Good morning. I’m taking suggestions for the kids’ summer chore list.

More than 700 applications for preapproval of social equity cannabis licenses came in within the first day. The Office of Cannabis Management opened a window for getting on the marijuana cultivation, distribution and sales radar. It’s a verification step that the state is using in hopes of speeding up the eventual rollout of cannabis enterprises. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer interviewed Charlene Briner , the interim cannabis office director about the surge in interest. “And it doesn't necessarily mean that all of the people who have entered the system and applied for that status will actually follow through and submit a full license. So that remains to be seen,” Briner said. “But I think we're excited about the high level of activity.” Full license applications open to entrepreneurs July 24. OCM will review applicants’ business plans, safety and security plans, labor peace agreements, ownership structure, capitalization tables and more during its vetting process. Then, successful applications go into a lottery, as the number of licenses is limited as dictated by laws passed during the last couple of legislative sessions.

There’s still no word from the office of Gov. Tim Walz on the appointment of a permanent director to lead the Office of Cannabis Management. Briner has served in an acting role since the office launched last year. An initial pick by Walz resigned shortly after being named. The goal was to select someone by late spring or early summer.

Politically, marijuana got knocked down a peg this year in Minnesota. The Legal Marijuana Now Party lost its major-party status as part of a legal challenge filed by the DFL Party that led to a Supreme Court ruling in May. Now, the Secretary of State’s office has officially classified it as a minor political party, which means its candidates need to field signature petitions to get on ballots and won’t get other accommodations that major-party candidates get.

A new Environmental Protection Agency rule gives tribal governments a stronger voice on water quality issues. MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports that the EPA rule is designed to protect the reserved rights of tribal members. Reserved rights are the rights to hunt, fish and gather resources. He writes that tribes commonly reserved, or did not give up, those rights when they signed treaties ceding land to the federal government. From Dan’s story : “The regulation affects water quality standards outside of reservations in ceded territory. Most of Minnesota is territory ceded in treaties signed in the mid-1800s. Some treaties involve multiple tribes and some tribes in other states also hold reserved rights on lands in Minnesota.”

Our colleagues at the APM Research Lab are trying to make it easy for Minnesota political junkies to keep track of polling and other campaign metrics in key races. The Minnesota Poll Watch feature is back. It includes information about the federal races for president, U.S. Senate and U.S. House. Watch for regular updates as more data drops this election season.

The two presidential candidates who will debate Thursday have the most riding on the encounter. Joe Biden and Donald Trump, two men after a second White House term and in a fierce rematch, will go one-on-one in Atlanta. It’s a debate hosted by CNN, which also has a lot riding on the debate . CNN has struggled for audience share with the more-opinionated Fox News and MSNBC. “This is a huge moment for CNN,” said former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno, now a media and public affairs professor at George Washington University. “CNN has to reassert itself. It has to show that it led a revolution in news before and can do it again.”

We went into debate preparations in a special Tuesday edition of Politics Friday.There were good insights from former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and presidential scholars Tim Naftali and Tammy Vigil. Pawlenty, as you’ll recall, has experience on a presidential debate stage. He talked in light fashion about his time “as a failed presidential candidate” and a “spin room surrogate” for other candidates to stress how debate-performance narratives sink in and get reinforced. Most people won’t watch the debate from start to finish, so how it gets cut up for bite-sized portions that get a lot of replay matters a lot.