This week on At Issue, Tom Hauser covers the start of the 2024 legislative session, the school resource officer law and much more.

The 2024 Minnesota legislative session is officially underway and lawmakers largely picked up where they left off last year — disagreeing on a number of issues including legislation impacting school resource officers and several others.

There’s been confusion over a school resource officer law which caused many districts to pull SROs from school buildings at the start of this school year. The main focus of the new bill is to define what a school resource officer is and standardize training for them statewide.

Last year, the Legislature made it a crime to use deepfake videos and audio to spread misinformation about elections. A new bill would ban candidates from public office if they use deepfakes.

Gov. Tim Walz announced a special election to fill a vacancy left by the resignation of state Rep. Kurt Daudt which will be held on March 19. Daudt announced his resignation from the Legislature last month.

Another round of state tax rebate checks are going out. The Department of Revenue will begin reissuing around 128,000 expired one-time rebates next week.

Later in the show, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy and Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson discuss the top issues being discussed in the ongoing legislative session.

Then, on political analysis, Annette Meeks and Mike Erlandson cover the school resource officer law, immigration issues and sports betting.