Good morning.  It’s crispy lawn season.

Another new Minnesota law is being challenged in federal court, this time by an Elon Musk artificial intelligence company. A lawsuit filed by xAI seeks to stop Minnesota’s new anti-nudification law that was passed nearly unanimously and intended to weed out faked images of people wholly or partially nude. The tech platform’s complaint argues the law is “clumsy” and would infringe on free speech. Dana and Peter run down the details of the lawsuit , which includes images of Musk and Trump in scant attire to make a point that satirical images could be used to go after the platforms and creators. The law carries steep fines for violations and allows people to sue if they are portrayed in nonconsensual, fake images that purport to show them naked. The law is due to become effective on Saturday, but xAI wants it blocked while it makes a case in court or a ruling that the law is unconstitutional. The law is just one of the tech restrictions approved by lawmakers to run into legal resistance; a ban on prediction markets got suspended earlier this week.

State employees are now barred from using nonpublic government information for prediction market wagers. That’s after Gov. Tim Walz issued an executive order yesterday. As Matt Sepic reports , Walz said he’s aiming to head off the kind of insider trading that has cropped up on the national stage, including in the Trump White House. “An individual’s position in government should not and cannot give them an unfair financial advantage,” the order says. Walz said the restriction applies regardless of whether a bet results in profit or not. The executive order says violations could result in discipline up to termination and potential criminal penalty. The governor, lieutenant governor and agency commissioners are covered by the terms. 

The Minnesota governor’s race remains a fundraising runaway. Here are the stats from leading contenders covering activity from June 1 to July 20:

In the race for the other big prize at the Capitol — legislative majorities — the party caucuses are on more comparable footing, although there are also outside groups stockpiling for the fall campaign. Here’s where the caucuses came down since their last reports (covering activity from June 1 to July 20).

This appears to be the year when right-of-center political funds level the playing field in Minnesota after cycle after cycle of watching left-of-center entities dominate. New campaign reports as well as required disclosures of big contributions since the last deadline bear this out. Renew Minnesota, which has become a feeder fund to several other committees, is a case in point: The conservative account had a whopping $3.4 million in reserve as of July 20. Much of that was passed downstream from a national GOP fund named GOPAC. The ensuing spilldown donations from Renew have already fed a committee known as First Principles PAC that is running searing TV ads against DFL Attorney General Keith Ellison. You have to do some backtracking because Renew gave a hefty sum to Minnesotans For Justice, which cut the check to First Principles. In any regard, the money provides firepower Republicans have struggled to muster in statewide races. There’s also Restore Sanity PAC, which is seven figures deep into ads to boost Lisa Demuth in the governor’s race. It reloaded last week with another $1 million donation, which dwarfs what the House speaker has raised for her own campaign. In the legislative space, Advance Minnesota appears to be the big Republican player to watch with its bankroll of about $2.7 million for the midterm election runup where majorities in both legislative chambers are on the line.

An old wire-service editor of Brian’s used to say that candidate profiles are best told in chapters because the birth-until-now tomes can be too exhaustive for the average news consumer. Max Nesterak over at the Minnesota Reformer did a tremendous job this week illuminating the political biographies, messaging and vulnerabilities of the DFL candidates for U.S. Senate. Read his stories about how U.S. Rep. Angie Craig has been dogged by a campaign-defining immigration vote (for which she’s voiced regret) and the way Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan has tried to navigate the stain of fraud on the Walz administration (complete with a catchy headline). The details throughout both are fascinating and there are useful statistics dropped in along the way. We hope Max has similar chapter-length stories lined up about the GOP hopefuls.

Did DOGE cuts make these latest northern Minnesota wildfires worse? Dave Orrick at the Star Tribune and the Washington Post report that last year the Trump administration’s DOGE team held up a fire-prevention plan to thin the Superior National Forest of dead trees. Specifically, thousands of acres of downed trees along the Echo Trail would have been chopped up and left to decompose on the forest floor. That would have made Echo Trail a more effective fire break between different sections of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Some of that acreage has burned and parts of Echo Trail have been evacuated. Orrick spoke with Aaron Kania, a former district park ranger in the area, to better understand how decisions in Washington have affected northern Minnesota’s fire readiness. Kania is running to represent Ely and much of Arrowhead in the Minnesota House, citing his broad frustrations with President Donald Trump’s cuts to federal programs. Kania is hoping to unseat Republican Roger Skraba.

Minnesota’s court system is getting ready to disburse a round of grants to fortify judicial facilities around the state. The Legislature set aside $4 million for additional courthouse security, meant to build on a few prior allocations. Eligible counties can apply through Sept. 8 for the grants to buy security equipment, do assessments, train staff or make other improvements for safety reasons. The judicial branch will match half the cost. An advisory panel will make decisions on which applications will proceed sometime in November.