Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/john-van-hecke/page/3/)
Minnesota needs Best Buy. This might be the last thing you’d expect from a progressive policy advocate but Minnesota needs a healthy, successful Best Buy. We’re a stronger, better state with Best Buy than we would be without it.
Other under circumstances, Thursday’s tense state legislative hearing on the State of Minnesota’s contract with its Continue Reading
Subscribing to a CSA farm involves assuming risk. This is the community supported agriculture model in a nutshell. Because I value weekly deliveries of locally-grown fresh produce, farmed by a lanky guy who works an impossible dawn-to-dusk-and-then-some schedule, I shoulder a portion of the farmer’s gamble. Continue Reading
Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie achieved a small but noteworthy victory last week. He won a round in the conservative language wars. This doesn’t happen often enough and it merits closer examination.During the 2011 legislative session, conservative policy leaders passed a state constitutional ballot initiative defining marriage within a narrow conservative framework.Their constitutional amendment question was “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?” The proposed ballot title was “Recognition of Marriage Solely Between One Man and One Woman.” It would be the first line seen by voters.Ritchie exercised his constitutional authority to create a different title. Continue Reading
My neighborhood is up in arms. It’s a well-mannered outrage but listening to folks steam, I can’t escape the conclusion that we’re mad at all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons.
I wasn’t surprised to learn that Saint Paul’s East Side lies within a food desert. I was surprised to learn that Walnut Grove, Minnesota, my home town, does too. In fact, so does much of southwestern Minnesota, home to some of Minnesota’s highest corn producing counties. Food deserts are a state-wide Minnesota issue, not an urban or rural problem.A food desert is an area underserved by large grocery stores or supermarkets. Fewer stores create barriers to a healthy diet because fresh fruits, vegetables and greens are harder to find in smaller, convenience stores. Continue Reading
If Burnsville-Eagan-Savage schools, ISD 191, are contemplating the fou Continue Reading
Two dollar per gallon gas is possible, just not for the reasons recently advocated by Congresswoman Michelle Ba Continue Reading
Hennepin County is Minnesota’s most populous county, home to roughly one of every five Minnesotans. The county sits on the cutting edge of every Minnesota community challenge, from education and affordable healthcare, to transportation and economic development. Hennepin experiences need and opportunity in equal parts.What did Hennepin County’s elected policy leaders do recently to address that need and opportunity? They voted to stop flying the United Nations flag.Hennepin County contains amazing wealth and undeniable poverty. While the medium household income is over $61,000 per year, twelve percent of Hennepin County residents live below the poverty line. Continue Reading
This week, State Senate conservatives passed legislation restoring some of the funding directed away from Minnesota’s public schools through the funding shifts dodge. Their action doesn’t represent a change in policy direction. Instead, it affirms a poor path, repeatedly taken, that leaves Minnesota increasingly unstable.Pulling a five dollar bill from one pocket and shoving into the other doesn’t create a new five dollar bill. But, that’s what conservative policymakers would have us believe. Their argument goes something like this: Minnesota is running a budget surplus. Continue Reading