Daily Digest: Insurance, mining and the police
Good morning and happy Tuesday. Confirmation hearings are set to begin today for some of President-elect Trump's appointees, and tonight President Obama gives his farewell address. Here's the Digest.
1. Gov. Mark Dayton's administration says a plan introduced by Republicans in the House and Senate for rebates for people facing spiking insurance premiums would be too complicated and expensive. Management and Budget commissioner Myron Frans said Monday that Dayton's plan to provide rebates to about 125,000 Minnesotans who buy insurance on the individual market would be cheaper and more efficient. After failing to reach an agreement on a special session, Republicans are planning to move quickly during the regular session on the rebates, which were a big election issue. (MPR News)
2. Most of the people attending a listening session Monday evening in Falcon Heights were highly critical of police, saying officers disproportionately target people of color for traffic stops. No one spoke in favor of policing the way it is now. The session was sponsored by the Justice Department after the St. Anthony Police Department asked for an outside assessment of policies and procedures following the incident where Officer Jeronimo Yanez shot and killed Philando Castile, 32, during a traffic stop along Larpenteur Avenue on July 6. (MPR News)
3. The U.S. Forest Service signed off on a 6,650 acre land swap needed for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine to move forward. The move will give PolyMet land on which it already has mineral rights. The Forest Service gets a similar amount of private land in the area in return. PolyMet still needs many state and federal permits before it can begin construction on the mine. The company expects drafts of those permits to be released later this year. (MPR News)
4. President-elect Trump appears poised to name his son-in-law Jared Kushner to be a senior White House adviser. Kushner is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka. An anti-nepotism law bars officials from appointing relatives to government positions, but some Trump aides contend the law does not apply to the White House. His lawyer says Kushner would step down as CEO of his family's real estate business if he took a White House position and would divest some of his assets in order to comply with federal ethics laws that apply to government employees. (AP Via MPR)
5. ExxonMobile did business through a European subsidiary with countries that were under U.S. sanctions as state sponsors of terrorism while Rex Tillerson was a top executive with the oil company. The countries were Iran, Syria and Sudan. Tillerson is Donald Trump's choice to be secretary of State. A Democratic research group found the connection in SEC filings. From this story: ExxonMobil told USA TODAY the transactions were legal because Infineum, a joint venture with Shell Corporation, was based in Europe and the transactions did not involve any U.S. employees. The filings, from 2006, show that the company had $53.2 million in sales to Iran, $600,000 in sales to Sudan and $1.1 million in sales to Syria during those three years. (USA Today)
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