There's still no sign of any deal on a Minnesota budget, nearly two weeks after legislative leaders announced the framework for a deal and adjourned.
If the two sides fail to pass a budget by July 1, Minnesota will face a government shutdown — and the shutdown would likely be far worse than the 2011 version. That's because a 2017 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling prevents courts from simply ordering "essential" spending to continue. So instead of just state parks closing and non-essential employees being furloughed (already bad) Minnesota might face prisons, nursing homes and the State Patrol going without funds. [ Read more from MinnPost's Peter Callaghan]
Idaho's governor, Republican Brad Little, is currently out of state attending a meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Tennessee. That makes Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin technically the acting governor. Ordinarily, that's a formality. But McGeachin was elected independently of Little, has repeatedly criticized him from the right, and is currently challenging Little in the 2022 Republican primary. So the moment Little left the state, McGeachin used her new power as acting governor to issue an executive order banning schools and municipalities from imposing mask mandates. "The lieutenant governor did not make Gov. Little of her executive order ahead of time," a Little spokesman said. [ Read more from Idaho Public Television's Melissa Davlin and Ruth Brown]
Also at the RGA: At the same meeting that brought Little out of Idaho, Minnesota businessman Mike Lindell got himself ejected for trying to confront Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey over the 2020 presidential election in their states. Lindell has been a prominent advocate of the groundless theories that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump by fraud. [Read more from Politico's Daniel Lippman]
A minority partner of the Timberwolves and Lynx sued Wednesday to try to block the teams' sale to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez. I mention this sports news here because this sale is likely to eventually become a major political issue — if not now, then a year from now when the new owners probably try to get taxpayer support for a new stadium, or three years from now, when the non-local Lore and Rodriguez will probably try to move the Timberwolves to another city. None of this has been reported as their intent, mind you, and everyone's saying all the right things about planning to keep the teams in Minneapolis. It's just that we've seen this story before. [ Read more from the Star Tribune's Jeff Day and Chris Hine]
Efforts to broker a compromise over a bipartisan commission investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol appear to have failed to secure enough Republican support to break a Republican filibuster. GOP leaders such as Sen. Mitch McConnell say revisiting the attack is a "purely political exercise." If the commission fails to get 60 votes, it's possible Senate Democrats could abolish or curtail the filibuster to pass it through. Alternatively, the House could launch a conventional, more partisan investigation. [ Read more from The Associated Press]
A legislative audit recommended changing some of Minnesota's cosmetology licensing provisions, finding the labyrinth of requirements "do not contribute to public health or safety, but do make licensing more expensive and burdensome for licensees." [Read the report]
The context: A broader debate about so-called "occupational licensing" has been underway for years. If getting a job requires extensive training and certifications, fewer people will get that job — thus driving up wages for the limited number of people in the profession due to supply and demand. That wage premium is an important subtext for debates about the public safety value of licensing requirements. [Read more from Ryan Nunn at the Brookings Institute]
The Supreme Court wrapped up its current burst of decisions today with no action on the most important case under consideration: California v. Texas, the lawsuit from state attorneys general trying to overturn the Affordable Care Act. A decision on that will now likely come next month.
Something completely different: This is less profound than some of the links I've shared here, but it just happened as I was writing this newsletter, so take a look at this baseball play from today, a combination of the Pirates defenders making boneheaded mistakes and absolute baserunning wizardry from the Cubs' Javy Baez. [Watch]
Listen: After a few days of folk music, classical and singer-songwriter, let's turn up the volume a little bit with this power metal anthem from the band Civil War, "Rome Is Falling." [Listen]
