Good morning. We welcome this break from the heat.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and several state DFL leaders took to the stage at First Avenue last night to rally for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s U.S. Senate campaign. Flanagan, who is running on the progressive wing of the DFL party, is facing off against the more centrist Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig in one of the most competitive and expensive Senate primary races the state has seen. Flanagan and Sanders were joined by others , including U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, who is retiring from the seat she hopes Flanagan will win. “I am here today because I would move hell or high water to make sure that Peggy Flanagan is the next senator for Minnesota,” Smith said. Sanders, making his second appearance on Flanagan’s behalf, asked the crowd, “Why are these super PACs controlled by billionaires spending so much money to defeat Peggy Flanagan?” and then responded to it. “What they know is that Peggy is going to stand up to the greed of the billionaire class. And the agenda that Peggy is fighting for is the agenda of the American people,” he said. Craig has a significant fundraising edge over Flanagan. 

As of last Thursday, more than 37,000 primary ballots had already been filled out and marked accepted by local election officials. That number has been rising by the week. If history is any guide, between 900,000 and 1 million ballots will likely be cast in this primary — perhaps more than that given that both parties have competitive statewide races.

A federal judge based in Minnesota has dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit against metro cities and counties over “sanctuary city policies.” Jon Collins reports that U.S. District Court Chief Judge Eric Tostrud granted motions Monday to dismiss claims against the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt , the state of Minnesota and state Attorney General Keith Ellison. The administration argued policies prohibiting local authorities from enforcing federal immigration law are unconstitutional. But Tostrud rejected that argument, saying their claims failed. “They do not command the federal government or its contractors to act. They do not forbid the federal government or its contractors from acting,” Tostrud wrote in his ruling. “They do not control how the federal government or its contractors undertake their work. Rather, they regulate how state and local officials perform their duties.” This is not the first time the courts have blocked the president’s efforts to punish cities with similar policies. 

Lawmakers could be back in St. Paul next month to debate an extension of a peacetime emergency to combat wildfires in the Boundary Waters. At least at this point, gun violence prevention groups say they don’t plan to bring forward bills restricting access to guns as part of that, should it materialize. Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive order this month declaring a peacetime emergency. As Star Tribune reporter Briana Bierschbach noted in Hot Dish yesterday, that could require a special legislative session after 30 days to determine whether an extension of that emergency is warranted. The timing would line up a special session right around the time of Minnesota’s primary election. That means any number of political football items could come up, in addition to debate about how best to deal with the fires. Maggiy Emery, executive director of Protect Minnesota, said it doesn’t seem like a great outlook since little has changed since May in terms of the Legislature’s narrowly split composition. “We're looking at the same legislative makeup that kind of failed to take action on this issue during the regular legislative session. So I don't feel that off the top of my head it's like a great use of our time to kind of run at these same folks and ask them to take action that they weren't willing to do previously,” Emery said. Proposals to put in place new firearm restrictions passed the DFL-led Senate this year but stalled in the tied House. One Republican representative retired after the legislative session, leaving a 67-66 split with Democrats holding a small edge, but not the critical 68 votes needed to pass a bill.

ICE accessed traffic camera data during the immigration agent surge in Minnesota. Under Minnesota law, data collected by license plate readers is only supposed to be shared to assist an active criminal investigation. But as Allison Kite and Sarah Ritter at the Star Tribune report, ICE accessed the camera data for civil immigration enforcement anyway. The Mille Lacs County Sheriff's Office, which has an agreement to collaborate with ICE, searched license place reader data during Operation Metro Surge. Police in other states also allowed ICE to use their accounts to search Minnesota traffic camera databases for immigration enforcement. DFL Rep. Brad Tabke introduced a bill this past legislative session to strengthen protections for licence plate reader data, but it died in committee. This bill would have required a court order or warrant before police departments could share data with federal agencies or those in other states. Check out Kite and Ritter’s deep dive. They explain how often ICE accessed this data, which Minnesota cities were affected, how some police departments have since tightened up access to the data and how ICE used the data to detain and deport people.

As Trump rolls back support for clean energy, the solar industry is looking to former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to woo Republicans. Pawlenty is about a month into his new job as CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, the national trade association for the American solar industry. Pawlenty served as Minnesota’s governor from 2003 to 2011 and signed legislation that required utility companies to use more renewable energy. Pawlenty spoke about his new role and his goals in Washington on the Politico Energy podcast yesterday. “Let's be candid, in Washington there is a scarcity of Republicans who are willing to embrace renewable energy in various ways,” Pawlenty said. He said he plans on “updating” Republicans on the economic advantages of solar, instead of emphasizing environmental benefits. “If you're for cheap, if you're for quick, if you're for reliable, and if you're for clean, solar's the answer.” 

Tariffs and 51st state rhetoric are bad for business on the Canadian border. Some business owners and residents along Minnesota’s border with Canada say they’re seeing a big drop in business, MPR’s Harshawn Ratanpal reports . In every county with a rural point of entry, jobs in the retail sector and the leisure and hospitality sector were down last year, according to data from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. It's impossible to determine how much of the decline in tourism-dependent jobs is tied to fewer international travelers, said Anthony Schaffhauser, the department's regional analyst for northwest Minnesota. But, he added, "I think it's fair to say that it didn't help." It could also be due to factors that make people spend less generally, including high inflation.

This isn’t exactly political but it’s worth noting: lighten up on the leadfoot because speeding isn’t helping. A new study by University of Minnesota researchers finds that speeding doesn’t really save you much time and could cost you a lot of money. An Associated Press summary of the findings says that if drivers of light-duty, conventional internal combustion engine vehicles actually drove at posted speed limits, it could save an average of $22 million, based on fuel costs at the time, 6.7 million gallons of fuel and 57,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide every day. The researchers said that is comparable to taking about 5.5 million passenger vehicles off the road. And while drivers say that speeding saves them precious time, researchers found that is not really the case. With an average daily driving distance of 28.6 miles, driving at or below the posted limit corresponds only to about 54 seconds longer per day.