Tuesday 1/29 Call to Action

Tuesday 1/29

Are you at home with the kids today while the Polar Vortex flexes its muscles? What a great time to visit the Capitol for a little civics lesson! Minnesota’s state legislature is in full swing and there is plenty to pay attention to.

Check out this schedule of public hearings at the Capitol. Attend in person or stay bundled up at home (or work) and watch or listen live.https://www.facebook.com/mnhousedfl/posts/10158188399333275

Indivisible Minnesota Legislative Action keeps track of important things so you don’t have to. In particular, today there will be the missing and murdered indigenous women task force as well as help for furloughed federal employees. Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be paid family leave, automatic voter registration, and increase ballot access for people needing assistance. Check out IMLA’s action alert here: https://mailchi.mp/42a…/mn-action-alert-week-of-january-28th

RSVP to join in on a rally for native women who have experienced violence. Representative Mary Kunesh-Podein has authored a bill to appropriate funds to enact a task force to start collecting data and make reports to the legislature regarding how to stop the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women. The event starts at 12:45 today at the Capitol Building. https://www.facebook.com/events/346923029477729/

Minnesota’s state legislature was highlighted in a New York Times piece! I see a lot of familiar faces in that picture. https://www.nytimes.com/…/democrats-gun-control-healthcare.…

Yesterday, a bill was introduced to legalize recreational marijuana in Minnesota. Read more about that here:
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/…/bill-introduced-monday-t…/…
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php…

Governor Tim Walz would like to change the way Minnesota funds its public schools. His goal is to replace local referendums with a state-wide fund that will help eliminate the gaps between wealthy and poor areas. We will learn more about it when Gov. Walz comes out with his budget on February 19th. Until then, you can read more about it here: http://www.startribune.com/walz-considers-shift-away-fro…/…/

In Federal News
The U. S. House will be voting on H. R. 790 that will provide civilian federal employees a 2.6% pay increase for 2019. This bill would reverse the pay freeze put into effect by Trump. Perhaps it is time for us to do something nice for federal employees. Read more about it here and call your member of Congress if you are so inclined. https://www.countable.us/…/hr790-116-to-provide-for-a-pay-i…

Trump’s Shutdown Was Expensive
The CBO has reported that Trump’s government shutdown cost the U. S. Economy $11 billion. Ugh. https://www.nytimes.com/…/shutdown-cost-us-economy-11-billi…

Real Life Or A Movie?
Remember how Trump has been reporting about women at the southern border being bound with duct tape, drug traffickers using super powerful cars, and prayer rugs found in the desert? All of those things occurred in the movie Sicario. Trump’s border emergency could very well be based on a movie that Trump watched. Gob-smacking.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3397884/

Stu Lourey wins Minnesota Senate District 11 DFL primary
Stu Lourey won the DFL primary and is now headed to the special election against GOP Jason Rarick on February 5th. The election is necessary to replace MN Senate Senator Tony Lourey (Stu’s dad), who was chosen by Governor Walz as Human Services commissioner. Stu Lourey has worked as an aide to Sens. Al Franken and Tina Smith and he comes from a family of public servants. His grandmother was former Senator Beck Lourey.
https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/…/4560761-stu-lourey-wins…
Here are the results of the primary:https://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/Re…/StateSenate/118…
Republicans have a two-seat edge in the Senate pending the election. Check out Stu Lourey’s campaign page. https://www.stulourey.com/

Use those skills you honed this past summer/fall and help Stu get elected. The DFL has organized phone and text banking if you would like to help out. https://www.facebook.com/events/790402844670094/

You could also join the SD-11 squad here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/275269826488015/

Check out Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s schedule for the House of Representatives https://www.majorityleader.gov/floor-res…/the-weekly-leader…

Klobuchar-202-224-3244
Smith (202) 224-5641
House of Representative switchboard: (202) 224-3121
MN Legislators: https://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legislators
Resistbot: https://resistbot.io/
Governor Walz https://mn.gov/governor/