Daily Digest for August 6, 2020 Posted at 6:15 a.m. by Mike Mulcahy |
Good morning. Here's some news to get your Thursday started.
No Minneapolis vote this fall on defunding the police department. Minneapolis voters will not get the chance in November to decide whether to replace the Minneapolis Police Department after a key city commission Wednesday put the process on hold, with members saying they needed more information, Brandt Williams reports . By a 10-5 vote, the Minneapolis Charter Commission agreed to delay a decision to replace the current police structure with a community safety agency — a change backed by a majority of the Minneapolis City Council in the wake of the May 25 killing of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody. The Charter Commission could have approved, rejected or modified the language of the proposal. Instead, commissioners chose to delay a decision and take another 90 days to consider the council's proposal — which means there won’t be enough time for the language to meet the Aug. 21 deadline for the Nov. 3 election.
St. Paul students will start the school year at home. All St. Paul Public Schools students will start the upcoming school year in full-time distance learning during the coronavirus pandemic, but district leaders say they’re eager to reopen schools once it’s safe. Josh Verges of the Pioneer Press reports the school board voted 5-1 Wednesday to approve Superintendent Joe Gothard’s proposal to have all students, from preschool through 12th grade, learn from home on iPads for at least the first six weeks of the school year. With input from the school board, Gothard will consider bringing some students back for in-person instruction as early as Oct. 19, after a four-day weekend tied to the teachers union’s annual conference. The next possible transition point would be Nov. 16, the start of the second academic quarter.
Omar, Melton-Meaux primary contest enters its final days. Antone Melton-Meaux, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar's main DFL primary challenger, said Wednesday that a newly-filed campaign finance complaint against him is "frivolous." The Minnesota DFL Party filed the complaint with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that Melton-Meaux’s campaign skirted federal laws by helping to establish shell campaign work vendors so the money he paid them would be difficult to track. "What this really is, frankly, is a desperate attempt by the DFL to resurrect Congresswoman Omar's campaign that is falling apart,” he said. The complaint came less than a week before the Aug. 11th primary and is not likely to be investigated by the time the voting is over. As Mark Zdechlik reported Omar held her own event Wednesday to highlight her ties to her district. She rejected the notion that DFL had to step in to help her. Whoever wins the DFL Primary will be on the ballot as the Democratic candidate in November, And the district has been a safe one for Democrats, who have held the congressional seat for well over half a century. Four Democrats are challenging Omar for the DFL nomination, but Melton-Meaux is the one Omar is taking most seriously. He has raised more money than Omar and has been running a lot of ads, contending that Omar is more focused on her celebrity than on the needs of the people she represents.And as the primary race approaches the end, voters are split on who to pick to go on to the November ballot. And the Star Tribune editorial board weighed in with an endorsement of Melton-Meaux while Insight News endorsed Omar..
Congressional candidates share virtual FarmFest stage. A trio of Republicans vying to flip a congressional seat in western Minnesota tried to distinguish themselves. They’re aware that only one will advance to take on 15-term Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, who faces only a nominal challenge for his party’s nomination. Endorsed Republican Michelle Fischbach, third-time candidate Dave Hughes and Dr. Noel Collis took part in the virtual forum, Brian Bakst reports . Fischbach, a former state senator and lieutenant governor, presented herself as an accomplished lawmaker versed in issues such as broadband Internet and economic vitality of small towns amid unprecedented challenges.
“I want to go to Washington and I want to fight for the 7th District and I want to fight for our way of life,” she said. Collis, who had his own medical practice and started a medical device company, said he’s a political outsider with lifelong district ties. “In Washington, we need a doctor in the House, someone who knows business, someone who grew up in the district and that’s what I offer,” he said. Hughes, a military veteran, said he’s primed for a win after two close races against Peterson when he was the GOP nominee in 2016 and 2018. He lumped Fischbach with Peterson in describing them as “career politicians” and said he won’t be “subject to the swamp.” Hughes said the incumbent’s own maverick streak is no longer good enough for the district, which President Donald Trump carried by almost 31 percentage points in the 2016 election. “Try as he might, the problem with Collin is his party,” Hughes said. “His party is totally against the things that would make agriculture more profitable, whether it be overregulation reduction, tax policy.” For his part, Peterson stressed his political independence, and he said the House Agriculture Committee he leads displays the kind of unity Washington could use more of. “One of the things I’m really proud about is the ag committee does not get into political fights. We just don’t do it,” Peterson said.
“We sit down and figure out ahead of time what we can live with, where we can compromise and we figure out how to do it.”
Biden wouldn't undo everything President Trump did if he wins. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden says if elected, he would not tear down the parts of the barrier along the U.S. Southern border built during the Trump administration — but he would cease construction. "There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration, No. 1," he told NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro during an interview with journalists from the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
"I'm going to make sure that we have border protection, but it's going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it. And at the ports of entry — that's where all the bad stuff is happening," the former vice president said. On China, Biden said he would not reverse President Trump's tariffs and pushed back at the suggestion that some believe the Trump administration's aggressive stance toward China has been effective. When pressed on whether China would have to meet any conditions for reversing tariffs, Biden deflected and said he would take a multilateral approach to get China to change its behavior.
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