A couple of years ago, I wrote that: Shortly after moving to Minnesota in 2017, my wife and I went to see a Saint Paul Saints game. Arriving early, we…
Back in 2018, I asked, “Why is the Ramsey County board going to waste up to $2 billion on a pointless streetcar?” This was in reference to the proposal “to…
Back in 2021, I wrote about “a pair of studies from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis [commissioned by the cities] into the effects of the minimum wage hikes in Minneapolis and St.…
Deena Winter of MN Reformer is out with a piece this week looking at the connections between four autism clinics and the free-food scandal. Two of these names will jump…
News of note in Minnesota: Center events, initiatives, and policy work.
You may recall the name Empress Malcolm Watson, Jr., from the early days of the Feeding Our Future scandal. He was described back then as the live-in boyfriend of Aimee…
When St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and other city officials gushed about ordering the first electric fire truck in the state last year, they made it clear federal funds were…
State and local taxes and spending Wall Street Journal: The Minnesota Tax-and-Spend Model Cato Institute: Governor Tim Walz’s Fiscal Record Washington Times: While other governors were lowering taxes, Walz socked…
When St. Paul proposed a 3 percent rent control in 2021, American Experiment warned that such a policy would be disastrous. Specifically, ACE compiled a report on existing evidence on…
The first thing to know is that pretty much no one currently gets where they’re going via bicycle on Concordia/Rondo Avenue in the area set to be resurfaced this fall…
Minneapolis… This week, I’ve written about property tax hikes coming to Minneapolis. Sure enough, as the Star Tribune reports, on Wednesday Mayor Frey announced: …a $1.88 billion budget and an…
In what may be a first for the Feeding Our Future case, eleven (11) defendants were inside the same courtroom at the same time this morning at the Federal building…
A St. Paul-based drug- and alcohol-treatment center, Evergreen Recovery, accused of defrauding the state in the amount of $28 million, had its day in court. Fifteen days ago, on July…
For the first time ever, the Thinking Minnesota poll exclusively surveyed young people and the results were shocking. Ninety percent of 18- to 34-year-olds in Minnesota said their generation is worse off economically compared to…
Labor market KROC: Jobs Data Show June Was a Record-Setting Month in Rochester Area State and local taxes and spending Minnesota Reformer: Study: Undocumented immigrants paid $222 million in Minnesota…
We add another item to the ever-growing list of scandals involving state welfare programs. KARE-11 TV has been on top of the saga involving Evergreen Recovery, Inc., a drug- and…
I am frequently asked to update the status of Derrick John Thompson, the son of the former state representative John Derrick Thompson (DFL-St. Paul). The younger Thompson stands accused of…
Back in 2019, I asked “Why does socialism always end up in oppression and poverty?” “Socialists do not generally set out to create impoverished, oppressive disasters,” I wrote: When the…
The city of St. Paul just got smacked down by a Ramsey County court in what’s being hailed a groundbreaking case for transparency in Minnesota government. Ramsey County District Judge…
Photo: AMTRAK MIDWEST “Profit” A couple of weeks ago, I noted the flurry of excitement in the local media over the news that the new train service between St. Paul…
Summer is usually a time of celebration. Graduations, weddings, vacations — new beginnings abound, and the possibilities are endless. In Minnesota, the lakes are full of fishermen and pleasure-seekers, and…
Photo: Christopher Oquendo for DailyMail.com In the Summer 2020 edition of our magazine Thinking Minnesota, my colleague Tom Steward and I wrote an article outlining how state and city leaders — particularly Governor…
There is no sense in which a solar power plant, however large, could substitute for the round-the-clock electricity provided by a coal-fired power plant. Yet, here we are. The Minneapolis…
Last week, I wrote about the bankruptcy of the Park Square Court building in downtown St. Paul and how it is an omen of looming budget problems in the city.…