Good morning. Time to kick off October with a new Digest.

1. Hagedorn says he remains against impeachment.  In his first town hall since the U.S. House of Representatives launched its impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Minnesota 1st District Congressman Jim Hagedorn said his position hasn’t changed. In La Crescent Monday, Hagedorn told a crowd of constituents in half-filled event center that the Democrats’ inquiry into whether the president should be impeached is unfounded. “What the Democrats are doing in the house is political recklessness. I think it’s divisive for the country. I don’t think it’s warranted. I think they are trying to take out a duly elected president of the United States for reasons that are not sufficient,” Hagedorn said. MPR News

2. Peterson not ready to back impeachment.  Judy Flicker led a small group of activists from the western Minnesota town of Morris last week to deliver a message that U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson should support the impeachment of President Donald Trump. “There has to be a point where we can’t let the president continue to do things that are wrong with impunity,” said Flicker, a retired early childhood educator. The reply from a member of Peterson’s staff in Willmar, she said, was that the congressman was being careful with his public statements. “It’s frustrating,” Flicker said of Peterson, one of a handful of centrist Democrats in Congress to withhold support for the impeachment push now rocking the Trump administration. Still, Flicker said she understands Peterson’s precarious spot in a constitutional and political showdown that could cast a long shadow up and down ballots in 2020 all over the nation. Peterson’s survival next year depends on holding a House district that supported Trump by huge numbers in 2016. By the end of last week, he was one of just 13 House Democrats publicly against an impeachment inquiry that has been picking up momentum. Eleven are, like Peterson, from districts Trump carried. Star Tribune

3. Should Minnesota require midwife licensing?  Paris Alvar and her partner bonded instantly with Margo Nelson as the couple interviewed midwives to help in the home birth of their child. Nelson had the right demeanor and experience, Alvar felt. It didn’t matter that Nelson was not licensed to be a midwife in Minnesota. "She's very, ‘I want to do what's comfortable with my client’ kind of thing,” Alvar, 28, said of Nelson. “For us, it was her experience that mattered, more than what any tests that she took.” Alvar is part of a wave of women in Minnesota choosing home births over hospitals. It’s a shift that’s brought new demand for midwives and fresh questions about why Minnesota — a state that requires a license for pretty much any business — lets midwives practice unregulated. Minnesota and Utah are the only states in the nation where such licensing is optional. Other states require it, or don’t license home birth midwives at all. As more women choose home birth here, even some midwives warn the state’s hands-off regulatory approach poses a danger to mothers and babies. Others say government should stay out of the decision and that women should be allowed to choose who helps them give birth. MPR News

4. Another groping accusation surfaces against Franken.  A former Capitol Hill staffer has brought forward a new allegation of improper behavior by former Minnesota U.S. Sen. Al Franken, telling New York magazine that he touched her inappropriately in 2006, two years before he was elected. The anonymous allegation came as Franken returns to the public eye. His weekly show debuted Saturday on SiriusXM and a speaking tour begins Wednesday with a sold-out appearance in Portland, Ore. Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, resigned from the Senate in 2017 after several women accused him of unwanted groping or kissing. The woman’s story is part of a compilation of the magazine’s interviews with 25 people who described their #MeToo experiences. She said that Franken grabbed her buttocks while they posed for a photo. She called the episode “so violating” and said she felt “deeply, deeply uncomfortable.” The magazine said it interviewed three individuals she confided in after the earlier claims involving Franken. Star Tribune

5. Former UMD coach could receive nearly $2 million in discrimination case.  Former University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey coach Shannon Miller will accept a substantial monetary reduction in her federal discrimination case against the University of Minnesota Duluth. Miller will stand to receive a $1.96 million verdict after deciding against a new trial on the issue of damages, attorney Donald Chance Mark Jr. told the court in a letter Monday morning. "Coach Miller has decided to accept the court's order in its entirety," Mark wrote in a two-sentence letter. U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz in early September said Miller was "completely vindicated" in her lawsuit after a jury in March 2018 found UMD liable for sex discrimination and Title IX retaliation in the December 2014 decision not to offer her a new contract after 16 seasons and five national championships. He denied UMD's motion to reverse the verdict or order a new trial. However, the judge called the jury's award "shockingly excessive," lowering Miller's winnings for past emotional distress from $3 million to $750,000. Duluth News Tribune