Good morning. It’s a deadline week, so pace yourselves at the Capitol.
Are the bills you’re tracking going places or sputtering? This week will have a bearing on the Capitol sorting. As MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports , it’s one of those grind weeks in the Legislature. Her story leads with this stat: Minnesota lawmakers are on course to surpass 10,000 bills submitted since this two-year run of the Legislature began, setting a record for the most proposals offered up in that cycle.
Several formerly-tribal land transfer bills have been introduced but seem unlikely to go the distance this year. The most prominent relate to the White Earth Nation and Red Lake Nation, and they appear to be closer to the beginning of the conversation than the end. MPR’s Matthew Holding Eagle III catches us up on both of those.
Time to get those college basketball tournament brackets ready. I’m sure you’re all filling them out for fun. Sports betting, as you all know, isn’t legal yet in Minnesota, at least as a business enterprise. On Politics Friday, we had a robust discussion of legislation under consideration — again — at the Capitol to change that. If you missed it, you can find that here.
It’s a question some of you have posed to us throughout our reporting on Minnesota’s significant change to drug policy: Why is cannabis used in some instances while it’s marijuana in others? MPR’s Estelle Timar-Wilcox explains the semantic distinctions. You’ll notice that Minnesota laws and the regulatory structure go with cannabis, but marijuana has had some negative connotations associated with it. Of course, there are many other slang terms people use when talking about the drug.
Finally, the state’s online auctions aren’t exactly the place for Antiques Roadshow-quality finds, but Brian likes to keep tabs on them nonetheless. Over the years they’ve been the place to scoop up old highway snowplows, Zambonis, air hockey tables, ambulances, power tools and much more. Planes are always fun to track — there’s one Cessna on the auction block now. An auction that closes today is for original art by a Minneapolis artist by the name of Bill Slats. The lot description says Slats is “an African American artist with deep roots in South Minneapolis. His unique style of art incorporates his African roots and root of Indigenous people. For this, he was very well known in art world of Minneapolis and beyond.” Needless to say, Brian spent much time searching the internet trying to find out more about this artist but came up empty. If you know more, please share. The auction for his pieces closes this morning and the top bid is in the $400s as of this writing. | 