Good morning. And the newsletter goes to … you!

The Legislature is at the one month point, with about two and a half to go. One bill has become law: the tax corrections bill . Another could get to Gov. Tim Walz as soon as this week. That’s the prone restraint clarification law that dictates conduct of school resource officers and others who deal with students. 

Don’t bet on sports wagering legislation to get through the process anytime soon. MPR’s Clay Masters checks in on the bill that seems to get an inordinate amount of attention to the progress it makes. That’s understandable given that it’s easy for the public to grasp and sports fans are inundated with betting information and opportunities anyway. Minnesota is in the minority of states in not having a legalized, regulated sports betting structure.

Not much new general fund spending is likely to prevail this year. But MPR’s Dana Ferguson reported on Friday about one item that will need some financial refueling. It’s the school lunch program that lawmakers passed last year, covering breakfast and lunches for any student who wants them regardless of family income. Gov. Tim Walz said he’s not going to lose sleep over the meal payments. “This is the hill I will die on. If we need to find a little more money to pay for these, we will,” Walz told reporters. “

Personal plug time: Brian interviewed guests on Politics Friday about the construction projects bill affectionately called the bonding bill by Capitol dwellers. Senate Capital Investment Committee Chair Sandy Papps and House Capital Investment ranking Republican Dean Urdahl joined the show. Hear the show here if you missed it live (I’m taking names of those who forgot to tune in). One thing that came up was the early-phase proposal to renovate Xcel Energy Center, which was rocking for the state hockey tournament as we spoke. Pappas downplayed the prospects for state money going toward that effort this year. "I think the biggest problem there is just the competition with other projects that are kind of essential, like we've been talking about. So I think it's an uphill battle,” she said, even sounding cool to “planning money” that could give supporters a firmer proposal to present to the Legislature in a year or two.

Some hemp retailers have been selling illegally potent raw cannabis flower, but stricter regulation by the Office of Cannabis Management have begun. On Thursday, the Office of Cannabis Management confirmed that it had begun regulating the sale of raw cannabis flower — seven months after the passage of the recreational marijuana bill. Because of a gap in the state’ new recreational cannabis law, no state regulators or inspectors had the legal authority to inspect cannabis flowers at hemp retailers to see if it exceeded the federal and state definitions of hemp. MinnPost’s Peter Callaghan reports a sample purchased at a registered hemp store had three times the legal limit of Delta 9 THC. The retail sample is actually more potent than a cannabis sample purchased illegally in Minnesota and tested by the same lab.