Capitol View for June 6

Good morning. Regret filing for office? Today is the last chance to get off the ballot barring something catastrophic.

Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and a former girlfriend took the stand in his federal gun trial in Delaware yesterday. Zoe Kestan, the former girlfriend, and Kathleen Buhle, his ex-wife, both testified about finding his crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia. Hunter Biden has been charged with three felonies stemming from his purchase of a gun back in 2018. He is accused of making false statements on a federal gun form about his drug use, certifying he was not a user of or addicted to any controlled substance during a period when prosecutors allege he was addicted to crack cocaine. He was in possession of the gun for 11 days before Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter Biden’s brother Beau and who became involved with Hunter, found and discarded the gun at the center of the case.

An appeals court in Georgia has halted the state’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump and others. The appeals court will review a lower court judge’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case. The order yesterday prevents Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee from moving forward with pretrial motions as he had planned while the appeal is pending. While it was unlikely the case would go to trial before the November general election, the order Wednesday further solidifies that possibility.

Minnesota media organizations have received an advisory opinion from state campaign regulators that they won’t be considered lobbying organizations for “publishing or broadcasting news items, editorial comments, or paid advertisements which directly or indirectly urge official action by public or local officials.” The Minnesota Broadcasters Association and the Minnesota Newspaper Association sought the advisory opinion in response to a recently enacted law. The advisory opinion was issued at the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board’s monthly meeting that was held yesterday.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has given more information about its decision earlier this year to deny a Republican candidate’s petition to appear on the presidential primary ballot. That case was initiated by Ryan Binkley, a Texas man who was running for the GOP nomination. He challenged the state’s law that gives parties sole discretion to determine who gets on the ballot. The justices turned him back but took time to issue a fuller opinion. That unsigned opinion came yesterday . And in it, justices said, “We conclude that under Minnesota law, the presidential nomination primary is not part of the process that Minnesota uses to appoint presidential electors. Because the Electors Clause addresses the appointment of presidential electors, the statutes that govern the presidential nomination primary do not fall within the scope of the clause. As a result, even if the Electors Clause places limits on the manner a state uses to appoint presidential electors, those limits do not apply to the statutes that govern the presidential nomination primary.”

The Legislative Auditor will release a special report on the Minnesota Department of Education and Feeding Our Future next week. The report, titled “Minnesota Department of Education: Oversight of Feeding Our Future” , will explore to what extent MDE met federal requirements for monitoring Feeding Our Future’s participation in two federal nutrition programs. It will also look at whether MDE could have done anything to prevent the alleged fraud. The report comes as deliberations in the Feeding Our Future case take a cinematic turn. Yesterday, the FBI raided the home of one of the defendants as they investigated the source of a $120,000 juror bribe.

E-bike rebate signups have been delayed by a processing malfunction. The rebates of up to $1,500 will come out of a limited pot of funding. The program was supposed to go live yesterday morning, but a site that is the portal for applications crashed. The Department of Revenue says it is working to get the problem fixed quickly. When the program reopens to e-bike buyers, the money will be dished out on a first-come, first-served basis for income-qualified applicants. Some questions and answers can be found here.

Even though Minnesota OK’d free menstrual products in schools last year, it hasn’t solved the problem. Samantha Stroozas reports that even though the new law requires period products be available in schools starting Feb. 1, not all schools have products while other schools are stocking products that are cheaply made, extending the problems for students struggling with periods and classwork. Lawmakers approved funding at only $2 per pupil to keep the products stocked. Students describe early confusion and miscommunication about the law during the first few months it was in effect have led to problems trying to make it work at the school level.

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband has been accused of swindling an investor in their California winery. Max Nesterak of the Minnesota Reformer reports that Tim Mynett, Omar’s husband, along with his business partner Will Hailer deny defrauding the investor, who claims the pair owe him hundreds of thousands of dollars. The operatives deny any fraud occurred. Another company the pair started owes $1.2 million to cannabis growers in South Dakota. Omar’s primary opponent wasted no time trying to make the case, which doesn’t implicate the incumbent directly, part of the campaign. Don Samuels has a news conference scheduled for today.