Daily Digest: Mini-session, college athletes, 1st District race

Good morning. Here's your Wednesday Digest.

1. Legislature hits the road. Legislators travel from all corners of the state to do their jobs at the Minnesota Capitol. But only some of their constituents ever make the trip. DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman said Minnesotans should have easy access to the Legislature, and a mini session is one way to provide it. “We believe that the Legislature should be in all parts of the state. And the most important part of our job is listening and learning. There’s no replacement for being there. So, being in different places than St. Paul is important.” From 1987 to 1997, the DFL-controlled House held 14 mini-sessions all over the state. The last one was in Willmar. They fell by the wayside when Republicans won the majority and were all but forgotten during a stretch of budget deficits. Longtime Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, was around for those earlier mini-sessions, and he led the charge to bring them back. The last time Winona played host was 1989. Pelowski said the agenda for this mini-session, like those of the past, is focused on important regional issues. “Almost all of the committees of the House will have some part in the mini-session, and this will be an opportunity for local individuals who won’t usually have the time to go to the Capitol to come and tell us a couple of things. One is how did we perform last session, and then what are the needs that they would like to see us address in the upcoming session?” MPR News
2. Walz considers paying college athletes. Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday said he is “certainly willing to look at” legislation that would allow college athletes in Minnesota to hire agents and make money off endorsements, just as a newly signed law in California would. “This is personal opinion for me, that I’ve always been fairly uncomfortable with what goes into that,” Walz said of NCAA rules that prohibit athletes from hiring agents and earning endorsements. “I know people say, ‘They’ve been given their education,’ but there’s a lot of their images. I played video games with the images of college athletes that are marketed and made.” Walz’s comments came one day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law scheduled to take effect in 2023, allowing college athletes to profit from their names and likenesses with shoe companies and other advertisers. Star Tribune

4. Minnesota a redistricting battleground. The 2010 election is not a good memory for Minnesota DFLers. The party was 9,000 votes away from losing complete control of state government, and, in turn, the redrawing of legislative and congressional district lines.It wasn’t just Minnesota. That year, the GOP flipped six governorships and 21 state legislative chambers. While there was a lot going on in 2010 — the economy was just starting to emerge from the Great Recession, Barack Obama was facing his first midterm, and the Tea Party movement had become a force — a Republican strategy to focus on statehouses in advance of redistricting also played a significant role. Now, 10 years later, national Republicans want to do it again. And Democrats across the country are vowing not be caught unawares. Both parties have created specific fundraising and research organizations to focus on battleground state legislative races, especially when there is a chance to flip or retain a chamber. And both have put Minnesota on their shortlists of opportunities. MinnPost

5. Rochester enters DACA fight. Rochester is joining an effort to oppose the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. “Overall, I think trying to be good to humans,” Rochester City Council Member Mark Bilderback said. “Trying to be nice to the human race is what we are all about, so I have no problem supporting this.” DACA is a federal immigration policy created in 2012 with an executive order by President Barack Obama. It gives undocumented immigrants brought illegally into the U.S. as children the opportunity to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation. In September 2017, President Donald Trump’s administration ended the program through an executive action but it has been challenged in court, with nine cases opposing the move to end the program. The Rochester City Council held a special work-session vote on the issue Monday, ahead of today’s deadline to join a Los Angeles effort to oppose the change in the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to hear the matter later this month. Rochester Post Bulletin