By Max Nesterak | Deputy Editor
Good morning, Reformers.
Happy Statehood Day. Minnesota was admitted to the union as the 32nd state 168 years ago today.
Gov. Tim Walz is meeting with legislative leaders this morning as they work to hammer out deals on several big items with just a week of session to go. The deadline for anything to pass is 11:59 p.m. on May 17 (Sunday). Since they don’t have to pass a budget, they don’t technically need to pass anything to keep the state running.
But Hennepin Healthcare, with the state’s busiest emergency department, is facing fiscal calamity and needs a bailout. A public works bill — the “bonding bill” at the Capitol — is also top priority, especially for the trade unions whose workers will repair bridges, roads and other infrastructure. That needs a three-fifths majority to pass. And then there’s fraud prevention, though that seems mostly settled with a bill creating an office of inspector general on its way to a supportive Senate after passing the divided House.
Legalizing psychedelic mushrooms for therapeutic purposes could be a dark horse. The House passed a bill creating a pilot program. What else? Send me your ideas at [email protected].
Former Lakeville Mayor and state Sen. Matt Little earned the Democratic endorsement over the weekend to replace U.S. Rep. Angie Craig in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District. He won on the first ballot by a 42-point margin, showing his strong support among party activists. His main challengers, state Sen. Matt Klein and Rep. Kaela Berg, will continue their campaigns to the August primary. The winner will face Republican state Sen. Eric Pratt.
Little would be a much more progressive representative than Craig, who has not made an endorsement for a successor in the competitive suburban Twin Cities district. The more moderate Klein was running close to Little on Kalshi, until the Mayo doctor was kicked off the prediction market for betting on himself. Since then, his odds have tanked.
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar won the party nomination for her reelection bid over the weekend. No surprise there. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is running for Senate against Craig, offered the nomination at the convention.
To the Reformer:
Photo illustration by Getty Images.
By Brian Martucci
The Trump administration’s latest lawsuit against Minnesota aims to short-circuit a six-year effort by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office to hold two fossil-fuel companies and the industry’s top U.S. trade association accountable for what Ellison calls “a campaign of deception” targeting his constituents.
The two-term Democrat told the Reformer he won’t be cowed.
Ellison, who’s standing for a third term in November, filed the initial complaint against ExxonMobil, Koch Industries and the American Petroleum Institute in June 2020. Since then, the parties have repeatedly clashed over the proper venue for the case to be heard, with the defendants arguing for removal to a federal court system that legal experts say would likely be more sympathetic to the fossil fuel industry.
By Melissa Whitler
Minneapolis Public Schools leaders laid out on Friday how the district will spend $10.8 million in surprise revenue following an accounting maneuver to yield more state special education money, with the funds going to a mix of adult ed, academic programs and for higher-than-expected insurance costs.
District officials answered four questions following about 30 minutes of prepared remarks by School Board Chair Collin Beachy, Superintendent Lisa Sayles-Adams and two other district officials.
Unanswered: Why the district went years without making a similar accounting adjustment, thus potentially costing tens of millions of dollars over the years, or how the district’s finance department became so chaotic and dysfunctional in recent years.
By Lucy Bichakhchyan
In today’s guest commentary, technology commercialization specialist Lucy Bichakhchyan argues that social media companies should have to display a mental health warning that acknowledges the potential harms of its use.
Minnesota became the first state in 2025 to mandate such a warning and now faces a lawsuit from technology giants ahead of the law taking effect this summer. They say the law violates the First Amendment by compelling speech, despite tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs, vehicles, credit cards and some children’s toys already being required to display warnings.
But if these warnings will actually work and deter people from excessive use is another question.
“Whether it’s visible, frequent, and intense enough to register matters as much as the legal outcome. The lawsuit addresses only one of those two questions,” Bichakhchyan writes.
IN OTHER NEWS
Trump so far failing in quest for power over elections as midterms approach | Reformer via States Newsroom
A changing job market leans against men | Wall Street Journal
Inside the bizarre feedback loop between DHS and MAGA influencers | Talking Points Memo
Correspond: [email protected]
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