Daily Digest: Sex offender program saved on appeal
Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. It looks to be a fairly quiet day at the Minnesota Capitol. That was not the case yesterday as the session began. But lawmakers were upstaged a bit by the courts, and that's where we'll start the Digest:
1. A U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed a ruling that had declared Minnesota's sex offender confinement program unconstitutional, putting the matter back in the hands of a lower court and easing pressure on lawmakers to make major changes. Tuesday's ruling overturned an order by federal Judge Donovan Frank that threatened to upend the program. At issue is the confinement of about 700 people who have been determined likely to commit crimes. (MPR News)
2. Gov. Mark Dayton wants state lawmakers to act within a week to pass a rebate for the more than 100,000 people facing big increases in individual market health insurance premiums. Republicans in the House and Senate say they want to move rapidly, but they also want to make bigger changes so that the price spikes don't happen again. At least on the first day of the session, leaders said they wanted to work together and put some of their earlier arguments behind them. (MPR News)
3. One DFL member of the Minnesota House is not pleased with his caucus's new leader or its past one. Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, declined to support Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, in a ceremonial vote for Speaker of the House. From this piece: “I think that the person that we had leading the DFL caucus is a reflection of policies that have failed, and failed both in the 2014 and now the 2016 elections,” Pelowski said, referring to former leader Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis. “I had hoped for a new direction, and we did not get it.” (Pioneer Press)
4. Officials at U.S. Bank Stadium say the protesters who unfurled a banner from a ridge truss during the Vikings game Sunday hid their climbing equipment under winter clothing and "properly entered the stadium as ticketed guests through our gates," with "nothing visible in their possession" that violated stadium policies. They say the climbers concealed nylon rope, carabiners, and a lightweight banner under their clothes and scaled "regulation standard physical barriers" to get on the ridge truss. The incident raised questions about security at the stadium. (Star Tribune)
5. In Washington, House Republicans backed off their move to take power away from the Office of Congressional Ethics. The initial move was opposed by House GOP leaders and prompted a wave of public opposition. President-elect Trump also weighed in on Twitter against the move. Democrats and some conservative groups piled on the opposition. The move still could come back at some point though. (NPR)
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