Good morning. It's Thursday, June 24.
Today's weather will be hot and humid, partly cloudy with a chance of showers and thunderstorms in southern Minnesota where highs will reach the 90s. Northern Minnesota sees highs in the 70s to mid-80s.
Tomorrow Minnesota will be in the limelight once again, as the former police officer who murdered George Floyd will face sentencing in court at 1:30 p.m.
MPR News reporter Jon Collins has this explainer on what's good to know ahead of time — like what both prosecutors and defense are seeking for sentencing, and context on past sentences for other officers convicted of murder.
Judge Peter Cahill is allowing most of what happens to be streamed by media organizations, including MPR News. We'll be live on Facebook and YouTube at that time tomorrow.
Anything you're wondering about the sentencing or how it works? Let us know, and we'll look into it.
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House Speaker Melissa Hortman and House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler before the start of Monday's special session on June 14, in St. Paul. | Glen Stubbe • Star Tribune via AP |
Things are chugging along at the Capitol during this special session. Yesterday the Minnesota House passed a $7.3 billion transportation funding bill that includes the following:
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Funding for two new bus rapid transit lines for the Twin Cities Preserves the Northstar commuter rail line $10 million for a second daily Amtrak train between St. Paul and Chicago -
Body cameras for State Patrol troopers Reopening of driver’s exam locations closed due to COVID-19 Funding for roads, bridges and public transit
The House approved the bill 112-21 and sent it off to the Senate, which could give it final approval today before sending to the Governor.
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Metro Transit workers started picketing Wednesday to call attention to their ongoing contract negotiations with the state. Union leaders say their members have been working without a contract for the last 10 months and authorized a strike by an overwhelming margin last September.
The union said it avoided a strike out of concern for users of public transportation, though ridership has plummeted during the pandemic.
"This is a group of essential workers who the federal government gave huge amounts of money to Metro Transit and the Met Council to reimburse the workforce for hazard pay," said union president Ryan Timlin. "And they have not done that."
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- If yesterday's story about Minnesota farmers and carbon banking confused (or delighted) you, here: The science of carbon banking. For starters, what is it? And where does the carbon come from?
- Duluth's Viking ship has new owners, and possibly soon, a new home. Two businesses are interested in hosting the ship, including one in the Canal Park area, near where the boat was docked when it first arrived in 1927.
- Something I'm looking forward to today: our 11 a.m. radio show about Twin Cities trash . Any other trash fanatics here can tune into MPR News with Angela Davis this morning to hear about how landfills in the cities are running out of room and what we might do about it.
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