Small Business Health-insurance Dilemma

This morning I participated along with Sen. John Marty in a press conference focusing on a study by US PIRG on the dilemma small businesses find themselves in finding access to health care for their employees. We stood outside Tracy Singleton’s Birchwood Café in Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, and visited with her, John Kolstad of […]

Modern Myths and Fables: Are Taxes Really as Bad as They Say?

Dane Smith writes about a new book by a Minnesotan that debunks the proposition that the more money we keep away from government, the freer we are. “If freedom varies with the portion of our income we keep,” Handelman observes in the book, “then we were freer in 1900. “Yet most of us, I suspect, […]

What does the future hold?

We must secure for our children and grandchildren a recovery that lays the foundation for a good and prosperous life and not a mountain of debt placed at their feet by the misbehavior of others. I want schools that work, a transportation system that can deliver the goods, a health care system that values people […]

July economic update: Revenues below forecast again

FISCAL YEAR ENDED DOWN $150 MILLION Commissioner Tom Hanson provided the July 2009 Economic Update. Here are pdf files of July 09 and July 08 by clicking on the dates. You can compare if you wish. We don’t know what this means down the road for our future but clearly this recession is not over […]

Coming Dark Age?

In her 2004 book “Dark Age Ahead” urban economist Jane Jacobs, describes the decay of five key “pillars” in the U.S. and Canada. She argues that this decay threatens to create a dark age unless the trends are reversed. Jacobs characterizes a dark age as a “mass amnesia” where even the memory of what was […]

HISTORY PROGRAMS UNDER LEGACY ACT

Here’s something from the MN Historical Society: “As we begin the implementation of history programs contained in this year’s Legacy Act appropriations, we wanted to provide you with an update on these programs, including a series of informational/input meetings, and a solicitation for Historic Resources Advisory Committee applications as called for in the legislation. The […]

EMERALD ASH BORER BULLETIN

From the Minnesota Department of Agriculture: The link to this week’s Emerald Ash Borer Bulletin is found here. City and county officials, or, if you are in charge of an organization that would benefit from the information contained in this bulletin, please forward this email along to your staff and members. Last week’s can be […]

On Rebuilding Equalizing Institutions

I’ve been reading Robert Kuttner’s “The Squandering of America” he makes a great case for why we need to transform our country to restore the middle class and our democracy. He makes it clear how the misguided policies of the last decade have cost us dearly as a nation and a people. He offers hope […]

After session duties

In the past weeks since the end of session, I’ve been enjoying meetings with Township Boards in my district. So far I’ve met with Webster, Forest, Belle Plaine and Shieldsville Town Boards. It is helpful for me to hear the various issues that local folks are dealing with across the district. Over the next month […]