Good morning and happy Tuesday. Here’s the Digest.
1. Minnesota lawmakers admit they’re nervous about setting a new state budget at a time when the flow of money from Washington is in doubt.Minnesota gets more than $11.5 billion dollars a year from the federal government to spend on things like health care, road construction, policing and education. No one expects all of that to disappear, but state leaders are bracing for slimmer allowances as President Trump and a Republican Congress seek to trim spending and rework the Affordable Care Act. (MPR News)
2. A$25 million gift to the University of Minnesota Law School will help fund the Law School's Center for New Americans, which has filed lawsuits on behalf of immigrant families and sent attorneys to the airport in the wake of President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration. The Minneapolis-based Robina Foundation, founded by former Honeywell president and board chairman James Binger, announced the award Monday afternoon. It is the single largest gift in the law school's 128-year history. (Star Tribune)
3.The Wright County Attorney’s office has brought felony charges against two former employees of Otsego-based Minnesota Medical Solutions, saying they smuggled concentrated marijuana oils out of state to aid their parent company. According to the complaint filed Monday, Ronald Owens, who worked as security director of Minnesota Medical Solutions, and Laura Bultman, the company’s former chief medical officer, conspired in December 2015 to transport 5.6 kilograms of concentrated marijuana oils from its Otsego, Minn. facility to New York because parent company Vireo Health was struggling to meet a production deadline for facilities licensed in New York state. (MPR News)
4. In a brief filed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Justice Department lawyers write that President Trump’s executive order on immigration is “a lawful exercise of the president’s authority over the entry of aliens into the United States and the admission of refugees.”The court is set to hear oral arguments by phone on Tuesday in the next legal test of whether the president’s decision to ban travel by people from seven Muslim-majority countries and halt refugee resettlement in the U.S. will be upheld. (NPR)
5.President Trump said Monday that the news media were playing down the terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State. He told American military personnel that journalists were reluctant to report on the militant group's attacks in Europe and "have their reasons" for failing to cover them. Later Monday night, the White House released a list of what it said were 78 attacks from September 2014 to December 2016 that were carried out or inspired by the Islamic State. The White House said that "most have not received the media attention they deserved." The list included the major attacks in Paris; Brussels; San Bernardino, Calif.; and Orlando, Fla., that dominated the news for weeks. ( New York Times)
