Daily Digest: Dayton collapses during speech

Good morning and welcome to Tuesday. State of the State speeches are usually fairly predictable. That was not the case last night in St. Paul. Let's go to the Digest

1. Gov. Mark Dayton was about 45 minutes into his speech in front of a joint session of the Legislature in the House chambers when he paused for a long drink of water, seemed to waver slightly and then collapsed. The state's constitutional officers and several legislators rushed to help him. After a scary minute or two he sat up, drank more water, and was eventually helped off the rostrum and into the retiring room. His son Eric tweeted a short time later that he was with his father, and the governor was doing great. (MPR News)

2. Dayton was just reaching part of his speech where he was going to propose letting all Minnesotans buy into MinnesotaCare as a way to ease problems with the individual insurance market. “This public option could offer better benefits than many policies, presently on commercial markets; more options for people to keep their doctors and clinics; and less expensive coverage than what is available today,” Dayton was expected to say, according to an advance text of his remarks. “The public option will also guarantee that all Minnesotans have at least one good option available on the individual market, wherever they live.” (Pioneer Press)

3. President Trump signed three executive orders Monday. The first followed through on a campaign promise to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The other orders put a hiring freeze on federal workers, except for defense-related positions and blocked federal funding for international family planning charities unless they agreed not to 'promote' abortion by, among other actions, providing patients with information about the procedure or referrals to providers who perform it. (NPR)

4.  Many Minnesota businesses saw the TPP as a way to boost exports to Asian markets. Other state groups, though, applauded Trump's move. The end of the Trans-Pacific Partnership for the U.S. was abrupt but came as no surprise. During the presidential campaign last fall, both major party candidates said they opposed the plan. (MPR News)

5. In his first meeting with Congressional Republican leaders President Trump on Monday falsely claimed that millions of unauthorized immigrants robbed him of a popular vote majority in the election. He made that claim once before on Twitter and it has been debunked. (New York Times)

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