Daily Digest for December 8, 2020 Posted at 7:45 a.m. by Michael Olson |
Good morning. Happy Safe Harbor Day, America.
Other than Wisconsin, every state appears to have met a deadline in federal law that essentially means Congress has to accept the electoral votes that will be cast next week and sent to the Capitol for counting on Jan. 6. Those votes will elect Joe Biden as the country's next president.
It's called a safe harbor provision because it's a kind of insurance policy by which a state can lock in its electoral votes by finishing up certification of the results and any state court legal challenges by a congressionally imposed deadline, which this year is Tuesday.
Penalties rare for ignoring COVID-19 precautions Minnesota's penalty for refusing to wear a face covering, when required, is a $100 fine. Businesses face much steeper penalties for skirting COVID-19 safety measures. There have been a few high-profile interventions; the shutdown of a rodeo in northern Minnesota in September and, more recently, the court-ordered shutdown of a fitness center outside of Rochester that defied the latest executive order to close.
Two months ago, MPR News requested detailed information from the Minnesota departments of Health, Public Safety and Labor and Industry about non-compliance complaints and actions taken. There has, so far, been no response.
Gov. Tim Walz, who’s been making the mandate decisions, is also frustrated with non-compliance but is not intending to clamp down.
What changes minds about masks?In this small town, it was a child's death
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