Good morning and welcome to a new week. Here’s your Digest.

1. Sanders heads to Minnesota next weekend. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar will appear together next month at the University of Minnesota. The Nov. 3 rally in the Northrop Auditorium on the Minneapolis campus is Sanders’ first visit to the state since this summer, when he campaigned at the State Fair. Omar, a first-term congresswoman from Minneapolis, was one of three freshman Democrats who recently endorsed Sanders' campaign for president in 2020. They include New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who held a rally with Sanders in Queens last week. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, also endorsed Sanders and is holding a rally with him in Detroit. Omar and Sanders have worked on legislation together in Washington, including a bill to make public college tuition free. They also co-sponsored legislation to provide free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to every student and prohibit schools that participate in federal school meal program from denying meals to kids. MPR News

2. Smith expresses “grave concerns” about Trump conduct. DFL Sen. Tina Smith condemned Republicans in Washington on Friday, saying they are wrong to minimize the impeachment investigation into President Trump. She said U.S. Envoy Bill Taylor’s allegations this week that military aid for Ukraine was used as a political bargaining affirms the need to keep the probe going. “Based on what we’ve heard from Mr. Taylor and what the president himself has said we have grave concerns, I have grave concerns about national security and abuse of power,” Smith said during a community hearing in Oakdale. “It’s important we do this impeachment proceeding.” Republicans are demanding more transparency in the investigation, and a GOP Senate resolution denouncing the House Democratic-led inquiry was introduced this week. Smith said the House proceedings are akin to a grand jury gathering facts and deciding whether to lodge charges. If it comes to a House vote and Senate trial, she said, there will be ample room for public deliberation. MPR News

3. Changes having impact at DHS. The state office that investigates child care fraud is getting its ship in order, according to Minnesota officials and a prominent Republican lawmaker. Seven months since problems were exposed at the Department of Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, a revamp of the office has left its investigators better positioned to thoroughly and fairly watchdog taxpayer funds that pay for child care for the state’s poorest families. The office was cast in the spotlight in March after the leader of a team of investigators said he believed there was “pervasive” fraud involving federal funds by some of the state’s largest child care providers — but that investigators couldn’t make a dent in the problem because top DHS officials weren’t focused enough on cracking down on it. At the same time, others, including the DHS commissioner at the time, questioned whether the team of 13 investigators and staff were going about their work in the right way. Some operators of centers serving the Somali community alleged they were essentially being profiled. The reforms enacted since, DHS leaders say, address both those concerns, resulting in an anti-fraud system that has both more teeth and more fairness. Pioneer Press

4. Progressives impatient about rate of progress. A bevy of progressives are challenging longtime Democratic incumbents in the Legislature in next year’s elections, potentially sending more women, millennials and people of color to the State Capitol while shifting the DFL dialogue to the left. The movement is a muscular show of influence among emerging voter blocs that have already transformed the DFL coalition but now seek the real prize: an election certificate that will earn them a seat at the table and the opportunity to move billions of dollars in state funding. Tanner Sunderman, a 25-year-old Roseville resident challenging longtime Rep. Alice Hausman of St. Paul in the first-ring suburbs, said now is the time. “We’re done waiting,” he said. The strategy is not without risks, however. Senate Democrats are just two seats shy of a majority, and some DFL operatives and officeholders fear the insurgent campaigns could drain much needed money, time and energy from the effort to win in the fall, while exposing more moderate candidates in the suburbs to the charge that their party has moved too far left. Star Tribune