Good morning. Don’t stare at the sun, if it pokes through the clouds.
If you think you’re seeing more blackout license plates on the roads these days, your eyes are not deceiving you. They feature a simple design of white letters and numbers on a black background with an itty bitty Minnesota silhouette in the middle. The new offering is a sought-after tag since the plates were first offered in January. Minnesota’s Driver and Vehicle Services division says about 50,000 have gone out since the beginning of the year. Andrew Krueger has the details on those sales as well as some other new plates that made their debut this year.
We’re going to need to see some ID, but feel free to whip out your phone. A proposal that would pave the way for a new electronic driver’s license or identification credential is under consideration this year, with a hearing slated for tomorrow in the House Transportation Committee. It would be deemed an extension of the current plastic card. It wouldn’t replace the tactile version for all purposes. People would still need the card when they drive, but it could offer some convenience when the physical version isn’t required.
State lawmakers are likely to make modifications to the marijuana legalization law approved last year. MPR’s Clay Masters writes that some of the adjustments deal with the licensure of companies looking to get in on the action. The 2023 bill legalizing use of marijuana for Minnesotans 21 and older created a new state agency tasked with licensing businesses and overseeing a legal market. It gives higher priority to social equity applicants — those that were disproportionately held back by the prior criminalization of marijuana due to their race, community or other attributes. Meanwhile, expungement of past marijuana offenses is moving along.
A proposal to create an independent redistricting commission — sans measures tacked on to drop legislative deadlines and restrictions for lawmakers that become lobbyists — got a warmer reception Friday than a broader bill considered a day prior. Dana reports that Republicans on the House State and Local Government Committee said they were open to the idea and appreciated that it focused on a single change. The bill moves next to the Rules Committee, where another proposed constitutional amendment is also waiting. Each would put the question to voters about whether to adopt constitutional amendments.
In case you didn’t catch it live, we sat down with U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and state Sen. Jordan Rasmusson — separately — on last week’s Politics Friday. Hear a recording of the show here, with a guest appearance by Bonnie Tyler.
Last week, we noted the presence of a bill that would reinvigorate that age-old tie between pizza and literacy. You know, the tasty incentives for getting children to knock out a lot of books. MPR’s Feven Gerezgiher has the deep dish on the bill. “It’s difficult to sell a kid on what reading 10 minutes a day will do for you,” one bill advocate told her. “They need instant gratification, right? So this is about meeting these kids where they’re at.” | 