Reporting on State Politics and Government
Reporting on State Politics and Government
Capitol View Digest reporting on state and politics and government
| Daily Digest for April 2, 2020
| | Posted at 6:45 a.m. by Cody Nelson |
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Good morning and happy Thursday. Here's the Digest. For daily updates, subscribe to the Minnesota Today podcast. Minnesota first-responders want workers compensation for COVID-19 exposure. Some labor groups are pushing to shift the burden of proof to employers , which failed to make the recent coronavirus response legislation. “This should have been our highest priority. We need to take care of those that are willing to take care of us. We all know this is going to get worse before it gets better. We all know these folks are going to be exposed day in and day out,” Sen. Erik Simonson, DFL-Duluth, said last week.
The military raised coronavirus concerns years ago. "Despite President Trump’s repeated assertions that the Covid-19 epidemic was 'unforeseen' and 'came out of nowhere,' the Pentagon was well aware of not just the threat of a novel influenza, but even anticipated the consequent scarcity of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds, according to a 2017 Pentagon plan," reports The Nation.
Feds are investigating the senator who sold off stocks before COVID-19 hit hard in the U.S. Via NPR: "Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr sold off a large amount of stocks before the coronavirus market crash, and now the Justice Department is looking into his statements around this time period."
A tiny bright spot from the pandemic: We'll avoid the rush to file income taxes this year. Brian Bakst writes: "Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS and the state’s Revenue Department gave people until July to file 2019 tax forms and make payments. Even with the extra time, tax preparers and state officials are urging filers to press ahead, so they can release their anticipated refund, plan for a summer payment or head off a state cash crunch."
Congress has yet to figure out how to keep voters safe from the coronavirus. As MinnPost's Gabe Schneider reports, voting rights advocates say it'll take $2 billion to keep voting both safe and effective for November's election. Such a proposal never made it to the final relief bill, Schneider writes: "It was cut in favor of a $400 million to expand vote by mail, expand early voting and online registration." | |
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