Peter Bell, chairman of the Metropolitan Council, was elected to the TCF Financial Corp. Board of Directors on Friday.

Bell has served on the Met Council since Gov. Tim Pawlenty appointed him in 2003. He was executive vice president of corporate community relations at TCF Bank from 1994 to 1999 and a regent at ...

Strolling around campus during the fall semester certainly has its perks. Between the fresh air, the exercise, the people you see and that daily dose of sunshine, going for a walk would seem to be the perfect combination of fitness, relaxation and socialization.

Why would anyone not want to go outside?

There are two sides to every story. That is what we’re told, anyway. Our government is founded on the basis of equality, on the impartial representation of everyone and anyone who may lay claim to American citizenry. There is, however, a point at which objectivity is impossible — a point where the capacity ...

As an intellectual and activist committed to social justice, I am writing to articulate not only my solidarity with grand jury resistors but also my opposition to the unethical and unconstitutional grand jury process.

Both Carrie Feldman and Scott DeMuth took a principled stance to uphold their personal beliefs regarding truth and justice, demonstrating the highest level of moral integrity. Rather than participate in ...

The exciting “change� that so many of us hoped for after the 2008 election has ground to a screeching halt, largely the fault of Congress, which has obstructed progress on such critical issues as addressing climate change, reforming the college student-loan process, really fixing the health care system, regulating the big banks and examining the ethical lapses of their own members. Why?

The short ...

Have you heard the good news about the health care reform bill that was proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.?

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Chairman Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., put out a statement Nov. 19 that began with these two paragraphs:

“The Congressional Budget Office has confirmed ...

Due process overrated

Kudos to the author of the letter “Fort Hood a tragedy, not opportunity for ethno-centrists.� I hope we all are inspired to forget that nonsense about “innocent until proven guilty.� What a long and boring process that was. Taking what the pundits say at face value sounds close enough to justice for me. Let’s write Hasan off as guilty for his ...

Ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint last week against Rep. Michele Bachmann, R–Minn. CREW contends that Bachmann violated House rules by failing to get a permit for her “Super Bowl of Freedom� rally and used her taxpayer-funded Web site to promote the rally against health care reform legislation. Bachmann and Republican leaders addressed a crowd that held ...

Minneapolis’ Xcel Energy recently put in requests with regulators to increase base electric rates by $136 million in Colorado and natural-gas rates by $16.2 million in Minnesota. The company is trying to recoup more than $1.7 billion it invested in new generating plants,

transmission lines and distribution-system improvements.

Xcel has recently come under fire, however, charged with passing questionable executive travel expenses on to ...

The University of Minnesota’s oft-controversial conflict of interest policy is moving away from the honor system.

A review process is underway of a new “wall to wall� administrative policy that seeks to tighten reporting requirements and restrictions on gifts and product endorsements for University faculty, staff and students.

...

MinnPost addressed the changes in downtown Minneapolis: Hennepin and First avenues go two-way; Marquette and 2nd avenues get a face lift; downtown ambassadors keep the streets cleaner and safer; and Metro Transit consolidates its bus schedule. What do you think?

As the national suicide rate hits the nation hard, St. Cloud feels the repercussions. Last week, two students killed themselves. “We are not talking about test anxiety here,” said President Earl Potter. “We are talking about a stew of challenges, on top of which our students have to deal with academic success and often the ...

It might be  “a really nice thing to do,” but how does camping out in a football field for a night really help raise awareness about homelessness? Granted, the 26 students from South St. Paul High School managed to raise $800 for Safe Haven, which provides group homes for youth up to age 25 in Dakota and ...

Looks like the road to the presidency is getting a bit bumpy for Sarah Palin.

The Daily Beast speculates that MN Governor Tim Pawlenty is now finding himself in a stronger position to contest the nomination in 2012:

...

I'm not saying this is the last week of buzz.mn; I'm just saying it could be. That's all.

So: name this town!

Oh Tom I TOLD YOU. Go HERE for the Sunday strip, complete with clue-emphasizing colorization. (Had to be done.) 

Our long drought is over: finally, someone’s done his part for Miscreant Round-up! Makes up for otherwise slim pickings:

“Theft. Police were called to Coborn's Superstore, 7900 Sunwood Drive NW., in regards to a theft. A man had shoved steaks down his pants and left the store. He was last seen getting into a vehicle.�

Carefully and slowly, ...

Here's this week in Minnesota history, as conveniently compiled by the fine Book of Days, and shamelessly hoovered up here for more than a fifth of a decade:

"1869: Norwegian newspaperman Paul Hjelm-Hansen leaves Alexandria to travel to the Red River by oxcart. Hjelm-Hansen had been hired by the State Board of ...

Another template-busting Sunday strip. As much as we hate to taunt the template this way, and make it feel inadequate for having such a narrow option for the text field, well, its days are numbered. Very extremely numbered. It's ...

It’s the weekly survey of small-town websites, and I expect it will bring the usual gentle chiding: they’re not for the outside world! They’re for residents. I disagree, and so do most of the people who set up the sites, it seems - they’re constantly touting the town’s advantages to draw investment and residents. If so, then they need to ...

