Good morning, and happy Thursday. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate. 

And speaking of the Irish, this dispatch from the White House press pool: The Prime Minister of Ireland Micheál Martin was scheduled to visit the White House on Thursday for a meeting with President Biden in the Oval Office and the annual Shamrock presentation. The visit probably won’t take place, as the Taoiseach tested positive for the coronavirus last night. The Irish Prime Minister was spending the night at the Blair House. Ireland's ambassador Dan Mulhall said the Taoiseach was feeling well, the Irish Times reported.

Gov. Tim Walz will release his updated supplemental budget today, to account for the revised projected budget surplus of $9.25 billion. The governor said Wednesday he wants to resolve a holdover debate around financial recognition of pandemic frontline workers before entertaining proposals to cut taxes.  MPR’s Brian Bakst reports Walz spoke to a virtual gathering of the union SEIU Minnesota Wednesday. The union has endorsed his reelection and his plan to provide $1,500 checks to workers who risked their own health to do essential jobs during COVID-19.  Lawmakers pledged last year to offer bonuses, but none were fully approved amid a standoff over who should qualify. Walz said the awards are overdue. “We’re on the doorsteps of getting this done,” Walz said. “Do not allow them to say this ship has sailed. Do not allow them to say we can’t do this. Do not allow them to talk about tax cuts for the wealthy or business deductions at this time. This business needs to be taken care of.”  Senate Republicans now say they favor broader tax cuts instead of worker bonuses, given the state's massive budget surplus.

Minnesota parents fear for the safety of their adult son in Ukraine who they say was taken by the Russian military.The Associated Press reports Tina Hauser, of Winona, told KAAL-TV the last time she spoke with her son, Tyler Jacob, was Saturday when he told her he was being forced by the Russian military to board a bus out of Kherson and leave his Ukrainian wife and daughter behind. “My worst nightmare is coming true, and I’m fearful that they are going to torture him and kill him and I’m not ever going to see my son again,” said Hauser through tears. Hauser said she has called the U.S. Embassy but has not heard back. She has also reached out to Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s office for help. “My heart goes out to Tyler’s family and we will do everything we can to locate him. My office is working with the State Department and the embassy to find him and resolve this situation as quickly as possible,” Klobuchar said in a statement. Jacob, 28, was teaching English in Kherson when Russian troops invaded the country, according to his father, John Quinn, of Cannon Falls.

The president signed legislation this week that requires the Justice Department to award grants over the next two years to law enforcement agencies which provide training on the use of evidence-based, trauma-informed practices throughout an investigation into sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking. The law sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Tom Emmer is called The Abby Honold Act after a Minnesota woman who fought for justice after she was sexually assaulted and treated by badly by the officer who initially investigated. The bill was part of the big budget law President Biden signed this week, the Star Tribune reports. "I am so grateful to finally see a conclusion here, and really like a new beginning, I feel like, for so many people," Honold said in an interview with the paper Wednesday. "I want other survivors to be able to get the absolute best treatment that they can, from the very beginning."

As Minneapolis teachers remain on strike, St. Paul teacher union members voted Wednesday to ratify a tentative new contract. MPR’s Jon Collins looks back at the last Minneapolis teachers’ strike in 1970.  The issues underlying the strike had been brewing for years: ballooning class sizes, a dearth of school supplies and a school board that didn’t seem to take the unionized teachers seriously as professionals. The 20-day strike led directly to the passage of PELRA, the Public Employment Labor Relations Act, which legalized the rights of public workers all across the state to collectively bargain through their unions, and was later extended to give public workers a limited right to strike.

The Pioneer Press reportsTyler Kistner, a Republican candidate for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, was officially named a “National Republican Congressional Committee Young Gun” Wednesday by U.S. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. That means both he and DFL Congresswoman Angie Craig have been targeted by their respective parties as top election priorities in next fall’s campaigns. Craig, then a first-term incumbent, beat Kistner by 2 percentage points in the 2020 election, making it the fifth-closest U.S. House race in the nation. “This announcement solidifies our race as a top target for Republicans across the country as we work to flip this seat and retire Nancy Pelosi as speaker,” Kistner said in a news release.