Capitol View for November 18

Good morning, and happy Thursday.

The Department of Defense will send medical teams to two major Minnesota hospitals to relieve doctors and nurses who've been swamped by a growing wave of COVID-19 patients, Gov. Tim Walz announced Wednesday . The teams, with 22 people each, will arrive at HCMC and St. Cloud Hospital next week and begin treating patients immediately, Walz said in a conference call from the Finnish capital of Helsinki — the latest stop on his European trade mission. Minnesota has become one of the country's worst hotspots for new COVID-19 infections. Hospital beds are filling up with unvaccinated people, and staffs are being worn down by the surge. As of Tuesday, 1,382 people are hospitalized in the state with COVID, which is the highest that number has been all year. Ninety-six percent of the state’s ICU beds are currently in use. Walz said he has no plans right now to declare another peacetime emergency to get a handle on the surge. He said he is exhausting other options first, including a continued push to get Minnesotans vaccinated. Walz also doesn’t want to give Senate Republicans an opportunity to follow through on their threat to fire his health commissioner, Jan Malcolm. A peacetime emergency would assure such a showdown. “I need my team in place. I need the thousands of decisions that my health team is making every day,” Walz said. “And I don’t want to do anything that jeopardizes having the people in place at this critical time.”

About that trade mission. Walz is on the trip with about 50 Minnesota business representatives. They’re spending the week in the United Kingdom and Finland. Dana Ferguson with the Forum News Service reported on what they’re doing: The Minnesota delegation toured the new Mayo Clinic Healthcare site in London, discussed policies that could slow climate change with energy officials and started conversations around new opportunities for U.K. investors to work with Minnesota companies during their three-day stay in London. The United States and the United Kingdom have yet to formalize a trade deal post-Brexit but state officials said they were hopeful that they’d laid good groundwork. And they committed to putting pressure on the state’s congressional delegation and others in Washington to free up trade between the two countries.

A signature law change made after George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police remained in legal limbo Wednesday as a judge weighed the new deadly force standards for police.MPR’s Brian Bakst reports Ramsey County District Court Judge Leonardo Castro, who in September suspended the law, heard arguments over whether to reinstate the law, modify it or throw it out. The law that narrowed the situations under which deadly force is considered justified went into effect in March. But this summer, a group of police associations sued. Castro granted a temporary injunction so he could more carefully study the case without putting officers at risk of being charged until the matter is resolved.

How much is too much to claim in mileage?The Star Tribune reports : Republican Second Congressional District candidate Tyler Kistner reimbursed himself nearly $7,000 for mileage in his latest campaign finance report, an unusually high number for his mostly suburban district that experts say raises questions about his spending and campaign's transparency. Kistner's reimbursement equates to driving nearly 12,400 miles between launching his second campaign for the district on April 20 and early July, or around 160 miles each day. He also reimbursed himself $2,963 for mileage in February, more than two months before he launched his second run against DFL U.S. Rep. Angie Craig. "That is a whole lot of miles for any campaign, especially for a campaign in a fairly small suburban district," said Craig Holman, a Capitol Hill lobbyist who focuses on ethics for the watchdog group Public Citizen. He questioned whether Kistner is using his campaign funds for personal benefit and said Kistner's "mileage reimbursement certainly appears excessive." Kistener’s campaign defended his travel. "Tyler has put thousands of miles on his personal vehicle traveling to every corner of the Second District meeting with voters about their concerns, and the importance of having a true servant leader representing them in Congress," said Tyler Dunn, a spokesman for the Kistner for Congress campaign in response to mileage questions. "We thoroughly log and review all expenses, and in accordance with FEC guidance, the campaign has reimbursed Tyler for the cost of this campaign travel."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar says that a 6-month check up after her diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer shows she's in remission. In September she revealed she'd been diagnosed with breast cancer in February, noting at the time that it came after she had put off routine medical care, in part because of the COVID pandemic. On Wednesday Klobuchar again urged Minnesotans not to put off routine examinations or medical care, to get the best chance for successful treatments. She has said that the experience was part of the reason she was taking the lead on a preventative health care bill in Washington.