Daily Digest for July 2, 2020 Posted at 6:45 a.m. by Cody Nelson
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Good morning. Thursday and your Capitol View are ready for you.
Partisan lines emerge in hearing related to the killing of George Floyd. Brian Bakst reports: "Dueling legislative hearings Wednesday focused on events surrounding the police killing of George Floyd, with senators drilling down on destructive disturbances in the days after and the House examining police accountability bills that remain hung up. Senate Republican leaders set the tone of their hearing with an 18-minute video of news clippings describing a chaotic string of nights after Floyd’s killing on Memorial Day."
For DFLers, that's the wrong discussion. Scott Dibble, a DFL senator from Minneapolis, criticized Republicans for not spending as much time on delving into policing policy and behavior as they were intending to devote to the events sparked by Floyd’s killing. “And I hope we’re not here on a curated, nonobjective, one-sided effort to create a political narrative that assigns blame and has as its focus the elections in November,” he said.
Gov. Tim Walz is pleased with the new insulin law, but not with Big Pharma. More from Brian: "Gov. Tim Walz and other supporters of a new law requiring drug makers to deliver emergency doses of insulin at little or no cost to Minnesotans ripped the pharmaceutical industry Wednesday for trying to upend the law hours before it took effect. In a lawsuit filed late Tuesday, the industry’s trade group asked a federal court to declare the measure unconstitutional and prevent state officials from enforcing it. The move could entangle the law in the courts for months or years. At a news conference initially called to celebrate the law’s first day, a clearly frustrated Walz blasted the pharmaceutical giants for the suit and its timing. He and other advocates said they were told repeatedly that the industry would not sue over the compromise, bipartisan legislation that eventually became law."
The Russian bounty-Trump saga continues... AP on the latest: "President Trump said Wednesday that reports of Russia paying bounties to Taliban-linked fighters to kill U.S. troops and coalition forces in Afghanistan is a hoax, even as his administration continues to brief members of Congress on the matter. ...The New York Times first reported that U.S. intelligence officials determined months ago that Russia had secretly offered bounties for successful attacks on coalition forces — including U.S. troops — in Afghanistan last year and that officials provided a written briefing of the finding to Trump in late February. Trump said Sunday that the intelligence community told him he wasn't briefed about these allegations because it did not find the reports credible."
Mount Rushmore fireworks revival to feature Trump but no social distancing NPR's David Welna reports, "A decade after being banned amid concerns about wildfires and groundwater pollution, and despite protests by Native Americans and recommendations from public health officials to avoid public gatherings, fireworks will once again be exploding over Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of western South Dakota on Friday, anticipating July 4." |
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