Good morning, and happy Tuesday.
The Minnesota House of Representatives voted 68-62 Monday for a bill that would offer legal protections to patients who travel to Minnesota for an abortion and the providers that treat them. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports that state leaders have said they are taking steps to offer those legal defenses now but DFL lawmakers at the Capitol said it was important to guarantee the protections in law. “The overturning of Roe v Wade has led to harmful laws attacking not only abortion rights, but also individual liberties and privacy more broadly,” the bill’s author Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, said. “This bill ensures that Minnesotans can do what is legal and exercise their rights in Minnesota without the threat of prosecution from other states.” If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the bill would prevent state courts or officials from complying with extraditions, arrests or subpoenas related to reproductive health care that a person receives in Minnesota. Minnesota would join seven other states that shield patients and providers against legal penalties in other states when it comes to accessing reproductive health care here. It would also allow a person facing an abortion-related case against them in another state to countersue for the costs, damages and attorney’s fees associated with defending the case. During floor debate, some Republicans argued that the bill staked out an extreme position and showed a lack of respect for the rule of law. “This is a dangerous bill that makes Minnesota an outlier,” Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, said. “This is a bill that is going to give Minnesota a black eye in many respects, and that’s sad.”
Another Minnesota legislator is sidelined with a health problem. Dana reports Rep. Deb Kiel announced Monday that she had a stroke on Friday and was hospitalized overnight in St. Paul. The Republican from Crookston said she experienced fatigue and dizziness while at the State Office Building, which led her to seek medical care. Kiel returned home and is now resting, she said. She was released from the hospital on Saturday. “I will have additional tests over the coming days and hope to return to St. Paul next week,” Kiel said in a statement. “In the meantime, my office is open for business and here to help with any constituent needs.”
Unlike some other states, a TikTok ban in Minnesota isn’t gaining any steam. But some proposed legislation here has drawn the attention of the social media platform’s lobbyists. MPR’s Brian Bakst has that story: TikTok, Inc. U.S. brought aboard a handful of lobbyists this month, joining other social media giants with a team to keep tabs on state legislation that could affect their industry. The TikTok lobbyists are all associated with a Twin Cities-based law firm and a former legislator is one of them. Lawmakers have introduced proposals that touch on content, guardrails and other aspects of omnipresent social media. One would prohibit those with more than 1 million accounts from using algorithms to steer specific content to people under 18. That bill has been dubbed the SOTA Kids ACT, short for Stop Online Targeting Against Kids Act. It has made it through a single House committee but none in the Senate. Another bill would set aside nearly $3 million for a digital well-being grant program aimed at getting young people to be more selective online. The grants would be routed through the LiveMore ScreenLess organization. It awaits a hearing. A third bill would establish new criminal penalties and civil recourse for people portrayed in lewd or manipulated images and videos that are actually fake.
Would tax rebates like the ones proposed by Gov. Tim Walz add to inflation? The Star Tribune looked into it: Walz and state lawmakers pushing for the tax rebates don't think so, saying the checks would be insignificant compared to the global and national forces that have been making goods and services more expensive throughout the last couple years. But it's a question that's been on the minds of some economists. One state on its own issuing rebate checks probably won't make much of a difference. But with many states cutting rebate checks in 2022 and more, like Minnesota, thinking about joining them this year, some experts say it could add up to have a more noticeable impact. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari has said it has given him pause as states in the region, including Minnesota, consider using a portion of their significant budget surpluses to distribute rebate checks to residents. "As a taxpayer, that sounds pretty good to me," he said earlier this month at an event in Sioux Falls, S.D. "But as a monetary policy maker, that sounds like more stimulus. And that's putting more money in people's pockets to go out and spend on airplane tickets and food and buying things."
I couldn’t help but notice in some of the coverage of the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq the role of the media in the run up to the war was largely ignored. Then I saw this piece in Foreign Affairs from the former Knight Ridder Washington bureau chief: The failed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq show what happens when top officials ignore their subordinates or assemble their own teams of analysts to confirm their biases — and when journalists become stenographers for them. Unfortunately, 20 years on, there is little evidence that the Washington press corps has learned this lesson. If anything, today’s bleak media environment has only made it harder to get the story right. And this: For those who wonder where Knight Ridder went: The McClatchy Co. bought Knight Ridder in 2006, filed for bankruptcy in 2020, and was purchased by the hedge fund Chatham Asset Management later that year. An archive of Knight Ridder Iraq stories is available — behind a paywall.
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