Good morning, and happy Thursday.
The Minnesota Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for Nov. 2 on a petition that seeks to bar former President Donald Trump from appearing on Minnesota ballots next year. Eight Minnesota voters, including former Secretary of State Joan Growe and former Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson, filed suit earlier this month contending that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits Trump from holding federal office because he took part in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. The amendment was adopted after the Civil War to prevent former confederates from returning to federal office, but a recent paper by two legal scholars has prompted new interest in applying it to Trump. A similar suit was filed this year in Colorado.
Attorney General Keith Ellison issued another opinion Wednesday about what the new law on the use of force in schools does and does not do. Here’s part of a statement he issued: "There have been significant misunderstandings about the impact of the new amendments. For example, some have interpreted the amendments as restricting SROs and school professionals from engaging in any physical contact to address non-violent behavior. That is not the case: professionals simply must avoid the restraints identified in Section 121A.58, namely that unless a student poses an imminent threat of bodily harm to self or others, professionals 'shall not use prone restraint' and 'shall not inflict any form of physical holding that restricts or impairs a pupil's ability to breathe; restricts or impairs a pupil's ability to communicate distress; places pressure or weight on a pupil's head, throat, neck, chest, lungs, sternum, diaphragm, back, or abdomen; or results in straddling a pupil's torso.' If a student is misbehaving in a way that does not and will not harm that student or anyone else, professionals in schools still have many tools at their disposal, including other kinds of physical contact."
Gov. Tim Walz’s office said the governor was meeting with the representatives of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, Minnesota Sheriff’s Association, League of Minnesota Cities, legislative leaders, and the Attorney General’s Office last evening, but as of this morning there’s been no comment out of that meeting. Meanwhile, Eagan schools became the latest to remove school resource officers. House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, called again for a special session on the issue. "We need the Governor to realize that explanations aren't helping,” Demuth said in a statement. “It's time to include all four caucuses in these discussions, come up with a solution that can pass both chambers, call a special session, and fix this for our schools." And Ellison’s opinion wasn’t enough for Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson. "Another opinion just demonstrates the need for legislative action to fix this law,” said Johnson, R-East Grand Forks. “Students, parents, educators, school staff, and Student Resource Officers all deserve a crystal-clear law that everyone can understand without needing further clarification."
Minnesota prison officials say they've completed a round of drinking water tests in response to recent protests in and outside correctional facilities and found almost all the water sources in its facilities are safe, although testing found elevated levels of lead in water from three taps in the Lino Lakes prison. MPR News reports the Corrections Department said the sources were in bathroom areas in program buildings, not in living areas or staff break rooms. The department said it's brought in a shipment of bottled water to Lino Lakes as a precaution. Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said in a statement that his agency would launch a comprehensive water quality program, and hire an industrial hygienist to monitor water and air quality and other environmental conditions. The agency is also planning a long term water management plan.
One of the members of the commission working to come up with a new state flag and seal has family ties to the original designer of the seal. Kate Beane has a doctorate in American studies and spent years as director of Native American Initiatives for the Minnesota Historical Society. The Star Tribune reports: "I spent a lot of years researching and documenting that history," Beane said. "It's been an interesting process to come to terms with that relationship." During his first posting at Fort Snelling in 1830, Seth Eastman married Stands Sacred, the daughter of a Dakota chief. They had one daughter together named Winona before he was reassigned, declaring the marriage over. Winona married a Dakota man and had five children with him, including Charles Eastman, who was Beane's grandmother's great-uncle. Years later, Seth Eastman returned to Fort Snelling with a new wife and family and became a celebrated documenter and painter of the land and Native American life in Minnesota. "That history is very complicated and troubling and painful, but at the same time there's this rich legacy of this painter who documented the land and helped us see the way this place looked before the cities were built," said Beane. "There's a lot to learn from that."
During a hearing in Washington Wednesday, Republican Rep. Pete Stauber had sharp questions for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg about the cost of electric vehicles and their reliability in cold weather, such as in his district in Northern Minnesota. Stauber also criticized the Biden Administration for blocking mining projects in Minnesota he says are vital for the transition to EVs. "It is hypocritical for this Administration to push EVs while blocking the domestic production of the critical minerals necessary for this technology,” Stauber said in a statement after the hearing. “Instead, they choose to rely on Chinese-run mines in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where child slave laborers dig these minerals out of the ground. If this Administration were actually serious about creating a cleaner energy future, then they wouldn’t constantly be blocking Minnesota’s miners from developing these resources under the best labor and environmental standards in the world.”
The White House on Wednesday unveiled a new climate jobs training program that it says could put 20,000 people to work in its first year on projects like restoring land, improving communities’ resilience to natural disasters and deploying clean energy. NPR reports the American Climate Corps is modeled after a program that put millions to work during the Great Depression. The White House said five states, including California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan and Washington, have already launched climate corps programs, and that five more, including Minnesota, would move forward with state-based climate corps that are funded through public-private partnerships. | 