Good morning! It’s difficult to fathom that it’s been 25 years since the worst tragedy of many of our lifetimes (long enough ago that one-third of Minnesotans weren’t born yet).

The solemn anniversary causes many memories and emotions to rush back, but they’re particularly sharp for Minnesotans who experienced the attacks up close or lost a family member to them. Stephen Smith offers this compelling story with voices from some of them, including the widow of Thomas Burnett Jr. who died aboard one of four hijacked jetliners. There is audio from a Minnesota Air National Guard C-130H that was in the air as another plane was hurtling toward the Pentagon. It’s a tough listen but worth a listen.

Politics Friday is back for the election runup. But we’ll start with a Sept. 11 lookback and a conversation about what changed and what might have changed again since. The show of harmony across party lines back then was unmistakable. It’s difficult to imagine something similar today with the constant blame game, derision and don’t-trust-your-rival mentality in politics. We’ll hear some voices from the just-concluded Minnesota State Fair, including an interview with a longshot congressional candidate and conversations with voters who are approaching November with some anxiousness. Tune in at noon or catch the episode later in our podcast feed. A lot more is in store in the weeks ahead, including candidate debates that we’re working to finalize and announce soon.

It’s going to be hard to escape the political ads between now and November — on TV, streaming platforms, social media and any other screen you can think of. We’ll periodically offer a glimpse at what we’re seeing, what themes stick out, which ads have quirky aspects and whether more context is needed (that’s almost always the case). Here’s this week’s recap of some of the newer commercials:

There were several pieces of news on the Lisa Demuth front yesterday. The GOP gubernatorial nominee laid out an education proposal that includes plans to send more school safety grant funding to districts, place more focus on reading, math and science and cut back on state requirements for schools. She said some measures passed while Democrats had full Capitol control in 2023 would be among the first to go but said she wouldn’t look to end the state’s free school meal program. “We're going to complete a full review of state mandates on schools, focusing on mandates providing little or no academic or instructional purposes, but yet are adding to the costs," she said. Democrats pointed to previous votes Demuth took to cut funding to K-12 schools. The House speaker also learned that a woman who had threatened her was sentenced to probation , community service and required mental health counseling after pleading guilty to a felony. Demuth provided a victim statement during the virtual sentencing hearing and said she felt the sentence was fair. “Threats of violence are illegal. You cannot make threats of violence, or you know, whether it's by phone or anything like that, you can't do that,” Demuth told MPR News. Demuth also broke with President Donald Trump over his plan to send $5,000 payments to adult citizens if Republicans keep control of Congress, at a cost of more than $1 trillion. It’s a notable point of separation for Demuth as Democrats air ads accusing her of being lockstep with Trump. Demuth said the dividend checks would drive up the federal deficit and fast-rising debt. She has proposed a series of state-level tax cuts she would pursue as governor.

Speaking of taxes, Minnesota’s last monthly collections report of the summer showed more come in than was projected. The Department of Minnesota Management and Budget reports that the August receipts were $64 million above earlier estimates . That’s 3.1 percent extra and $2.146 billion overall. Individual income taxes, sales taxes and other categories of revenue accounted for the fiscal padding. Corporate taxes were off the mark. There will be one more tax collection report prior to the election. That October report will also include economic projections on growth and other metrics. The next full forecast that considers spending patterns as well won’t be out until early December, a month before the new governor comes on the job.

A self-avowed “White Christian Nationalist” staffer resigned from Republican Eric Pratt’s congressional campaign after his racist posts were highlighted. DFL candidate Matt Little called a press conference with community leaders at the Capitol Thursday to condemn violent and racist recent posts of Austin Brown. As Cait reports , Brown moved to Minnesota from Ohio to work as Pratt’s campaign field director. In one X post Brown called himself a “White Christian Nationalist.” He said transgender people should be put in “asylums,” called for immigration agents to physically attack observers and railed against Jewish and Muslim people. Within a few hours, Pratt announced Brown’s resignation, saying in a statement “I have always been clear that antisemitism, racism, and discrimination of any kind have no place in our politics or our communities.” Pratt’s campaign did not respond to questions about why Brown’s public posts hadn’t prevented him from being hired.