called for them to be licensed. The state legislature did not act on his proposal, and in 2017 the Star Tribune ran a multi-part investigative special report exposing abuses of patients in such facilities. One of the major legislative proposals following the Star Tribune exposé was that the state license assisted-living facilities. Hatch also took on pharmaceutical companies. In 2002, he filed a lawsuit against Pharmacia Corporation, making Minnesota one of the first states to sue a drug company for defrauding patients and Medical Assistance by quoting "average wholesale prices" that did not reflect the prices insurers actually paid the pharmaceutical company for its drugs. In 2003, he filed lawsuits against several more drug companies alleging that they misrepresented the prices of inhalers for asthma patients by up to seven times the true cost. 2000-2006 Hatch took on other causes on behalf of the vulnerable. In 2000, he drafted and got enacted the Safe Place for Newborns Act, which allows mothers to take unwanted babies to any hospital for adoption. After 15 people were arrested in multi-million-dollar rings spanning 24 states that solicited young girls for prostitution, Hatch formed a task force to recommend legislative improvements. He secured $6 million in legislative funding for shelters for teenage runaways and prostitutes and drafted legislation that increased penalties for sex offenders. Hatch wielded the antitrust and regulatory powers of the office to promote market competition and regulate markets that were dominated by monopolies. In August 2000, he was an early opponent of the movement to deregulate electricity, issuing a several-hundred-page report claiming it would lead to higher prices for consumers. The year after Hatch issued this report, California experienced widespread power blackouts and 800 percent rate hikes after it deregulated electricity markets. In 2005, Allina Health System dropped its efforts to buy two cardiology practices after Hatch filed a lawsuit claiming that its proposal would give it a monopoly in local cardiac care. Hatch handled many constitutional cases as attorney general. In 2001, Minnesota state government nearly shut down when Governor Jesse Ventura and legislative leaders reached an impasse in budget negotiations. Hatch filed a petition to ask a court to order that essential state government services be funded in the event of a shutdown. The court granted Hatch's request, the first time that a Minnesota court had issued an order to authorize the government to continue to operate in the absence