Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday.
In a video posted to Facebook Tuesday Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen did not back down from comparing COVID-19 mask mandates to the rise of Nazi Germany. “So when I make a comparison that says that I saw government policies intruding on American freedoms incrementally, one piece at a time, and compare that to what happened in the 1930s, I think it's a legitimate comparison,” Jensen said in the video. “It may not strike your fancy -- that's fine. But this is how I think, and you don't get to be my thought police person." Jensen called it a “point of clarification” and said he was passionate in his support of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. It was his first public response to reports about an event in April where he was captured on video making the remarks. The website TC Jewfolk covered the story this week and included this quote: “Such comparisons are extremely wrong for all the reasons we’ve stated in the past,” said Ethan Roberts, the director of government affairs for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, which has made at least two different statements on the issue. “We invite Dr. Jensen to meet with the JCRC to discuss why such comparisons are so damaging.”
The abortion debate in the governor’s race took another turn Tuesday when DFL Gov. Tim Walz responded to a tweet from Jensen with a video of Jensen’s own words. Jensen had tweeted, “Abortion isn't on the ballot and the governor knows that. He & his big-money friends are running a dirty attack because he can't run on his record.” Jensen appeared to be referring to the TV ad funded by the Alliance for a Better Minnesota that features a clip of an MPR News interview where Jensen responds to a question saying he would “try to ban abortion.” Jensen has shifted his position since then and says now that any ben would allow several exemptions. But Walz tweeted a video of Jensen responding to a report of his naming Matt Birk as his running mate. "We're going to get something done when we're governor,” Jensen says, “We're going to ban abortions. That's really not news.”
And Walz and other state officials offered renewed assurances Tuesday that the State Fair will be safe, MPR’s Tim Nelson reported. "The good news is it’s going to be a safe fair. It's going to be a great fair," said Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, standing at the fair's transit entrance. It's where hundreds of thousands of fairgoers will walk in, passing through metal detectors for the second year.
DFL Attorney General Keith Ellison issued a “consumer alert” Tuesday about crisis pregnancy centers, saying they often do not offer the services they claim to offer, and that the information about abortion and contraception they offer may be inaccurate or misleading. “The Minnesota constitution guarantees the right to safe and legal abortion. Many crisis pregnancy centers claim to offer comprehensive healthcare, but their purpose is to prevent pregnant people from accessing that right — which sometimes they accomplish by misleading, misinforming, or deceiving people,” Ellison said in a press release. “All Minnesotans — including pregnant people — deserve to get accurate, medically sound information about their options from providers they can trust.” The leader of the anti-abortion group MCCL said Ellison’s was displaying his pro-abortion bias. "Keith Ellison is acting like an advocate for the abortion industry, not for Minnesota women,” Said MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach. “Pregnancy care centers provide practical help and alternatives to abortion so that women don't feel like abortion is the only option."
A Washington-based group is suing over Minneapolis’s new teacher contract, alleging that it discriminates by providing protections to racial minorities.The Star Tribune has the story: The lawsuit, filed Monday by the conservative Judicial Watch, names interim Superintendent Rochelle Cox, the district and the Minneapolis board of education as defendants. Deborah Jane Clapp, identified as a Minneapolis taxpayer, is the plaintiff. The agreement that ended the three-week teachers strike in March includes contract language that upends last-in, first-out hiring practices as a way to retain "members of populations underrepresented among licensed teachers." Those protections go into effect this spring and aim to help the district diversify its teaching staff to more closely match the demographics of the students it serves. The lawsuit calls for a ruling to declare such "racial and ethnic preference" provisions — and the use of taxpayer dollars to implement them — illegal.
A hearing is set for today in the case of a Republican state senator whose candidacy is being challenged on residency grounds. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports Sen. Torrey Westrom has supplied a court with documentation of his home purchase in western Minnesota, a rundown of his activities there and a photo of a new state-issued ID card. He says he moved there in May within a couple days of a deadline to establish residency six months before November’s election. In a petition to remove him from the ballot, Westrom’s detractors contend he is claiming it as a primary residence while spending more time elsewhere. The Supreme Court designated a special referee to review the case and submit findings before the end of August. Westrom is the second Republican lawmaker to face scrutiny from a move after new political boundaries were established. Sen. Gene Dornink kept his place on the ballot in southern Minnesota. | 