Minnesota National Guard on point for women in combat roles; Dayton on notice over taxes

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by John Wanamaker, Minnesota Public Radio,
Hart Van Denburg, Minnesota Public Radio
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Minnesota's citizen soldiers are helping to lead the way for women in military combat roles. Gov. Dayton continues to find resistance to his just-released budget plans. We have an update on flu deaths. There's a new homeless count. And we hear another perspective on the racial incident at Washburn High School in Minneapolis. All that and more in today's MPR News Update.

WOMEN IN COMBAT: The Minnesota National Guard's First Brigade Combat Team is one of nine brigades around the country helping to pilot the Pentagon's new policy lifting the restriction on women in combat. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday lifted the 1994 ban prohibiting women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. The move opens more than 230,000 new jobs to women nationwide.

WHAT IT MEANS: Now that the ban on women in combat has been lifted, what happens next? What might the effect on the military be as a result of this policy change? Greg Jacob, former U.S. Marine and policy director at the Service Women's Action Network, and Anne M. Coughlin, professor of law at the University of Virginia and head of the Molly Pitcher Project, joined The Daily Circuit Friday to discuss the change.

BUDGET ON MENTAL HEALTH: The governor's budget proposal, released Tuesday, calls for counties to pay a greater share of the cost for patients at the troubled Minnesota Security Hospital and the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center. The two facilities provide long-term psychiatric treatment to adults with severe mental illness. Counties currently pay 10 percent of the treatment costs for each resident at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter, Minn. Dayton's budget would have counties pay 50 percent.

DAYTON MEETS THE EDITORS: If Gov. Mark Dayton was hoping Minnesota newspapers would endorse his tax plan on their editorial pages, he may be disappointed. He faced a lot of criticism on his budget proposal Thursday when he gave a speech to the Minnesota Newspaper Association at its annual convention in Bloomington. Among their complaints: Expanding the sales tax to newspaper ink, paper and advertising would result in job losses.

SALES TAX IMPACT: The Minnesota Department of Revenue released a list of the items Thursday night that would be taxed under Dayton's budget plan. Dayton announced earlier this week that he wanted to expand the sales tax to clothing items above $100 and business and consumer services, but did not give much in the way of specifics. Read the details here.

THE WASHBURN INCIDENT: The Minneapolis school district is considering whether to change its curricula after an emotional community meeting on Wednesday night over a Washburn High School incident where a dark skinned doll was found hanging by a piece of string in a stairwell. Julie Landsman taught in Minneapolis public schools for more than 20 years and has since written several books on race. She spoke with Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer.

NO PARKING: Both Minneapolis and St. Paul are making big investments in their downtowns and hope to lure more residents to live there. But at the same time, the cities are taking steps to reduce the amount of parking available downtown. And that's alarmed some downtown residents.

HOMELESS NUMBERS: All over Minnesota on Thursday, communities were counting the number of people who are homeless. The annual one-day "point-in-time" count is required by the federal government. In Hennepin County, outreach workers were particularly focused on homeless people under age 25. Hennepin is one of nine sites, along with Boston and New York, piloting the in-depth survey.

OUTSTATE HOMELESS: Mary Ulland Evans, a resource planner for Three Rivers Community Action in southern Minnesota, and Kim Randolph, stabilization services director for Churches United in Ministry and the Human Development Center in Duluth, joined The Daily Circuit Friday to discuss the challenges facing the homeless in outstate Minnesota.

MINING JOBS: The mining industry is holding a job fair on the Iron Range on Friday as mining employment in northeast Minnesota is growing. Employment in the industry has grown by about 25 percent over the past two years, to around 4,500 jobs.

PINNACLE JOBS: Memphis-based Pinnacle Airlines plans to move its headquarters to the Twin Cities by May. The airline, which provides regional air services for Delta Air Lines, has about 500 employees at its Tennessee headquarters and has been reorganizing under bankruptcy protection since last year.

RAISING ANOTHER 'DOUBT': After life as a Pulitzer Prize-winning play and then an Oscar-nominated film, "Doubt" by John Patrick Shanley will have its world premiere as an opera this weekend in St. Paul. Shanley, who wrote the libretto for the Minnesota Opera production, said it is the most complete telling of his story about a priest accused of impropriety.

FLU NUMBERS: Minnesota's death toll from flu also continues to climb. The Department confirmed 15 additional deaths related to influenza, bringing the total number of flu deaths this season to 75. That surpasses the record high of 70 deaths during the 2010-2011 flu season.

MOVING TARGET: Firearms laws and rules vary by state, and even within states, according to a 2011 compilation of state gun laws by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. As debate over gun violence and gun control picks up steam in Washington, The Associated Press looks at existing laws across the country and finds them a moving target.

