Good morning, and happy Friday.
Program note: Two sharp political analysts will join me on the radio at noon on Friday: Abou Amara and Brian McDaniel. Tune in. It should be entertaining. And Monday marks the Juneteenth holiday, so no newsletter that day.
Chances for a summertime special legislative session went from slim to none Thursday night when Gov. Tim Walz and DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman said that they are at an impasse with Senate Republicans, reports MPR’s Tim Pugmire. The two Democrats spoke after a meeting with Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller. Hortman said Miller told her that a deal to split the budget surplus three ways is no longer in force now that the regular session is over. Walz said Democrats were ready to compromise, and he can't believe Republicans walked away from the largest tax cut in state history. In a statement Miller said Walz and House Democrats “have different spending priorities than Minnesotans.” Miller said they were still many millions of dollars apart on spending and, “After four months of session and four more weeks of discussions the differences could not be resolved.”
The Republican-endorsed candidate for governor, Dr. Scott Jensen, has been publicly sparring with a state board that has repeatedly reviewed his medical license. This week, he suggested board members will lose their positions if he becomes governor. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports Jensen told supporters at a governor’s race campaign event that he’ll “take care of that juggernaut” if he wins the race. Audio of Monday’s meet-and-greet in Spicer shared by the DFL Party captures Jensen, a family practice doctor and former state senator, raising the repeated examination of his license as evidence of his fortitude and suggesting the Board of Medical Practice make-up is ripe for change. “When they came after me the fifth time, I said, ‘Is this ever going to stop?’ And I almost quit caring. I did my responses, but I said, 'I will beat you.' And right now, I’m in the ninth month of my fifth investigation, and they’re not coming back at me, and I think the reason is they don’t know what to do with me. I wouldn’t know what to do with me. If I get elected in November, do you think their jobs are secure?” Jensen says to applause. “I get to appoint them. We’ll have picks." He adds, “I promise you guys we’ll take care of that juggernaut.”
The Department of Employment and Economic Development reported Thursday that the unemployment rate dropped to 2 percent in May, down from 2.2 percent in April, which at the time was the lowest since the state began keeping track in 1976. In May, Minnesota added about 6,600 jobs. That was fewer than in prior months, but still eight straight months of gains. The state has now added back about 80 percent of the private-sector jobs shed early in the pandemic. The labor force participation rate inched up, as did the employment-to-population ratio. All told, there are more than 3 million Minnesotans counted as employed. “The year over year and month over month job growth and dropping unemployment rate are really positive signs that we have a strong economy, a stable economy, an economy that has seen more growth and more traditional consistency than I think a lot of the volatility that we became used to during the pandemic,” said agency commissioner Steve Grove. It marks two straight years of decline, but there were other statistics that took some shine off the headline figure. Growth in the average wage in Minnesota has considerably lagged the rise in consumer prices. Average wage increases in the past year were about 3.4 percent. But annual inflation was above 8.5 percent.
Unemployment is down. Tax collections are up. But MinnPost reportsMinnesota State economist Laura Kalambokidis sees a lot of uncertainty: “The Fed is in this very tricky situation of trying to achieve a soft landing, meaning to slow economic growth in order to bring inflation down without triggering a recession,” Kalambokidis said. “And there are so many extraordinary and global risks right now that that’s a hard trick for them to pull off. So the questions are, can the U.S. achieve a soft landing, and what are the risks of a true recession? The risks of a recession have increased since we released our forecast in February.” At the same time, the state, national and world economies have changed so dramatically that what economists thought they knew isn’t so certain. That means the types of computer modeling they have relied on for years must be changed — re-modeling the models.
Former Vice President Mike Pence was in serious danger on Jan. 6, 2021, because he refused to go along with a plan that even those pushing it knew was unconstitutional, the House Jan. 6 committee revealed Thursday. The Associated Press reports Former President Donald Trump's closest advisers viewed his last-ditch efforts to halt congressional certification of his loss as “nuts,” “crazy” and even likely to incite riots if Pence followed through, witnesses revealed in stark testimony Thursday. The panel demonstrated how Trump put his vice president in danger as Pence was presiding over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when the defeated president sent his supporters to the Capitol to “fight like hell” over his false claims of a fraudulent election. Rioters came within 40 feet of the place at the Capitol where Pence and others had been evacuated. Never-before-shown photos showed Pence and his team sheltering. | 