Good morning. Here’s your Digest:
1. Posthumous pardon possible in infamous Duluth rape case. A black man convicted of rape in Duluth in 1920 could receive a posthumous pardon from the state almost a century after the night rumors of the crime fueled community outrage that led to the lynching of three men. The Minnesota Board of Pardons on Monday, Dec. 16, voted unanimously to take up a request to wipe clean the record of Max Mason, a former traveling worker with the John Robinson Circus who was accused of raping a white woman in Duluth despite slim evidence against him. It's the first time in the board's history it will consider a posthumous pardon. Mason, a Decatur, Ala., native, was among six black circus workers accused of sexually assaulting Irene Tusken, a white woman living in Duluth, and holding her companion James Sullivan at gunpoint on June 14, 1920. The allegation sparked the darkest day in Duluth's history as more than a thousand gathered in the streets to pull three of the men from their jail cells, beat them and hung them from a lamppost at the corner of First Street and Second Avenue East. A memorial for Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie now marks the spot. Duluth News Tribune
2. Republican challenge to a Trump-only primary ballot. A Republican voter and a candidate for president are challenging the lack of options on the party’s March primary ballot in Minnesota. A petition filed late last week asks the Minnesota Supreme Court to order the inclusion of Republican candidates beyond President Donald Trump. Candidate Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente and James Bernard Martin Jr., a Minnesota voter supporting De La Fuente, brought the case. They said it was wrong and potentially unconstitutional to omit other candidates. “The purpose of a major political party primary election is, in essence, to give voters a choice among competitor candidates within the party,” their petition to the court said. “Without identified competitors, there is no reason for a primary election.” Their attorney, Erick Kaardal, said the primary differs from the party-driven caucus process used in the past because of who is footing the bill for the election. “This is nationally embarrassing that we have a taxpayer funded presidential primary with just one candidate on the ballot,” Kaardal said Monday. “It’s absurd — legally absurd, culturally absurd. It makes the state look really stupid.” MPR News
3. Peterson wooed by GOP, but will stick with Democrats. Congressman Collin Peterson says he's leaning against voting in favor of impeachment for President Trump, but he has yet to make a final decision. Peterson says he doesn't believe Democrats have presented a solid enough case for impeachment and with little chance of the Republican-controlled senate going along, the process is only dividing the country further. The Democrat, who has yet to decide whether he'll run for another term, also says he's been approached about becoming a Republican, but told party leadership that he will stay with the Democratic party. "I'm staying in the party, in spite of some of the stuff that's going on that I don't agree with, I am not going switch parties at this stage of my career," he told KFGO News and Views host Joel Heitkamp. "There have been overtures by the highest levels of the Republican party in the last couple weeks to ask if I would consider it and I told them no," he added. KFGO Radio
4. A push to count Native Americans. When community organizer Elizabeth Day asked a group of Native Americans in the Twin Cities what they wanted to know about the 2020 census, she got a tough response. “The overall answer was, ‘Nothing. We don't want to hear anything from you. We are not going to listen to anybody who we don't trust,’” recalled Day, who is a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. As the program manager for the Native American Community Development Institute, she is working to push through a deep suspicion of the census process. Native Americans have historically been one of the most undercounted groups in the United States, and community leaders say that mistrust may be one of the reasons why. “People who are still alive know what it is to have a knock on the door and the federal government come in and remove their brothers, their sisters, themselves from their household,” Day said, referring to an era of boarding schools in which Native American children were taken from their families to force their assimilation. “So it's completely understandable that people aren't willing to engage.” MPR News
5. Minnesota, other midwestern states on Trump campaign’s radar experiencing sluggish economy. The American economy has found its footing after a summer recession scare. But much of the Midwest is still stumbling. President Trump campaigned in 2016 on a pledge to restore jobs — manufacturing jobs, specifically — to long-struggling Midwestern communities, and he has made the economy a centerpiece of his re-election campaign. But job growth has slowed sharply this year in Michigan, Pennsylvania and other states that were critical to Mr. Trump’s victory in 2016, as well as in states like Minnesota that he narrowly lost. Hiring in the region has remained sluggish even as it has picked up this fall in much of the rest of the country. Other economic measures show similar weakness. The states are struggling in part because they depend heavily on manufacturing and agriculture, two sectors that have been hit especially hard by Mr. Trump’s trade war. Tariffs have driven up prices for imported parts and materials, and pushed down demand for American goods abroad. New York Times | 