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The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

There was no Weekend Desk Report because I’ve been in Minneapolis since early Saturday morning for my dad’s surprise 80th birthday party, and I’ll be here through Thursday. I’ll still be posting intermittently.
So let’s see what’s in the news . . .


Gubernatorial Culture Shock
“Minnesota’s Legislature is living through special session deja vu,” AP reports.
“Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders have repeatedly discussed a possible overtime session to resurrect a $1 billion public construction package and a $260 million tax relief bill, but pessimism about the session has been growing. If their effort to find a compromise and hold a special session fails, it won’t be anything new.”
A special session after a budget has passed to do more? What state am I in?
Governor Vs. Speaker
“Discouraging words were the only ones heard from DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and GOP House Speaker Kurt Daudt last Tuesday after their latest private meeting supposedly leading to a special session of the Legislature,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
“The two leaders emerged from their closed-door session complaining about each other’s unwillingness to strike a deal and casting themselves as ‘pessimistic’ (that was Dayton) and ‘disappointed’ (that was Daudt).”
Wait, which one is delusional and which one is the tinpot dictator?
*Note for Chicagoans: “DFL” stands for Democratic Farmer Labor party, which is what Democrats are in Minnesota. After Watergate, state Republicans became the IR – the Independent Republicans. In 1995, they dropped the Independent part at the behest of the growing conservative movement.
Party Like It’s 2016
“In the Minnesota Legislature . . . party crossing is increasingly rare. Over the past two years, House Republicans voted with other Republicans 92 percent of the time, according to a Pioneer Press analysis of voting data in the Legislature. House Democrats voted with other Democrats 86 percent of the time. That means that in the vast majority of the more than 500 votes House members took – on issues from booze to boats to budget – party members cast their votes in the exact same way.
“This isn’t unique to Minnesota, either.
“‘Quite a few state legislatures are even more polarized than the U.S. Congress right now,’ said Seth Masket, a political science professor at Denver University who has studied state legislatures. ‘In many states the Democratic agenda is so far different from the Republican agenda that there’s a lot more ideological disparity between the parties than there’s ever been.'”
Chief Executive
“Dayton often says that achieving bipartisan compromise requires ‘agreeing to things one does not agree with.'”
The state entered the spring budget session with a $900 million surplus, but you never hear Bruce Rauner mention Minnesota when he ticks off the states he thinks we should emulate.
Rule My World
“The ever-mercurial Prince – who battled everyone from Warner Bros. Records to bootleggers for control of his music – churned through lawyers, managers and financial advisers in his 40-year career, leaving no doubt who was in charge,” the Star Tribune reports.
“Yet now, two months after his death, it’s attorneys and accountants who are running Prince’s show. Prince would go crazy at the thought.

“He looked at managers, lawyers and business people as necessary evils,” said Alan Leeds, who worked closely with Prince from 1983 to 1992 as tour manager and head of Paisley Park Records. “I don’t know that Prince trusted anybody.”

“On Monday, nearly two dozen attorneys are expected to weigh in at the Carver County courthouse over how to verify who qualifies as Prince’s heirs under the Minnesota law. Those attorneys represent more than a dozen people who have filed claims to be Prince’s kin, entitling them to some or all of his estate, which has been valued at $100 million to $300 million.”
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The Cub Factor: Hell Week
Partied like 2009.
The White Sox Report: Robin Lives
Changing managers mid-stream rarely works anyway.
The Luke Leaves
ICYMI, my running commentary on the departure of George Lucas and his museum-quality movie props appeared on Twitter on Friday.
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BeachBook
Low-Priority Immigrants Still Swept Up In Obama’s Net Of Deportation.

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Channel 5 Editorial: ERA For Illinois (1976).

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TweetWood
A sampling.


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Nobody says “no comment” more than media folks.


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Neither farmer, labor nor Democratic. More like, say, Independent Republicans.


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The Beachwood Tronc Line: They don’t get it up north.

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Posted on June 27, 2016