Minneapolis city council members are overpaid compared to their peers in similar-sized cities. That is the finding of an analysis carried out by the city’s own staff at the request of…
The Saint Paul Federation of Educators and the Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) district are currently negotiating a new contract. The union is asking for a $7,500 pay increase for…
Today’s post is simply a reminder of the mission of public education in Minnesota, as written in state statutes. May it prompt necessary next steps to return public education in…
Nearly 50 million people in America were born somewhere else. On the first day of this month, I wrote a piece speculating on whether the share of foreign-born had reached…
I’ve applied to fill an upcoming vacancy on the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC). To be clear, there is zero chance I will be appointed by Governor Walz, but here…
When lawmakers legalized marijuana last session, they also set aside tens of millions of tax dollars to subsidize the marijuana industry. The bill that legalized marijuana, HF 100, instructed the…
Isaac Orr was on the Jon Justice show yesterday to discuss why Texas is growing increasingly vulnerable to winter blackouts and talk about how the failure of Minnesota electric buses…
Bail was set at $1 million on the single charge of 2nd-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Christian Hans Lundegaard on Thanksgiving Eve. His next court appearance on the…
The New York Times Editorial Board recently published an op-ed on how school closures during COVID-19 “may prove to be the most damaging disruption in the history of American education”…
As we’ve documented on video, the situation at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis hasn’t improved in 3 1/2 years. A group of businesses located in and near…
Back in 2020, my colleague Tom Steward and I described how Minnesotans — and residents of the Twin Cities specifically — were failed so miserably that summer by their state and…
WCCO reports that the 32-year-old Garcia has been charged with a single count, 2nd-degree (felony) murder in the Thanksgiving-eve stabbing death of 62-year-old Christian Hans Lundegaard. Garcia remains in custody…
For a few months now, a common theme in the local media is that the inflation rate in the Twin Cities is lower than in comparable metropolitan areas. In October,…
Evan Ramstad at the Star Tribune wrote a great story highlighting the multitude of entirely foreseeable potholes that electric buses are hitting in towns across Minnesota. The piece is solid…
The legislature appropriates more money, the unions grab it for salaries, the school board cuts middle school band, and everyone blames the legislature for underfunding. Rinse and repeat.
The Pitch A recent Star Tribune article about auto theft in Hennepin County highlighted an initiative out of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) called the Youth Auto Theft Early…
It has been nearly three years since Winter Storm Uri caused more than 24 million Texans to suffer through four days of rolling power outages due to inadequate electricity supplies. …
Taxes disincentivize people from doing or consuming whatever it is that is being taxed, whether it is investment or smoking. Indeed, much government policy, from cigarette taxes to carbon taxes,…
But you already knew that. Although he has not yet been charged in the Thanksgiving-eve fatal stabbing at an Edina bus stop, KSTP-5 has named the 32-year-old suspect in the…
State and local taxes and spending KFGO: Preliminary numbers show an average of a 7.3% property tax increase in Minnesota next year Wadena Pioneer Journal: County board receives update on…
A friend passed along a recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on the importance of thanking our teachers (with a focus on doing so before it’s too late). I…
In June I highlighted our criminal justice system’s apparent apathy in connecting the dots and incapacitating a man responsible for the gruesome death of a man crushed by a train…
The Minnesota Legislature is about to build another new office building for themselves and once again, they’re doing it without ever taking a vote on the floor of the House…
There has been a fair amount of effort to characterize our crime problem as improving. These efforts typically cite a handful of crimes that have decreased slightly when compared to last…