Good morning. Expect to hear a lot about the president’s Thursday visit to Minneapolis in your Digest this week. 1. Trump expected to highlight urban problems. In July, as he threatened widespread immigration raids, President Donald Trump took aim at Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and three other minority congresswomen by casting aspersions on the left-leaning urban districts they represent. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” Trump tweeted. On Thursday, Trump will bring one of his signature rallies to downtown Minneapolis, ground zero of Omar’s district, where the urban-rural divide underlying his attack will be on full display. Following an intensifying strategy of campaigning against big cities and the Democrats who lead them, Trump is expected to highlight many of the same problems he pointed to this summer when he portrayed Baltimore as a crime-ridden city where residents are “living in hell.” Depictions of urban ills also have been coming from top Republicans in Minnesota, mainly in reaction to a troubling spike in fatal shootings recently in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. Star Tribune
2. New federal ethanol rules coming. The Trump administration announced Friday it plans to implement new rules that will increase demand for ethanol, reversing a decline caused by exemptions given to oil refineries. The proposal follows months of complaints by Midwest farmers, politicians and the ethanol industry that the federal government’s granting of waivers to refiners had violated federal law and forced some ethanol plants to close. Roughly 40 percent of U.S. corn is used to produce ethanol, so declining demand for the fuel additive can depress prices for the grain. The issue carries extra political weight because the ethanol industry is concentrated in Iowa, Nebraska and other Midwest states, where farmers have been among President Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters. Associated Press
3. Needs assessments agonize those they were designed to help. Delores Flynn’s hands trembled as she pulled on a pair of sterile surgical gloves. She straddled the bulky frame of her son, Scott Semo, inserted a long plastic tube down his throat and deftly removed the excess fluid blocking his airways. Flynn and her husband, David, both 74, have performed this complicated choreography thousands of times since Scott, 48, suffered a massive brain hemorrhage in 2001 that left him unable to eat or move on his own. Yet on this spring afternoon in Roseville they had an audience. A Ramsey County employee monitored their every move, peppering them with questions. They had only a few hours to make the case that the family needed help from the county to care for Scott in their home. “The stress is unbearable,” she said, wiping away tears after the exam. “I have no idea how other families deal with it.” Each year, tens of thousands of Minnesotans with disabilities and their families undergo this agonizing, high-stakes ritual, known as a comprehensive needs assessment. A stranger with a laptop comes to their home and asks hundreds of questions about the medical needs and care of their loved ones. These computer-based assessments, devised by state officials nearly a decade ago, were supposed to make it easier for families to apply for a coveted form of Medicaid benefits known as a waiver. State officials also promised that the high-tech assessments would bring objectivity and rigor to a system that distributes more than $3 billion to Minnesota families every year. Instead, records obtained by the Star Tribune show it has been a costly failure, one that families say has introduced turmoil and uncertainty into the lives of the people it was supposed to help. Star Tribune 4. Contingency funds headed to state agencies. Minnesota budget officials have formally released $63 million to three state programs, allocations that were contingent on the state having enough in reserves by October 1. In a letter to legislative leaders Thursday, Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans announced that the money would be released for school safety grants; expanding the Metro Mobility program for the elderly and disabled; and to refill the disaster relief account. All three were the last items funded when Gov. Tim Walz and House and Senate leaders reached various agreements to adopt the 2019-21 state budget and adjourn the session with a one-day special session. Under the agreement, only if state tax collections exceeded the forecast by at least $63 million between February and the end of June would the money be released from state accounts. They did. MinnPost
5. Voters can be a major force, but a ‘force majeure? ’ In the event of civil war, a labor strike, an earthquake or electrical storm, the city of St. Paul could put its residential trash collection contract on hold — at least for a time. In fact, the residential contract signed by the city and 11 private trash hauling companies in November 2017 spells out a number of scenarios in which either side would “not be held responsible for … acts … beyond the party’s reasonable control.” The so-called “force majeure” — French for “greater force” — clause addresses what is sometimes referred to as acts of God. These are events that could delay, but not necessarily cancel, the five-year contract mid-stream without contract penalties for either side. The question is would the outcome of St. Paul’s Nov. 5 ballot referendum count? Pioneer Press | 