Good morning. Three weeks left in session, the governor goes before the Legislature and the floor sessions lengthen. Must be right about May.

Several people from Minnesota were in the hotel ballroom as the shooting occurred. Minnesota U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, a Republican, was attending and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was also a guest. Neither was harmed. The Star Tribune rounds up their reaction , as well as some from one of the newspaper’s business side employees who was there, too.

In recent years, Minnesota regulators have investigated at least 50 deaths among clients of the state’s burgeoning group home industry. But even when those investigations concluded neglect had occurred, the largely taxpayer-funded businesses faced only minor consequences, with fines ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. “That’s a lot of deaths,” said Sue Abderholden, a longtime advocates for Minnesotans with mental illnesses. “I’m frankly in shock that this isn’t known.” Reporters Ellie Roth, Christopher Peak and Jennifer Lu spent months analyzing thousands of state maltreatment reports with the help of artificial intelligence and meticulously verifying each case. Their story, published today by MPR News and APM Reports , details the death of Ryan Riggs, who lived at a Fortunate Homes facility in Brooklyn Center due to a brain injury. Staff there reported him missing in September, only to find him dead 29 hours later in the group home’s back yard. The Minnesota Department of Health determined Fortunate Homes neglected Riggs, because it should not have allowed him to leave the house unsupervised, and staff didn’t examine security camera footage until the day after he disappeared. The initial fine for the maltreatment was $1,000, although the state later called that an “error” and increased it to $5,000 after the reporters inquired about the case. Fortunate Homes declined to comment and said it is appealing the maltreatment finding. 

When money is tight and the asks are greater, Minnesota lawmakers have to look harder for creative financing options. Despite the state’s short-term $3.7 billion projected surplus, the Legislature is hoping to contain spending this year to avoid setting up a deficit situation into the future. That means borrowing plans could do more of the lifting. Dana Ferguson wrote about the way county IT projects could get funding through a form of bonding and how voters might be asked to loosen the rules for that in the future. There are also ideas floating around for rescue packages for HCMC and other local requests. With three weeks to go — and May arriving this week — there isn’t much more time for pencil sharpening. It’s time to write and pass those bills.

The state Republican Party and its most-recent U.S. Senate nominee, Royce White, are feuding in public. GOP Chair Alex Plechash urged White to drop out of the race amid new reporting by MPR News and others about allegations of domestic violence involving his ex-wife and son, which White denies. As Plechash made his first comment on the situation Friday, White derided Plechash in off-color ways and said he wouldn’t go. White has also taken to social media to blast the reporting and the accusations, which his ex-wife has said is a continuing form of intimidation. White muscled his way to the party endorsement and its nomination in 2024 on the strength of MAGA following. This year, he’s trying to do it again although the field of competitors is larger and has competitors with more stature. The endorsing convention is about one month away and this could get uglier.

Michele Tafoya, who has backing from the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the nomination contest, made an appearance on Politics Friday. The wide-ranging interview got animated at times as Tafoya laid out her priorities and bit back at those parsing her past comments and stances. Asked if there was anything she would retract from her broadcasting and podcasting past, she said, “I can't think of any off the top of my head. I don't know. I think I've been pretty true to myself. I'm an authentic person with beliefs and opinions, and I stand by them.” She voiced support for the war in Iran, saying the United States has “done great damage to a regime that would like nothing more than to wipe us off the face of the earth.” We talked about healthcare, abortion, prediction markets and her assessment of the Trump administration. Listen to or watch the full interview here.

Two bills that curb online gambling passed the Minnesota Senate Finance Committee on Friday. There’s been a bipartisan effort to close loopholes in Minnesota's gambling laws to prevent online gambling. One bill bans so-called prediction markets . Those are online markets where you can wager on anything from when Taylor Swift will get married to when the war in Iran will end. Another bill tightens Minnesota's sweepstakes laws. Sweepstakes for promotional purposes are legal, "However, online companies are using a loophole in Minnesota's sweepstakes framework to offer online gambling," said bill sponsor Republican Sen. Jordan Rasmusson. Critics say these sites are unregulated online casinos with minimal age verification. The bills passed out of committee with bipartisan support and are on the way to the Senate floor.

Legislation to honor former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and former Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic also moved forward in the Minnesota Senate on Friday. The bill would rename the Senate office building for Dziedzic, who died of cancer in 2024 while in office. "Even in her final days, she continued to work on policies that helped all Minnesotans, including telling me to stop talking so much on the Senate floor," said DFL Sen. John Hoffman as he presented the bill to the Senate Finance Committee. The bill also names the House's office building and part of Highway 610 for Hortman, and it creates a working group to consider making the Capitol grounds a state park named for Hortman and her husband, Mark. The bill is headed to the Senate floor.