Good morning, and happy Thursday. Here’s the Digest.
1. DHS wasn't alone in contract problems. Nearly every state agency in Minnesota “violated” state contract and spending laws over the past year, according to data released Wednesday. The “violations” total nearly 1,800 and include all but one state agency. But wait. This has been going on for at least a decade, the data show, with agencies from the Department of Human Services to the Department of Employment and Economic Development self-reporting hundreds of violations annually under laws designed to safeguard taxpayer funds from being misspent. On Wednesday, a panel of lawmakers struggled to understand the matter, which emanates from the deep weeds of state accounting procedures and is filled with nuance and the trappings of government bureaucracy. An important point: Several public officials have said that no public funds were misspent and no fraud was committed in connection with this issue. Instead, they have described “technical violations” that were actually examples of the system working, although they acknowledge the number is high. Pioneer Press
2. Supreme Court hears arguments over what to call that lake in Minneapolis. Justices on Minnesota’s Supreme Court and the attorneys appearing before them Wednesday seldom used the words “Lake Calhoun” or “Bde Maka Ska” as the court weighed a case that could decide the name of the largest Minneapolis lake. Instead, the seven justices delved into the statutory power of the DNR commissioner to make a 2018 name change despite a law that might restrict it. And they challenged a lawyer for the Save Lake Calhoun group that opposed the switch to Bde Maka Ska on its ability to press its case. Arguing to preserve the rebrand, state Solicitor General Liz Kramer contended that the Legislature long ago vested authority in the Department of Natural Resources to name or rename lakes, including “when there are offensive and derogatory names.” The change came years after some local residents first pushed to strip the honor to John C. Calhoun, a 19th century southern politician who backed slavery and laws deemed hostile to Native Americans.Justice G. Barry Anderson sounded uncomfortable with putting so much power in the hands of a single state official. “It seems to me we are very close to royal prerogative land here where the commissioner gets to decide whatever the commissioner wants to decide and there is no practical check,” he said. MPR News
3. List of impaired waters grows. Minnesota’s list of water bodies that don’t meet state pollution standards has grown by another 581 lakes, rivers and streams. The new additions to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s biennial impaired waters list include a lower stretch of the St. Croix River, long considered one of the Upper Midwest’s most pristine waterways. The MPCA said roughly 30 percent of the state’s lakes and 50 percent of its streams are listed as impaired because they have excessive levels of nutrients, don’t support aquatic life such as fish and bugs or aren’t safe for swimming and other recreation due to bacteria. The MPCA must submit an updated list of the state’s impaired waters to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency every two years. Over the past decade, the list has been steadily growing, as researchers examine the quality of more waterways across the state each year. This year, the agency hit a milestone: It’s now monitored all 80 of the state’s major watersheds. That baseline data will be used to look for trends or signs of progress as researchers start the second round of assessments, said Miranda Nichols, who coordinates the impaired waters list for the MPCA. MPR News
4. Distracted driving increases despite hands-free law. Traffic enforcers around the state are seeing a resurgence in distracted driving now that more than 100 days have passed since tighter legal restrictions heightened awareness about enforcement, according to new data provided Wednesday to the Star Tribune. As illustration, Eagan police say one violator was a man driving a 40-ton tanker truck to haul hazardous materials along a heavily traveled road while distracted by his cellphone for at least a quarter mile. He was ticketed before his “downright scary” actions caused serious harm, said the officer who pulled him over. “It seems like there is an uptick” of distracted driving incidents since Minnesota’s hands-free law took effect Aug. 1 amid an aggressive law enforcement public education campaign, Eagan traffic unit officer Luke Nelson said Tuesday. Nelson’s experience-based intuition is validated in the latest numbers from the state Department of Public Safety (DPS). In the first month of hands-free law enforcement, there were 2,317 tickets issued statewide by troopers, police officers and deputies. In September, that total soared by nearly 18 percent to 2,729. Star Tribune
5. Freelance makeup artists sue the state over new regulations. Some freelance makeup artists says their work is being threatened under a new interpretation of state law that’s already put some freelancers out of business. Last December, the Minnesota Board of Cosmetology, a state board that handles licensing and salon inspections, issued a bulletin that said anyone getting paid to do freelance hair and makeup for special events would need the same license as a manager of a salon, which requires thousands of hours of training in cosmetology. The freelancers would also need a special events permit, according to the board. Since then, the board has sent cease-and-desist letters to makeup freelancers who don’t comply and fined others thousands of dollars. "Some of our alumni were, what the board said, running an illegal salon,” said Debbie Carlson, who opened Faces Etc in 2007. “Our students, we tell them, you're self employed, you're not a store front, you're not a salon, you can't have people come to you. You go to them.” Carlson and a group of other freelance hair and makeup artists have filed a complaint against the board in hopes of stopping the new regulations. The Minnesota Board of Cosmetology did not return a request for comment about the lawsuit. MPR News
6. Lawsuit would require hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin voters to register again. More than 234,000 voters in Wisconsin would be made unable to cast their ballot unless they register again before the next election under a lawsuit being filed Wednesday that liberals fear could dampen turnout among Democrats in the 2020 presidential race. The lawsuit could affect how many voters are able to cast ballots in both the April presidential primary and November 2020 general election in Wisconsin, a key swing state that both sides are targeting. President Donald Trump narrowly won the state by less than 23,000 votes in 2016. The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty alleges that the Wisconsin Elections Commission broke the law when it decided to wait up to two years to deactivate voters who may have moved. State law requires voters to respond within 30 days of receiving the October mailing or be deactivated, the lawsuit alleges. The commission last month rejected a complaint from the group, also known as WILL, and said it was confident the commission was complying with the law. A spokesman for the commission, which is made up of an equal number of Republican and Democratic appointees, did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment Wednesday. The commission in October mailed notices to about 234,000 voters identified as potentially having moved. They had been flagged based on a review of documents from sources such as the Post Office and Division of Motor Vehicles that indicated the person may have moved. Voters who do not respond to the postcard asking them to confirm their address will be flagged as movers. But instead of being made unable to vote 30 days after the mailing, they will have up to two years to confirm their addresses, based on a June vote by the commission. The Associated Press | 