Good morning, and welcome to another Monday which happens to be the first day of spring.
The state House is set to debate a bill later today that would offer legal protection for out-of-state patients who travel to Minnesota for abortions and for the providers who treat them. MPR’s Dana Ferguson and Michelle Wiley have the story: The move could guard both groups against laws on the books in dozens of other states where abortion is banned or heavily restricted, and where abortion providers and those seeking to terminate a pregnancy face legal penalties. It’s the latest step by DFL leaders at the Capitol to make Minnesota a legal safe haven for abortion and it comes after lawmakers earlier this year guaranteed the right to reproductive health care — including abortion — in state law. The latest proposal, called the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act, has generated little blowback on its path through the Capitol and is expected to pass the DFL-led House. It is still moving through Senate committees. Another measure, known as the Reproductive Freedom Codification Act, is also nearing a vote in the House and Senate, but is expected to draw more criticism.
Two top officials at the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs have been fired two weeks after current and former caregivers spoke out publicly about allegations of a long-standing toxic work environment at the Hastings Veterans Home, the Pioneer Press reports. Larry Herke, commissioner of the state Department of Veterans Affairs, said Sunday in a message to workers that Saturday was the last day for Doug Hughes, deputy commissioner for veterans health care, and Mike Anderson, administrator of the Minnesota Veterans Home in Hastings. “I am aware of ongoing issues that have been raised at the Hastings Veterans Home,” Herke’s message said. “I have decided to go in a different direction with the home’s leadership.” Herke’s decision to remove the two top leaders comes before he is expected to testify Tuesday evening to the Senate veterans committee, which is investigating allegations from more than a dozen former and current caregivers at the domiciliary facility in Hastings.
Many popular Minnesota lakes turn into towns on ice over the winter. Upper Red Lake is visited by tens of thousands of anglers and many spend a weekend or a few days on the ice. And as MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports, some leave more than footprints and frozen-over ice-fishing holes when they depart. This winter, the Upper Red Lake Area Association ran a pilot project to address the issue of people dumping human waste on the ice. They installed dumpsters at lake access points and mounted a public awareness campaign to encourage anglers to properly dispose of human waste. “They recorded well over 10 tons of human waste bags, toilet bags that people had put in those dumpsters,” said Robyn Dwight, president of the Upper Red Lake Area Association. Some have teamed up to push for legislation that would toughen state law regarding leaving garbage on the ice. The bill also would require a study of the costs of expanding enforcement of the law. It has garnered bipartisan support from lawmakers since it was introduced earlier this month and will go before a Minnesota House committee later this week.
Anton “Tony” Lazzaro is scheduled to go on trial this week. The former well-connected Republican donor is charged with seven counts involving “commercial sex acts" with five minors ages 15 and 16 in 2020, when he was 30 years old. The Associated Press reports his indictment touched off a political firestorm that led to the downfall of Jennifer Carnahan as chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota. His co-defendant, Gisela Castro Medina, who formerly led the College Republicans chapter at the University of St. Thomas, pleaded guilty to two counts last year. She is cooperating with prosecutors and will testify against him. She faces sentencing in August. Lazzaro denies the sex-trafficking allegations. He says the government targeted him for political reasons and because of his wealth. Prosecutors say it's simply a sex-trafficking case. They have not signaled any intent to call political figures as witnesses, nor has the defense. U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz has already rejected Lazzaro's claims of selective prosecution.
Minnesota could allow expanded ranked-choice voting in future local elections, but won’t enact it statewide anytime soon. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports committees in the House and Senate reviewed legislation on Friday and came to that conclusion. DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon said a 2026 statewide launch that was originally proposed won't work. “My judgment is that Minnesota is not yet ready for statewide rank choice voting,” Simon said. “Leave aside for a minute the arguments about whether it's a good thing to do or a bad thing to do, I can tell you that it's an extraordinarily complicated thing to do. There are a lot of moving parts.” Still, some lawmakers want to see the system of ranking voter choices used beyond the five cities that have it now. “In my district, there are cities that want to do this that can't right now by law. There are cities that are outside of my district around the state that want to do this right now, but can't do this by law,” said Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL- New Hope. “We want to provide them the option to do this and we want to make sure that they have the tools that are necessary to ensure that they do it right.” The process allows voters to rank the candidate they want and filter those until one gets a majority. Opponents say it’s confusing and stretches the one-person, one-vote system. The bill establishes a task force to look into the workability and obstacles of ranked-choice voting in state and federal elections.
MPR’s Feven Gerezgiher has a profile of one of the youngest members of the Minnesota Legislature: Rep. Elliott Engen, R- White Bear Township, is one of two Generation Z lawmakers stepping into the Minnesota Legislature this year. Engen is a Republican while the other, state Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, is a DFLer, making each the only legislator of their generation in their respective political parties in the state. Already, these young politicians are poised to shape the course of their parties. The Pew Research Center defines Millennials as people born 1981 through 1996, and Gen Z after 1997 (an end year has yet to be defined). These two generations will be a majority of potential voters by 2028, according to a report released last month from The Brookings Institution, which also noted that young voters overwhelmingly voted for Democratic congressional candidates in 2022, swinging elections in almost every battleground state. Engen isn’t fazed by that. “A lot of folks would characterize my generation as being more progressive in their leanings and that might be true,” he told MPR News. “But I do know that we don’t always trust institutions that have quote-unquote power over us … we don’t always want helicopter parents.”
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