Good Tuesday morning. Here's the Digest. 1. Lawmakers told MNLARS problems in rearview mirror. State lawmakers expressed optimism Monday that a massive overhaul of Minnesota's troubled vehicle licensing and registration computer system is off to good start. "This is a new beginning," said DFL Rep. Frank Hornstein, co-chair of a legislative oversight committee created to monitor the project. "I think we are turning a page and hopefully the problems we had for over a decade are behind us." Lawmakers and state officials agreed earlier this year to scrap the current Minnesota Licensing and Registration System (MNLARS) and spend $34 million to create a new system in its place. On Monday, members of the new joint legislative panel, known as the Driver and Vehicle Systems Oversight Committee, got their first official update on that work. Officials testifying at Monday's hearing said the project remains on schedule to meet the target rollout dates for the two-phase switch to a new Vehicle Title and Registration System (VTRS). MNLARS remains stable, thanks to a successful recent technological fix, and the current wait time for processing registration requests is down to "within 30 days," according to Department of Public Safety Deputy Commissioner Cassandra O'Hern. (Star Tribune) 2. Line 3 divides presidential candidates. A divisive fight over the future of a crude-oil pipeline across Minnesota is pinning presidential candidates between environmentalists and trade unions in a 2020 battleground state, testing their campaign promises to ease away from fossil fuels. Progressive candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have condemned a Canadian company’s plan to replace its old and deteriorating Line 3 pipeline, which carries Canadian crude across the forests and wetlands of northern Minnesota and into northern Wisconsin. They’ve sided with environmental and tribal groups that have been trying to stop the project for years, arguing that the oil should stay in the ground. Other candidates — including home-state Sen. Amy Klobuchar and front-runner Joe Biden — have remained largely silent, mindful that such projects are viewed as job creators for some of the working-class voters they may need to win the state next year. The fight illustrates a hard reality behind the Democratic candidates’ rhetoric on climate change. For months, Democrats vying for the White House have sounded strikingly progressive on the issue, endorsing ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions and putting forward sweeping proposals for investing in the green jobs of the future. But the debate often glosses over the harder, more immediate choices between union jobs and phasing out fossil fuels. Those fights often divide Democrats and may create an opening for President Donald Trump. ( Associated Press) 3. How opioids are complicating foster care. In 2015, the Minnesota Legislature passed laws to strengthen the state’s foster care system, emphasizing intervention and prevention efforts that might allow children from troubled homes to keep living with their parents. Similarly, early last year, President Donald Trump signed a federal law that also emphasizes the prevention of family separation through mental health care, parenting programs and substance abuse treatment for parents. Public officials who work in foster care say it’s the right path to take – though one that many are still trying to navigate. “We have gotten the message that the answer (to fewer foster care cases) is prevention,” said Nikki Farago, the assistant commissioner of Children and Family Services at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. “But once a child is placed into foster care, that is a deep-end system. When there is lots of trauma, reunification (of child and parents) is not a simple endeavor.”The movement to reduce out-of-home placements, or limit the time children live in foster homes, has been complicated in many parts of Minnesota by another issue that is sending more children into the system: an epidemic of opioid and methamphetamine abuse. (MinnPost) 4. Gun debate splits Minnesota delegation. U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson does not trust his fellow Democrats to get it right on guns. “If I hear the words ‘common-sense gun legislation’ one more time, I’ll throw up,” said western Minnesota’s long-serving congressman. “This is poll-tested nonsense.” Peterson is a serious outlier among national Democratic politicians, as most of the party’s presidential candidates, governors and members of Congress increasingly clamor for tougher gun laws. Congress returned to Washington on Monday after a six-week recess that saw two mass shootings in Texas and one in Ohio. With 39 people dead and more injured, the gun debate on Capitol Hill looks poised to flare once again. Minnesota’s 10-member congressional delegation splits predictably along party lines over guns, with Peterson the notable exception. (Star Tribune)
5. Small donors add up to big bucks. Macey Meyer never considered herself the type to donate to a presidential campaign. Then she watched the first Democratic presidential primary debates. The 26-year-old restaurant server from Maple Grove felt energized as she listened to nearly two dozen candidates tangle over a range of policies and visions. She opened a browser window and contributed $3 to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign. In the minutes that followed, she clicked “Donate” 10 more times — to 10 different candidates. “I think it’s important to vote with your dollar,” Meyer said. “Even though 3 to 5 bucks isn’t much, if a lot of people had that mind-set, it is a lot. It adds up.” Meyer is right about the math. As the money chase increasingly adapts to technology, millions of small-dollar donors like her poured more than $200 million into Democratic presidential primary campaigns using the online donation platform ActBlue in the first half of the year, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Often the money was doled out in increments equal to less than the cost of a cup of coffee. In Minnesota, about 55,000 people gave a combined $4.7 million-plus to Democratic presidential hopefuls via ActBlue in the first half of the year, a Star Tribune analysis of Federal Election Commission filings found. That represents a big spike from this point in the 2016 election cycle, when just 18,000 state residents had made an ActBlue contribution to a Democratic presidential campaign. ( Star Tribune) | 