Good morning, and happy Friday. Here’s the Digest.
1. Supreme court leaves Trump only candidate named on GOP primary ballot. The Minnesota Supreme Court has denied a Republican candidate's bid to join Donald Trump on Minnesota's presidential primary ballot. In a ruling issued just hours after hearing oral arguments on Thursday, justices ruled that the ballot would stay as it is. Republican voters will choose between Trump or a write-in option. Candidate Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente and his Minnesota supporter tried to get access to the ballot. They argued that the Republican Party shouldn’t be able to exclude qualified candidates in a taxpayer-funded election. “The one way the voters express their dissent is to have their votes counted even if their candidate doesn’t win,” said their shared attorney Erick Kaardal. “It may affect the process moving forward.” He told justices that the law setting up Minnesota’s first presidential primary since 1992 didn’t contemplate a single option scenario, noting that the statute calls for candidates. Should the outcome stand, he said it would be ripe for abuse. “This was unforeseen, this temptation that will now occur every four years that the party of the incumbent president will want to be the only candidate on Minnesota’s presidential ballot for their party,” Kaardal said. “And that’s a temptation that will be difficult to resist.” But in their brief ruling, justices said the arguments lacked merit. A fuller opinion will come later but the court wanted to decide quickly given that primary voting begins on Jan 17. MPR News
2. Housing is first piece of $2 billion Walz bonding plan. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday said he will recommend a roughly $2 billion package of public construction projects this year, including $276 million for housing projects. Walz kicked off a series of four bonding bill announcements at Minnehaha Commons, a 44-unit facility in Minneapolis that houses formerly homeless veterans and seniors. He said investments in affordable housing should be a priority. “We can’t wait on these projects,” the DFL governor said during a news conference. “The needs are real. Interest rates are low. There’s no reason not to act.” Walz, joined by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and other state officials, said he wants to focus the initial attention on his plans for borrowing on the projects themselves rather than the package’s total price tag. Flanagan said the bulk of the governor’s housing proposal would encourage developers to take on similar projects through a competitive program. “Every man, every woman, every Minnesotan, every child — without exception — deserves a safe, affordable and dignified place to call home,” Flanagan said. Minnesota Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho said the housing infrastructure bonds would serve as a public incentive for the private sector. “We believe the role of government is to produce housing where the private market won’t do it on its own,” Ho said. MPR News
3. Five-year cap on probation approved by sentencing commission. The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission Thursday approved a 5-year cap on felony probation lengths, a move advocates say will limit the disparate nature of punishment in the state by providing more consistency in sentencing. The 8-3 vote passed a measure that would, in most circumstances, limit felony probation terms for all felons, except those convicted of homicides or sex offenses. Unless the Legislature overrules their decision, new guidelines automatically take effect Aug. 1. "We are proposing a big change for Minnesota, but it's not a big change nationally," said Commission Chair Kelly Lyn Mitchell. "We are very much behind the curve of what modern probation should be." However, the guidelines are not retroactive, meaning that an estimated 50,000 Minnesotans currently serving felony probation sentences could not benefit from shortened terms. Legislation to limit probation sentences in Minnesota — which has one of the nation's largest rates of post-release supervision — has long been a top priority among Democratic lawmakers but failed to pass during the 11th-hour budget negotiations last session. Star Tribune
4. Drug deaths rise in Duluth. Opioid overdoses increased by 64 percent in Duluth last year from 2018, according to Duluth Police Department data. Fourteen people died from overdoses. “Around the state overdoses are dropping,” said Jess Nickila, opioid program technician for the Duluth Police Department. “But we’re kind of in a pocket.” The number of overdoses in Duluth increased from 106 to 174, and the number of fatalities increased from eight to 14, Nickila reported. For all of St. Louis County, overdoses increased by 52 percent, from 151 to 230; and fatalities from 13 to 21. The final fatality number will increase by one for both the city and the county, Nickila said. Toxicology reports have confirmed the presence of drugs in a recent death, but that hasn’t yet officially been added to the total. The numbers only refer to overdoses reported via 911 calls to first responders, noted Alyssa Ryder, criminal intelligence analyst for the Lake Superior Drug and Violent Crime Task Force. It doesn't include individuals who admitted themselves to the emergency room or who recovered on their own without receiving emergency services. Duluth News Tribune
5. More on that quick Mike Bloomberg Minnesota visit. The mics were cut after 14 minutes. Reporters were hustled away. Mr. Bloomberg climbed behind the wheel of the tractor — glistening with a fresh wax job from the proprietor’s teenage children — then eventually back into a waiting vehicle bound for an airplane to somewhere else. There is a way that people generally run for president. And there is whatever Mr. Bloomberg is doing. Looking past Iowa and New Hampshire to focus on the delegate-rich contests that come in the months that follow, Mr. Bloomberg is betting that his zag-while-they-zig electoral strategy and functionally bottomless resources can make him the standard-bearer of a Democratic Party whose 2020 primary has been defined in part by progressive disdain for the billionaire class. It is not quite, as admirers present it, that Mr. Bloomberg is a chess-master whose opponents play checkers; he is more accurately working to bury the board with a gusher of cash so overpowering that everyone forgets how the game was always played in the first place. New York Times | 