Daily Digest: Vaping, trash and bonding

Good morning, and happy Thursday. Here's the Digest.

1. Vaping now linked to three Minnesota deaths. Two more Minnesotans have died from complications stemming from severe lung injuries associated with vaping, the Minnesota Health Department said Wednesday. The latest deaths involved people older than 50 who died in September. The first patient “vaped a number of products including illegal THC. The second patient had severe underlying conditions and is believed to have vaped unknown products in addition to nicotine,” the agency said in a statement. While investigators remain focused on illegal products as a primary concern, “health officials cannot guarantee the safety of any vaping products,” the state Health Department said Wednesday. Describing it as an “outbreak,” Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said researchers were working to understand the nature of the lung injuries tied to vaping and what could be done to stop them. Her agency urged people to avoid vaping anything containing illegal cannabis products, “as almost all of those Minnesotans who developed severe lung injuries had a history of frequent vaping of illegal cannabis.” MPR News

2. Supreme Court says St. Paul trash contract will stand after vote. Even if a majority of St. Paul voters vote “No” in a public referendum on trash collection on Nov. 5, the five-year contract between the city and a consortium of trash haulers could proceed largely intact. So said the Minnesota Supreme Court in a 23-page opinion issued Wednesday that upends key arguments made by backers of the “Vote No” cause. The legal ruling comes weeks after early voting had already commenced in the ballot referendum, city council and school board elections, and throws the latest curve in a contentious citywide debate over trash collection for 1-to-4 unit residential buildings. Trash services “will continue uninterrupted in the city of St. Paul,” said St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, addressing reporters outside his office Wednesday afternoon. following the filing of the Supreme Court decision. “The referendum this fall is no longer a question about whether or not our coordinated collection system will continue, but about how we will pay for it. If voters repeal the ordinance, the $27.1 million annual cost of the contract will shift from individual ratepayers to all property tax payers in the city.” Pioneer Press

3. Walz launches bonding tour. Gov. Tim Walz will spend the next two months visiting communities that have requested state government help on public construction projects. The tour will help the DFL governor craft a bonding bill proposal that is due in January. House and Senate committees regularly conduct similar tours, but governors typically have not. During a news conference Wednesday at the University of Minnesota, Walz said construction needs remain high after lawmakers failed to pass a large borrowing bill last session. “The situation is still good where interest rates are low,” Walz said. “The capacity to be able to do these projects is there, and we want to go out and tell Minnesotans what their bonding tax dollars do, what we get as an impact for it and how we start to tackle this backlog that’s been there.” Walz said he expects to recommend at least $1.27 billion in bonding, which was the size of the plan he introduced last session. He said the amount of bonding requests this year, from both state agencies and local governments, topped $5.3 billion. “That does not even scratch the surface of what the needs are,” he said. MPR News

4. Craig defends decision to back impeachment inquiry. About 200 people attended a town hall in Eagan Monday night — DFL U.S. Rep. Angie Craig’s first since supporting the inquiry — and only four of those who lined up to publicly address Craig mentioned impeachment. Three expressed support for the House probe. But Apple Valley resident Nancy Fuller, who attended President Donald Trump’s Minneapolis rally last week, told Craig said she should focus on other things. Craig replied that she spends 99% of her time on a handful of policy issues: health care and prescription drug costs, helping family farmers, infrastructure investments in the district, special education funding and supporting technical education. It’s a record she hopes will cross the impeachment divide in the Second Congressional District — which includes the south metro suburbs and many small towns and agricultural communities farther south. She expects that the swing district will produce voters in 2020 who will cast ballots for both her and Trump. “This isn’t about party. It’s not about partisanship. This is about abuse of power,” she said at the town hall. “It’s about right and wrong, and at the end of the day we have to get to the bottom of the facts here.” That comment irked Karen Foster, a Trump supporter from Eagan. She said with Craig’s decision to back the inquiry, “She’s really at risk.” Star Tribune