Good morning and welcome to the week. A record fifth special session this year gavels in Monday at Minnesota’s Capitol, representing the last chance for lawmakers to approve a public construction package and make tax and budget changes before the election. MPR News' Brian Bakst reports:
The Legislature’s return is a requirement of extending the emergency authority Gov. Tim Walz has used to manage the coronavirus pandemic. Back in March, Walz declared a state of emergency and he’s renewed it every month since, prompting the monthly special sessions.
The Senate will probably cast another vote to rebuke the Walz power, with maybe a couple of Democrats helping out. But House Democrats say a motion to overturn the Walz authority is virtually certain to fail.
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett faces Senate despite virus concerns. Confirmation hearings for Barrett are set to begin Monday. "The Senate is charging ahead Monday morning on President Donald Trump's pick to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and cement a conservative majority on the court before Election Day," the Associated Press reports.
"A Catholic, she says she believes in the 'power of prayer.' Barrett's religious views and past leadership role in a Catholic faith community pose a challenge for Democrats as they try to probe her judicial approach to abortion, gay marriage and other social issues without veering into inappropriate questions of her faith."
Trump's doctor says there's no 'actively replicating virus' — so does that mean he COVID-free?
"We try to avoid that question," Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center of Health Security told NPR . "It becomes much harder to explain to people, well why is the test positive when you're saying he's not contagious? It's because, that far out, it's not viable virus."
Adalja said he "wouldn't characterize the president as still having coronavirus. "He's recovered from COVID-19," Adalja says. There may be "remnants of coronaviral debris" present, but "that does not correlate with, or confer, infectiousness or contagiousness to other people."
In other local news, a federal judge has upheld a state court agreement that extends Minnesota's deadline for counting absentee ballots by seven days.
Find guides to absentee voting, candidates and our full Election 2020 coverage here.
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