Good morning. You email a presidential campaign once and then you’re suddenly receiving 10 press releases a day from them. Who can be making that much news?
First lady Dr. Jill Biden will be in Duluth Thursday. The first lady is speaking at a campaign event to launch Seniors for Biden-Harris in Minnesota . Her trip is intended to energize and engage older voters in a state that both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump see as a necessary win to secure the presidency in November. The campaign's outreach efforts to older voters will blend rallies and phone banks with social events, bingo nights and pickleball games. The stop is part of a larger trip that includes Wisconsin, California, Nevada and Arizona. The first lady's visit comes about a month after Trump attended the Minnesota GOP convention in St. Paul.
Star Tribune publisher Steve Grove remained in contact with the Walz administration through his first six months at the paper, according to messages obtained by the Minnesota Reformer. The Reformer’s Madison McVan reports that Grove, the former commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), offered advice about the DEED commissioner selection and gave compliments to Gov. Tim Walz’s office after he departed from the administration. Messages obtained by the Reformer also reveal that Grove wanted Walz to know he didn’t approve of a “troubling” editorial cartoon the paper ran during his first week as the Star Tribune’s publisher.
This really could have been an email. Dana Ferguson reports in an ethics meeting that only lasted about 15 minutes, the Minnesota Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct opted to postpone a hearing intended to delve into a complaint against DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell. Mitchell was supposed to have a court hearing in her criminal case this week, but a jury granted a motion to postpone the trial until next month. She is scheduled for an omnibus hearing on July 1. Without much new information on which to base their decisions, the panel voted unanimously to hold off on assessing the case until July 25, although members left the option open to come back sooner if a significant advance was made in the case.
It’s a busy week for the legislative auditor. The Office of the Legislative Auditor is releasing a report this morning that will explore to what extent the Minnesota Department of Education met federal requirements for monitoring Feeding Our Future’s participation in two federal nutrition programs. It will also look at whether MDE could have done anything to prevent the alleged fraud. The audit comes just a day after the FBI raided the home of a second Feeding our Future defendant amid an investigation into the attempted bribery of a juror.
The White House isn’t ruling out a potential commutation for Hunter Biden after his conviction. Hunter Biden was found guilty yesterday on three felony charges related to the purchase of a firearm in 2018. Biden definitively ruled out pardoning his son last week. “He was very clear, very upfront, obviously very definitive,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday regarding the president’s remarks about pardoning his son. But on a commutation, “I just don’t have anything beyond that.” A pardon is an expression of forgiveness of a criminal offense that restores some rights a person loses upon conviction. A commutation reduces or lessens a sentence or punishment resulting from a conviction — it can be done by a state governor or the president.
Presiden Biden nominated Laura Provinzino to serve as Minnesota’s next federal judge. Estelle Timar-Wilcox writes Provinzino is a St. Cloud native and a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota. There, she prosecuted violent crimes and human trafficking cases, including the 2023 sex trafficking case against former GOP donor Anton Lazzaro. The U.S. Senate will vote on Provinzino’s nomination. If confirmed, she will replace Wilhemina Wright, who retired earlier this year. | 