Minnesota

Young Minnesotans deserve more than broken dreams.

I’ve seen this movie before, and I know how it ends. The headline last week in the ND Reformer reads: North Dakota officials object to Minnesota carbon-free energy law in public…

The ranks of those charged in the sprawling free-food scandal grew by two this week and now stands at 72. Five were indicted this week in the $120,000 juror bribery…

Family Child Care or home-based childcare provides a crucial lifeline to Minnesota parents who can’t afford center-based care. Unlike daycare centers, family childcare settings are also usually small, have flexible…

More than two and a half years after filing for a permit, Summit Carbon Solutions has finally gotten crucial approval from Iowa regulators for the first leg of a nearly…

In the Federal courthouse in downtown St. Paul this afternoon, the woman alleged to have delivered the $120,000 in cash to the house of Juror #52 in the recently concluded…

It’s taken years but school administrators finally appear to be learning the hard way that cellphones do not belong in the classroom. Good thing because Minnesota public schools now face…

This morning, at the Federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger announced that five individuals have been indicted for attempting to bribe the juror in the recently concluded…

Cargill, a Minnesota-based company just announced that it is opening an office hub in Atlanta, Georgia. The company will create 400 jobs there. Speaking of the move, the board chair…

The crime stories from Minnesota get more bizarre by the day. The latest one involves a single-car accident on Interstate 90 near Rochester and is like something out of a…

A massive Minnesota free-food nonprofit listed a curious job description recently. In late May, Brooklyn Park-based Second Harvest Heartland posted an opening for a “voter engagement coordinator,” a temporary position…

Professors at two North Dakota institutions of higher education dodged a bullet last year when lawmakers fell just short of passing legislation to reduce protections for tenured faculty. At the…

State and local taxes and spending The Globe: Jackson County plans referendum seeking 1% local sales tax KRFO: Rochester School Board Approves Hundreds of Millions in Spending  Labor market Federal…

Recent data on unemployment insurance claims released by the U.S. Department of Labor show Minnesota’s increases are driven by layoffs in education. In the week ending June 1, the largest…

In what will be an ongoing effort to track the ever-growing list of frauds perpetrated against state and local governments in Minnesota, I’ve started a spreadsheet tracker, A few notes…

The drastic cuts in degree programs and faculty members recently finalized by St. Cloud State University officials put the school in a class of its own when it comes to…

In many circles, chronic absenteeism has emerged as one of the biggest problems facing schools right now. As I wrote here, Minnesota’s chronic absenteeism rate has more than doubled since…

Only 35 percent of Minnesotans believe things in K-12 education are going in the right direction, according to a survey by Morning Consult that is updated monthly. Optimism about the…

Local media continues to pick over the bones of the 2024 legislative session. Reviewing “What labor bills passed and didn’t in Minnesota this year,” the Minnesota Reformer notes that “Prevailing…

A bill making its way through the Minnesota legislature would require setting exam scores to ensure that 95 percent of education paraprofessionals working on their statewide credential pass the assessments…

If a new proposal moving through the legislature passes, Minnesota will require companies to pay for the recycling of packaging waste, among other things. HF 3577 and SF 3561 have…

Despite promising a short to-do list, the 2024 legislative session is off to a busy start. Over 500 bills have been introduced in the House first week of the session,…

Our Public Safety feature article in the latest Thinking Minnesota magazine. Read about several extrajudicial initiatives put in play in Minnesota, designed to reduce penalties for crime, reduce incarceration and…

Quite a variety of words have been used to describe what happened in the 2023 legislative session. But whether you think the session was “bonkers” or “transformational,” there is no…