Minnesota legislative leaders said earlier this week that they’re inching toward the finish line as they work to draft bills and secure enough votes to pass budget bills.

If lawmakers don’t finish their work by July 1, the state could go into a partial government shutdown. A first round of layoff notices was sent to state employees on June 1, warning of the shutdown possibility. Gov. Tim Walz said the second round, affecting 28,000 employees, go out June 9, but he’s hoping to finish work before then.

Gov. Tim Walz.

“That causes great uncertainty for folks. I think it adds unnecessary chaos,” he said. “It’s still my desire, and this is a negotiated issue … that that be a one-day (special) session. So it means once we come out of this room … we got a day to do it. So I would tell you, it’s my desire that this thing be buttoned up so I don’t have to send out those notes.”

Walz and DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman, DFL–Brooklyn Park, said a special session could happen soon — possibly Saturday. Speaker of the House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, did not commit to a specific date, but said a special session “should be called soon.”

House Speaker Lisa Demuth (Courtesy photo)

All leaders said significant work remains, and agreed that the budget bills for Health and Human Services, Transportation and Taxes are currently the biggest holdups. A bonding bill is still up in the air.

Concerns over budget agreement

The transportation bill is under scrutiny after the Dakota County Board of Commissioners wrote to lawmakers Wednesday, claiming the budget agreement — reached last month by state leaders — would divert $93 million in regional sales tax revenue for the Metropolitan Council.

The tax bill is up in the air after the chairs of the Tax Committees in the Senate and House, Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, and Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, spoke out on Monday against the tax bill agreement that leadership released over the weekend. Davids said he would have liked to see more relief for data centers, as well as some proposals that leadership left out, such as a sustainable aviation fuel tax credit.

House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman.

The Human Services budget bill comprises the second largest part of the state’s budget, at $24 billion, and also will be subject to the most net cuts out of any budget bill this year — $300 million. Hortman said the delay in the Health and Human Services bills is mostly due to the time-consuming process for the Office of Revisors of Statutes in drafting such a large and complex bill.

It’s still unclear whether the issue of repealing MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults — a contingency in the budget deal struck by Walz and leaders — will travel in the Health budget bill or as a stand-alone bill during the special session.

State leaders didn’t confirm whether they have the votes from their caucuses to pass all of the budget bills. Hortman said the process of caucusing and securing each vote takes time — especially when drafts are still in progress.

“I signed an agreement that committed my caucus to deliver votes to pass bills … But we’re not at the point where we have caucused every single bill,” she said. “You can’t ask people will you vote for a bill until the bill is done being drafted.”

Missed deadline

As lawmakers work to wrap up business, most of it is behind closed doors, as public meetings are few and far between.

Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy.

Beyond the regular session May 19 deadline, leaders have missed several self-imposed deadlines for finishing their work: May 26, May 29 and June 4. Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said Wednesday that lawmakers are “making progress — it is as slow as molasses, but molasses is good.”

The budget is looking to be $66 billion to $67 billion, roughly $5 billion less than 2023’s budget. Cuts are coming in heavy for the 2026-2027 budget after a February forecast showed the state could be headed toward a $6 billion deficit in 2028-2029.

“We have the closest split in any Legislature maybe ever for the tie in the House and one vote of the Senate, which means the details matter, “ Walz said Wednesday. “We’ve been saying all along this needs to get done. We have already blown through some of the gates that needed to be accomplished, and those become much more serious as we move closer towards July 1.”

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By JUAN A. LOZANO

HOUSTON (AP) — Investigators are looking into whether the sexual orientation of “King of the Hill” voice actor Jonathan Joss played a role in his shooting death in Texas, authorities said Thursday, walking back a previous statement about the potential motive.

Joss’ husband has claimed the person who killed the actor yelled “violent homophobic slurs” before opening fire outside his home in San Antonio on Sunday night. A day after the shooting, San Antonio police issued a statement saying they had found “no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Mr. Joss’ murder was related to his sexual orientation.”

But during a news conference on Thursday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the statement was “premature” and that whether Joss’ sexual orientation played a role in the shooting “is part of the investigation.”

“I will own that and simply say again that we simply shouldn’t have done that. It was way too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued,” McManus said.

The police chief said many in the LGBTQ+ community “are feeling anxious and concerned” after Joss’ shooting and that “a lot of it has to do with that premature statement.”

