Good morning. It's mid-week Capitol View time. Gov. Tim Walz has announced $100 million in COVID-19 housing aid. Kirsti Marohn reports that it'll help homeowners and renters: Funding for the program will come from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. Walz said he’s concerned about people not being able to afford their rent or other housing payments due on Sept. 1, after a $600-per-week federal boost to unemployment insurance expires. 'One of those things that is about safety, it’s about health, it’s about well-being is stable housing,' Walz said. 'It was under threat prior to COVID-19. It certainly is now.'" Replacing the Third Precinct police station in south Minneapolis will cost an estimated $10 million, Star Tribune's Miguel Otárola and Jessie Van Berkel report : "according to figures showing the damage to public infrastructure during the riots after the police killing of George Floyd. The figures, shared Monday by Hennepin County, are the first valuations of the damage to the police station, which was looted and torched by protesters after officers abandoned their post May 28.” Gov. Walz plans on appealing FEMA's rejection of his request for federal disaster aid. If the federal government doesn't step up, the cost is expected to fall to the state.
A major gun safety group will spend at least $1 million to try flipping the Minnesota Senate to DFL control and keep the House blue, too. Via the AP: "The Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund has targeted the state Senate because Republicans hold just a three-vote majority there. But GOP senators have blocked legislation supported by the Democratic-controlled House and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz for universal background checks on gun sales and a 'red flag law' that would allow courts to temporarily confiscate guns from people judged to be an imminent threat to themselves or others. The fund and an affiliated group, Moms Demand Action, are focusing on 12 Senate districts now held by Republicans, mostly in the Twin Cities suburbs, Rochester and St. Cloud. They're also targeting five GOP-held House districts while trying to defend a dozen legislative seats held by supporters. Their first ad attacks GOP lawmakers for refusing to consider the two gun control bills."
The Trump administration has rescinded its rule on foreign students. Via AP: "Facing eight federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the pandemic .The decision was announced at the start of a hearing in a federal lawsuit in Boston brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said federal immigration authorities agreed to pull the July 6 directive and 'return to the status quo.'"
Joe Biden has a $2 trillion climate plan. NPR reports: Biden's climate initiative calls to chart the United States on 'an irreversible path' to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. To do that, the plan would aim to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. It would also upgrade 4 million buildings and weatherize 2 million homes over four years to increase energy efficiency. And the proposal, Biden's campaign said, would seek to shift major cities toward public transportation and ' create millions of good, union jobs rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure.'"
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