Mary Turck

Even setting aside the stadium debates and subsidies (and don't we wish we could?), lots of public money goes to subsidize private business. Corporate subsidies are "officially justified in the name of keeping jobs in the state, attracting new businesses to areas that need help the most, and spurring new job creation," according to a just-released report from the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability. In fact, the report finds, public money often supports moving jobs out of the inner cities and increasing racial employment disparities. Often the corporations getting public subsidies don't even live up to their promises to create new jobs — anywhere in the state.

On August 17, 1862, as the United States fought our bloody Civil War, another civil war began in Minnesota, pitting native Minnesotans against immigrants, Dakota against European.