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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Brad Schrade and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about Gov. Mark Dayton

Arming teachers is gun-rights legislator's goal

Posted by: Jim Ragsdale Updated: December 17, 2012 - 7:46 PM

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The Legislature's leading gun-rights activist may not be in the majority next year, but he plans on making waves.

Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, said Monday he will propose arming teachers so they can stop school assaults like that in Newtown, Conn., on Friday. He knows his idea won't get far in next year's DFL-controlled Legislature, but he wants his point of view discussed.

"They can talk about all the gun control laws they want to, but nothing really in the laws that have been passed will stop a guy like this," Cornish said. "The only thing that will stop it is a bullet."

Cornish said he would allow teachers to volunteer to carry loaded weapons in their school rooms, after undergoing stepped-up training on how to deal with Connecticut-style assaults.

His idea follows the gun-rights concept of fighting gun-violence with freer access to guns. He said in these cases, the damage has already been done before the police get there, even when they arrive instantly, as was the case in Newtown.

"What I'm proposing is somebody that's already there," he said.

He added that the Connecticut assailant knew the school was a "gun-free zone" and there would be "nothing meeting him in the form of resistance." He added, "If he would have thought that the teachers would be armed ... this person would have been very wary of being shot. He probably would not even think about it."

Heather Martens, head of Protect Minnesota, a gun-control organization, said Cornish's idea is "nuts." She said it is based on a "fantasy" of gun-rights activists that such carnage can be stopped by having more guns on the scene.

She noted that the assailant's mother herself accumulated weaponry under the theory of self-protection, and then became the first victim of her son's rampage.

"She was an accomplished shooter and gun collector," Martens said of the mother, Nancy Lanza of Newtown."She was at home where all of her guns were ... She was the first person shot to death.... If the theory works at all, you would think it would work for her."

She added, "It doesn't work. There's no instance of that kind of saving-the-day happening in a mass shooting."

Martens said in such instances, a teacher's job is to lock the door and protect the children, not to go out in search of the shooter. And she said in this case, the teachers would have had to have assault rifles to match the shooter's firepower.

She said her group would propose changes that would make it harder for people with mental health issues to obtain weapons permits, and would close the loopholes in private gun sales.

"The difference between our solutions and those kinds of solutions," she said, referring to Cornish, "is we believe in preventing the dangerous person from getting the gun in the first place."

 

More security, but no weapons-screening, recommended for state Capitol

Posted by: Jim Ragsdale Updated: December 17, 2012 - 3:28 PM

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A state advisory committee recommended additional security officers, but no weapons-screening, to ensure the safety of workers and visitors to the state Capitol and nearby government buildings.

The Advisory Committee on Capitol Area Security, chaired by Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon, edited and approved their report Monday. The action was part of a months-long review of Capitol security and was not related to recent gun violence around the nation.

The report recommends increasing the number of state troopers assigned to the Capitol and area buildings from two to 12, and the number of Capitol Security guards from 40 to 67. That request to the 2013 Legislature will be finalized when the committee meets again in January.

The Capitol has locked doors with key-card electronic access and 450 video surveillance cameras throughout the Capitol area, but no regular weapons screening such as in place at the Hennepin and Ramsey county courthouses.

Prettner Solon said the issue came up before the committee, but the group chose not to require weapons screening. She did say the committee wants the buildings to have have power outlets at the entrances "in case we need to add additional security if there were a threat."
 
Traditionally, discussion of weapons-screening has been opposed by those who want to keep the Capitol visitor-friendly, as befits "the people's house." She said the committee discussed how weapons-screening "might conflict with the desire to have the openness to the Capitol."
 
"I think that we were preferring where there could be steps up in security rather than the constant level of safety measures that may not be necessary all the time," she said.
  
Gov. Mark Dayton said he is open to tougher Capitol security, but doesn’t want the building to be unwelcoming to residents. The governor said he doesn't’t believe there is much Capitol security can do to deter a sophisticated criminal bent on doing harm.
 
The former U.S. Senator said he thought about U.S. Capitol security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and how someone could sneak a weapon through, even after the beefed up security measures. “It wouldn't’t be that difficult for some kind of sophisticated operative to do that,” he said.
 
