the reading.  Just 26 miles away, scientists saw devastating effects from prolonged hot water surrounding Florida — devastating coral bleaching and even some death in what had been one of the Florida Keys' most resilient reefs. 

And the Washington Post reports:The Atlantic Ocean’s sensitive circulation system has become slower and less resilient, according to a new analysis of 150 years of temperature data — raising the possibility that this crucial element of the climate system could collapse within the next few decades.