Daily Digest: Serious allegations in St. Paul
Good morning and welcome to Monday, the start of a new work week and a new month. Here's the Digest.
1. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is looking into allegations that St. Paul mayoral candidate Dai Thao, a city council member, pressured a lobbyist for “resources” before a council vote in February. Bribery is a felony. Thao has denied wrongdoing, but he fired campaign manager Angela Marlow, who is alleged to have later texted the lobbyist to say a campaign donation might get Thao to “rethink this issue.” St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman told reporters on Sunday that St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell was aware of the allegations, and “would take appropriate actions.” Axtell asked the BCA to investigate. (Fox 9)
2. Despite a projected budget surplus that now stands at $1.5 billion, Republicans in the Minnesota House and Senate continue to push hard this session for significant spending cuts within state government. The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office is among their many targets. DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon is looking at a proposed cut to his office of 18 percent in the House budget and 7.5 percent in the Senate. And one of the people pushing for the cut in the Senate is a former occupant of the office Simon holds. (MPR News)
3. The Republican Party of Minnesota picked a fresh face for its new chair. Jennifer Carnahan, 40, has never held elective office or a prominent party role as did the three people she defeated for the job— Deputy Chairman Chris Fields, former Senate Minority Leader David Hann and Republican National Committeeman Rick Rice. In fact, she attended her first party caucus only last year. Carnahan ran unsuccessfully for a state Senate seat in Minneapolis in November and also served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. She said her could leverage her own experience as she reaches out to Republican voters brought into the fold by President Trump. (MPR News)
4. With a federal shutdown deadline looming, congressional negotiators have agreed on a new bill to keep the U.S. government open through Sept. 30. Details of the deal are still emerging, but the plan does not include money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Lawmakers have until midnight on Friday to pass the deal to keep the federal government funded. The Trump administration had to give in on the wall and on federal subsidies to health insurers under the Affordable Care Act. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats won on some other points, including increased funding for Puerto Rico's Medicaid program and a $2 billion boost to the National Institutes of Health, which President Trump proposed slashing. The spending bill also gives additional funding to combat opioid abuse and for summer school Pell Grants. (NPR)
5. When President Trump called President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines on Saturday, the American leader’s national security aides saw it as part of a routine diplomatic outreach to Southeast Asian leaders. Mr. Trump, characteristically, had his own ideas. During their “very friendly conversation,” the administration said in a late-night statement, Mr. Trump invited Mr. Duterte, an authoritarian leader accused of ordering extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines, to visit him at the White House. Now, administration officials are bracing for an avalanche of criticism from human rights groups. Two senior officials said they expected the State Department and the National Security Council, both of which were caught off guard by the invitation, to raise objections internally. (New York Times)
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