I've got a nice roundup of Minnesota and national political news, but let's be clear: there's only one story that anyone here cares about, and that's the return of the state fair. [Read more from The Associated Press and Riham Feshir]
All done? Alright, let's get back to politics, please.
Here's where things stand with the Legislature's never-ending budget negotiations, with lawmakers due to return at noon on Monday for a special session:
All three top leaders are assuring the public that there will be no government shutdown. "With absolute confidence, we'll be done by the deadline of the first of July," Gov. Tim Walz said today. House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka echoed the sentiments.
A few parts of the budget are basically already done, including higher education and energy. Economic development and agriculture/broadband are close.
The usual suspects are still unresolved, including policing laws, some environmental issues, and Walz's emergency powers.
Some of the lingering issues relate to money, and other to policies tucked in the bills.
The remaining bills are being tackled in giant virtual meetings, involving the top leaders, key lawmakers and agency commissioners. The lawmakers and commissioners summarize where things stand, and the top leaders try to nudge them to a deal.
Progress is being made. "I would expect we’ll continue to have good progress and get more bills wrapped up," Hortman said. But: "There will be some chairs that hang in there ‘til the last dog dies on something they care about a lot."
On most issues, if no deal can be struck, the default is status-quo — the proposed change is just abandoned and things stay the way they are. "We’re not going to get everything we want — both sides," said Gazelka. That means Republicans are probably going to have to drop their proposed election law changes, for example, and DFLers a paid family leave requirement.
Remember: even once all the disputes are ironed out and all the bills are drafted, it can take a few days to actually debate and pass them.
Minnesota tax receipts were nearly $1.8 billion higher than forecast in May, driven mostly by a bump in income tax collections. Partly that's due to the delayed tax filing deadline, but it also underscores the degree to which Minnesota's economy has recovered from last spring's COVID-19 recession. But this money isn't likely to impact budget negotiations, since monthly tax collections are volatile. [Read more from Brian Bakst]
The Minnesota Republican Party will hold their 2022 convention in Rochester. They had intended to convene there in 2020, but shifted the convention online due to COVID-19. The 2022 convention will vote to endorse candidates for governor and other statewide offices. [ Read more from the West Central Tribune's Mathew Stolle]
Rep. Ilhan Omar is facing criticism for tweeting about "unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban," with Jewish Democrats in particular criticizing the equivalence of Israel and U.S. with Hamas and the Taliban. Omar issued a follow-up that she "was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems," but her spokesman also blasted her critics for "ginning up... Islamophobic hate against her." [ Read more from Ariana Figueroa in the Minnesota Reformer]
The Oregon House of Representatives expelled a state representative, Mike Nearman, for helping to plan and assist an armed incursion into the state capitol last year. The attack, two weeks before the larger-scale incursion into the U.S. Capitol, saw a mob protesting COVID-19 restrictions outside the locked-down Capitol building, when Nearman left the session and walked out of the Capitol through a side door — allowing the protesters inside, where they clashed with police. That looked bad enough, but this month video emerged of Nearman speaking to a group of activists before the attack, laying out his plan to let them inside. He was expelled on a near-unanimous 59-1 vote, with all Democrats and every Republican but Nearman voting for expulsion. [ Read more from Dirk VanderHart of Oregon Public Radio]
Filling vacancies: In Oregon, vacant seats in the Legislature are filled by county commissioners in the vacant district. It's one of eight mostly Western states to fill vacancies via county commissioners. Another five states let political parties appoint replacements for seats vacated by members of their party. Ohio lets members of the former lawmaker's caucus choose replacements. Eleven states let governors fill vacancies. The other 25 states, including Minnesota, have no appointments for legislative vacancies and instead hold special elections. [ Read more from the National Conference of State Legislatures]
How many Americans support the QAnon conspiracy theory? It's a tough question to poll, because QAnon is an amorphous collection of beliefs. More people express sympathy for a range of a movement's beliefs than identify with the movement by name. As a result, depending on how they're structured, polls identify anywhere between 4 and 20 percent of Americans aligned with QAnon. [Read more from FiveThirtyEight's Kaleigh Rogers]
Inflation is surging as many Americans start to spend again after a year locked at home, but not every commodity is rising in prices at the same rate. For example, food prices are up 2.4 percent year-over-year, but used cars are up 21 percent. [Read more from NPR's Scott Horsley]
The Disability Justice Network is calling on Minneapolis to rename Dight Avenue, in South Minneapolis just east of Hiawatha. The street is named after Charles Dight, a University of Minnesota professor who founded the Minnesota Eugenics Society.
Something completely different: This short video really helped clarify how I think about knowledge! Basically: We all want to get more knowledge, to varying degrees. But knowledge isn't just one abstract thing. Building off William James, philosopher Agnes Callard argues that knowledge involves two components, believing true things, and not believing falsehoods — and these two are in tension. If you try to learn as much as you can, you're going to end up believing some things that aren't true. If you try very hard to avoid believing anything false, you're going to end up rejecting some true things. But, Callard argues, there's a way out of this dilemma, and none other than Socrates came up with it. The famous Socratic method involves two people working together in pursuit of the truth — one seeking to learn new true beliefs, the other seeking to challenge false beliefs. [Watch]
Listen: At least one more day of 90+ degree heat, so one more day of songs with "Summer" in their name. I'll go a little more obscure here, with "Overture In Thales Summer," an ethereal track from a high-concept album by singer-songwriter Jessy Ribordy under the moniker "The River Empires." [Listen]
