Good morning and welcome to Wednesday.
Some high school sports delayed by pandemic. High school football and volleyball will move to spring seasons while other fall sports maintain modified schedules under plans approved Tuesday by the Minnesota State High School League, MPR News reports . Volleyball and football will be allowed to hold practices this fall with conditions. The changes are designed to limit exposure of athletes, coaches and officials to the coronavirus. All sports will see limits on the number of competitions and how many teams can participate in any single event.
Lewis and Smith 'meet' for first campaign debate on farm issues. The presumed fall rivals for U.S. Senate met in an online debate Tuesday over agriculture policy that left them little chance for direct engagement but gave each a chance to road test campaign themes. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith and Republican-endorsed challenger Jason Lewis debated via computer from their homes rather than at the western Minnesota estate where FarmFest has long been held, Brian Bakst reports . The long-distance encounter was the first joint appearance for the likely competitors who first must win party primaries next week. Lewis held himself out as the candidate most in tune with greater Minnesota, citing his visits to eight farms and other production facilities. “We are in a strange time right now with all of this. You have to ask yourself a question: if you’re better off than you were since my opponent got to Congress or sat on the ag committee?” Lewis said. “I think the answer is no.” Smith said she has established deep relationships in farm country and built a record of accomplishment in Washington. “I have gone to bat for you and gotten results and passed bipartisan bills to support rural co-ops and broadband and rural health care and to pass bipartisan trade deals,” she said.
Group sues Walz over mask mandate. A lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court is challenging the constitutionality of Minnesota’s mask mandate, Tim Pugmire reports . DFL Gov. Tim Walz imposed the mask requirement last month through an executive order to help stop the spread of COVID-19. But a group of Republican lawmakers and voters, including the watchdog group Minnesota Voters Alliance, is suing Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and other officials. They want the mask requirement halted ahead of next week’s primary election. The mask mandate conflicts with an existing state law that prohibits mask wearing in public, said Erick Kaardal, the plaintiffs’ attorney. “With the state of Minnesota both criminalizing wearing a mask and criminalizing not wearing a mask, people are fearful of political participation in public places,” Kaardal said.Voters need clarity, said Rep, Jeremy Munson, R-Lake Crystal. “We’re not debating the science behind masks,” Munson said. “We’re really talking about the legislative process and the abuse of power by the governor.” The attorney general defended the executive order and said he would defend it strongly in court. “I stand behind the legality and constitutionality of this executive order,” Ellison said.
DFL files campaign fundraising complaint against Melton-Meaux. Minnesota DFL officials said Tuesday that Antone Melton-Meaux, the top challenger to incumbent U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, skirted campaign finance laws by hiding some of his top political consultants in Tuesday’s nationally-watched Democratic primary. A Federal Election Commission complaint obtained by the Star Tribune alleges Melton-Meaux’s campaign violated federal election law by “conspiring to intentionally obscure” the identity of political consultants listed as limited liability corporations working on his challenge to Omar in a hotly contested race that has already seen each side raise more than $4 million. “The campaign of Ilhan Omar’s primary opponent has gone against the values of the DFL Party by apparently working with vendors to set up mysterious shell companies to hide millions of dollars in spending,” DFL Chairman Ken Martin said in a prepared statement. Lee Hayes, a spokesman for Melton-Meaux’s campaign, called the FEC filing baseless and an attempt to distract from Omar’s own campaign finance issues, given her campaign has directed more than $1.6 million to a D.C. firm that employs her husband as a consultant. That case is also before the FEC. “Her campaign money is coming into her own household and she is benefiting from that,” Hayes said.
Slow progress reported on another relief bill. Frustrated Senate Republicans re-upped their complaints that Democratic negotiators are taking too hard a line in talks on a sweeping coronavirus relief bill, but an afternoon negotiating session brought at least modest concessions from both sides, even as an agreement appears far off. The Associated Press reported top Democrats emerged from a 90-minute meeting Tuesday with Trump administration officials to declare more progress. The Trump team agreed with that assessment and highlighted its offer to extend a moratorium on evictions from federally subsidized housing through the end of the year. "We really went down, issue by issue by issue slogging through this. They made some concessions which we appreciated. We made some concessions that they appreciated," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "We're still far away on a lot of the important issues but we're continuing to go back." White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Tuesday's session was "probably the most productive meeting we've had to date." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the two sides set a goal of reaching an agreement by the end of the week to permit a vote next week.
State law could complicate efforts to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Some last minute advice from the The Minneapolis city attorney's office could influence a key vote today. The city's charter commission is meeting to consider putting a measure on the November ballot to defund the city's police department. The Star Tribune reports an analysis of the proposal shows the council faces legal barriers to eliminating officers. Even if the proposal makes it onto the November ballot and voters approve it, elected officials will have to wade through a series of “thorny” and “perhaps vexing” issues, including state laws that allow only licensed peace officers to carry out critical tasks, according to the analysis by the city attorney’s office recently released by the city. | 
