Minnesota legislators who have been working outside the public eye to reach a deal on COVID-19 relief say they will convene Thursday at the Capitol to approve the aid.
Minnesota legislators will meet Thursday for action on COVID-19 relief
Legislators are reviewing Gov. Tim Walz's funding requests for food shelves and other emergency services.
March 25, 2020 at 3:37PM
While lawmakers have essentially recessed until mid-April because of the COVID-19 emergency, members of the state House disclosed details Tuesday of meetings they have been holding for the past week to discuss bills ranging from driver's license expiration forgiveness to child care policy proposals related to the coronavirus.
They are also reviewing Gov. Tim Walz's proposal to spend an additional $356 million on COVID-19 response.
Walz's supplemental budget proposal would include money to help child care centers, food shelves, homeless shelters and veterans weather the pandemic. It would create a $200 million COVID-19 fund in the state treasury that state agencies could use broadly to respond to the pandemic. The fund could be used to pay for increased staff and health care needs in prisons, or overtime for people working with direct care and treatment programs that serve people with developmental disabilities, mental illness and addiction.
"Legislative leaders have agreed to reconvene on Thursday. We are continuing to work closely with the Walz Administration on urgent COVID-19 matters to protect the health and well-being of Minnesotans. We will publicly release details on specific legislation on the House and Senate websites as soon as we can," Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senate Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said in a joint statement.
For lawmakers to pass the relief bills on Thursday and send them to Walz for his signature still requires the politically divided Legislature to strike a deal.
Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said in a statement that Minnesotans are facing significant medical concerns and financial hardships and the House's goal is to pass legislation to safeguard people's health and economic well-being.
She released an outline Tuesday of informal working group meetings that have taken place via conference calls that were not open to reporters and the public. She said the House is trying to create opportunities for people to engage in the process, possibly by making committee hearings available to the public online. For now, people can submit comment forms on the state's website or reach legislators to share their thoughts.
Thousands of people have contacted DFL House members and heard back in the past week, Hortman said.
As lawmakers gather this week, Hortman and Gazelka said they will follow Minnesota Department of Health guidelines to keep legislators, staff and the public safe.
Jessie Van Berkel • 651-925-5044
VIRGINIA, MINN. − The new trial for an Iron Range man accused of killing a Chisholm woman in the mid-1980s was stalled Tuesday morning after two potential jurors were let go before they could be sworn in at the St. Louis County Courthouse.
Fifteen potential jurors were selected last week: 12 to decide whether Michael Allan Carbo, 56, is guilty of murdering Nancy Daugherty in 1986; three for backup. Now down to just a single alternate, attorneys opted to reopen the jury pool for replacements.
Attorneys are expected to sort through 14 potential jurors on Wednesday.
The trial could have gone on. But Judge Robert C. Friday noted that it’s January in Minnesota and a range of illnesses are circulating. If more jurors were lost, it could lead to a mistrial.
“That would be unfortunate for the state and more so for Mr. Carbo,” Friday said from the bench.
The potential jurors who were let go were women who, in both cases, left after a confidential meeting with the judge, attorneys and the accused. No reasons were given for either departure.
In 2022, Carbo was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of Daugherty, a 38-year-old mother of two who had immediate plans to leave the Iron Range to further her paramedic training in Minneapolis. Daugherty was found dead in the bed of her home, a victim of strangulation and sexual assault.
In May, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Carbo should have been able to use an alternate perpetrator defense, and kicked it back to District Court. Opening statements are scheduled to begin Thursday morning, and the alternate suspect, Brian Evenson, is among the first witnesses.
The returns were filed on behalf of themselves and others, according to federal prosecutors.
