Good morning. Slow, slow, slow your boat gently down the stream.
The ERA ballot proposal will simmer a bit longer. The Minnesota House didn’t get to its debate over the proposed constitutional amendment after discussion on several other bills pushed it off the day’s docket. That included a seven-plus hour debate over final House action on a consumer fee bill. It underscores how time is working against DFLers as they try to get their priorities through. The session will come to an end Monday, but the deadline for action is Sunday night. Republicans can try to slow consideration of items they find objectionable or force Democrats to use power plays, which can do lasting institutional damage. Anyone remember the mute button?
The state agency in charge of implementing the Minnesota paid leave program will start with a higher payroll tax than first planned. A Department of Employment and Economic Development official told lawmakers of the adjustment on Monday. The Minnesota Reformer’s Michelle Griffith reports that DEED will adjust the payroll tax for the state’s new paid leave program to 0.88 percent which will be split between workers and employers. The tax discussed last year was set at 0.7 percent. Because DEED has been given legislative authority to raise the tax within a certain range, the agency can do so without requiring a new law.
Former President Donald Trump is campaigning in Minnesota on Friday, but is it a state he can win? Trump has long argued that he can win in Minnesota. He falsely claimed ahead of Super Tuesday that he had, in fact, won here in 2020 (other than a primary where he was the only Republican on the ballot). He came close in the 2016 general election, finishing just 1.5 percentage points behind Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden beat Trump by more than 7 percentage points in 2020. Associated Press reporter Steve Karnowski says experts are split on whether Trump really has a chance to take Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes. Some believe the economy remains a vulnerability for Biden, as well as outcry over his administration’s response to Israel's war in Gaza. On the other hand, the Biden campaign has enlisted experienced operatives to lead the state effort, while Trump’s campaign has yet to have a visible ground presence this cycle.
Michael Cohen testified in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial yesterday. Trump’s former attorney is expected to be on the witness stand for at least one more day. Cohen tied Trump directly to the hush money scheme. He provided jurors with an insider’s perspective on payments made to silence women’s claims of sexual encounters with Trump while he was campaigning for the 2016 Presidential Election. Cohen is one of the prosecution’s most important witnesses in this trial. In cross examination, Trump’s attorneys will attempt to show the now-disbarred lawyer, who served time in federal prison, is out to get Trump and cannot be believed. The NPR story on Cohen’s testimony so far is here.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has completed a process of automatic expungements for low-level criminal offenses involving marijuana. The BCA was given the task of sealing records for nonviolent and low-level crimes as part of the adult-use cannabis law enacted in 2023. That makes them inaccessible in public records searches. The agency says it got through the necessary records months early and went through nearly 58,000 of them. A very small number — 213 — were determined to be ineligible for expungement. A separate board is going through other categories of cannabis crimes and is slated to hold its first hearing this week on how that process will go. Felony-level cannabis records that qualify for review by that panel could take several years to get through. Bloomington’s Polar Semiconductor is receiving up to $120 million in CHIPS funding. It’s the first Minnesota award from the U.S. CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) and Science Act that President Joe Biden enacted in 2022 to support U.S. semiconductor research and production. Polar is getting another $75 million in state funding for the $525 million expansion it says will double its output and create 160 news jobs. MPR’s Estelle Timar-Wilcox was at the event , where state political leaders announced the funding. |