Blogs

     Recently, a student in my program was preparing a speech, and she was moved by the words of the late El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz who said “Education is the passport to the future,

As the 2013 Legislative Session quickly draws to a close, the final pieces of the budget are coming into place. Over the weekend, Governor Dayton and House and Senate leaders agreed to a budget framework for the upcoming FY 2014-15 biennium that raises significant revenues to close the state’s budget deficit and make critical investments in the building blocks of our future economic success.

The State House has passed an election reform bill that has some good stuff in it, though not all good, and there’s a big omission. Still, it’s an improvement, and the House DFL can’t be accused of entirely blowing their chance, which is something I was concerned about. Like many lefty bloggers, I expressed concern some legislators would get skittish and forget they won a mandate to do some things. Most such posts I’ve seen have been about marriage equality, which is reasonable since there is a screamingly obvious opportunity to make progress there, and choking at the crucial moment seems off the agenda. I was thinking more broadly in that post in early January, including a large portion devoted to election reform. The photo ID amendment, while a lousy idea, led to a broader discussion about our election system, and its defeat offered a chance to address some things, some of which did get addressed:

The best thing that could happen to the Republican Party of Minnesota (RPM) if not the national Republican Party, is for same-sex marriage to be legalized. Its legalization would remove from the agenda one that the Republicans are losing on, and one that is continuing to alienate them from younger millennial voters and moderates. Legalization of same-sex marriage would permit Republicans to move away from social issues and concentrate on their core economic and limited government message.

For twenty years, Kathy Sundberg has been the owner of one of the most interesting storefronts in St.