Three Rivers Park District Chair John Gunyou will seek reelection
John Gunyou, chair of the Three Rivers Park District board, says he'll run for another term in November.Gunyou, first elected to the board in 2012, now seeks a four-year term in the 4th District, which...
View ArticlePoll finds Dayton, Franken have early leads, but many undecided
A new poll from Suffolk University (pdf) takes an early look at the still-shaping-up Minnesota political climate ahead of the November elections, and the numbers look good for incumbents Sen. Al...
View ArticlePoll: Dayton and Franken 'well ahead' of GOP challengers
“Well ahead … .”MPR’s Mark Zdechlik reports, “A new [Suffolk University Political Research Center] poll finds Democrats Mark Dayton and Al Franken are running well ahead of all of their Republican...
View ArticleBeating judge's deadline, Minnesota Senate sends online registration bill to...
Online voter registration is proof that lawmakers can move quickly to pass policy if facing a hard-and-fast deadline.The Minnesota Senate cleared a proposal Tuesday afternoon to set up a system of...
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Wicked waves bring out Lake Superior surfers
CC/Flickr/Randen PedersonBig waves have once again drawn surfers to Lake Superior.Along with wind and rain this week came big waves on Lake Superior that chopped at the remaining ice on the lake. That...
View ArticleSeifert efforts showing creativity — and a dash of chutzpah
With a new poll from Suffolk University in Boston showing Gov. Mark Dayton leading his potential Republican opponents by 12 to 18 points, it’s clear the GOP field has some catching up to do to create a...
View ArticleObama chooses to talk strong and carry a small stick
Reversing the advice of Teddy Roosevelt ("talk softly and carry a big stick") President Barack Obama has elected to offer tough talk in recent international crisis — and carry a small stick. And while...
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Burglar-killer Byron Smith 'guilty' verdict: the reaction
Following the “guilty” verdict in the Byron Smith case, Pam Louwagie of the Strib reports, “Efforts were made to obfuscate what this was and turn it into some type of referendum about being able to...
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The controversial execution of Ann Bilansky
Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical SocietyOil on canvas painting (1888) by Alexis Jean Fournier of the Ramsey County courthouse in St. Paul as it appeared at the time of Ann Bilansky's trial in...
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A look inside the campaign that killed a sulfide mine at Yellowstone's door
I wasn't able, alas, to attend Mike Clark's recent talks in the Twin Cities about how a smart, strategic alliance of environmental and business groups was able to kill a sulfide mine at the edge of...
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Minimum-wage name game: how top legislators enforce discipline
This is one in a series of articles funded by a grant from the Northwest Area Foundation.Sen. Chris EatonOnce legislation passes, few care who sponsored the bill. But for legislators who pushed against...
View ArticleGreene, Mavity advance in Hennepin commissioner race to succeed Dorfman
In a low-low turnout special-election primary, Hennepin County commissioner candidates Marion Greene and Anne Mavity beat four challengers to advance to the Tuesday, May 13 general election.The math...
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Untangling the relationship (if any) between mental illness and crime
After graduating from Grinnell College in 2003 with a degree in sociology, Jillian Peterson went right into the heart of the beast: She took a job as an investigator for the Capital Defender Office in...
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Should soft-drink companies be funding research on obesity?
Creative Commons/Omar BariffiReporter Larry Huston: “For-profit companies like Coke and Pepsi don’t spend enormous sums of money just to provide a public service. They expect a significant return on...
View ArticleRussian gala is a pretty good symbol of why Europe is doing so little about...
LISBON, Portugal — While European governments were struggling to agree on the names of a handful of Russians they could blacklist in response to the latest mayhem in Ukraine, one of the continent's...
View ArticleWith mass sentences, Egyptians seek justice, but come away empty-handed
MINYA, Egypt — Egyptian lawyer Ahmed Eid spent months defending men he believed to be innocent. Last month, he was condemned to death alongside them.The young lawyer was one of 529 defendants sentenced...
View ArticlePawlenty: Republicans should support raising the minimum wage
WASHINGTON — Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told MSNBC on Wednesday that Republicans should support raising the minimum wage."If you’re going to talk the talk about being for the middle class and...
View ArticleWar on Poverty debate: By the numbers, there’s little argument in Minnesota
“It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we shall not rest until that war is won.”— Lyndon B. JohnsonThe year is 1964 and President Johnson is talking...
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April, the cruelest month: Minnesota remembers, and seeks to prevent future...
Creative Commons/edwin.11A memorial in the Dachau concentration camp "April is the cruelest month."Those words by the poet T.S. Eliot could have been written about genocide. The anniversaries of six...
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In this pet cemetery, the phantoms are all still waiting to please
It is appropriate, maybe, that the first headstone I come across in Memorial Pet Cemetery in Roseville on a ferociously rainy Sunday afternoon is one that reads, through a layer of mud: “With me...
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