Good morning, and welcome to Friday of a short holiday week. Here's the Digest. 1. Following Iowa's lead, lawmakers are set to try again to legalize sports betting. It sounds like the start of a joke--What does Iowa have that Minnesota doesn't? For some state lawmakers the answer is legal sports betting, and it's no joke. They say after a failed attempt earlier this year they'll try again next year to add Minnesota to a growing number of states that allow people to legally bet on sports. Legalized sports betting began in Iowa last month. Minnesotans can place bets at a casino just a few miles over the state line. A dozen other states also allow sports betting, after a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year opened the door for it. A Minnesota Senate committee advanced a bill earlier this year to allow sports betting at tribal casinos and the state’s two-horse racing tracks. It would have also allowed people to bet by linking their phones to authorized sites. But the bill went no further, and a version in the House never got a hearing. The bill's sponsor, Sen.Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, said he will try again next year. “Iowa is doing it, for God’s sake,” he said. “That should be embarrassment enough for us to start doing it up here.” Chamberlain, who chairs the Senate tax committee, estimated last session that Minnesota wagering could top $2 billion a year. His bill would have established a 6.75 percent tax on the net revenue. He said he plans to meet next month with fellow legislators and other sports betting supporters to discuss strategy for next session. One big roadblock--the state's Indian tribes still oppose the idea. (MPR News) 2. Lawsuit alleges Edina school second grader was strip searched. The mother of a former student at an Edina elementary school is suing the school district, alleging that school staff violated district policy when they subjected her second-grade student to a “body cavity ‘strip’ search.” The lawsuit, filed last week in Hennepin County District Court, involves an incident that took place during the 2017-18 school year. It says staff members at Countryside Elementary School searched the student, then 8 years old, without notifying the parents and without proper cause. The lawsuit says district policy requires parental notification for such searches, which are only allowed in extreme circumstances, involving “imminent danger” or an “emergency health situation.” In this case, the lawsuit says, school staff members performed the search to determine whether the child had defecated on the floor of a school restroom. Marshall Tanick, the attorney representing the student’s mother, said the child’s parents didn’t learn of the incident until months later, after they’d noticed behavior changes in the child, who eventually told them about the search. Tanick said the incident prompted substantial emotional distress, adding that the child has been seeing a therapist and no longer attends Countryside Elementary. In a statement, Edina Public Schools spokeswoman Mary Woitte said district officials couldn’t comment in detail on the allegations, citing the pending lawsuit and privacy restrictions involving the former student. But she said the district “vehemently denies the allegations in this lawsuit and will defend itself from these inaccurate and misleading claims.” (Star Tribune) 3. Limmer open to hearing to review gun laws. A key state senator says he wants to hold a hearing to discuss gun policy, but it's not the hearing gun control advocates have pressed him for. Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, on Thursday said he hopes to hold an informational meeting to bring lawmakers and reform advocates up to speed on existing Minnesota gun laws. Limmer chairs the Senate Public Safety and Judiciary Committee and is a critical gatekeeper in deciding which bills get a hearing and which don't. And he, along with Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa, has been skeptical of the prospects of two gun-control measures that passed in the Minnesota House but didn't get a hearing in the Senate. The move to review existing gun laws comes after a series of deadly shootings across the country this summer and after Gov. Tim Walz and Democrats in the Legislature called on Senate Republicans to take up the bills. “I think the public has been kind of whipped into a froth and for some reason, they think we have no gun laws,” Limmer told Forum News Service. “I think it’s important to have some type of hearing where we’re reviewing the laws that we already have." No date has been set for the meeting, Limmer said. He has not taken off the table the possibility of holding a hearing on proposals that would require universal background checks at the time of transfer of a firearm or allow law enforcement to remove a person’s firearms if they are believed to pose a danger to themselves or others. However, he said he remains skeptical about how effective those bills would be in deterring mass shootings. (Forum News Service)
4. Retailers start to feel tariffs. The major stock indices soared Thursday on word that the U.S. and China would hold high-level trade talks next month. Despite investors’ optimism, the Trump administration’s trade war with China has already hit Minnesota retailers and consumers. A new round of tariffs took effect this week, and the prospect of further hikes has some Minnesota retailers on edge. As of Sunday, a 15 percent charge began applying to $110 billion of mostly consumer goods imported from China. Trump has also announced that existing tariffs on another group of $250 billion dollars of goods will go up to 30 percent next month. Many consumer products contain components or originate from abroad — often China. This far into the trade war with China, retailers' only remaining option is to raise prices, said Bruce Nustad, president of the Minnesota Retailers Association. "Retailers have worked hard over the past few months amid other tariffs to try to absorb those price increases that are a result from tariffs,” he said. “It’s getting to the point where things are stretched fairly thin and it’ll be more difficult to absorb those tariffs.” Nustad says whether they sell appliances, shoes or clothes, retailers — big and small — are feeling the effects. Tariffs on electronics are set to begin in December. ( MPR News)
5. Target wants suppliers to swallow tariffs . The latest round of tariffs on Chinese-made goods will raise the cost of millions of everyday consumer items. But Target Corp. does not want to pass any increase along to shoppers. Instead, it is telling suppliers to eat the costs. In a pointed memo to hundreds of national brand vendors who import goods from China, Target’s chief merchandising officer Mark Tritton made clear that the Minneapolis-based retail chain “will not accept any new cost increases” related to the new levies that went into effect on Sunday. “Our expectation is that you will develop the appropriate contingency plans so that we don’t have to pass price increases along to our guests,” he wrote. The Aug. 27 memo, first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting, highlights the ripple effect of the Trump administration’s ongoing trade war with China and the potential impact on the wide swaths of the U.S. and global economies. Target and other large importers of Chinese goods — including Walmart, Richfield-based Best Buy, Dollar Tree and the footwear industry — have voiced concerns the burden the tariffs would place on consumers, whose spending provides the lion’s share of fuel to the American economy. (Star Tribune) |