We begin Monday with this week in our history, from the indispensable Book of Days.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the arrival of the first passenger train in Fairmont. I wonder if anyone got off. Or on. They must have known it was coming, unless the tracks were laid at night and covered with brush to make ...

Another Sunday strip, and I apologize for not cleaning it up as much as usual. You will admire the frank, shameful penitence of the last panel, though. 

Solution posted early this evening.  Good luck!

Your host is bedeviled by meetings and video shoots and column work today, so no time for Miscreant Roundup. Seems a good time to introduce a new feature, though: name that Minnesota Town! This feature ran in the Sunday color ...

This week we head off to Dodge County - first up, it’s Dodge Center in Dodge County. So even when you get out of Dodge, you’re still in Dodge.

Logo? No. Slogan? Two: “A Solid Foundation,� and my favorite, “Stepping Toward the Future.� Sounds rather tentative. Picture of downtown: yes, and it’ ...

Growing up at the height of the Civil Rights Movement inspired Syd Beane, 68, to become a community organizer/community developer and fight for Native Americans. For nearly 40 years he traversed the country advocating for Indians and others invisible to those in power. In 1993, Beane moved to Minnesota, ending an exile imposed on the Dakota 150 years ago. From his charming, rustic home ...

Religious right leaders announced Friday that they won't abide by laws that support gay marriage or abortion. One hundred and twenty-five members of the religious right and leaders from the Catholic church signed the Manhattan Declaration.MORE »

"How can we have a productive dialogue without being provoked first?" asked journalism student Lolla Mohammed Nur during a discussion on the misrepresentation of minorities in the media at the University of Minnesota's Coffman Union November 16. A panel of journalists, activists and educators spoke before fielding questions, like Nur's, from a crowd of about 100 students and local residents. var my_tooltip = new Tooltip('dq2', 'tooltip_dq2')

Hunger at home should surprise us. Given just the smallest contemplation, hunger should provoke a simmering, disturbed outrage. Discovering hunger's growing incidence mustn't roll off our conscience as studied indifference, not in Minnesota and not in this day and age.

And yet, it seems, it does.
MORE »

In an ancient home surrounded by the solitude of rural Minnesota, a man sits quietly in his rocking chair downloading episodes of "The Office" and playing World of Warcraft on his laptop.

While this hypothetical situation seems more fitting for a dorm room than a farmhouse, a new report urging for ubiquitous broadband Internet access across the state could ...

Have you ever thought about blogging? If you want to get started, or to start over, now is the time and the TC Daily Planet is the place.MORE »

As we were heading out the door after the Saturday night performance of A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie, my mom and I passed a woman who was saying that she loves the story so much that she reads the book every year—but when it comes to "putting slapstick in classic literature," she has issues. "Exactly," said Mom.< ...

John Steinbeck's classic tragedy Of Mice and Men is an immortal triumph. It's set in the Depression era but never grows dated: a timeless, poignant portrait of the human condition.MORE »

Though it's a fantasy, Gregory Gregorson and the Magic Pinto Bean may be the truest play I've ever seen. Most of the show takes place in the head of a dozing theater kid, and having been a theater kid myself, I can verify that what you see is pretty much what goes on in there. var my_tooltip = new Tooltip('dq8', 'tooltip_dq8')

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards® being held March 7. Eighty-nine pictures had originally qualified in the category.MORE »

When Gov. Tim Pawlenty told MSNBC audiences early this month that “there’s a range of behavior and issue positions you can take” and still be a Republican, it created a ...

On Nov. 12, attendees of the National Council of Churches’ General Assembly in Minneapolis — like people around the world that day — read “The Compassion Charter,” a new declaration created collaboratively by leaders from the three Abrahamic religions to highlight a central tenet in world faiths: The Golden ...

More than a dozen Lutheran congregations in Minnesota have vowed to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) after a vote in Minneapolis this summer to allow gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships to serve ...

“Rather depressingly, Tim Pawlenty could win the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 simply by being the least offensive candidate,” writes The Daily Beast’s Reihan Salam. Pawlenty& ...

In yesterday’s “On Language” column in the New York Times Magazine, Leslie Savan wrote that while the term “birther” — “those who insist despite all evidence to the contrary that Barack Obama doesn’t have ...

Photo: WDCpix

The rate of uninsured residents in Minnesota’s eight congressional districts is a good predictor of how U.S. House lawmakers voted on health care reform. But, according to data in a var my_tooltip = new Tooltip('dr5', 'tooltip_dr5')

Photo: iStockphoto

While the national unemployment rate of 10.2 percent is a sobering reminder of the depth of this recession and the protracted timeline a recovery will take, the challenges posed by long-term unemployment are far greater.

Capacity concerns lead the headlines this morning: Twin Cities area homeless shelters are in “emergency mode” and scrambling to find overflow sites, ...

Franken, Bachmann, Walz and Ellison "Bobble Reps"

Asked at Saturday’s Netroots ...

End the Fed rally last April. Photo: Chris Steller, MnIndy

Minnesota’s End the Fed group has something to celebrate Sunday as they march on the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis: U.S. ...