Good morning. The winter professional sports leagues have finally finished up just as the World Cup is charging ahead.

Candidates in races for some of Minnesota’s top offices will show this week how much they spent to chase party endorsements, how much they raised this year and where they stand in comparison to others. Campaign finance reports covering activity through the end of May are due for constitutional office candidates (think governor, attorney general, etc.) and for political funds active in state-level races. With a hot primary in the GOP governor’s race, the status check will be another viability metric. It’s possible some candidates delayed paying some convention bills to bulk up their cash-on-hand figure. There is a wide expectation that DFLer Amy Klobuchar will post a huge lead in governor’s race finances overall. Groups bolstering a candidate or out to ding opponents will also report by today. The reports go live for public consumption tomorrow. The federal candidates (for U.S. Senate and U.S. House) don’t have to report again until mid-July. Legislative candidates also get another six or so weeks to post their latest fundraising and spending activity.

Hennepin County has two big races to keep an eye on this year. The open county attorney contest is one of them. State Rep. Cedrick Frazier has locked in the DFL endorsement, with a first-ballot win over the weekend. That gives him an edge heading into an August primary with four other names on the ballot. Meanwhile, Sheriff Dawanna Witt will not have the DFL Party’s official backing as she heads forward in a reelection campaign. The convention ended with Witt just shy of the threshold to clinch backing, a signal some are frustrated with her department over arrests of demonstrators during last winter’s ICE agent surge. Witt’s team said the sheriff stood firm against the federal government as it sought more access to the county jail for immigration enforcement purposes. The Star Tribune quotes a campaign spokesperson as saying “the goal posts keep moving” for progressives. Witt will face Joseph Banks in November, having defeated him four years ago to win the job.

The state has lifted payment suspensions for many providers of high-risk Medicaid programs that seemed to have been disenrolled because the state ran out of time to re-vet them. The Minnesota Department of Human Services was required by the federal government to revalidate nearly 5,600 providers by May 31, but when the deadline came only about 1,000 were approved. Ellie Roth has been following this story and explains that DHS backtracked on its statement that disenrolled providers wouldn’t receive payments during an appeal process, announcing instead that providers who submitted an appeal by June 9 would have their payment suspension lifted. “It’s a nice gesture,” said Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, who sits on the Senate Human Services Committee. “The whole process has been a disaster from the very beginning.” 

Minnesota has a shortage of psychiatric facilities for kids and could lose two more, but a proposal to create a state-run facility failed this legislative session. Jessie Van Berkel at the Star Tribune reports that kids with complex needs, particularly those who are aggressive, harm themselves or run away, can benefit from in-patient care. But the lack of open beds in Minnesota means they may stay with families who can’t meet their needs, remain in emergency departments or juvenile detention, or get sent to other states. Rep. Kim Hicks, DFL-Rochester, has long worked in disability services and advocacy. This legislative session she pushed for a state-run psychiatric residential treatment facility with 30 beds for people younger than 21. The proposal didn’t gain traction. The state estimated it would cost around $54 million to build and $35 million a year to operate such a facility. Minnesota counties paid about $80 million in 2023 for contracts to place kids in out-of-state facilities, Hicks said, emphasizing that the cost falls on county taxpayers. Hicks is running for reelection this year. Van Berkel explains why two facilities are in danger of closing and why kids need this specialized care in the first place.

Data centers are booming in Minnesota as an effort to hit pause failed at the Capitol. Hyperscale data centers are huge warehouses filled with computer servers that power cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Meta is already building a facility in Rosemount and more than a dozen other projects have been proposed around the state. Several bills aimed at regulating the centers failed this legislative session after strong opposition from industry groups, including a proposal to pause new development for two years championed by state Sen. Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth. “That moratorium would be in place while a thorough analysis is done on their impacts on our communities, on our utilities, on our infrastructure and our environment,” McEwen said in February. Kirsti Marohn breaks down the debate and looks ahead to how lawmakers may tackle data centers next year.

Minnesota lost more than 20 percent of USDA employees when Trump resumed office, and now it's losing more. Christopher Vondracek at the Star Tribune reports that some USDA employees in the state were told this spring to relocate as the USDA consolidates offices in select hubs in places like Kansas City, Indianapolis and Fort Collins in Colorado. USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden said the reorganization is “long overdue” and tied to fraud scandals, like those in Minnesota. But current USDA workers, including those in Minnesota, say the reorganization will actually undercut efforts to fight fraud, noting the administration will lose employees. Vondracek shares a behind-the-scenes look at how Minnesota USDA workers are reacting to the agency changes and what the reorganization could mean for Minnesota and the country.

The Whipple Building is a quieter place these days, but it’s still the hub where the Trump administration carries out its immigration policies in Minnesota. Dozens and dozens of immigration cases are being heard daily at Fort Snelling Immigration Court, but winning those cases is increasingly more difficult for immigrants and their lawyers. Federal data shows this year the court has only granted about 2 percent of asylum cases. The rate in 2023 was about 13 percent. Jon Collins got an inside look at what immigrants are currently experiencing at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building. He breaks down how immigration court differs from other courts, why immigration lawyers are having such difficulty winning cases and what the experience of showing up to Minnesota immigration court is like for immigrant families.

Homeland Security has denied it has an ICE protestor database, but a newly published letter complicates that. A previously unpublished April letter sent from an ICE official to members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, acknowledges ICE collects personal data for a variety of reasons, including “to identify the person(s) with whom the officer or agent is engaging.” The letter specifies that “DHS is not creating or maintaining a separate, standalone database for individuals encountered that haven’t been arrested or detained.” Jude Joffe-Block at NPR says ICE observers in Maine, Minnesota and Tennessee described experiencing a variety of ICE surveillance tactics. They include agents photographing their faces and license plates, losing Global Entry status and direct calls from DHS that reference recent movements of people. The letter also says to “assure your overall concerns” about how ICE handles sensitive data, “ICE ensures its officers and agents undergo regular training covering applicable federal statutes, agency policies, and privacy requirements.” However, an ICE whistleblower said the agency has drastically reduced training and standards for new agents.