One of the DFL’s signature achievements in the last legislative session was a ban on so-called “junk fees.” The Star Tribune reports: “All of us have seen this, especially online,” Walz said before signing the bill. “Seeing a...
Minnesota’s expanding welfare system is a looming threat to budget stability
After lawmakers raised Health and Human Services (HHS) spending in the 2023 session by over $6 billion, welfare is now the fastest-growing expenditure in the Minnesota state budget. Between 2024 and 2027, for example, over 40 percent of all new general fund...
Now the other national teachers’ union is considering anti-Israel resolutions
I previously wrote about several anti-Israel resolutions that union delegates submitted for consideration at the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly. An unexpected turn of events, including union president Becky Pringle choosing to skip...
Long-term care providers warn impending Biden regulations threaten viability
Less than a month before new federal nursing staff requirements take effect, long-term care providers reiterated their bleak warning that many North Dakota facilities will not be able to meet the Biden administration mandate. The regulations come at a time when...
Solar cannot “replace” coal power
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 Star Tribune reports under the headline: PUC approves Xcel plan to...
Letter to City Council lays bare the crisis facing downtown St. Paul
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. Simply put, as in Minneapolis, empty offices have lead to cratering commercial real estate values which...
Feeding Our Future: autism clinic connections
Deena Winter of MN Reformer names five names in a report today linking Feeding Our Future defendants with state-funded autism clinics. She reports, Five of the 70 defendants in the massive federal Feeding Our Future fraud case had ties to Medicaid-funded autism...
Wind turbine failed, “sharp fiberglass shards” on Nantucket beaches
On Tuesday, Vineyard Wind was ordered to shut down until further notice to clean up the shards of a turbine blade that failed Saturday. Six Nantucket beaches were closed for swimming. CBS News reported: “You can walk on the beaches, however we strongly...
Minnesota’s education ranking drops again, no mention by Gov. Walz
Gov. Tim Walz’s office released a press statement recently touting Minnesota’s ranking as 6th best state in the nation for business by CNBC. (A ranking which, as my colleague John Phelan wrote here, should be taken with a grain of salt.) The media company’s...
Frustrations grow regarding Trump assassination attempt
On Saturday evening at 6:11 pm in Pennsylvania, former President Trump was speaking at a campaign rally when at least 3 shots were fired at him from a 20 year old man named Thomas Crooks. Crooks had shot at Trump with an AR-15 rifle from 164 yards away while...