Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday.
Gov. Tim Walz is set to give his annual State of the State address tonight in the House chambers at the Capitol. With only about a month to go in the session the Legislature is deep into work on a new two-year state budget, so Walz isn’t planning to lay out any new initiatives. Instead, he told MPR’s Brian Bakst Tuesday that he’ll use an address to retrace what’s been done so far and reinforce his priorities. “You'll hear me challenging us to rise to this moment. This is an incredibly unique moment,” Walz said. “We are one of the few states that now provide universal school meals. And I think you're seeing things that are truly transformational. And I'm going to ask folks to lift up and embrace the moment.”
You can listen to the governor’s speech at 7 p.m. tonight on MPR News on the radio and online at MPRNews.org.
Students whose families make less than $80,000 a year would be eligible for free tuition at public colleges and universities under a bill passed Tuesday by the Minnesota Senate. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports the Senate passed the nearly $4.2 billion higher education bill by a vote of 36-31. Around 40,000 students are estimated to be eligible for the proposed free tuition provision. Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis said making tuition free for students with lower incomes could boost enrollment and set more people up for success. "This program helps eliminate cost barriers for the lowest income Minnesotans, and makes an important promise that any Minnesotan who wants to earn a degree and enter the workforce and support their family has the ability to do so,” Fateh said. Some Republicans instead proposed a tuition freeze for public colleges and universities, but that effort failed. The bill moves next to a conference committee to be negotiated with the House version.
A state government agency funding bill passed by the House Tuesday includes $45,000 to fund a commission to redesign the state flag and state seal. The bill says, “The designs must accurately and respectfully reflect Minnesota's shared history, resources, and diverse cultural communities. Symbols, emblems, or likenesses that represent only a single community or person, regardless of whether real or stylized, may not be included in a design.” As the Duluth News Tribune reports , for years, critics of Minnesota’s flag have said the design is unmemorable and offensive due to its depiction of white settlers displacing Native Americans.
Uncertainty about the future of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act brought urgency to legislative efforts this year to strengthen the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act or MIFPA, MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports. Lawmakers in both houses passed the legislation and Gov. Tim Walz is expected to sign it. “MIFPA legislation creates basically the gold standard of protection for our native kids,” said State Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton. Kunesh said it was critical to clarify parts of the state law that relied on the federal law for guidance. “We removed any reference to ICWA, so should ICWA go away or be amended in a way that does not fully protect our kids, Minnesota has those protections in place,” she said.But the state needs to do more, Kunesh said.
The Associated Press reports: Fox and Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787 million settlement Tuesday in the voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit, averting a trial in a case that exposed how the top-rated network chased viewers by promoting lies about the 2020 presidential election. “The truth matters. Lies have consequences,” Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson said in a news conference outside the courthouse after a judge announced the deal. Dominion had asked for $1.6 billion in arguing that Fox had damaged its reputation by helping peddle phony conspiracy theories about its equipment switching votes from former President Donald Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. Fox said the amount greatly overstated the value of the Colorado-based company. The resolution in Delaware Superior Court follows a recent ruling by Judge Eric Davis in which he allowed the case to go to trial while emphasizing it was “CRYSTAL clear” that none of the allegations about Dominion aired on Fox by Trump allies were true.
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