Good morning, and welcome to Thursday. It's a busy day. Michael Bloomberg will bring his presidential campaign to Minneapolis; Jason Lewis heads to Bemidji; and Ilhan Omar launches her reelection bid. While we wait for all that to play out, here’s the Digest.
1. Abortion debate still going 47 years after decision. Abortion opponents gathered in large numbers outside the Minnesota Capitol Wednesday for the annual March for Life. The event, sponsored by Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, marks the anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. The event is also aimed at calling on lawmakers to help stop abortions. Dozens of Republican state legislators were in attendance, and 8th District Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber was a featured speaker. Stauber told the crowd that he is leading the fight to stop abortions. “Since arriving at the House of Representatives over a year ago, I have made it a priority to back all pro-life bills.” Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka also spoke. He said he and other Republican state lawmakers are battling in the legislature to prevent abortions in the state. “These are the legislators that stand in the gap for life. We’re pro-life proud.” Supporters of abortion rights also marked the anniversary. The Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota Action Fun hosted a get-out-the vote effort aimed at electing lawmakers that are aligned with its position. MPR News
2. Poll finds the abortion issue is nuanced. Three-quarters of Americans say they want to keep in place the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade, that made abortion legal in the United States, but a strong majority would like to see restrictions on abortion rights, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll. What the survey found is a great deal of complexity — and sometimes contradiction among Americans — that goes well beyond the talking points of the loudest voices in the debate. In fact, there's a high level of dissatisfaction with abortion policy overall. Almost two-thirds of people said they were either somewhat or very dissatisfied, including 66% of those who self-identify as "pro-life" and 62% of those who self-identify as "pro-choice." "What it speaks to is the fact that the debate is dominated by the extreme positions on both sides," said Barbara Carvalho, director of the Marist Poll, which conducted the survey. "People do see the issue as very complicated, very complex. Their positions don't fall along one side or the other. ... The debate is about the extremes, and that's not where the public is." The poll comes as several states have pushed to limit abortions in hopes of getting the Supreme Court to reconsider the issue. Abortion-rights opponents hope the newly conservative court will either overturn Roe or effectively gut it by upholding severe restrictions. The survey finds that while most Americans favor limiting abortion, they don't want it to be illegal and don't want to go as far as states like Alabama, for example, which would ban it completely except if the woman's life is endangered or health is at risk. NPR
3. Supreme Court upholds Minneapolis minimum wage. The state's highest court upheld Minneapolis' $15 minimum wage, handing a victory to labor activists and city leaders in a three-year legal fight over cities' authority to regulate pay. Graco Inc., an international manufacturing supplies company based in Minneapolis, sued in 2017 to try to stop the city's minimum wage hike from taking effect. The company has argued that the city's policy would create an "unworkable patchwork of employee compensation standards" and that the state's minimum wage — currently set at $10 per hour for large businesses — should instead prevail. The case revolved around the question of whether the Minnesota Fair Labor Standards Act prevents cities from setting their own, higher minimum wage rates than the state standards. Because employers would comply with the lower, state rate while paying the higher, city-mandated rate, there is no conflict, the court ruled. "It is clear that the MFLSA establishes... a minimum-wage floor for employers across the state," Chief Justice Lorie Gildea wrote in an opinion issued Wednesday. "But that floor leaves room for municipalities to regulate above." The Supreme Court's ruling affirms earlier rulings by both a Hennepin County District Judge and the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Star Tribune
4. State promises changes to disability services. Top officials with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) said Wednesday that they are taking steps to modernize the state’s costly and antiquated system for disbursing billions of dollars in assistance to Minnesotans with physical and developmental disabilities. In legislative testimony Wednesday morning, the agency’s new director of disability services said the DHS has begun soliciting bids from the private sector to enhance its automated system for evaluating applicants; each year that system determines whether tens of thousands of people with disabilities qualify for Medicaid benefits that would enable them to live more independently. The changes will be designed to improve the stability of the system, known as MnChoices, which has been racked by cost overruns and computer breakdowns since its inception in 2014. Natasha Merz, the new director of disability services, said the state also is bolstering its training of the county employees who conduct the evaluations, known as assessors, to make the interviewing process more conversational and less like an interrogation. The state is seeking to reduce the stress on applicants and families by reducing the number of questions in the in-home evaluations, officials said. Star Tribune
5. Minneapolis parks settle with teenagers after officer pulls gun. The families of four Somali teenagers detained by Minneapolis park police in 2018 are splitting a $160,000 settlement after lodging a human rights complaint over the officers’ handling of the incident. Bystanders recorded part of the incident, showing the boys being handcuffed and one officer drawing a weapon. Police were responding to what turned out to be a bogus 911 call claiming there were kids with weapons threatening people in the park near Minnehaha Falls. “The biggest thing in this case is that the police officer drew a gun while they were handcuffed,” Jaylani Hussein, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told reporters Wednesday as he announced the settlement. The video of the encounter went viral on Facebook and was viewed millions of times, sparking complaints by critics who said officers overreacted. The incident was also recorded on squad and body camera video. MPR News | 