Yesterday the St. Paul school board fired its superintendent of schools, Valeria Silva. Silva’s contract was bought out with a package estimated at $787,500. Silva’s firing follows an explosive series…
Eliot Seide, the executive director for public union AFSCME 5, went on the counter-offensive (or maybe just offensive) this weekend in response to my recent Strib commentary on pensions (“The…
The Metropolitan Council never saw any human behavior it didn’t want to change. It wants to change the way we get from one place to another, where we live, and…
Despite all the writing I’ve done about the sad and damaging effects of family fragmentation, my “operative” view of fatherhood – surprisingly, I trust to many – is a rather…
Property rights proponents are two-for-two so far this year in contesting proposed ordinances in Twin Cities suburbs that wanted to make it illegal for many homeowners to rent out their…
On May 28, the Center’s Peter Nelson had an op-ed in the St. Cloud Times. The op-ed dealt largely with Connecticut, a high-tax state state like Minnesota, which is rethinking…
Brooklyn Center, Minn.—For the second time this year, a Twin Cities suburb has turned back a controversial proposal to curtail one of its residents’ fundamental property rights—a homeowner’s freedom to…
You don’t want to miss Mitch Pearlstein’s thought-provoking piece on affirmative action and quotas that was featured on the opinion pages in Sunday’s Star Tribune. It’s stirred up a great…
Here’s a piece of good educational news; a welcomed byproduct of less-encouraging educational news. There would seem to be a growing appreciation across the nation for the kind of education…
It’s no secret that President Obama makes the Nixon Administration look good when it comes to White House hostility to openness in government. There’s little reason to expect “hope and…
Last year President Obama called on cities and states to pass legislation to require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees. Minneapolis just became the latest liberal metropolis to…
Victoria officials expect taxpayers to foot the bill for up to $100,000 in anticipated attorneys’ fees for four city council members found liable in March for a combined 38 intentional…
Road construction season is in full swing and it feels like one of the worst ever. Any trip I make seems to be obstructed. Get off the freeway to avoid…
It gets crazy in the waning hours of a legislative session. But House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis has displayed “a disturbing pattern of verbal abuse of Republican Staff” on…
On July 22, 2015 the chair of the Met Council Adam Duininck sent a letter to the chair of the House Transportation Committee, in which Duininck pledged: “Should the Legislature…
Following up on last week’s blog, the new one below again looks at a recently released national report aimed at “eliminating” – not just reducing but completely ending – child…
I have several good buddies who make sure I see I keep up with my pension math. So earlier this week, I got a number of friendly pings pointing to…
The Minneapolis City Council recently voted to require employers to provide paid sick leave to employees. The requirement applies to firms with six or more employees and extends to all…
With the overwhelming preponderance of media coverage of the recently concluded legislative session focusing on transportation, taxes, and bonding, most people remain unaware that we – meaning everyone in Minnesota…
The disconnect between citizens and bigger-than-ever government continues to drive discontent with politics as usual at every level. Folks who used to think they had not just a stake, but…
They’ve garnered hundreds more signatures on their petition campaigns than five-term Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead received in votes last November. But it remains to be seen whether the third and…
Connecticut’s dismal economic performance and budget crisis offer a harsh lesson on the limits and consequences of a state raising taxes too high. My analysis of data from the IRS that…
Today the St. Cloud Times published an op-ed I wrote on how Minnesota’s high taxes are becoming even more of an outlier as a number of states, including traditionally high tax…
The Minnesota legislative session officially ended with the usual last minute drama. In the final hour, the House passed a $1 billion bonding bill and sent it to the Senate…