Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday, which happens to be the summer solstice.

The 2027 World Expo is not coming to Bloomington. Voters at a Bureau of International Expositions meeting in Paris Wednesday awarded the gathering to Belgrade, Serbia, which proposed an expo focused on sports and music. The U.S. bid had proposed a health-focused gathering in Bloomington, near the Mall of America. It came in third in the initial round of voting before being eliminated in a third round of balloting.

One result of the Supreme Court ruling last year that overturned the federal right to abortion is that people seeking abortions are coming to Minnesota from surrounding states. MPR’s Michelle Wiley and Dana Ferguson report: Minnesota abortion clinics say demand for abortion services has climbed significantly in the year since the high court overturned Roe, leaving Minnesota an island in a patchwork of abortion availability around the country. It’s brought huge challenges for clinics here working to meet the needs of a growing list of patients from around the country. Planned Parenthood North Central States reports that its Minnesota clinics performed 25 percent more abortions in the 10 months after the Dobbs ruling striking down Roe, compared to the 10 months prior. Staff at the clinics saw out-of-state patients traveling for abortions in Minnesota nearly double during that period, creating new challenges.

New laws in North Dakota are causing some people there to leave for Minnesota. MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports: Advocates point to 10 new laws they say target LGBTQ+ people, including a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, restrictions on transgender girls participating in sports and limits on bathroom access and pronoun use for K-12 students. “This is a really scary time in North Dakota,” said Kristin Nelson, who leads a Fargo advocacy group and testified against the bills in the legislature. She describes the rhetoric of recent months as “pretty damaging to kids and and those that parent them.”

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that a federal judge struck down Arkansas' first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for children as unconstitutional Tuesday. It was the first ruling to overturn such a prohibition as a growing number of Republican-led states adopt similar restrictions. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law, which would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18. Arkansas' law, which Moody temporarily blocked in 2021, also would have prohibited doctors from referring patients elsewhere for such care. In his order, Moody ruled that the prohibition violated the due process and equal protection rights of transgender youth and families. He said the law also violated the First Amendment rights of medical providers by prohibiting them from referring patients elsewhere. 

Some Minnesota state employees want raises. The Star Tribune reports: The Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE) is one of the two unions negotiating with the state. Their 16,500 members work everywhere from the Minnesota Zoo to prisons to state college and universities to residential programs serving people with mental illness. The association's latest proposal included a 10 percent cost of living adjustment in 2023 and another 10 percent increase in 2024, down slightly from an initial proposal of 11 percent and 10 percent hikes. Union members said the state's initial offer was 2 percent and 1.5 percent. The state needs to make up ground after failing to keep pace with inflation, MAPE President Megan Dayton said. Over the past two decades, MAPE data shows their members saw an average cost of living increase of less than 2 percent each year. There were a handful of years when they didn't get any increases.

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter is set to plead guilty to two tax charges but will likely avoid any prison time. The Associated Press reports: Biden, 52, will plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement made public Tuesday. The agreement will also avoid prosecution on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, as long as he adheres to conditions set by prosecutors. It’s somewhat unusual to resolve a federal criminal case at the same time charges are filed in court, but not unheard of. The deal ends a long-running Justice Department investigation into Biden’s second son, who has acknowledged struggling with addiction following the 2015 death of his brother, Beau Biden. It also averts a trial that would have generated days or weeks of distracting headlines for a White House that has strenuously sought to keep its distance from the Justice Department. Many Republicans were not happy about that news. Rep. Pete Stauber of Minnesota called the deal a “slap on the wrist” that showed there’s a “two-tiered system of justice.”