“The loss of Jonathan Joss was tragic, most heavily felt by the LGBTQ+ community,” McManus said.

Texas does not have separate hate crimes charges. But if homophobia is found to have been a motive in the shooting, that could result in a harsher sentence at trial under the state’s hate crimes law.

“We gather the facts, and we give those facts to the district attorney’s office. And then that hate crime designation is determined at sentencing,” McManus said.

The actor’s home burned down in January. Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, has said that they were checking mail there Sunday when a man approached them, pulled out a gun and opened fire.

In a statement, de Gonzales said he and Joss had previously faced harassment, much of it “openly homophobic.”

Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, who is a neighbor of Joss, is charged with murder in the shooting. Ceja Alvarez has been released on a $200,000 bond.

Ceja Alvarez’s attorney, Alfonso Otero, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Thursday.

McManus said police had been called to Joss’ home and his neighborhood about 70 times over the past two years related to “neighborhood type disturbances.”

“Sometimes (Joss) was the caller. Other times, the neighbors were calling on him,” McManus said.

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The San Antonio Police Department’s mental health unit as well as a unit known as SAFFE that works with residents to help prevent crime “had extensive engagements with Mr. Joss, making repeated efforts to mediate conflicts and connect him with services that he may have needed,” McManus said.

The January fire at Joss’ home is still being reviewed by arson investigators, McManus said.

Joss lost all his belongings in the blaze and his three dogs were killed.

Actors who worked with Joss, along with friends and fans have honored Joss’ memory with tributes.

“His voice will be missed at King of the Hill, and we extend our deepest condolences to Jonathan’s friends and family,” the show’s creators and producers — Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and Saladin Patterson — said in a statement on the animated series’ Instagram page.

PITTSBURGH — Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin are taking their bromance to the next level.

The four-time NFL MVP ended months of “will he or won’t he” speculation by informing Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers he plans to join the team for the 2025 season, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Thursday. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because Rodgers has not yet signed a contract.

The Steelers and the 41-year-old Rodgers had been circling each other for months. Rodgers even visited the team’s facility in late March, driving in undercover in a nondescript sedan wearing a hat and sunglasses.

While there were plenty of nice words from both sides in the aftermath, Rodgers didn’t rush to put pen to paper, telling “The Pat McAfee Show” in April that his attention was focused on helping people in his inner circle who were “battling some difficult stuff” and that he didn’t want to decide until he knew he could fully commit.

With mandatory minicamp coming next week, Rodgers apparently finds himself in a place where he can give the Steelers his full attention.

Rodgers joins a team that has been stuck in a transitional period at quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger retired after the 2021 season. Either Rodgers or Mason Rudolph — who returned to Pittsburgh on a two-year deal in March — will likely be Pittsburgh’s fifth different Week 1 quarterback in as many seasons.

The Steelers have stayed competitive, up to a point anyway, amid the constant churn at the most important position on the field. Pittsburgh has reached the playoffs four times in the last five seasons, only to be quickly escorted out of the postseason in lopsided fashion each time.

Justin Fields and Russell Wilson — who combined to lead the Steelers to a 10-7 record and a playoff berth last season — ended up in New York. Fields will replace Rodgers with the Jets after agreeing to a two-year deal. Wilson is heading to the Giants on a one-year contract.

Those deals left Rodgers and the Steelers without any other reasonable options. Both sides have their reasons for consummating what is essentially a marriage of convenience.

Rodgers hopes to author a happier ending to his Hall of Fame career after two eventful, if underwhelming, seasons with the Jets. While Rodgers is hardly a long-term solution in Pittsburgh, he is the best option left after the Steelers chose not to use one of their higher picks in April’s draft on a quarterback, instead taking a late-round flyer on former Ohio State star Will Howard.

The union brings Rodgers and Tomlin — the longest-tenured head coach in major professional North American sports — together after years of what is the football equivalent of flirting.

They’ve long held each other in high esteem and have enjoyed a handful of memorable on-field interactions that went viral. Last fall, they playfully nodded at each other as a sign of respect after Tomlin was forced to burn a timeout when Rodgers tried a quick snap that would have ended with the Steelers being penalized for having too many men on the field.

Pittsburgh is hoping Rodgers has enough left physically to go with a football IQ that remains elite. He was solid if not spectacular last season in New York, throwing for 28 touchdowns against 11 interceptions.

