Daily Digest: Las Vegas to Minnesota
Good morning, and welcome to Tuesday. Several Minnesotans were at the concert in Las Vegas Sunday night that was attacked by a heavily armed man firing from the window of a nearby hotel. That's where we'll start the Digest.
1."We realized at that point that something else was going on and we took off running," recalled Taylor Dumbrovski, a nurse from St. Cloud, Minn., who was near Jason Aldean's stage and thought as first she was hearing fireworks. Dumbrovski and her fiancé, brother and sister-in-law took off in a sprint and escaped the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history. Clark County authorities say the gunman, identified as Stephen Paddock, killed at least 59 people and wounded more than 520 others. One Minnesotan, Philip Aurich, was hospitalized with critical injuries, according to Concordia Academy-Roseville, from which he graduated in 1999. (MPR News)
2. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ended a protracted legal battle over Minnesota's program for confining sex offenders deemed a continuing risk to the public, refusing to revisit a ruling that declared the program constitutional. By denying a hearing, justices effectively let a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling from January stand. The result is significantly reduced pressure on political leaders to remake the Minnesota Sex Offender Program that now has more than 700 people, mostly men, indefinitely held under civil court order. (MPR News)
3. Premiums for health plans on the state's MNsure exchange will decline in many cases or hold relatively steady next year, officials said Monday, due in large part to a program designed to hold down rates. The average statewide premium changes for the largest carriers in 2018 will range from a 13 percent decrease to a less than 3 percent increase, officials said at the Capitol, noting the numbers are a dramatic switch from last year's increases of 50 percent or more. The state's new "reinsurance" program is a big factor in holding down the rates, officials said, but Gov. Mark Dayton hasn't yet signed the agreement with the federal government that helps fund the program. Plus, the premium change on paper will look a lot better than what some consumers actually feel. (Star Tribune)
4. As expected Sen. Carla Nelson is running for Congress, becoming the second Republican vying for the open 1st District seat. Nelson made her announcement Monday in Rochester. She stood on a stage with a giant American flag as the backdrop and told a crowd of more than 100 that, "I will be stepping forward. I am running for Congress." But Nelson told supporters they would schedule a "rah rah rally" for another day because of the shooting in Las Vegas. After her announcement, Nelson declined to answer questions from the press — including whether she would abide by the Republican endorsement. (Rochester Post Bulletin)
5. In several sparsely populated northern Minnesota counties, Enbridge Energy — which operates a system of pipelines that transports 2.8 million barrels of oil daily from Canada across the northern third of the state — is the largest property tax payer. So those counties are understandably nervous about a tax case beginning Tuesday that could ultimately force them to repay $18 million in tax revenue collected and dispersed between 2012 and 2014, and ultimately, possibly more than $50 million. At issue is the valuation of those pipelines. Enbridge contends that beginning in 2012, the state Department of Revenue applied a new methodology that overvalued them, and as a result excessively raised its property taxes by 24 percent. (MPR News)
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