Perhaps another headline about a drop in academic test scores doesn’t faze you anymore, but the projected impact lost learning will have on students over their lifetimes is nothing to…
Getting a barber license is not easy in Minnesota. Currently, state law requires that anyone applying for a barber license go through 1,500 hours of training, take four exams, and…
The current contract talks between AFSCME union workers and the city of Virginia have been rocky from the start. AFSCME Local 454 filed for mediation before the two sides even…
Scheduled for mid-May, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the state’s largest county will be holding a “crime prevention summit” to find “new solutions.” With a budget of up to…
Last Wednesday, the Metropolitan Council released more information about the proposed extension of the Blue Line light rail through north Minneapolis, Robbinsdale, Crystal and Brooklyn Park. The project is currently projected…
A growing number of articles have detailed how soaring energy prices are crippling heavy industry in Germany and several other European countries. The nascent deindustrialization of Europe stems from decades of bad energy policies mandating…
Governor Tim Walz received some very good news this week when they announced the state budget survived the 2023 legislative session and in fact is still delivering more money than…
As new markets open up, entrepreneurs rush in to fill the demand. An alert reader sent me this picture taken Friday, March 1, of a bus parked at a south…
The Circle of Education Funding is playing out in real life all over the state. Today’s edition finds us in St. Paul where union teachers have authorized a strike that…
From eye-popping spending proposals and possible welfare expansion to a $20 minimum wage and numerous proposed regulations, the 2024 session seems to be a continuation of last year’s expansion of…
“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Economist Herbert Stein uttered those words nearly 40 years ago. Perhaps he was unfamiliar with the workings of Minnesota state government.…
A new and disturbing trend in state government is the use of bonding dollars (borrowed money) to fund new buildings for private, non-profit companies. Traditionally, state-taxpayer-funded bonding projects have included…
A drilling crew boring some 2,000 feet under the surface of the northern Minnesota wilderness has found what they were looking for. Namely, confirmation of a rich pocket of helium…
According to the Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB), the state is still expecting a budget deficit. However, compared to the 2023 November forecast, the outlook is a little less gloomy.…
The Office of Management and Budget released the February forecast today showing an improved outlook for the economy and the state budget for the current two-year budget cycle. The state…
Plenty. Deena Winter of MN Reformer did a deep dive today into the tsunami of cash going directly to nonprofits in last year’s state budget. She comes up with a…
A new report released today by Center of the American Experiment highlights the unsustainable growth in human services spending that is driving the Minnesota state budget toward a deficit. Including the $6…
I have been a broken record on the fact that Minnesota’s academic achievement woes existed years before government policy responses to COVID exacerbated learning declines. In fact, it was because…
It’s taking longer than North Dakota residents would prefer for the U.S. Postal Service to provide answers on the problems plaguing mail delivery in much of the state. Not least…
In 2008, Brian Flowers, a month shy of 17, participated with another juvenile male in the brutal murders of Katricia Daniels and her 10-year-old son Robert Shepard in their North…
The full impact of COVID and school closures on students is still being determined, but chronic absenteeism has certainly emerged as one of the biggest problems facing schools right now.…
We have been sounding the alarm that the DFL-led Legislature is poised this session to further weaken sentencing for criminal offenders. Yesterday HF 4277 was introduced into the House Public…
WCCO traced the origins of one of the guns found at the scene where two policemen and a firefighter/medic were killed earlier this month. A third policeman was injured in…
The discovery of the endangered rusty patch bumble bee threatens to hold up a major upgrade to a hazardous stretch of Highway 5 in suburban Carver County. And bureaucratic obstacles…