Remember when Gov. Mark Dayton dubbed it the “People’s Stadium” in order to sell the proposed $1 billion US Bank Stadium to the public? The press release still resides on the…
Mondale has thrown down the legislative gauntlet, again. While annoying and not correct that the Council is acting under actual authority, he is correct that the legislature created the creature…
The latest federal government shutdown hardly registered a blip when it came to the effect on daily life for most folks. The inconsequential impact was partly due to the short–just…
The upside for the Dayton Administration’s hopelessly dysfunctional MNLARS vehicle registration system? It hasn’t crashed since November 2. The downside? Some 269,000 registration and title transactions remain backlogged in the…
Minnesota has effectively run out of federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The program covers health care costs for 125,000 Minnesota children. But now there’s a chance…
If there’s one city in Minnesota that ought to think twice before throwing away taxpayer dollars on creating a “brand” it’s Rochester. The first thing that comes to mind at the…
You know there’s something really questionable about a regulation when both industry and environmental activists strongly oppose it. But that’s what happened with a controversial water quality proposal from the…
A billboard criticizing President Donald Trump located on Highway 52 near Hampton, Minnesota has received a fair amount of attention lately. The sign shows a photograph of Trump accompanied by…
The argument over the sustainability of northern Minnesota’s wolf population ended long ago, at least among the folks who live there. The latest proof of proliferation comes from an extraordinary…
Every once in a while the good guy still wins, even in the the Swamp. On the week Al Franken stepped down from the Senate in accordance with his marching…
The geniuses that recently named Minnesota the best run state clearly never had a run-in with Driver and Vehicle Services. The public and political impatience with the beyond embarrassing breakdown…
The dean of Iron Range editors has issued the equivalent of a Surgeon General’s warning over the implications of Sen. Tina Smith’s rise to power for northern Minnesota. Recently retired Mesabi Daily…
This is shocking: Melvin Carter, at his inauguration as St. Paul’s mayor, went on an ill-informed rant against the National Anthem: During his inaugural speech Tuesday, St. Paul mayor Melvin…
So Al Franken has chosen to leave the Senate on a Paul Wellstonian note. Borrowing from the late Senator Wellstone, Franken tells us that politics is all about improving the…
It’s impossible to get your arms around the reach and cost of the federal bureaucracy in our lives and pocketbooks. But a new analysis by a government oversight group provides…
How well is our state doing? People are voting with their feet.
A recent report by 24/7 Wall Street named Minnesota the best governed state in the US. But how did they measure that? When you take a look at how they…
Economists point to the new regulatory climate in Washington as one of the key reasons behind the scenes for the U.S. economy’s resurgence. The extent to which the Trump administration…
With every paycheck, public employees faithfully hand over a percentage of their pay, and taxpayers match or exceed that contribution. Both should be able to trust that the pension funds,…
This is another one of my “post-Roast” tributes reflecting on some of Mitch Pearlstein’s accomplishments during the “early days” of the Center. My previous piece, which includes the fun poem…
National Democrats want Minnesota Sen. Al Franken out of office sooner rather than later. But Minnesota DFLers are torn over whether or not the former funny man should quit, the…
Minnesota remains one of a dozen or so states refusing to cooperate with the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Minnesota’s top election official, Secretary of State Steve Simon, continues…
The heat’s on at Driver and Vehicle Services. Not only over the botched roll-out of the new and not-so-improved high-tech MNLARS vehicle registration system that continues to cause chaos at…
Distrust of the council arises from a governance structure that allows this unelected body to exercise power over 3.5 million metro residents with little to no accountability. The council, reporting…