Hot Dish Feb 12

By Rochelle Olson

It’s here. The first Monday of session so I’ve got to shower, comb my hair and find some real clothes to wear. Like former President Donald Trump on Truth Social, I say congrats to the Kansas City team. As he wrote to the Chiefs, “You represented the great state of Kansas and in fact, the entire USA, so very well.” So congrats to KCK and sorry, KCMO. (That’s MoKan argot for Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri. I’ll throw in a gratuitous Rock Chalk right here.)

We’re heading into a Minnesota legislative session that by all accounts will be more routine. (Hey, things can change so don’t blame us if it gets wild.) Briana Bierschbach and I wrote about how they’ll do the bonding bill and maybe, possibly a few other things. Oh and don’t ask for money; you got your allowance last year. Gov. Tim Walz told Strib biz columnist Evan Ramstad that he will say no to his allies.

Walz is resuming his tradition of delivering bars to the legislators. He’ll be outside the chambers at 11:45 a.m. before the noon gavel. No word on what kind of bars. Seven-layer? Pumpkin? Brownies? Blondies? Wouldn’t it be wild if he ... nah, it’s not legal yet and he doesn’t have a commissioner.

Brooks Johnson has a new story on what every business needs to know about legalization of recreational marijuana. TLDR: Put the don’t-show-up-to-work stoned policy in writing now. Employers can also ban off-duty use, he writes.

Speaking of on-the-job woes, remember those ethics complaints from last session? Two were dismissed and only one remains, but the Senate hasn’t held a hearing on it yet. The complaint still standing was filed by Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, against Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe. I watched the video so you don’t have to and now it’s back in my brain.

Whilst we were all away from the Capitol over le week-end, the Red Bull Heavy Metal street snowboarders took over the front steps with their high-flying treacherous tricks. Walz was there (not snowboarding). What this means is that nothing anybody does inside the Capitol for the next few months will be half as dangerous as what took place over the weekend - unless you decide throw yourself between Sen./Rep. (Insert your favorite chatterbox here) and their microphone. You’re on your own.

BIDEN TIME: The Washington Post takes us inside President Joe Biden’s five-hour interview with special counsel Robert Hur, who ultimately declined to prosecute Biden over his handling of classified documents but cast doubt on his mental acuity. Hur’s questioning of Biden started Oct. 8, moments after an anguished Biden got off the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden and his attorneys even discussed postponing the interview, but decided to go ahead, the Post reports.

Biden and his allies are pushing back against the notion that he has memory problems. ‘’The way that the president’s demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous,’’ Vice President Kamala Harris said.

Republicans use the report as evidence that Biden is unfit.

ALLY REBUTTAL: First Lady Jill Biden sent an email to donors saying she couldn’t understand what Hur was trying to achieve by saying the president couldn’t remember when his son Beau died. ‘’Believe me, like anyone who has lost a child, Beau and his death never leave him,” she said.

Our Capitol colleague Ryan Faircloth is double trouble these days - covering D.C. while the Strib searches for a new correspondent out east. He checked in with Minnesota Democrats in Congress in re Biden’s mental and physical health. “Being so blatantly disrespectful as to suggest the President misremembered the death of his son is despicable beyond imagination,” Sen. Tina Smith said. “I have 100 percent faith in the President.”

MARIJUANA BASELINE: Faircloth and Brooks Johnson report on a state study in which one in five Minnesotans say they’ve used marijuana in recent years. Cannabis use is on the rise as are calls to the poison control center, they report. State regulators will use the study’s data as a baseline to measure the impact of legalization in the coming years. The legal recreational marijuana industry will fully launch next year and maybe there will be a commissioner by then.

LEGISLATURE:

10 a.m. - ERA Rally in the rotunda. The group wants a 2026 ballot initiative that reads:

“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to say that all persons shall be guaranteed equal rights under the laws of the state, and that the state shall not discriminate against any person on account of race, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, or sex, including pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive freedom, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation?”

Both chambers go into session at noon. House Taxes at 2 p.m. Senate Human Services at 3 p.m. and House Education at 4 p.m.

WHERE’S WALZ:

10:45 a.m.: Meeting with the Consul General of Germany and a member of German Parliament. Ausgezeichnet.

11:45 a.m.: Greeting senators and representatives at the doors of their chambers with the bars. Do you think he baked them himself?

6:30 p.m.: Speaking at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s annual session priorities event.

READING LIST