Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/john-van-hecke/page/5/)
The Minnesota Management and Budget Office’s State Government Shutdown report observes that lost state income revenue due to the shutdown was offset by laid-off worker wage savings. MMB’s report isn’t telling the whole story. Continue Reading
I write this from home while caring for a sick child. She has a cold, a garden variety cold, but she clearly needs a day of rest rather than a sick slog through school. Adjusting my schedule on the fly, I’m particularly focused on Minnesota’s healthcare needs.It’s been a challenging healthcare reform week in Minnesota. The usual conservative oppositional intransigence was kicked up a notch with the latest attempt to kill federal healthcare reform’s implementation in our state. My regular low-grade frustration is tipping into a light boil.Conservative policy advocates oppose healthcare reform. Continue Reading
Thirty-odd years ago, I felt that Walnut Grove’s schools should merge with Tracy’s. I was a Walnut Grove high school student. My opinion didn’t carry the day. Thirty-odd years later, that merger is beginning to take shape.What a difference thirty years makes.With changing demographic patters accelerating, including the mid-1980s farm foreclosure crises, Walnut Grove did not stand idly by as the community’s percentage of school-aged kids shrank. They contemplated and discussed mergers with Tracy and Westbrook.Tracy is seven miles west of Walnut Grove. Continue Reading