Good morning! Some of our four-legged friends will demand that we give the Girl Scouts all of our money this winter.

Persistently high gas prices are turning into a persistent political problem for Republicans as the election draws closer. The price of gas has been near or above $4 per gallon for months, coinciding with the U.S. war with Iran. President Donald Trump predicted yesterday the pump prices won’t come down in significant fashion until after the upcoming election. At the start of the war initiated by Trump, the average cost in Minnesota was $2.97 per gallon; as of yesterday it was $4.15. For many campaign cycles, Republicans have used gas taxes as a political hammer in campaigns, particularly the automatic bumps since Minnesota indexed the fuel charge to a measure of inflation. For the record, Minnesota’s current tax is 32.6 cents per gallon and is due to rise to 32.8 cents in January. But consider that the money those taxes raise is dedicated to things like road construction and State Patrol operations. Lately, there have been daily increases of a nickel or a dime to as much as 30 or 40 cents a gallon overnight (one station near one of your authors went from $3.90 to $4.39 in the course of a single work day this week). Those added costs come out of consumer pockets but don’t go into any tangible societal benefit. Gas station owners will tell you that they also cringe at the higher per-gallon costs because weary drivers tend to spend less inside convenience stores when sticker shock of filling a tank sets in.

Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer delivered a searing speech yesterday — he called it a “pep talk” — at the Republican Party's convention in Dallas. The high-ranking congressman repeatedly referred to Democrats as communists, slamming some by name but mostly lumping the party's candidates together. He accused the rival party of “disgusting hatred of America and our great president” and he warned voters to be careful about disrupting the GOP's hold on Washington. “This country is worth fighting for,” Emmer said with full-throated delivery. “We will not let the Marxist, communist and anarchists destroy it. We are going to be that shining city on the hill for 340 million patriotic Americans. We're going to show that the foundations of this country-individual liberty, economic freedom, and hard work-still matter.”  Emmer is the only expected speaker from Minnesota, although 8th District Rep. Pete Stauber was also in Texas for the party event that is designed to tout President Donald Trump's agenda. 

Many Republicans didn’t attend, including Republican Senate nominee Michele Tafoya and governor nominee Lisa Demuth. Trump was asked broadly about Republicans steering clear of the Texas gathering. “Every politician who we wanted to be there is there,” Trump said on his way to Dallas, adding that he and party leaders primarily invited candidates who were in competitive races. There were points in the convention’s opening day where Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who was the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2024, had his image projected on screen alongside others loathed by Republicans: former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Fraud remains the achilles heel for Democrats as new reports of financial irregularities continue to surface. As we’ve said before, the more officials due to hunt down and cut off fraud, the worse it looks when suspicious activity is flagged. KSTP-TV reports on an investigation into a St. Paul daycare owner that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension executed search warrants on . The daycare has received millions in subsidized daycare payments dating back a decade. The BCA found only a small number of children in attendance as a recent audit was conducted. Republican legislative leaders say it is a sign of negligence by regulators that the daycare wasn’t examined earlier. Hundreds of daycares are currently under scrutiny, which means many more reports could surface in the weeks and months to come, feeding into a charged political environment. State officials have implemented an electronic attendance system to try to head off problems but the rollout is ongoing.

Minnesota’s Office of the Legislative Auditor says the state needs to better regulate how assisted living facilities are licensed. Ellie Roth reports on a new audit that found a group home ranking system often does not include information about serious maltreatment findings . The report found gaps in the Assisted Living Report tool designed to help people with mental or physical disabilities or their family members compare different group homes and other assisted living facilities. Auditors found that complaint investigations and maltreatment findings are not factored into these ratings. That means if a resident dies or is neglected at a facility, that’s not showing up on these report cards or even being factored into a facility’s overall rating. Even though these group homes and other assisted facilities are licensed by the Health Department, it’s the Department of Human Services that administers this report card. During a hearing yesterday, DHS Temporary Commissioner John Connolly said the agency agrees with auditors that the report card program needs work and the star rating should reflect those maltreatment findings.

A congressional ethics watchdog agreed to dismiss allegations against U.S Rep. Ilhan Omar about false or incomplete reporting of her assets. The allegations were put forward by Republicans in Congress last year after Omar’s financial disclosure filings suggested that assets between Omar and her husband Tim Mynett were worth millions of dollars. An amended filing showed a much lower value for the assets, below $1 million. Star Tribune reporter Sofia Barnett reports that the Office of Congressional Conduct voted 5-1 to dismiss the allegations, citing lack of evidence that Omar reported false or incomplete information. The congresswoman’s communications director Jacklyn Rogers said the report shows Omar was in the clear. “From day one, we have been clear: the congresswoman is not a millionaire,” Rogers said. “This vote clearly underscores that the congresswoman did nothing wrong, and attempts by the far right to manufacture controversy and distract from the facts are pathetic and nothing more than a desperate distraction from their own failures.” 

A St. Paul man with no criminal record who was arrested during the ICE surge has been sent to Guantanamo Bay. Our Matt Sepic has been following the legal fallout from Operation Metro Surge. He was able to speak over the phone with Adam Abdullah, a Somali man who was living legally in Minnesota but who is now being held in a military prison set up for terrorism suspects. Abdullah said he’s among eight people from Somalia at Guantanamo, including multiple arrested in the Twin Cities. The ACLU sued to stop the Trump administration from sending migrants to Guantanamo and a judge in Washington set a hearing for Oct. 14. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that a recent flight to Guantanamo Bay included “some of the worst of the worst” “criminal illegal aliens.” The department did not answer questions from MPR News about how many detainees it’s holding at Guantanamo or the reason for Abdullah’s arrest.