Good morning, and happy Wednesday.
Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday he’s changing the focus of his search for a state director of cannabis management. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports: After a major misfire with his first appointment, Gov. Tim Walz shifted focus Tuesday to find a Minnesota marijuana market oversight official who has regulatory experience rather than coming from within the cannabis industry. Walz resumed his search for somebody to lead the new Office of Cannabis Management after initial appointee Erin DuPree resigned soon after she was announced. The DFL governor said his prior interest in having an insider as director was misplaced. “We’re going to hire a regulator in this,” Walz said after an event to highlight a new chemistry building at the University of Minnesota. “And I think that was probably the way the focus should have been in the beginning. I've learned that lesson now. And that's what we'll do.” DuPree faced scrutiny over her business past, including indications she advertised noncompliant THC products derived from hemp at a CBD store she ran and evidence of financial issues connected to other companies she started. DuPree has said she stepped down to avoid becoming a distraction, but she denied knowingly stocking unauthorized products. She said there were extenuating circumstances around the financial woes, but she hasn’t elaborated.
One of the candidates running for the Roseville school board this fall is a Holocaust denier.MPR’s Elizabeth Shockman reports Vaughn Klingenberg is one of seven people who have filed to run for one of three open seats in the Twin Cities suburban school district. He registered to run Aug. 14, according to a filing posted on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website. Klingenberg has written a book denying the genocide of 6 million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. On his website, he calls the Holocaust “a fraud.” Klingenberg did not return requests for comment, but the home address on his candidate filing is the same address listed for him on a site promoting his book. Roseville district leaders pushed back against Klingenberg’s stated beliefs. “Roseville Area Schools strongly rejects any language or stance that denies the truth of the Holocaust and its devastating impact not only Jewish people but our world. We stand for truth, human rights and human dignity,” Jenny Loeck, the district superintendent, said in a statement.
The U.S. government faces a shutdown Sunday if members of Congress can’t reach a spending agreement. But political infighting and the 2024 presidential election are complicating talks. MPR’s Cathy Wurzer talked to former Republican Rep. Vin Weber Tuesday about what might happen, and he said it might not end well for the GOP: “It could always be different this time, but all of our experience says that a shutdown benefits the president, for a very simple reason: The president speaks with one voice, he has the bully pulpit, and he can explain it to the country from his point of view, whereas Congress has the House and the Senate and the Republican leaders in the Democrat leaders and factions on the left and right. And they cannot explain their position, in simple terms,” Weber said. “So the president will simply say Republicans in Congress want to shut down the government, and that's a bad thing. And the Republican response will sound like babble because they have a dozen different things that they want.” And last night a bipartisan Senate plan for a short term budget extension moved forward, but it still has some steps to go.
In other DC news, Sen. Tina Smith said she has tested positive for COVID-19 and is staying in Minnesota, as talks continue in Washington to avoid a shutdown. Smith announced on X, formerly Twitter, that she had been feeling mild symptoms of the virus on Sunday and tested positive for COVID Tuesday. And Sen. Amy Klobuchar joined a number of other Democrats in calling for New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez to resign as he faces federal bribery charges. More than 20 Democratic senators, including New Jersey’s Cory Booker, are saying Menendez must resign. He has firmly rejected that idea.
Minnesota joined 17 other states and the Federal Trade Commission Tuesday in a lawsuit against Amazon, according to Attorney General Keith Ellison. NPR has more about what the lawsuit involves: The FTC, tasked with protecting U.S. consumers and market competition, argues that Amazon punishes sellers for offering lower prices elsewhere on the internet and pressures them into paying for Amazon's delivery network. "Amazon is a monopolist and it is exploiting its monopolies in ways that leave shoppers and sellers paying more for worse service," FTC Chair Lina Khan told reporters on Tuesday. "In a competitive world, a monopoly hiking prices and degrading service would create an opening for rivals and potential rivals to ... grow and compete," she said. "But Amazon's unlawful monopolistic strategy has closed off that possibility, and the public is paying dearly as a result." Amazon, in a statement, argued that the FTC's lawsuit "radically departed" from the agency's mission to protect consumers, going after business practices that, in fact, spurred competition and gave shoppers and sellers more and better options. "If the FTC gets its way," Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky wrote in a post, "the result would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers, and reduced options for small businesses—the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to do."
A judge ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House.The Associated Press reports Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing. Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York, and said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee the Trump Organization’s operations. Trump, in a series of statements, railed against the decision, calling it “un-American” and part of an ongoing plot to damage his campaign to return to the White House. | 