The “water protectors” have resurfaced in northwestern Wisconsin, targeting another strategic oil pipeline project. But this time they did it with the tacit acceptance of local law enforcement. The Duluth…
Environmental protests have become an accepted cost of doing business for companies involved in natural resource projects–until now. Energy Transfer Partners has just filed suit against Greenpeace and two other protest…
A major topic at the first gathering (August 10) of the Advisory Council for “Great Jobs Without a Four-Year Degree” was a series of meetings my American Experiment colleagues and…
West Virginia has struggled for years with a declining economy, and an increasingly discouraged and disengaged high school population. Now the state is working to change that with an innovative…
Net neutrality may be one of the most intangible issues in the public arena. Hard to explain, hard to understand, hard to get too worked about about. Yet it’s often…
The move to broaden young people’s exposure to career paths beyond a four-year college degree just got a boost from the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reports that the default…
The Pioneer Press ran a long story by Christopher Magan on Sunday about Minnesota’s immense achievement gaps. (“15 Years Later, MN Schools are More Segregated, and Achievement Gap has Barely…
With Congress reconvening and tax reform in the offing, where do our state's legislators stand?
When Les Engel and a handful of other St. Cloud-area manufacturers got together one morning in 2008 to strategize about their “talent pipeline” problem, they had no idea how many…
I had an exceptional intern this summer, Tori Roloff, who worked with me on two projects: American Experiment’s multi-year initiative, “Great Jobs Without a Four-Year Degree”; and a related book…
Minnesota's population is aging. The state will need the wealth generated by high productivity jobs, such as mining, to support its seniors
Minneapolis taxpayers will just have to wait and see how much Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges plans to jack up their property taxes next year. Hodges’ explanation for not releasing a…
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman proposed a budget that dramatically reduces road maintenance fees and raises property taxes by an equally dramatic 23.9 percent. The fee reduction and property tax…
The vast burden of federal regulations is well known. But what's the picture at state level?
A botched investigation has not only cost the Minnesota Department of Commerce its reputation for impartiality but also nearly $1 million in court-ordered legal expenses to be paid to the…
The pace of technological change is such that the skills you have at 20 are likely to be obsolete halfway through your working life. To keep pace, education must become…
Center of the American Experiment has filed a “friend of the court” or amicus brief with the Minnesota Supreme Court in the line-item veto case between the current Legislature and…
DFL Governor Mark Dayton’s plan, like many “blue state” governors, uses “transit oriented development” or TOD, to pull money out of the suburbs and greater Minnesota to fund and re-enforce…
Keith Ellison has been a vocal supporter of the campaign to raise the minimum wage to $15. Sadly, he won't put his money where his mouth is.
The number of Metro Area cities still in the liquor business continues to decline, the result of stiffer than ever competition. Many “munis” find it difficult to compete on a level…
Once again, evidence shows what theory predicts. Raising the price of something, in this case labor, increases the demand for substitutes, in this case machines.
GDP per person is what matters for the economic well-being of Minnesotans. An immigration policy focused on increasing that will have to prioritize skilled immigrants
The State of Minnesota’s revenue in July fell “well below government forecasts”, continuing a trend that has gone on for several months. Governor Dayton naturally focused on the extremely modest…
The Center’s president John Hinderaker recently wrote about the most recent student test scores in Minnesota, revealing an all-too-familiar trend of mediocre performance in the state’s public schools. According to…