Author: Data and Research Manager

Rep. Andrew Carlson (HD50B) Update: July 16, 2021

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Dear Neighbors, 

With the end of the special session, my House DFL colleagues and I were able to push for a number of budget bills to help address the needs of all Minnesotans and small businesses. Vaccination numbers in Minnesota remain as one of the leading states in the nation, and group gatherings, festivals, and parades are showcasing the vibrancy of our community more than ever. 

The bipartisan budgets passed to ensure Minnesotans can access resources, investments and recover from the impacts of this pandemic will be beneficial to the overall recovery of our state. If you’d like to get caught up on the bills we’ve passed, you can find nonpartisan summaries of the bills and the process around them here:

Continue reading “Rep. Andrew Carlson (HD50B) Update: July 16, 2021”

Top credit rating agency warns Trump’s ‘failure to concede’ and GOP voter suppression could tank US AAA status

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One of the “Big Three” credit reporting agencies that rate government bonds and securities on Tuesday issued a warning that the U.S. could lose its coveted AAA status over issues currently hanging over American democracy.

In a “rating action commentary” published just minutes after markets closed Fitch Ratings said it “has affirmed the United States’ Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘AAA,'” but warned: “The Rating Outlook is Negative.”

Why? Continue reading.

Biden takes big break from habit of avoiding Trump talk

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President Biden has made a habit of not talking too much about his predecessor, former President Trump.  

That changed big time on Tuesday, when Biden gave a spirited voting rights speech in Philadelphia. Biden didn’t mention Trump by name but repeatedly criticized the man he unseated as president, slamming him for “the big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen. 

“We continue to see an example of human nature at its worst. Something darker and more sinister,” Biden said in remarks from the Philadelphia speech directed toward Trump and his allies.  Continue reading.

REVEALED: Cops blame Antifa for Oregon wildfires — and approvingly share Proud Boys propaganda

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Emails revealed police continued blaming wildfires last year in Oregon on anti-fascist activists after the FBI knocked down those rumors.

Messages obtained by the watchdog group Property of the People show a Washington sheriff and other law enforcement officials pushed those rumors last summer to pin the blame for those wildfires on Antifa and Black Lives Matter demonstrators, although federal investigators found no evidence that was true, reported The Daily Beast.

“One of the methods Antifa is using to start fire’s, is to take a mason jar with tinder placed inside the jar, put it in brush with the lid open, so the hot sun light will create a slow start which allows them to be out of the area before the smoke appears [sic],” wrote Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer to officials throughout Washington state. Continue reading.

Top Tennessee health official says she was fired after efforts to get teens vaccinated

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“I am not a political operative, I am a physician who was, until today, charged with protecting the people of Tennessee … against preventable diseases,” Dr. Michelle Fiscus wrote.

Tennessee officials have fired the state’s top vaccination official, who had been facing scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her department’s outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against Covid-19.

Dr. Michelle Fiscus, a pediatrician, was fired Monday as the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health.

In an interview with MSNBC host Chris Hayes on Tuesday, Fiscus said her job was to roll out the Covid-19 vaccine “across the state and to make sure that that was done equitably and in a way that any Tennessean who wanted to access that vaccine would be able to get one.” Continue reading.

How Tucker Carlson became the voice of White grievance

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Tucker Carlson huddled in a low-ceilinged dungeon that had served as a holding pen for Africans bound for enslavement in the United States. It was a July day in 2003 in Ghana, and Carlson stood alongside some of America’s most prominent civil rights leaders.

The conservative commentator, who at the time co-hosted the CNN show “Crossfire,” walked through the memorial, where a guide told how the shackled Africans who did not perish during the voyage were sold as human chattel in America.

The civil rights leaders prayed, cried and sang “We Shall Overcome.” They peered toward the sea from the Door of No Return. But Carlson seemed strangely detached, according to two of the civil rights leaders who were present. Continue reading.

Harris emerges as main GOP foil on campaign trail

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Republicans on the campaign trail are zeroing in on Vice President Harris as their political target of choice as the midterm battle draws closer.

The attacks against Harris come as Republicans have struggled to define President Biden, who enjoys higher approval ratings than his vice president and who has largely managed to sidestep any major controversies so far.

Harris, on the other hand, has drawn intense and persistent criticism over everything from her handling of the surge of migrants from Central America to her recent suggestion that voter ID laws make voting “almost impossible” for people in rural areas. Continue reading.

In the Know: July 16, 2021

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DFL Party News
DFL Party Statement On Governor Walz’s Executive Action On Conversion Therapy, DFL Press Release
Laura Bishop: ousted because she did her job — working to control pollution, MinnPost

Governor Tim Walz
As Minnesota’s drought worsens, Walz reaches out to the USDA for aid, KARE 11

Minnesota Legislature
MN bonding bill wish list hits record $5.5 billion, Pioneer Press

Minnesota News
Metro Transit increases safety measures on buses, trains, KARE 11
White House Convenes Mayors, Including Melvin Carter, To Discuss Strategies On Crime, WCCO
Minnesota leaders seek drought aid for livestock producers, Associated Press
After a tough year, Minnesota’s Black women entrepreneurs look for ways to expand opportunity, MPR News

Continue reading “In the Know: July 16, 2021”

DeSantis sells ‘Don’t Fauci My Florida’ merch as new coronavirus cases near highest in nation

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested that he should be criminally investigated. Republican members of Congress introduced a “Fire Fauci Act” to remove his salary.

Now White House medical adviser Anthony S. Fauci — a polarizing figure in the U.S. response to the coronavirus — is also part of a rising GOP star’s political branding.

“Don’t Fauci My Florida,” read drink koozies and T-shirts that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s campaign team rolled out just as his state sees some of the highest coronavirus hospitalizations, new infections and deaths per capita in the country. It’s the latest example of Republicans running on their opposition to virus-fueled shutdowns and mask mandates. A pandemic hero to some and villain to others, Fauci has become a high-profile target. Continue reading.