“You do the best you can,” Dayton said.  “But I don’t believe we can and even should bar the public from accessing their Capitol.”

 

Dayton defends gun laws as debate rages nationally

Posted by: Baird Helgeson Updated: December 17, 2012 - 2:30 PM

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In the wake of last week's Connecticut school shooting, Gov. Mark Dayton defended the right to own firearms but said he would consider possible gun-control measures in the coming legislative session.

“My reading of the constitution is that it provides a complete permission for any law abiding citizen to possess firearms, whichever ones he or she chooses, and the ammunition to go with that,” Dayton said Monday. “Now if the Supreme Court rules otherwise, then we will all know how we can proceed.”

Dayton was not sure whether the state could impose measures to restrict access to firearms, ammunition or clips designed to carry multiple bullets. He did not embrace calls for tougher mental health screening for firearm owners.

“At this point, I don’t think we have an option under the Second Amendment to do what some people are advocating,” Dayton said. “There’s a limit on what society can do to protect people from their own follies.”

Dayton, who has owned several firearms, said he is willing to talk with legislators who have ideas to toughen state gun laws.

“I know there are a whole variety of views on this and I believe we should have a public debate,” he said.

The governor said he is determined to take action this next legislative to ensure school’s have the best readiness plans in case a similar incident were to happen in Minnesota.

“We will do everything we possibly can,” Dayton said. “The safety of our school children and the educators who teach is paramount and parents should have that assurance of every bit of guarantee we can provide.”

Dayton dismissed talk of arming teachers or school officials, saying it would be dangerous and cumbersome to implement.

“You just increase the danger,” Dayton said “To have weapons in classrooms defies common sense.”
 

Plan to unionize in-home health workers in Minnesota announced

Posted by: Jim Ragsdale Updated: December 12, 2012 - 3:04 PM

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One of the state’s largest unions will be approaching the all-DFL government for the authority to unionize thousands of in-home personal care assistants – the people who care for elderly and disasbled people in their homes.
The Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, was one of the unions that sought last year to organize in-home child care workers. That effort failed, after running into opposition from the Republican-controlled Legisalture and the courts.
The DFL won control of both houses of the Legislature last month and will take control when the 2013 Legislature convenes on Jan. 8.
Personal care assistants and other support workers plan to announce the plan in St. Paul today. They would need a state law to allow them to organize under the state’s public-employee bargaining act for the purpose of negotiating wages with the state.
With a DFL Legislature and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, they could find a friendlier reception.
This year’s effort could affect thousands of care workers. It would not apply to those directly employed by agencies, who already have the right to organize unions; rather, it would cover those in the so-called “self-directed” program, in which the workers are hired and fired by the person receiving the care.
The program is funded by Medicaid and rates are set by the state.

Dayton, lawmakers lay out agendas for upcoming session

Posted by: Jennifer Brooks Updated: December 10, 2012 - 1:09 PM

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Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders found a bit of common ground and plenty room for disagreement as they looked ahead to the upcoming legislative session.

Democrats will have complete control of state government for the first time in more than two decades, but the governor and the DFL leadership tried to tamp down expectations in the shadow of the fiscal cliff and a still-shaky economy.

"Any tip-toe we take, we'll be accused of overreaching," Dayton told reporters during a Monday morning roundtable with incoming House Speaker Paul Thissen, Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt and Senate Minority Leader David Hann.

"This is not going to be, as some fear and some hope, a sky's-the-limit sort of approach. We have a $1.1 billion deficit we have to offset...We still owe the schools," Dayton continued. "We're not out of the fiscal hole that we dug for ourselves over the previous couple of bienniums. That's going to be the first reality."

For their part, GOP leaders balked at Democratic talk of tax increases -- a move Hann warned could cost jobs, sparking an argument with Dayton over the data Hann was using to back up his claim. Daudt signaled that there could be Republican support for another bonding bill, as long as it benefits rural areas as well as the big cities.

On social issues like gay marriage, Democrats were cautious, calling for more statewide debate on the issue. Bakk noted that he wouldn't be opposed to a bill legalizing medical marijuana, if it could address law enforcement concerns.

 

 

 

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