Good morning, and welcome to Tuesday. 

When President Biden visits Rosemount this afternoon to promote the infrastructure spending bill he signed into law, he’ll be in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District. Angie Craig, the Democrat who represents the district in Washington, will be on hand to welcome Biden to Minnesota.  Her 2020 opponent who hopes to run against her again next year will not. "The Democrats know Angie Craig is in serious jeopardy of losing her seat in 2022 and are using their deeply flawed infrastructure legislation as an excuse to bring Joe Biden in to save Craig’s floundering political career,” Republican Tyler Kistner said in a statement ahead of the visit. “Minnesotans are currently facing record inflation, a stagnant economy, and rising crime rates as a result of Biden and Angie Craig's failed policies,” Kistner said. We'll have live coverage of the president's visit on All Things Considered this afternoon.

Minnesota’s newly established Task Force on Missing and Murdered African American Women met Monday for the first time with a mission to advise the Commissioner of Public Safety and Minnesota Legislature on ways to reduce violence against African American women and girls by December 2022.  MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports : The 12-member panel includes representatives from the courts, law enforcement and victim advocacy groups. Rep. Ruth Richardson, DFL-Mendota Heights, the author of the legislation that created the panel, said it is the first task force in the nation to focus on violence against Black women. Richardson said the task force will look at many issues, including human trafficking, sexual exploitation and urban violence   “We are going to leave this task force with a blueprint,” Richardson said. “A blueprint for change. A blueprint to bring Black women and girls back home. A blueprint to solve their crimes and to be able to ensure that everyone gets equal access to the services that they need when they need them.”

A significant voting rights case lands today before the Minnesota Supreme Court.  MPR’s Brian Bakst reports: Justices will hear a lawsuit that aims to more quickly restore voting eligibility to convicted felons. Lower courts have so far upheld the system that has required those people to finish parole, probation or supervised release before being able to cast a ballot. The people and groups who brought the challenge argue that release from incarceration should be the point at which voting rights are regained. They say the current setup disproportionately impacts communities of color. The defendant is Secretary of State Steve Simon. His office has defended state law in court, but Simon says he supports altering it in the Legislature. Efforts to do that have repeatedly stalled. A Supreme Court decision should come ahead of the 2022 election.

Brian also sent me a note that the Minnesota Department of Administration is seeking a new review of how much it would cost to rehabilitate the State Office Building. The 89-year-old building has had extensive recent repairs. State property managers have been urging for years that the building get a much more substantial renovation to replace aging pipes, heating and cooling systems and other critical mechanical features. The cost for that was estimated at about $100 million back in 2016. One interesting twist is that the budget the Legislature  adopted last summer appears to set up a quick-route funding mechanism that would allow the project to proceed once "approved by the affected building's primary tenant" -- in this case, the Minnesota House.

A call between U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota Monday apparently didn’t go well. Here’s what Omar said in a press release:  “I graciously accepted a call from Rep. Lauren Boebert in the hope of receiving a direct apology for falsely claiming she met me in an elevator, suggesting I was a terrorist, and for a history of anti-Muslim hate. Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments. She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call.” In a video posted to social media Boebert said she called on Omar to publicly apologize for her “anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police rhetoric.”  The one thing the two agree on: Omar hung up. "This is not about one hateful statement or one politician; it is about a party that has mainstreamed bigotry and hatred. It is time for Republican Leader [Kevin] McCarthy to actually hold his party accountable," Omar said.