The Daily Digest (Boston marathon attacked, tax bills moving, Bachmann to Thatcher’s funeral)
WASHINGTON - Good morning. If any of you reading this have family and friends who were in Boston, our thoughts are with you.
Boston bombings
Three people are dead and more than a 130 are injured after two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Police searched an apartment this morning for possible clues. (WBUR, Boston Globe)
According to race organizers, more than 500 Minnesotans ran in the Boston Marathon yesterday. So far, there's no word if any of them were among the casualties. MPR News tracked down a few including a Hennepin County judge and DFL State Sen. Scott Dibble with their experiences of what took place on Monday.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
Minnesota
It's tax week at the State Capitol. The House DFL is considering a hike to the alcohol tax.
The Senate's HHS bill targets HMOs with a special fee.
The House transportation bill includes an optional tax that counties can opt into.
The Mayo Clinic's proposed subsidy shrinks.
And congratulations to our colleagues at the Star-Tribune. The newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, one for its editorial cartoons and one for local reporting for a series on home day cares.
Washington
Things aren't looking good for the Senate bill to expand background checks for gun buyers.
But Senators are set to unveil their immigration bill today which would offer a route to citizenship for many of the 11 million people who arrived in the U.S. illegally.
The Washington Post reports that Republicans are warming up to President Obama's offer to trim future cost of living increases for Social Security. As I reported last week, many of Minnesota's Democrats in Congress really don't like Obama's plan.
Michele Bachmann was one of three House Republicans chosen by Speaker John Boehner to attend former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's funeral in London on Wednesday. During her unsuccessful presidential campaign, Bachmann often compared herself to Thatcher.
Campaign finance
While November 2014 might seem an awfully long time from now, state and national politicians are out raising money to prepare for next year and yesterday was the first quarterly filing deadline of the new cycle.
Gov. Dayton reported raising more than $32,000 even though he's not required to disclose his fundraising quarterly this year.
Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann raised $673,000. While that's likely more than any other member of the U.S. House from Minnesota, it's a big drop off for her (two years ago she raised $1.7 million in the first quarter of the year). Bachmann's expenses outstripped her fundraising but she still has more than $1.8 million in the bank as she prepares for a rematch against DFLer Jim Graves.
Fellow Republican Erik Paulsen raised $359,000 and has more than $940,000 cash on hand.
I'll post the numbers from the other campaigns a bit later this morning.
And Bob Perry has died at age 80. He was often referred to in the media as "Texas homebuilder Bob Perry" though he was best known in political circles for his large donations to Republicans, including former Gov. Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign. Perry donated more than $23 million to Republicans in the 2012 election cycle.
If you made it this far through, I should also mention that yesterday, due to what we call in this business an editing error (in other words, I goofed), I gave out the incorrect Twitter handle in case you want to follow me. It's @brettneely. And please feel free to drop me a line with news, events, tips etc. that you'd like to see in this week's digest.