Good morning. Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Rain is in the forecast.
Expect the iconic ruby red slippers to be a discussion point at this weekend’s Judy Garland Days festival in Grand Rapids. The festival occurs in the hometown of the actress who played Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz." This year, Minnesota lawmakers set aside $100,000 to help devise a plan to buy the slippers, which were stolen and long missing until their triumphant return. Dana Ferguson, who went on a road trip to check out the museum where the prized prop once was on display, notes that the money is nowhere near what the slippers are likely to fetch at auction. But it could figure into a public-private plan to buy them.
Fraud investigations into state-administered programs have been in the news a lot lately. Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office says it has filed charges against five people as part of two investigations by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in his office. The cases involve about $10 million worth of ill-gotten gains spent on cars, clothing and furniture. The Star Tribune writes about the cases here.
Minnesota’s child care crunch is well-documented, but parents of children with disabilities are finding it especially difficult. MPR’s Kyra Miles reports on the long waiting list those families are encountering and why that can set the children back. One study shows children with disabilities are almost four times more likely to be expelled from preschool than their nondisabled peers.
KSTP-TV is out with a new batch of polling on state races. This week it published results showing Democrat Amy Klobuchar with a commanding lead in the U.S. Senate race over either of two Republicans chasing that party’s nomination in an August primary — Royce White and Joe Fraser. The same poll shows the DFL with a slight edge on preference of which party voters want to lead the Legislature. It remains close and state House control will come down to a small number of races and inevitably a small number of votes.
The new Minnesota flag is atop poles at state government buildings, yet it’s not really flying off store shelves. At one store in St. Cloud, the old Minnesota flag is the one customers are searching out. KSTP TV says its most-recent poll shows that a plurality liked the prior flag better than the replacement. So get used to seeing both versions out there for the time being. | 