Good morning. We needed the rain.

U.S. Senate candidate Royce White is in the midst of a family dispute as he runs for the Republican nomination, with a judge finding allegations of abuse to be credible. White is appealing the February ruling. His effort to overturn a 50-year order to steer clear of his ex-wife and two year order to stay away from his teenage son is playing out as the state GOP endorsing convention approaches. White filed his appeal last week and told MPR News yesterday that he denies abusing anyone. Peter Cox details the allegations that are part of public records and White’s response to them. White spoke to Peter for 40 minutes and said the situation is a reason to keep running for office rather than stop running. “This is one of the biggest problems in our country, that the nuclear family has been under assault by the judicial process of divorce family court, and in this case, orders for protection that are only meant to in a lot of cases to smear the reputation of the man involved,” White said. One additional facet of the story is that White’s Senate campaign is paying a lawyer listed as representing him in the domestic abuse matter. White is criticizing the reporting on the case and says it’s a sign he’s gaining traction in the race. MPR News learned of the allegations through White’s state appeal.

Another Republican candidate in the race will be on Politics Friday this week. It is Michele Tafoya’s first interview with MPR News since joining the U.S. Senate race in January. The show starts at noon or you can find it in your podcast feeds later. Tafoya is the fundraising powerhouse on the Republican side. She’s well known outside of politics. Republicans are trying to break a 20-year streak of losses in statewide elections and in the current electoral environment know they have their work cut out for them.

In western Minnesota, infighting among Republicans could cause U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach endorsement problems. The three-term congresswoman, former state senator and ex-lieutenant governor would still be favored in a primary and to win the November election. The Star Tribune wrote about the feud that’s caused problems in the local party. Fischbach criticized the newspaper for writing about it. She declined to say if she would honor any party endorsement that goes to another candidate, with Dave Hughes challenging the incumbent again for the GOP nod.

The Minnesota House of Representatives voted unanimously yesterday to increase the penalty for impersonating a police officer. The proposal came forward after an alleged assassin killed former House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in June. The shooter was disguised as a police officer and targeted several lawmakers. Rep. Kristin Bahner, DFL-Maple Grove, said the harsher penalties are needed. The shooter first went to her home on June 14 but she and her family were away. "He came to our houses, a literal wolf in sheep's clothing, betraying our trust and our sense of safety, shattering our peace, by impersonating someone we would trust,” Bahner said. The proposal would also create penalties for those who have markings on their vehicle that would make it look like a police car. The measure is also moving forward in the Senate where Sen. John Hoffman, who was shot by the same alleged assassin, is carrying the legislation.

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy says the bulk of the chamber’s priority bills will have moved through the chamber by the end of next week. The St. Paul DFLer said a safety and security package and health and human services bills will come up for floor votes. Also expect proposals banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as a package responding to the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota to come before the Senate Finance Committee. The firearm and immigration proposals have stalled in House committees but Murphy said she’s hopeful they can come into play in end-of-session negotiations. “We're going to push as much as we can, knowing that once we've taken a vote on the floor of the Senate, those things then are able to be a part of a negotiated package at the end of session, and we're going to keep pulling the House along,” Murphy said. 

Democrats in the House have said both issues are top of mind for them as well. They plan to support them. “We have really important things that Minnesotans have asked us to do, things that happened since we were here last year, like Operation Metro Surge, like the shooting at Annunciation Church, like the falling out of our economy because of Trump's tariffs and the impact that he's had on our communities, and yet we haven't been able to get traction on a lot of those bills,” House DFL Floor Leader Jamie Long told reporters. “Minnesotans are asking us to take action, and we are hitting a stone wall at every turn on these really big, important priorities.”

Republican leaders in the tied House said they’re not especially enthusiastic about that approach. House GOP Floor Leader Harry Niska and House Speaker Lisa Demuth said conversations between legislative leaders and the governor are ongoing but they don’t anticipate taking on proposals that haven’t moved forward in their chamber. “We aren't really excited about the fact that the way the Senate is doing business is sending those things over,” Niska said. “Obviously, we're going to evaluate every bill that comes over on the merits, but a lot of those look like they're sending over things that just don't have bipartisan support in the House.” 

Minnesota took another step towards banning crypto kiosks yesterday. The kiosks look like ATMs and they allow users to access their cryptocurrency accounts. More than 300 kiosks operate in the state. But legislators say kiosk scams are on the rise and seniors are particularly vulnerable. Rep. Tim O'Driscoll told his colleagues on the House floor that seniors are also the least likely to report they’ve been scammed. "They're embarrassed, they feel bad about having been scammed, and they don't want their children and family to know about it,” O’Driscoll said. “Depending upon the amount of money that has been scammed in this situation, can affect whether they can buy their medications, whether they can pay for food, whether they can pay for rent." The measure was included in a larger commerce bill that passed the House on a bipartisan vote. The Senate has also advanced a bill to ban the kiosks.