If you’ve ever dropped an idea into the suggestion box at a store or your workplace, chances are pretty good that nothing ever happened with it. A manager maybe emptied the box at the end of the month, skimmed through the notes, possibly relayed one or two to his manager, then tossed them all into [...]
A semitrailer full of relief supplies will roll out of Patty Nelson’s driveway in Aitkin, Minn., on Wednesday, beginning a 2,000-mile journey from northern Minnesota to northern Haiti. Nelson is coordinator for Project Haiti, a medical relief group that’s delivered doctors and supplies to the country during annual mission trips since 1989. It’s among the [...]
Twin Cities telecommuters have a new option for getting out of the house, and it doesn’t require buying a cup of coffee. A pair of “co-working” centers opened this week in St. Paul, one in downtown and another in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood. The centers are independent of each other, but both were inspired [...]
Michigan’s attorney general announced a lawsuit Monday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to cut off a Chicago-area canal system that could allow invasive Asian carp to enter the Great Lakes. Meanwhile, a group of Minnesota legislators says officials here must take “immediate action” to prevent the voracious invaders from devastating this state’s waterways and native [...]
A week ago, Minnesota Vikings safety Tyrell Johnson took a hit against the Arizona Cardinals so hard he said he couldn’t remember details of the injury. On Sunday, Johnson was on the sidelines during the Viking’s play-off clinching win against the Cincinnati Bengals. Johnson was one of about 20 players league-wide who missed playing or [...]
The budget forecast delivered by state finance officials on Wednesday is perhaps the bleakest outlook in Minnesota’s history. “This is the worst, without a question,” said Jay Kiedrowski, a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. As the state’s chief financial officer under Gov. Rudy Perpich in the 1980s, Kiedrowski [...]
He did it before. Will he do it again? A year ago this week, state finance officials broke the news to lawmakers about a projected $426 million budget deficit facing the state. The report set the table for a round of controversial budget cuts by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who used a once-obscure administrative power called [...]
A panel of Republican candidates for governor on Wednesday painted a dire portrait of a state in fiscal crisis. Speaking at a private forum for Medtronic employees, the five GOP contenders described a state budget broken from unsustainable spending. And they spoke about an alarming migration trend they see in which businesses are fleeing the [...]
