Good afternoon, Minnesota's mask mandate is already in the rearview mirror, though Minneapolis and St. Paul are both keeping their city mask mandates in place for now. [Read more from Catherine Richert and Peter Cox] Last night the Minnesota House of Representatives voted 72-61 to legalize recreational marijuana. The bill saw six Republicans vote in favor and four Democrats against, with the rest of the DFL in favor and the rest of the GOP opposed. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka says the Senate won't pass the bill, making it likely dead for the year unless a grand deal gets struck over the budget. [Read more from Tim Pugmire] The political angle: On top of the genuine disagreements about the merits of legalizing marijuana, electoral politics plays a role, too. Minnesota has two pro-legalization political parties that have attracted considerable support in recent years, and both parties believe — with some justification — that votes for these "pot parties" largely come at the expense of Democratic candidates. Some of these pro-legalization party candidates have said they were induced to run by Republicans for this purpose, and a number of DFL candidates lost in 2020 by margins smaller than the votes going to the pro-marijuana candidates. [ Read more from the Star Tribune's Jessie Van Berkel and Briana Bierschbach] There are 3 days remaining before the Legislature's scheduled adjournment on May 17, and even the last optimists in the Capitol have now admitted that the state's budget won't get done on time. It's possible that top leaders could still come to an agreement on the broad strokes of a deal before adjournment. Congress this year re-instituted "earmarks," a way for members of congress to direct spending to specific projects in their districts. Members had until the end of April to submit spending requests, and six of Minnesota's eight representatives made requests to fund everything from highway interchanges to worker training programs.
Note that earmark requests are not the same as earmarked spending; only some of these requests will actually get money. See the individual earmark requests for each lawmaker:
Earmarks, pro and con: The reason earmarks were abolished in the first place was charges that the whole process was corrupt. But supporters say abolishing earmarks enabled gridlock in Congress, by removing incentives leaders could offer recalcitrant members to vote for bills. [Read more from Tara Golshan in Vox] House Republicans on Friday elected New York Rep. Elise Stefanik to the leadership position formerly held by Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney. Cheney was booted for her vocal, continued criticism of ex-President Donald Trump. Stefanik, a relative moderate who has been a vocal champion of Trump, beat back a challenge from conservative Texas Rep. Chip Roy 134-46. [Read more from The Associated Press] Dive deeper: Many of the issues where Stefanik had a relatively moderate voting record are ones with a big generational divide. Younger Republicans are more likely than older Republicans to support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, to think climate change is real, serious and caused by human activity, and to be open to less traditional forms of gender identity. [Read more from pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson] Democratic efforts to pass major climate legislation is running into a intra-left divide, with some activists criticizing plans from President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats as not bold enough, and others insisting that these are good and practical first steps. The local angle? One of the Democratic clean energy bills under attack from the left is sponsored by Sen. Tina Smith. [Read more from Michael Grunwald in Politico] Something completely different: This piece is over a decade old, but I still laughed a lot reading this McSweeney's parody, "Yub Jub means 'devour the weak: An authoritative study of Ewoks, from the field notes of Davo Atten-Boru and Pladdo Cardigun, exo-naturalists." [Read] Listen: Perhaps the anthem of the past 14 months of so has been The Mountain Goats' 2005 song, "This Year," not so much for its lyrics about youthful miscreance but for its anthemic chorus: "I'm gonna make it through this year, if it kills me." [Watch]
