Daily Digest: TGIF Edition

Good morning, and welcome to Friday. A confession: I'm still trying to recover from springing forward. Now that I've cleared the air on that, let's look at the Digest.

1. Former UMD coach wins discrimination lawsuit. A federal jury awarded former University of Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey coach Shannon Miller $3.74 million after an eight-day trial in her lawsuit against her longtime employer. The jury of eight women and four men took a little over four hours to find that UMD discriminated against Miller on the basis of her sex and retaliated against her for making Title IX complaints when officials decided in December 2014 not to offer her a new contract. “It’s a big day for women,” Miller proclaimed on the courthouse steps. “Women in general, but especially women in college athletics.” During a news conference outside the courthouse, UMD chancellor Lendley Black defended his decision not to give the five-time championship winning coach a new contract after 16 seasons. "I want to say I’m extremely disappointed in this decision and very surprised by the decision,” Black said. “I still stand behind the actions that I took at UMD, and know personally why I made the decisions I made.” (Duluth News Tribune)

2. Lawmakers focus on driving. Minnesota lawmakers focused on the rules of the road in a big way this week, considering bills to penalize distractions, nuisances and other dangers. In the name of safety, legislators are pushing to punish people whose hands are on a phone rather than the steering wheel, imposing fines for motorists who get stopped for it and introducing the possibility of prison time if the device distraction leads to a serious injury or fatal crash. They have proposed stripping licenses, potentially for life, from people caught driving drunk more than five times. To deal with other aggravations, lawmakers are debating fines for drivers who dawdle in the left lane as cars stack up behind. And, most controversial of all, they’ve resumed a fight over stiffer punishment for blocking highway or transit traffic, which protest groups have used to bring attention to their causes. (MPR News)

3.  GOP lawmakers release plan to fight elder abuse. Minnesota Republicans introduced legislation on Thursday intended to repair the state’s broken system for investigating allegations of elder abuse, while lashing out at the Dayton administration for failing to act sooner as thousands of maltreatment allegations went uninvestigated. The legislation would streamline the state’s abuse reporting process, create new civil penalties for facilities that mislead consumers, and lift the layers of secrecy that often surround state investigations of maltreatment in senior homes. The bill would also enshrine in state law the rights of Minnesota families to use cameras in the rooms of their loved ones — further empowering consumers and potentially ending years of confusion over the use of electronic surveillance in senior homes.  Unlike the Republican proposal, a plan released by Gov. Mark Dayton this week called for the immediate licensure of assisted-living facilities, a fast-growing but lightly regulated segment of the care industry, and tougher criminal penalties against perpetrators of abuse. The Republican package, by contrast, calls for further study of these issues through special task forces. (Star Tribune)

4. Senate delays vote on MNLARS fix. The Minnesota Senate postponed a vote on legislation to provide $7.3 million for repairs to the troubled motor vehicle licensing and registration system, known as MNLARS. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa, said he wanted the vote Thursday, but it will now likely take place on Monday. Gazelka said plans were altered after DFL Gov. Mark Dayton raised objections to the legislative oversight section of the bill. Further discussions are planned over the weekend. Gazelka said he wants the governor to sign the bill. “The fact that we don’t have agreement on that area is why I postponed it, because it’s been important to me that that this not be a partisan issue,” Gazelka said. “The governor took responsibility, but I’ve always said in the end, we still have to fix it.” The timing of the funding is critical. Without it, Minnesota IT Services plans to lay off 39 MNLARS contractors at the end of the month. (MPR News)

5. Pipeline clears PUC hurdle. A proposed oil pipeline in northern Minnesota cleared a major regulatory hurdle Thursday when the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the final environmental review of the proposed Line 3 pipeline. State regulators had rejected the 5,000-plus page report in December, sending it back to the state Department of Commerce for four relatively minor revisions. Now, the commissioners say the report is adequate. It's not a final decision on the project, but clears the way for the state to make decisions on key permits Enbridge Energy would need to build the project. The decision on whether the pipeline is needed is expected in June. (MPR News)

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