Good morning, and happy Thursday.
State and federal investigators are looking into a private lab that contracted with Minnesota to do COVID-19 tests during the height of the pandemic. Nebraska-based GS Labs had trouble keeping up with demand for testing and at some points had big backlogs. APM Reports found public health officials in Minnesota and other states have been grappling with problems caused by GS Labs for more than a year. Among the concerns: In April 2021, the company was delayed reporting 2,300 tests by up to a month, including 205 positive results, to Minnesota officials. The issues caused repeated headaches for contract tracers tasked with limiting the spread of the virus. In August, GS Labs notified Minnesota and other states that it accepted so many tests that backlogged samples had to be stored in freezers for more than a month before they were processed. In December, company officials told Minnesota that a lab employee at a GS Labs site in the St. Paul suburb of Maplewood caused 87 false positives.
Gov. Tim Walz released a plan Wednesday to build the state’s economy over the next 10 years.Dana Ferguson at Forum News Service has the story: Walz charged a 15-member Council on Economic Expansion with creating a roadmap for the state’s economic advancement last year. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Walz asked the panel of leaders of labor groups, businesses and nonprofit organizations to lay out a plan that was “equitable, inclusive, sustainable, resilient” and focused on Minnesota’s people. Inside a sheet-metal production company in Chisago County, members of the council laid out their findings and proposals to grow the state’s economy over the next decade. Among other things their broad proposal would boost teacher pay, increase funding for public safety, and try to increase the number of businesses owned by people of color…Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen on Wednesday said Walz was “tone deaf” and that the contents of the proposal didn’t meet concerns that Minnesotans were experiencing. “What struck me most about Gov. Walz’s 28-page economic plan is that it didn’t mention the words ‘inflation,’ ‘gas prices,’ or ‘utility costs’ once,” Jensen said in a news release. “Gov. Walz proved once again he’s tone deaf to the plight of working Minnesota families and isn’t up to the task of leading in the moment.”
A state Senate ethics subcommittee dismissed most of an ethics complaint against Sen. Omar Fateh Wednesday afternoon, but recommended that he undergo training from the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, Sahan Journal reports. In the same hearing, Omar’s former campaign manager and legislative aide broadly declined to answer questions about his work for the first-term Democrat from south Minneapolis. The Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct, which comprises two Democrats and two Republicans, threw out the most serious allegations from the ethics complaint filed last month by seven Republican state senators. Omar had faced two complaints accusing him of breaking three Senate rules. One complaint focused on an alleged conflict of interest involving him and Somali TV Minnesota, an online media outlet. The other complaint stemmed from his campaign’s alleged mishandling of absentee ballots in the 2020 primary election. The senate subcommittee threw out all of the allegations specifically related to the absentee ballots.
The prior Republican nominee for Minnesota attorney general accused his GOP opponent in this year’s race of failing to talk forcefully enough about outlawing abortion. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports former state Representative Doug Wardlow sought Wednesday to present himself as the only candidate with “steadfast conviction” against abortion. He criticized Jim Schultz, who has the GOP endorsement, as being too passive on the issue and treating it as a “distraction.” “I think that the people appreciate candidates who are genuine,” Wardlow said. “And we're not going to move on the life issue if we don't have candidates leading on the issue and making the argument and convincing people that the unborn baby is a life, and that must be protected.” Wardlow says if he becomes attorney general he’d investigate abortion providers and fight to overturn a court decision protecting access to the procedure. Schultz’s campaign responded that Wardlow is “desperate” and misrepresenting his stance on abortion. It noted that Schultz has the top rating from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. “Doug should be ashamed,” Schultz campaign manager Christine Snell said. “He is just another career politician who will give up his integrity to try to win an election after a decade of failed campaigns.” The winner of their August primary will face DFL incumbent Keith Ellison in November’s election. Wardlow lost to Ellison in 2018.
And in Washington, in an unexpected turnabout, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin announced Wednesday they had reached an expansive agreement that had eluded them for months on health care, energy and climate issues, taxes on higher earners and corporations and trimming of the federal debt.The Associated Press reports that in an abrupt announcement, Manchin and fellow Democrat Schumer said the measure would raise $739 billion over 10 years in revenue, the biggest chunk coming from a 15 percent corporate minimum tax. It would spend $369 billion on energy and climate initiatives and $64 billion to extend expiring federal subsidies for people buying health insurance. That would leave over $300 billion to reduce federal deficits over the decade.
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