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Capitol View®
Brian Bakst

Daily Digest: A taste of the debates ahead

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One of those near-perfect nights to leave the windows open gave way to what should be an ideal September day. We should all just go golfing. No? Fine, but take an extra-long break outdoors to reflect on this Digest:

1. The first presidential debate is now a little more than two weeks away and it promises to be epic. Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump intersected last night in a televised forum on national security. Each answered questions for 30 minutes during the live NBC event and projected starkly different views about how much the United States should be engaged in world affairs and deal with powerful figures around the globe. (L.A. Times)

2. It seems like two or three times a day a new poll drops that can offer a new spin on the presidential race. How's a voter to make sense of where the campaign stands? First, know that not all polls are created equal. Some organizations use methods that filter out the noise, others don't. But it's also important to remember that polls are a snapshot in time and it's always risky to see them as predictive of what will happen, particularly with eight weeks left in an already volatile political year. (New York Times)

3. You knew that the declarations of an end to special session consideration wouldn't last. Now that the light-rail funding dispute has been temporarily dealt with, there's talk of Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders making yet another attempt to forge a deal on the construction borrowing bill and a tax-cut plan. Dayton made fresh comments on it yesterday while up in Moorhead as part of his statewide summer tour. "We'll see if it's possible," Dayton said. "Both bills I'd like to sign." Just in case this is another false start, the 2017 session begins at noon on Jan. 3 _ and that's not negotiable. (Fargo Forum)

4. Minnesota's sex offender treatment program is about to hit a milestone. For the first time since the commitment program launched two decades ago, a person will be released. That comes after a special judicial panel ordered the 26-year-old man be set free and Human Service Commissioner Emily Johnson Piper decided not to appeal. The program itself remains under federal court threat, with a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling expected soon after the state refused to make significant changes. (Star Tribune)

5. St. Paul has joined Minneapolis with an ordinance dictating that employers must provide sick leave to their workers. The St. Paul plan goes further because it doesn't have the exemption for very small employers that the Minneapolis ordinance contains. Either way, it's sure to stoke more calls at the Legislature for a statewide solution _ standards for all businesses to follow or a prohibition against the one-by-one mandates. (MPR News)