GUN GLOSSARY: Even Americans who have never touched a gun are probably familiar with the looks and names of a few -- the military M16, the action-movie's Uzi, the historic Colt .45. But what's a high-capacity magazine? Which guns are "military style"? Why would a person use one? Here's a glossary of what are fast becoming hot-button words.

FILIBUSTER (SORT OF) REFORM: The tradition-laden Senate voted Thursday to modestly curb filibusters, using a bipartisan consensus rare in today's hyper-partisan climate to make it a bit harder but not impossible for outnumbered senators to sink bills and nominations.

YOU KNEW WE'D DIG UP THAT JIMMY STEWART CLIP: From Jimmy Stewart's fictional all-night talkathon to real-life dramas over World War I and civil rights, the Senate's filibuster has played a notable -- sometimes reviled -- role in the nation's history.

John Wanamaker is a newscaster for MPR News.

Hart is the morning online editor at MPR News.

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Spring's just a rumor at this point; a cornerstone of health care overhaul appears closer to reality

A blizzard prompted the closure of the on-ramp to east-bound Interstate 94 in Moorhead, Minn. on Monday, March 18, 2013. (MPR Photo/Nathaniel Minor)by Matt Sepic, Minnesota Public Radio,
Hart Van Denburg, Minnesota Public Radio
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Today on the MPR News Update, a late-season snow storm slows down the commute across the region, legislative leaders get ready to release their spending targets for the next two years, the state Senate votes on Minnesota's proposed health care exchange, and more.

SPRING? NOT YET, MINNESOTA: A blast of winter weather is closing roads, schools and colleges around the state. MnDOT has shut down parts of Interstate 94 and Highway 10 east of Moorhead, and Minnesota Highway 210 between Breckenridge and Fergus Falls. MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht says travel on other roads is also difficult.

SENATE EXCHANGE VOTE: A bill that would create a new way for more than a million Minnesotans to obtain health insurance is getting its final vote in the Legislature today as the state Senate takes up health insurance exchange legislation. It's a cornerstone of President Obama's federal health care overhaul. The Minnesota House passed the bill Thursday, with Republicans uniformly opposed.

BUDGET PRIORITIES: DFL legislative leaders say they plan to release their spending targets for the next two-year budget this week. The figures will give the public the first glimpse of how much money the House and Senate want to spend on schools, health care and other state services. Committee chairs will then use those targets to start crafting their respective budgets.

COLEMAN'S ST. PAUL: St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman hasn't officially announced he's running for re-election this year, but he's widely expected to seek a third term. And at the moment... the DFL incumbent appears to be a shoo-in in a city dominated by Democrats. That's in spite of a record that includes substantial tax increases and weak job growth.

FEDERAL BUDGET BATTLES: This week the U.S. House and Senate will pass budgets, but both are expected to pass strictly along party lines, says MPR Washington correspondent Brett Neely, who spoke today with Morning Edition's Phil Picardi. BACHMANN BACKS I-94 EXPANSION: There's push to widen I-94 northwest of the Twin Cities by a lane in each direction in the Rogers area. Business and political leaders in the area say rush-hour congestion is already bad, but it gets worse during the warm months when people head out of town. Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann represents the area and is backing federal legislation to pay for the lane expansion.

HPV LAGGING: A larger percentage of parents say they won't have their teen daughters vaccinated for human papilloma virus, or HPV, a Mayo Clinic study has found. Forty percent of parents surveyed in 2008 said they would not vaccinate their daughters against HPV. In 2010, 44 percent said they wouldn't have their girls get the vaccine.

TEEN'S GERMAN BOOK: Cadence Klemp has always enjoyed writing. So it was natural when her German teacher at Hope Lutheran High School, Larry Finke, instructed his students late last year to develop their own project that Klemp got creative with pencil and paper. The end result, though, surprised even her. Klemp, 17, has self-published a 14-page children's book that she wrote and illustrated for the assignment.

HILLARY CLINTON BACKS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: As the same-sex marriage debate continues in Minnesota, the issue got another booster nationally Monday in the form of former Secretary of State - and presidential candidate -- Hillary Rodham Clinton.

WAR CASUALTY: Capt. Peter Linnerooth was an Army psychologist. He counseled soldiers during some of the fiercest fighting in Iraq. Hundreds upon hundreds sought his help. For nightmares and insomnia. For shock and grief. And for reaching that point where they just wanted to end it all. Linnerooth did such a good job his Army comrades dubbed him The Wizard. But his own life spiraled downwards, and in January it came to a tragic end.

Matt Sepic is a newscaster and general assignment reporter for MPR News.

Hart is the morning online editor at MPR News.

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