Will Minnesota's government shut down? We may not know until June 30. Nothing tends to get done in the Minnesota Legislature until the last minute. It's honestly one of their more relatable qualities (as I wrap up this newsletter after 5 p.m.).
Leaders continue to be unable to strike deals on any of the big issues. In the spotlight today: Walz's COVID-19 emergency powers, which Republicans want to curtail. Walz insists it's a moot point since he's rescinded almost all of them; Republicans say Walz has no further need of those powers and that it's time to "restore the Legislature as a co-equal branch of government." [Read more from Tim Pugmire]
Leaders from cities along Minnesota's border are among the vocal critics of Gov. Tim Walz's "clean cars" policy. Their objection: the price increases for car purchases caused by those rules would particularly hurt dealers in border cities, where buyers can just cross state lines to get cars that don't comply with Minnesota's stricter laws. The fate of those rules are among the issues being debated as part of Minnesota's must-pass budget. [Read more from The Associated Press]
Should Minnesota's Legislature become smaller and more professional? House Speaker Melissa Hortman says Minnesota's large, part-time Legislature is part of the reason why the state has so much difficulty passing budgets and is proposing a full-time body with fewer members — perhaps 90 representatives and 45 senators, rather than the current 134 and 67. Creating a full-time Legislature would require a voter-approved constitutional amendment. [ Read more from the Star Tribune's Jessie Van Berkel]
Context: Ten Legislatures nationwide, including Wisconsin and Michigan, are full-time. Another 14, including both Dakotas, are part-time. Minnesota and the rest of the states have what the National Conference of State Legislatures dubs a "hybrid" system. Minnesota's five-month annual sessions and $46,500 salary, for example, is a lot more than South Dakota, where lawmakers meet for two months each year and earn $11,892, but less than Michigan with $71,685 salaries and year-round meeting. (All salaries current as of 2020.) [ Read more from NCSL]
Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year run as Israeli prime minister is probably over. An odd alliance including politicians from the left and right wing, as well as Arab political parties, signed a deal just before a deadline Wednesday to form a coalition government without Netanyahu. The change will become official tomorrow, unless individual lawmakers from the coalition parties defect and refuse to endorse the new government in a ratification vote. [Read more from The Associated Press]
Dive deeper: Why did right-wing parties join with their ideological opponents to take down Netanyahu's right-wing government? Overlapping Israel's ideological divisions are personal divisions centered around the controversial person of Netanyahu. The anti-Netanyahu right wingers are relatively small, but they ended up holding the balance of power — in part because Israel's parliamentary system gives minor parties seats in the Knesset as long as they exceed 3.25 percent of the vote. That gave the "Never Netanyahu right" a lot more power than American "Never Trump Republicans" had in the U.S.'s two-party system. [ Read more from Noam Gidron and Lior Sheffer in the Washington Post]
Something completely different: Disney's release of "Cruella" has "101 Dalmatians" back in the news. And you probably didn't know that the book that the original cartoon was based on has a sequel that gets bizarre, including magic powers, a government formed by the dogs owned by all of Britain's cabinet ministers, assassins, and, well, I'll let you learn the rest of it from this Twitter thread. [Read more from Boze Herrington]
Listen: I'm starting to run through my low-hanging fruit of favorite songs, so remember to email me with suggestions of songs you want me to share with this newsletter's audience! In the meantime, I'll just keep sharing whatever I happen to be listening to each day. Today that's "Gaeta's Lament" from the soundtrack to the 2003 TV show "Battlestar Galactica," which I'm going to have to go rewatch as soon as I finish sending this. [ Listen]
