The Daily Digest
Greetings!
Catharine Richert, here. Tom Scheck is on vacation in my home state of North Carolina (go Heels!), so I'm helping out with Daily Digest this week. Let's hope he brings us back some Cheerwine and Bojangles.
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Around Minnesota
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The state budget eliminates funding to help pay for honor guards at veterans funerals.
President Barack Obama spoke to the American Legion. MPR has the text of the speech and a recording.
Outside the event, about 100 protesters voiced their concerns about the war and the economy.
NewsCut estimates how much the trip cost.
Minnesota's U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones will take over as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
He wants to tackle the "lack of stability" at the bureau.
Today Rep. Keith Ellison and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will be at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs to talk about famine in Africa.
Also today: Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Zellers will be at the State Fair.
Congress
Al Franken is fundraising for his fellow Senator and Minnesotan, Amy Klobuchar.
The Communications Workers of America are targeting Rep. Chip Cravaack with a new direct mail campaign.
Rep. Keith Ellison wants Hamas to release an Israeli soldier.
The Race for President
Rep. Michele Bachmann's energy claims are fact-checked.
She's using a new ad strategy to target likely Republican primary voters in Iowa.
Bachmann's efforts to advance the construction of the Stillwater Bridge could be trouble for her on the campaign trail.
Former Bush speech writer Marc Thiessen wrote an interesting op-ed on why Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney isn't going after Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Bachmann will do it for him (and so will the media and the Democratic National Committee) until he absolutely has to get into the fray, Thiessen argues.
Vikings Stadium
Mark Dayton wants to get the stadium deal done.
Fox 9 interviewed Rep. Paul Thissen at the State Fair. He said voters he's spoken with at the Fair aren't warm to a new Viking's Stadium that uses public money.