Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/category/government/page/20/)
On the menu at the Minnesota Legislature right now is a three-course fiscal feast. The $1.23 billion General Fund surplus forecast earlier this year for the current biennium provided the fixings for a tax bill, supplemental spending bill and bonding bill.
In a conference committee technology and privacy rights, will be tangling soon if a bill passes in the Minnesota House on Tuesday. The debate is centering on three areas: authority of law enforcement to obtain and use records from cellphone towers without a search warrant, ability to reel in a troves of user data collected on innocent people as well as a target when government uses such surveillance devices as Kingfish, Amberjack, Fishawk, Porpoise and Stingray without a search warrant, and whether the search by government of your cell phone location data is a “search and seizure” under the 4th Amendment. Continue Reading
What if we could provide significant property tax relief to small businesses with only a minimal increase for large businesses. Would you take that tradeoff? Continue Reading
Is there anything new to say about the Southwest Light Rail? Everything and nothing, sound and fury. Angst and ennui. Continue Reading
Last week, Council on Black Minnesotans (COMB) Executive Directory Edward McDonald responded to an audit release by the Minnesota’s Office of the Legislative Auditor’s (OLA) in March (See MSR April 17-23, “Director defends Council on Black Minnesotans: ‘We’re doing it’). Among the four recommendations the OAL offered to increase the effectiveness of the COBM was restructuring the council under the State Human Rights Department. This week, McDonald responds to this recommendation.
Political humorist Mark Shields has said that a week can be a lifetime in politics and three months can be an eternity. How true for Obamacare and MNSure… Continue Reading
A State legislative audit released earlier this year offered some options for strengthening the State’s four councils of color that advocate for Blacks, Asians, Latinos and Native Americans. Unfortunately, recent published reports and editorials in both Twin Cities daily newspapers focused narrowly on these groups’ alleged shortcomings and questioned whether they should continue to exist rather than clarifying the auditor’s actual intent, as the MSR’s reporting has disclosed.
As the legislative session is set to end in less than four weeks a little bill with token opposition is slowly being strangled by the biggest of all lobbying octopuses, Minnesota Council of Health Plans and their members. Continue Reading
A Postal Service decision to open postal counters in Staples stores will compromise service to customers and jeopardize the security of the mail, employees and community members said at rallies held nationwide Thursday.
As Minnesota’s two seasons — winter and road construction — collide again this month, the state is launching transportation projects worth $1.1 billion at 74 Twin Cities locations, 194 in Greater Minnesota and 40 others not on highways. Continue Reading