Yet his play on the field often took a back seat to the drama off it as the Jets cycled through coaches and limped to a 5-12 record, with Rodgers spending much of his time in New York defending comments he made on platforms like “The Pat McAfee Show.”

The Steelers are no strangers to drama. If there’s been one constant since the team’s last Super Bowl appearance — a loss to Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in February 2011 — it’s the ability to employ talented, if mercurial players.

The list runs the gamut, from Roethlisberger to Antonio Brown to Le’Veon Bell to JuJu Smith-Schuster to George Pickens, traded to Dallas last month.

Pittsburgh has retooled a bit in the offseason, including acquiring two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver DK Metcalf from Seattle. The Steelers quickly signed him to a new five-year deal to bring some stability (and hopefully maturity) to a wide receiver room that’s lacked both.

The one thing Pittsburgh hadn’t done was do the same at the most important position on the field. Tomlin and team president Art Rooney II both kept the door open for Fields and Wilson to return, only to stand by idly when Fields bolted for the Jets and make no serious attempt to retain Wilson.

While the Steelers did bring back Rudolph, a season removed from leading them on an improbable run to the playoffs, he is considered a backup.

The field of experienced players available eventually winnowed down to Rodgers.

His arrival is a stopgap, one that Pittsburgh hopes will keep it competitive until a long-term solution arrives, most likely in the 2026 draft. Until then, Rodgers and the Steelers will try to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation of their own making.

___

AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.

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By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

A private lunar lander from Japan descended toward a touchdown on the moon Friday, but flight controllers lost contact with the spacecraft and were unsure of its fate.

The Tokyo-based company ispace said its lander dropped out of lunar orbit as planned. But there was no immediate word on the outcome, following the hourlong descent.

As the tension mounted, the company’s livestream of the attempted landing came to an abrupt end. “We haven’t been able to confirm,” one of the commentators said in Japanese, but Mission Control “will continuously attempt to communicate with the lander.”

The encore came two years after the company’s first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name Resilience for its successor lander. Resilience holds a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist’s toy-size red house for placement on the moon’s dusty surface.

This image taken from video shows flight controllers at ispace Mission Control in Tokyo awaiting confirmation of their private lunar lander touching down on the moon Friday, June 6, 2025. (ispace via AP)

Long the province of governments, the moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way.

Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month. It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, which reached the moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March.

Another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the moon’s south pole and was declared dead within hours.

Resilience was targeting the top of the moon, a less forbidding place than the shadowy bottom. The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side’s northern tier.

Plans had called for the 7.5-foot (2.3-meter) Resilience to beam back pictures within hours and for the lander to lower the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface.

Made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace’s European-built rover — named Tenacious — sports a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for NASA.

The rover, weighing just 11 pounds (5 kilograms), will stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than one inch (a couple centimeters) per second. It’s capable of venturing up to two-thirds of a mile (1 kilometer) from the lander and should be operational throughout the two-week mission, the period of daylight.

Besides science and tech experiments, there’s an artistic touch.

The rover holds a tiny, Swedish-style red cottage with white trim and a green door, dubbed the Moonhouse by creator Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface.

Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and founder of ispace, considers the latest moonshot “merely a steppingstone,” with its next, much bigger lander launching by 2027 with NASA involvement, and even more to follow.

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Minutes before the attempted landing, Hakamada assured everyone that ispace had learned from its first failed mission. “Engineers did everything they possibly could” to ensure success this time, he said.

Chief financial officer Jumpei Nozaki promised to continue the lunar quest regardless of what happens. A third lander is already in work for a 2027 launch, he said.

Ispace, like other businesses, does not have “infinite funds” and cannot afford repeated failures, Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace’s U.S. subsidiary, said at a conference last month.

While not divulging the cost of the current mission, company officials said it’s less than the first one which exceeded $100 million.

Two other U.S. companies are aiming for moon landings by year’s end: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology. Astrobotic’s first lunar lander missed the moon altogether in 2024 and came crashing back through Earth’s atmosphere.

For decades, governments competed to get to the moon. Only five countries have pulled off successful robotic lunar landings: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan. Of those, only the U.S. has landed people on the moon: 12 NASA astronauts from 1969 through 1972.

NASA expects to send four astronauts around the moon next year. That would be followed a year or more later by the first lunar landing by a crew in more than a half-century, with SpaceX’s Starship providing the lift from lunar orbit all the way down to the surface. China also has moon landing plans for its own astronauts by 2030.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.