Good morning. Friday seems like it came early this week, and I’m not complaining.
That push for a special session on changing the law banning some physical restraints on students hit a major roadblock Thursday when a large number of DFL legislators said they want the law to stay as is. MPR’s Brian Bakst and Dana Ferguson report: The bloc of House and Senate members who signed a lengthy statement — 42 percent of the seats the party holds in the Legislature — represents the first coordinated resistance to a proposed rollback of the new law. The statement could complicate attempts to bring the Legislature into a special session, a prospect that DFL legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Walz haven’t ruled out. Thirty-four House members and 10 senators signed the statement; most but not all are from safely held Democratic districts. The lawmakers who signed onto the statement say a repeal would deprive students of safety measures that are in place in other settings. “Anyone advocating for the repeal of this law is working to take us backwards. We do not support a special session to repeal this law,” the group wrote. “Repealing this law would make our schools less safe and remove critical measures that are necessary to protect students in their learning environment.”
Supporters are starting a push to pass a law next year to allow terminally ill people in Minnesota to end their lives. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports: Under the bill, a person would have to get a sign off from two health care providers verifying that they are terminally ill and have a prognosis of six months or less to live. They would also need to be found to be mentally capable of deciding they want to take the medication and not being coerced to take it. There could then be a separate mental health assessment if either provider has doubts about a patient’s capacity to opt in. If a patient meets all the criteria, a physician could provide them the medication and the patient can choose to take it, ending their life. 10 other states, along with Washington D.C. have enacted similar measures, and advocates hope Minnesota will become the 11th. The bill didn’t get a hearing this year as lawmakers focused on writing a two-year budget and approving a stack of policies that DFLers had been waiting years to get across the finish line. But the bill’s authors say they think 2024 will be the year to pass the proposal.
A DFL Party official was badly beaten in front of her children as a group of young men stole her car, she said on Facebook. The Star Tribune has more: Shivanthi Sathanandan's children wailed as four masked carjackers beat the Minnesota DFL leader in the driveway of her Minneapolis home. Guns, kicks and fists rained down her. Neighbors who tried to intervene were held back at gunpoint. Sathanandan, the second vice chair of the party, shared a bloodied picture of herself while describing the experience in a social media post Wednesday. Writing that she suffered a broken leg, lacerations to her head and bruises, she said that she is filled with rage. "I'm now part of the statistics," she wrote. "I wasn't silent when I fought these men to save my life and my babies, and I won't be silent now. We need to get illegal guns off of our streets, catch these young people who are running wild creating chaos across our city and HOLD THEM IN CUSTODY AND PROSECUTE THEM. PERIOD." Minneapolis police are still searching for those suspects, who abandoned Sathanandan's vehicle hours after the assault. If they're caught and convicted under state prosecution, new state sentencing guidelines enacted last month could result in more prison time than before.
All Minnesotans, regardless of their immigration status, can now schedule appointments for written tests to get a driver's license. MPR’s Nina Moini reports the state will begin accepting applications after Oct. 1. However, state officials suggest making appointments as soon as possible, as they expect more than 80,000 people will be eligible. The law passed earlier this year eliminates the need to show proof of legal presence in the United States to get a standard Minnesota Class D driver's license, instruction permit or standard identification card, said Pong Xiong, director of the Department of Public Safety Driver and Vehicle Services division. “Here at DVS, we understand how important it is to have a driver's license and being able to access all of Minnesota's resources from employment to medical care to just enjoying the natural resources Minnesota has to offer,” Xiong said on Thursday as he urged Minnesotans to plan ahead.
The Minneapolis City Council failed Thursday to override a veto by Mayor Jacob Frey of an ordinance that would have required higher pay and better protections for rideshare drivers in the city. MPR’s Jon Collins reports the council needed nine votes to override the mayor’s veto, and the effort ultimately fell short by four votes. The ordinance would have required companies like Uber and Lyft to pay drivers at higher rates, more than doubling the pay rate. It also would have created a city-funded drivers’ center, created a process for drivers to appeal their deactivations by the services and banned the use of gift cards for rides, which drivers said are used to commit crimes against them. The ordinance was strongly opposed by rideshare companies, who threatened to cut services in the city if it passed.
And finally this from MPR’s Tim Nelson about a family friendship involving former Gov. Al Quie, who will be laid to rest tomorrow: One day in 1956, Al Quie showed up at the Hernandez family’s duplex on Larpenteur Avenue. He was a dairy farmer and state senator from near Nerstrand — where he was also on the “call committee” of Grace Lutheran Church, which traced its roots to his own family’s arrival in Minnesota. Quie was looking for an interim pastor to serve the community and congregation that had been founded by Norwegian immigrants. “He loved committees and legislation, no matter if it was civic or ecclesiastic,” recalled his son, Joel Quie, the now-retired longtime pastor of Prairie Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie. Miriam Hernandez remembered the visit. “I don’t know how many other people might have been interviewed or looked at, but Al Quie seemed to be intent on having my dad,” she said. And Quie got him: Mishael Hernandez, his wife Virginia, and their children moved into the church parsonage in Nerstrand and into the congregation. The Quie family, descendants of Norwegian farmers, and the Hernandezes, children of Mexican migrants from the farm fields of California, became friends and fellows in faith. | 