Daily Digest: Nov. 1 roundup

Good morning and welcome to Wednesday. There's more on yesterday's truck attack in New York city here. And here's the Digest.

1. Keith Downey, a Republican candidate for Minnesota governor, released an education plan Tuesday that would use public money to finance private school vouchers. He also said he would shutter public schools with performance problems. Downey promised to push for legislation within 45 days as Minnesota governor to enact those ideas. The former legislator and past state Republican Party chair is among several contenders for the 2018 GOP nomination. Republicans have tried for years to allow parents to peel off tax dollars for their children that otherwise would go to public schools. But those attempts have largely been tripped up. Most times, legislative sponsors have avoided describing the carve-outs as “vouchers,” opting instead to call them “opportunity scholarships.” (MPR News)

2. Twelve pharmaceutical companies were added Tuesday to a price-fixing lawsuit which alleges that a Minnesota salesperson arranged meetings where company representatives could agree to inflate prices or avoid competition in certain regions of the country. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson announced the expansion of the suit, which she originally filed in 2016 along with attorneys for 45 other states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The lawsuit alleges collusion that resulted in dramatic price increases for generic drugs, such as an arthritis medication that jumped from $32 in 2012 to $108 in 2016. In response to the expansion of the lawsuit, the Association for Accessible Medicines — the trade group for the generic drug industry — pointed out that generics saved the U.S. health system $253 billion in 2016 by reducing use of more expensive brand name drugs. (Star Tribune)

3. More than $1.8 million has poured into the Minneapolis mayoral race through Oct. 26, according to campaign finance reports released Tuesday, as a field of well-funded challengers works to unseat Mayor Betsy Hodges with the election now less than a week away. There is no clear front-runner in the hotly contested race, which has been unpredictable because of ranked-choice voting and little voter polling. The top fundraiser for the reporting period and the year was Council Member Jacob Frey, who attracted $131,815 between Aug. 1 and Oct. 26, and has collected $492,000 in donations for the year, including a $10,000 loan to himself, with significant investment from downtown business interests, developers and restaurateurs. (Star Tribune)

4. By late next year, it may be much harder to buy menthol cigarettes in St. Paul. The city council Wednesday is expected to tighten restrictions on the sale of flavored tobacco, adding menthol, mint, and wintergreen to the list of products banned from gas stations and corner stores. The restrictions before the St. Paul City Council don't ban minty tobacco outright, but they would be limited to stores that get at least 90 percent of their revenue from tobacco and its paraphernalia. A change approved last week also allows liquor stores to keep selling menthol. The St. Paul ordinance is similar to one recently approved in Minneapolis. Anti-smoking groups support the move, but some convenience store owners who rely on menthol cigarette sales worry they'll be driven out of business entirely. They say officials in both cities haven't appeared interested in compromises, such as removing in-store advertising and selling only to people 21 and older. (MPR News)

5. Facebook, Google and Twitter arrived on Capitol Hill for two days of marathon hearings that started on Tuesday afternoon with the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and terrorism. Top executives for the social media giants are being grilled by lawmakers investigating Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, including how the online platforms were used to spread misinformation and propaganda. Ahead of the hearings, all three companies announced on Monday that the number of Russian-linked accounts on their sites were higher than previously disclosed. Facebook said agents using those accounts disseminated information that reached 126 million users. “How did Facebook, which prides itself on being able to process billions of data points and instantly transform them in the personal connections with its user, somehow not make the connection that electoral ads, paid for in rubles, were coming from Russia?” Minnesota Sen. Al Franken demanded of Facebook’s general counsel. (New York Times)

• Politics Friday: Should we stop trusting pre-election polling?
• MPR News congressional debates: 7th District and 8th District
• Politics Friday: 1st District, 3rd District congressional candidates debate the issues