Good morning. I hope you’re doing well this cold Tuesday.
Democrats in the Minnesota House on Monday announced a $100 million proposal to improve public safety throughout the state,MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports. Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul, chair of the House public safety committee, said the proposal would be a strong investment in addressing rising crime rates. “We take seriously the need to equip communities to use data and innovate for new solutions, not old ones, for new problems,” Mariani said. Mariani and other DFL lawmakers stressed that the recent rise in crime is hitting many states, not just Minnesota. He called for a bipartisan effort to address the problem. “This legislation is focused on fighting crime, not on fighting one another politically,” he said. Rep. Brian Johnson, R-Cambridge, the lead Republican on the public safety committee, said the DFL proposal falls short. “Their package does nothing to hold criminals accountable and nothing to address the revolving door of repeat criminals responsible for a substantial number of carjackings, shootings and other violent crime,” Johnson said. Republicans in the Minnesota Senate also favor a tough-on-crime approach. They plan to highlight their session priorities later in the week.
Some state lawmakers plan to introduce a bill to provide free menstrual products in school bathrooms, reports MPR’s Kirsti Marohn. A recent national survey found that one in five students say they struggle to afford menstrual products. Many say they've missed school as a result. Some Minnesota students have called access to menstrual products a gender, health and education equity issue. They say schools should make the products available free of charge in middle and high school bathrooms. "We were accustomed to this just being an issue that was on our shoulders to always have. And I became really frustrated with this. So that's why I think it's so important that we're working together to fix this small issue that's going to impact so many lives in a beneficial way," said Elif Ozturk, a sophomore at Hopkins High School. Several DFL lawmakers say they'll sponsor a bill that would provide school districts about $2 million a year in state funding to supply menstrual products. "We do not expect students to provide their own toilet paper. And we should not expect them to -- like half of the students in Minnesota who menstruate should not be expected to have to provide their own menstrual products. We need to provide this basic need to our students," said Rep. Sandra Feist, DFL-New Brighton.
Minnesota U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer is once again heading up the election effort for House Republicans, and the next step may be a move up the ladder in House leadership, according to this piece in Politico: It doesn’t hurt that Emmer helped stave off an anticipated loss of seats in 2020, to the surprise of many House Republicans. Now that the National Republican Congressional Committee has even more momentum this fall, with Democrats lining up for the exits ahead of an expected GOP takeover in the midterms, the biggest question may be what comes next for its chief.
It was a split court decision Monday on the proposed Polymet copper nickel mine, reports MPR’s Dan Kraker . The decision Monday from the Minnesota Court of Appeals reverses the project’s water quality permit and sends it back to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to determine whether any pollution discharges from the mine into groundwater would violate the federal Clean Water Act. That’s a victory for the environmental groups and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa who sued to overturn the permit. But the three-judge panel rejected several other arguments from PolyMet’s opponents, including a demand for more stringent limits on the treated wastewater that’s discharged from the mine, and a call for a “contested case hearing” to gather more evidence and testimony on certain aspects of the permit before a neutral judge.
From the Associated Press:Several businesses, trade groups and social organizations announced the formation of a coalition on Monday opposing legalization of recreational marijuana in Minnesota as the measure's supporters signal another push for the issue ahead of the start of the legislative session next week. The coalition, called Minnesotans Against Marijuana Legalization, consists of the Minnesota Trucking Association, the state's police and peace officers association and the Minnesota Catholic Conference, a policy arm of the Catholic Church of Minnesota, among others.
From MPR’s Brian Bakst: Former Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek says he's considering a run for Minnesota governor though he hasn’t yet decided to get in. The former suburban Republican legislator and past state Public Safety commissioner says he first took a look at the race last spring but stayed out. “People were very persistent back in March and April,” Stanek said. “These very same folks, the call for getting into this governor’s race has been even stronger over the last several months.” Stanek lost a re-election race for sheriff in 2018 but has remained active in politics and serves as a law enforcement consultant. Stanek had this to say about a website pointing toward a governor bid and a test poll including him as a candidate that surfaced recently: "It wasn't meant to be a teaser per se. That's not the way I would go about doing this. If I was going to do it, you would hear me loud and clear that I was in with both feet." | 