Good morning. Now that was a beautiful Minnesota weekend.

It’s Farmfest week, the agricultural expo that is a magnet for politicians working to convey they know what’s happening down on the farm. At the risk of being too cheeky, there will be a bumper crop of gladhanders out there this week in Morgan. Hannah Yang notes that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is a featured speaker tomorrow. There will be forums for congressional candidates, Senate candidates and governor candidates. This will mark the first “debate” stage for the Republicans vying for governor and the DFL’s likely nominee. Dana Ferguson will be there for us so watch for her dispatches and listen on air.

The Minnesota Lynx game became a political standoff zone yesterday. The visiting Indiana Fever are known for WNBA superstar Caitln Clark but also Sophie Cunningham, who has made herself into a figure in the debate over transgender athletes in sports. Cunningham’s vocal push for keeping trans women out of women’s sports drew demonstrations in line with that view and against it. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michele Tafoya appeared at Target Center for a rally; one of the DFL Senate candidates, Angie Craig, was in attendance at the game. Some fans wore shirts staking out their positions as did head Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who wore a “Trans Kids Belong” T-shirt during the game. The atmosphere was described as more tense than usual for a Lynx game and there was more visible security in the arena, according to some in attendance. The Star Tribune has a writeup here. The Lynx beat the visiting Fever 108-100 to push a win streak to 10.

Minnesota’s new ban of nudification technology took effect Saturday after a judge rejected an attempt to temporarily block it. U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank rejected X.AI’s call to halt the law before it could take effect on Aug. 1. The company’s court challenge can continue, and Frank scheduled a hearing for Aug. 19. X.AI, which is owned by Elon Musk, sued the state over the law last week, alleging it would infringe on the company’s First Amendment Rights as well as those of its users in Minnesota. The company said without the immediate injunction blocking the law, it would have to turn off certain features on its AI model, Grok. Attorney General Keith Ellison in a memo of opposition Friday said the law wasn’t aimed at restricting free speech, but rather at placing guardrails on a tool that can cause harm to Minnesotans. He also argued the request for emergency action coming days before the law was set to take effect “manufacturing an unnecessary emergency” for the court to address.

Minnesota economic development officials say the tax that funds Minnesota's paid family and medical leave program will hold steady for 2027. Department of Employment and Economic Development officials say the existing 0.88 percent payroll tax should be enough to cover claims next year. The tax split between workers and employers allows employees to take partially paid time off to recover from an illness, take care of a loved one or welcome a new child. That assessment was based on a cost analysis of workforce data and the experiences of other states. The department reports that 75,000 people have tapped the program for paid leave so far this year. Those benefits have cost about $600 million. Lawmakers set aside $668 million to kickstart the program ahead of its launch this year.

A man who made online threats against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was sentenced to two years of probation. Caden Sluder, 23, was sentenced during a hearing Friday in Ramsey County District Court held over Zoom. Sluder pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor count of threats of violence. He’d originally been charged with a felony level count. In court, Sluder admitted he posted several threats to Flanagan on the social media platform X. The criminal complaint says the threats came in response to Flanagan posts sending condolences to the victims of the August 2025 Annunciation Catholic Church and School shooting and thanking first responders who rushed to the scene. Sluder apologized for his actions and said his arrest was a “massive wake-up call.” District Court Judge Joy Bartscher said the case shows how online conversations can strip away humanity. She sentenced Sluder to one year in jail, which will be stayed if he abides by his probation guidelines. Flanagan spoke during the hearing about the risks of online vitriol, as Peter Cox recaps here.

Gov. Tim Walz responded sharply to unfounded allegations from President Donald Trump that Minnesota was behind recent cyberattacks on municipal water systems. Matt Sepic reports that Trump dismissed the idea first reported in the New York Times that Iran may have been behind the hacking that disrupted control systems at water plants in more than 30 Minnesota communities last week. "You know who's behind it? Minnesota, because they're grossly incompetent. I think the governor's behind it. I don't think there was an Iranian cyberattack," Trump said in response to a reporter’s question Friday, while offering no evidence to back his claim. Minnesota Republican Party Chair Alex Plechash on Friday agreed with the president and said the blame should be placed on the shoulders of Walz and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. “President Trump was right: Minnesota is vulnerable, and Tim Walz and Amy Klobuchar are responsible,” Plechash said, pointing to other cyber and ransomware attacks in recent years. On social media, Walz wrote, "Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too." The DFL governor also noted that through DOGE, the administration "took an axe to" the federal cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency.

Lawmakers beefed-up meat raffles and delivered egg-citing news for food shelves. A new law went into effect over the weekend that allows stores to donate eggs past their sell-by date to food assistance programs. In Minnesota, stores can’t sell eggs past their quality assurance date, which is four to six weeks past the pack date depending on the grade of the egg. But eggs can be safe to eat for weeks after that, as long as they’ve been refrigerated correctly. A bill that allows stores to donate unsold eggs up to a month after their quality assurance date got unanimous support in both chambers and was signed into law. (That bill inspired some of the most groan-worthy puns on both sides of the aisle this legislative session.) Another law that went into effect Saturday increased ticket and prize value limits in meat raffles. Meat raffles are a form of charitable gambling and a Minnesota tradition, but for decades raffle tickets have been capped at $2 and prize values at $70. The new law modernizes those limits and bumps the ticket cap to $5 and the prize value cap to $200. The law technically increases the limits for all paddlewheel games, of which meat raffles are the most well-known.