When Principle Steers You Wrong
“My Way or the Highway” absolutists aren’t new to politics in any party, much less the GOP. In 2000, it was hard to get any traction in some caucuses I remember if candidates weren’t not only...
View ArticleTunnel of Love
So we're finally seeing some pushback on the proposed Southwest LRT line, according to the Star Tribune: Metro leaders who play a crucial role in funding transit revolted Wednesday over the rising...
View ArticleThe Politics of Poverty, Part 1
Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten recently wrote about the Metropolitan Council regional government and its efforts to remake the region’s demography using data collected through a...
View ArticleThe orchestra comes, hat in hand
As usual, they're lining up at the trough: Legislative and community leaders are considering giving more public money to the Minnesota Orchestra as its yearlong labor dispute leaves the future of the...
View ArticleThe Met Council’s Wishful Thinking
With some fanfare, the Metropolitan Council issued its predictions on where within the Twin Cities metropolitan area population growth will occur between now and 2040. Not surprisingly, the Met...
View ArticleThe Democrats' Met Council Plays the Long Game
The Twin Cities’ regional government, the Metropolitan Council, is embarking on an ambitious exercise in central planning for a 7-county area under the banner of Thrive MSP 2040. As reported in local...
View ArticleThe Columbia Heights Candidate for New Brighton
The letter arrived in the mail the other day, not addressed to me, but rather to Mrs. D. The letterhead announces that the missive is "FROM THE DESKS OF YOUR MINNESOTA STATE LEGISLATIVE TEAM, Senator...
View ArticleSt. Cloud can’t afford this boondoggle
Last night, the St. Cloud City Council held a study session prior to their regular meeting. Item #1 on the study session’s agenda was the construction of an aquatic center. Here’s one of the important...
View ArticleMinnesota Taxpayers to Pay Higher Borrowing Costs Because of Pension Debt
If you work in the financial sector, you are aware that public pensions, public debt and municipal bankruptcies like Detroit are making headlines hour by hour. After years of warnings from economists...
View ArticleMet Council: Doing Real Damage
I have written recently [here, here, and here] about the plans of the Met Council regional government to undertake a radical redesign of the area’s housing and transit patterns under the banner of its...
View ArticleLightning Round -- 111113
Haven't done one of these in a while. Shake down the thunder from the sky: The Star Tribune has noticed that municipal salaries have been going up sharply, especially for the bigwigs. In one of her...
View ArticleLester Bagley and the Spiders From Mars
Apologies to David Bowie: Zygi played for time, jiving us that we were voodoo: The Vikings stadium project encountered fresh problems on Friday when an attorney for the Minnesota Sports Facilities...
View ArticleIs St. Cloud State a “Great Place to Work”?
Last week, Silence Dogood wrote about a contract St. Cloud State signed with the Great Place to Work Institute. Here’s what Silence wrote in the opening paragraph: At Meet and Confer on October 9,...
View ArticleFor the Children
[Thursday], I received this PDF via The Network. It appears to be a script to be read over the phone to the parents of children attending Eden Prairie Public Schools. It concerns the proposed...
View ArticleBreak Out the Lucky Strikes, Helga Braid Nation
It's becoming pretty close to a moral imperative at this point -- I would strongly suggest that all members of Helga Braid Nation take up smoking, post-haste. Yes, there are well-documented adverse...
View ArticleMN businesses can buy place on leadership council, but does it mean favored...
ST. PAUL, Minn. — For $11, 500, Minnesota businesses can buy a premium membership with the Business Leadership Council, part of the Business Alliance Program. The membership “provides unparalleled...
View ArticleCrash, boom, bam: Deputy wrecks 33 times in 17 years, but union fights for...
EDINA, Minn.— As a law officer, former Todd County Deputy Sheriff Mark Grinstead didn’t miss much. After all, why try to avoid something when it’s a lot easier to just hit it? Grinstead, it must be...
View ArticlePension Update Winter 2014: A financial snapshot of major state, teacher and...
The 2010 and 2013 pension omnibus bills contained numerous changes to the various pension plans, tweaking contributions from employers and employees, vesting rules, retirement age, and cost of living...
View ArticleMoscow on the Mississippi?
After reading this article, I’m wondering if I’m living the United States or in the former Soviet Union. Seriously, does anyone think that governments should be able to use eminent domain to take...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Total war: MN liquor lobby takes on wine superstore
GAME ON: After a court ruled against preventing Total Wine from obtaining a license, local liquor store owner Steve Burwell says he’ll “keeping working hard and stress our customer service.”...
View Article
