Daily Digest: Getting serious

Good morning, and welcome to Thursday. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton met with legislative leaders yesterday, and they plan to meet again today to talk about the state budget. Dayton complained that the Republican majorities in the House and Senate included too many policy measures in their budget bills, and he wants those measures removed. Republican leaders say they hope to start negotiating some of the less controversial bills. Meanwhile in Washington, Republicans in the House say they have found enough support to pass their bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and that they will vote later today. Let's go to the Digest.

1. A Minnesota House committee held an initial hearing Wednesday on a bill that creates a new felony crime for a parent or guardian who knowingly allows a child to undergo female genital mutilation, an illegal procedure which some cultures still cling to. Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, introduced the bill after recent news reports about the genital mutilation of two seven-year-old Minnesota girls. The Detroit-area doctor who allegedly performed the illegal procedure was charged. But the parents who took the girls to Michigan were not. Franson said Minnesota’s law is silent on a parent’s role in genital mutilation. (MPR News)

2. DFL lawmakers from Minneapolis and St. Paul say they are having to fight on seemingly every front these days, as they struggle to maintain state support for everything from light rail transit to bus routes and pension plans. It's part of a growing political divide that’s been exacerbated by demographics. As the cities' populations swell with younger voters who tend to lean left, districts in rural Minnesota have come to be dominated by older voters who tend to vote Republican. The effects have mostly played out in Minnesota’s last two elections, with Republicans picking up nearly a dozen House seats and six senators from rural areas. (MinnPost)

3. A bill to ban talking on hand-held cell phones while driving has stalled at the Capitol, but a new poll shows most Minnesotans want laws against using cellphones while driving to be as tough as those against drunken driving. In all, 78 percent of those polled said texting or checking Facebook while driving should be treated equal to or more severely than drunken driving, according to the Star Tribune Minnesota poll. Even more, 79 percent, say it should be illegal to talk on a cellphone while driving. At the same time, most of those polled say they personally aren’t the problem: 90 percent say they rarely or never text or look at e-mail or social media while behind the wheel — even at a stoplight. (Star Tribune)

4. Minnesota’s campaign finance program that provides public financing to candidates who limit their spending is under threat, but another mechanism that encourages small-dollar donations could return after a two-year suspension. The reshaping of Minnesota’s campaign finance system led to a back-and-forth Wednesday between Democrats who worry about it unraveling and Republicans who say they’re enabling candidates to keep up amid rising outside group spending. After a year that saw the cost of some legislative races top $1 million for the first time — largely because of outside spending — the direction the debate goes could determine if those high-spending campaigns become the norm. (MPR News)

5. The Minneapolis Park Board on Wednesday voted unanimously to change the name Lake Calhoun to Bde Maka Ska, its original Dakota name, in a nod to the American Indian people who lived on the lake and a repudiation of a historical figure known as an ardent supporter of slavery. The push for Bde Maka Ska — which won’t be official until it wins approval at the county, state and federal level — is a switch for the Park Board and comes after years of debate. Advocates of the change had argued that the lake, once the site of an important Dakota village, should not be named after John C. Calhoun, the country’s seventh vice president, who supported slavery and signed the Indian Removal Act. (Star Tribune)

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