Good morning. Here’s your Digest.
1. Sanders supporters pack rally. As he looks to recapture some of his 2016 magic in Minnesota, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders is showcasing his support from a politician barely on the political scene back then. U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar joined Sanders on stage Sunday night for a campaign rally at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, before a raucous crowd of several thousand supporters. Sanders highlighted his working relationship with Omar and their shared liberal politics including the Green New Deal. The self-described Democratic socialist continued his message of social inclusion, justice and economic equality. “What we are building is a multi-racial, multi-generational, working-class movement,” Sanders told the crowd. “We are tired of the exploitation of working people of this country.” MPR News 2. Klobuchar in Iowa. As Sen. Amy Klobuchar takes her Democratic presidential campaign back to New Hampshire this week, the candidate and her supporters are claiming momentum in polling and fundraising. Observers say Klobuchar still has a long way to climb to reach the top tier of 2020 Democratic candidates — but she's well-positioned to capitalize if any of the front-runners trip up. “If you’re watching a horse race, she’s been one of the horses a couple of lengths behind on the outside, just waiting for the front-runners to slow down or stumble in some way," said Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford. Klobuchar spent the weekend in Iowa, where she promoted her latest endorsement — well-known Iowa Democrat and former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa Roxanne Conlin. Klobuchar said she has more current and former Iowa lawmakers endorsing her than any other Democratic presidential candidate. MPR News 3. Just a vote about trash collection? That’s garbage. Two days before St. Paul voters say yes or no to organized trash collection, both sides have found something to agree on: This bruising fight goes way beyond garbage. “I think it is emblematic of a last gasp of a St. Paul that doesn’t exist anymore,” said Javier Morillo, chairman of a Yes For St. Paul committee, about opposition to citywide trash pickup. “In St. Paul, we are used to not needing fancy things, that the way things have always been is fine. This debate has come to crystallize that.” Tom Goldstein, a former mayoral candidate and spokesman for the Vote No campaign, says people are enraged by the City Council’s decision to block a public vote, despite 6,000 signatures on a petition, until being ordered to do so by the Minnesota Supreme Court. “It has become a referendum on the mayor’s leadership and the City Council’s leadership, because they basically said we’re going to fight you on this all the way to the Supreme Court,” Goldstein said. Star Tribune 4. Dibble claims to be victim of revenge porn. Minnesota state Sen. Scott Dibble disclosed Friday that graphic images of him were sent to his colleagues by a person with whom he had an intimate, virtual relationship, an act he considers to be revenge porn. Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, said for months he has been the victim of “coercion and harassment from a former friend.” “The fact of the matter is this person was threatening to do this to me for a long, long time. I’ve been coerced and threatened and harassed by him since we had that brief relationship, and I have been attempting to end it for a number of months,” Dibble said in an interview with MPR News. “Quite honestly, he committed a crime. This is revenge porn. This is sharing of explicit images that were understood to be private,” he added. “He sent them out to quite a few individuals with the explicit intent to harm me, to embarrass me and harm my life.” Dibble, who is married, said the relationship he characterized as brief had been consensual and didn’t involve a subordinate of any kind. In an email, Dibble informed fellow senators of the situation after the man distributed photos, videos and text messages to some of his colleagues in both political parties. MPR News 5. Plan to ship water from Minnesota may be all washed up. A plan by a Lakeville railroad company to pump 500 million gallons groundwater a year from a southeast Minnesota aquifer and ship it by train to the arid southwestern United States is dead in the water, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource said Friday. Commissioner Sarah Strommen said in a statement that the DNR sees “virtually no scenario” where the agency would grant a water appropriation permit for the project, which was proposed last month by Empire Building Investments, the real estate arm of Lakeville-based Progressive Rail. The company had not yet submitted the permit, but had applied for a preliminary well assessment last month that proposed building two wells on about 6 acres the railroad owns in rural Randolph in southern Dakota County. The two wells would be drilled to pump up to 500 million gallons of water a year, or about 3,000 gallons per minute, within the Cannon River watershed, according to the company’s application. It requested to use the Mount Simon Aquifer, the deepest aquifer in Dakota County. After a review of the proposed project, Strommen said, “it does not appear it could meet applicable statutory requirements, including significant restrictions on use of the Mt. Simon aquifer.” Pioneer Press
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