The Daily Digest: Obama’s Jucy Lucy
Good morning! We apologize: technical problems have prevented us from getting you a Digest for the past few days.
Minnesota
President Obama wraps up his visit to Minnesota with a speech on the economy at Lake Harriet this morning. So far, he's sampled a Jucy Lucy, held a town hall meeting, gotten ice cream and raised a ton 'o money for House Democrats. (MPR News)
The Washington Post describes the trip as part of "a carefully calibrated strategy to make the president more accessible to constituents at a time when his approval ratings have dipped and his relations with Congress have hit rock bottom."
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Republicans pointed to a social media profile that showed the working mom Obama had lunch with used to work for the campaign of Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA.
In other political news, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson wants the construction of a new $90 million office building for the Minnesota Senate stopped before it starts and the money spent on flood relief. (MPR News)
Minnesota lawmakers want to honor the late Rep. Jim Oberstar by renaming a post office and some roads after him. (Star Tribune)
National Politics
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that President Obama exceeded his constitutional authority in making high-level government appointments in 2012 when he declared the Senate to be in recess and unable to act on the nominations. (Washington Post)
The Supreme Court also struck down a law Massachusetts used to create 'buffer zones' around abortion clinics. (Politico)
Howard Baker, who represented Tennessee for three terms in the Senate and became known as “the great conciliator” in his eight years as the chamber’s Republican leader, died on Thursday at age 88. (New York Times)
And...U-S-A! U-S-A! Even though Team USA lost its World Cup game to Germany yesterday, it advances to the next round. 538 has the odds on whether the American team can bring down Belgium on Tuesday.
Programming Note
Now that we've got our technical problems fixed we'll be taking next week off to celebrate the July 4th holiday and to prepare for our own group attempt at kayaking down Minnehaha Falls!