Daily Digest: Sunday sales advance

Good morning and welcome to Tuesday. Here's the Digest.

1. The Minnesota House passed the bill allowing Sunday liquor store sales by a bipartisan vote Monday. The bill passed 85-45. It's a major shift for the perennial issue that had failed year after year at the Capitol, often by wide margins. This was the first time the Minnesota House voted on Sunday liquor sales as a stand-alone bill. Previous efforts were pushed unsuccessfully as last-minute amendments to larger bills on liquor policy. A House amendment failed last session by 14 votes. The ban dates back to the end of prohibition. The debate now moves to the Senate. (MPR News)

2. Lawmakers moved to clamp down on the Metropolitan Council Monday, with a variety of measures that would restructure the body, hem in its authority and turn back one of its signature efforts, building the Southwest Light Rail Transit line. House members spent much of the afternoon on a bill authored by Rep. Tony Albright, R-Prior Lake, that would expand the council from 17 to 27 members. (MPR News)

3. It's not just Sunday sales. People who want to change some of Minnesota’s other longstanding alcohol regulations are gearing up for a broader push. From allowing brewpubs at the airport and permitting craft beer shipments into the state to letting breweries in Minnesota sell nearly unlimited growlers, dozens of bills introduced this session are hoping to make Minnesota much friendlier to its booming booze industry. (MinnPost)

4. The 50,000 or so people who make up Minnesota’s Russian-speaking community are reacting to tensions between Russia and the Trump administration with a mix of concern, curiosity and skepticism. Many believe that Americans’ worries over Russian influence on the White House are understandable but exaggerated. They fear the barrage of negative headlines is reigniting a fear of Russia in America and worsening anti-American sentiment in Russia. But many don’t trust Putin either. Nor do they trust reports from the media, having lived through the daily propaganda of an authoritarian state. (Star Tribune)

5. President Trump chose Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to be his new national security adviser. McMaster, 54, is a three-star Army general known for being a military intellectual. A West Point graduate who earned a doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina, he wrote his dissertation based on newly declassified documents from the Vietnam War. The dissertation became a 1997 book — Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam. (NPR)

Political Coverage Powered by You

Your gift today creates a more connected Minnesota. MPR News is your trusted resource for election coverage, reporting and breaking news. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.