Good morning! How many political ads have you seen lately? They're filling up the airwaves. 

Debates in Minnesota’s top two races this fall have been slow to materialize. It’s still unclear how often U.S. Senate candidates Peggy Flanagan and Michele Tafoya will appear together. Same goes for governor candidates Lisa Demuth and Amy Klobuchar. MPR News has invitations out in both races with Flanagan and Klobuchar telling us they’re in for the debates if their race opponents are. Last week, Demuth told Dana her team was “looking at five debates” but it’s not clear which those are. We haven’t received definitive answers. Some forums are seemingly locked in. The Duluth Chamber of Commerce and Duluth News Tribune plan candidate forums in both races on Monday, Sept. 28, according to this website. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has scheduled a governor forum on business issues on Oct. 19.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan has placed orders for her first TV ads in her general election race and will continue through Nov. 3. The substantial ad buy comes after heavy advertising in the primary contest and after Flanagan’s GOP opponent Michele Tafoya got up on air last week. While the spots will air in heavy rotation over the next several weeks, not every 30-second slot is equal. Flanagan's campaign plunked down $55,000 to run an ad during this Sunday's Vikings-Bears game when many Minnesota eyeballs will be tuned in. Tafoya will also have a presence during that game, but only during the pre-game and post-game coverage that comes at a far cheaper rate. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals has revived a lawsuit by Republican Scott Jensen, a candidate for state auditor, against a medical board. Jensen filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice in 2023, alleging that he was targeted for investigation by the board over his views on COVID-19. Numerous complaints to the board alleged that Jensen, a physician, was spreading misinformation about the virus. Jensen sued on First Amendment grounds, arguing that he had to self-censor his campaign messaging while running for governor in 2022 because he didn't want to draw more board scrutiny. The lawsuit has been thrown out by federal judges before, so this is a win for Jensen. In the decision, Court of Appeals judge David Stras wrote that "years of investigations by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice caused Dr. Scott Jensen to speak less and spend more." 

Colin Hortman shared the story of his parents’ assassinations with an international audience and called for a turning down of rhetoric that can fuel harm. He spoke as part of a global anti-hate event yesterday in Pittsburgh. Hortman joined a panel of fellow survivors at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit to share stories of family members killed in instances of hate-based violence. Colin’s parents, Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed at their home last year. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were injured in their home by the same shooter, Vance Boelter. Hortman told that crowd he still grapples with hope. After speaking with lawmakers here, as well as various community groups and others, he said he’s buoyed by hearing his story might reset how people approach certain situations. “Something that has really given me hope is when I have conversations with groups of people, and then months later, someone comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, you speaking to us changed this conversation or how I thought about this issue,’ and that's been enough for me. And that's something I hope to continue doing,” he said. “I think we all have a responsibility to change the way that we look at clickbaity articles and in changing our attitudes about that, and choosing to share the hope and love rather than the divisive, violent things, we can all make a better place.”

FBI Director Kash Patel says his agency continues to work with utilities across the country to strengthen their cyber defenses. That's in the wake of cyberattacks earlier this year that targeted water utilities in several states, including Minnesota. Responding to questions from Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar at a hearing Tuesday, Patel said aging technology left some utilities vulnerable. “They were using edge routers and PLC devices that were 25 years old, and we've asked those companies to harden those devices because it's so easy for just one person on one keyboard in a faraway land – it doesn’t even have to be a united effort – to come in and break through to that system.” Patel also said his agency is “fully committed" to supporting any investigation, state or federal, into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Artificial intelligence is on the radar of Minnesota’s judiciary as it contemplates how it’s used by self-represented litigants, attorneys and judges. In an exit interview ahead of her Sept. 30 retirement, Chief Justice Natalie Hudson spoke to MPR’s Angela Davis about the possibilities and the pitfalls of AI in the courts. “The legal profession and the courts are like everyone else. We are trying to adjust and are quickly adjusting to AI and its effect on the practice of law,” Hudson said. She said courts are seeing more voluminous filings, there have been some cases of mistaken citations and some lawyers who have gotten tripped up by overrelying on it. The Minnesota judiciary has an AI committee that is studying formal rules around the use of AI. Until regulations emerge, Hudson is striking a cautionary note: “I would just remind practitioners, especially, that you still have a duty as an officer of the court to ensure that the work that you're presenting to the court is what it purports to be — that those cases exist and that they stand for the propositions that that AI says that they do. So you do not get to abdicate your role as a professional and as an officer of the court.” Click here to listen to Angela’s full interview, which also gets into election cases and the mandatory retirement age for judges.