Posts by Isaac Peterson

The mental health parity bill being pushed by U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad, D-Minn., cleared a key House panel Wednesday. By a 10-3 vote, the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee approved a bill that would require group health plans to provide mental health and substance abuse coverage to the same extent as physical illnesses.

The bill [...]

The Lowry Avenue bridge connects North Minneapolis with Northeast Minneapolis. The current 889-foot, four-lane bridge was opened in 1958 on the site of a 1905 bridge and has average daily traffic of about 16,600 vehicles.

The Lowry bridge, which crosses over the Mississippi River, is classified as a “minor urban arterial,” and listed by the Minnesota [...]

Following withdrawal Monday of two participants, the proposed Big Stone II coal-fired power plant confronts an even more difficult task: convincing the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission that the new plant is necessary.

A hearing on the plant’s certificate of need, required before transmission lines can be run from the plant across Minnesota, is scheduled for Oct. [...]

Minnesota has long enjoyed a reputation of having one of the nation’s highest standards of living, and perhaps overall, its reputation is well deserved. Looking beyond the surface, however, reveals that Minnesota is not immune to ills plaguing the rest of the country.

One example is in the number of underfed in Minnesota: Like the number [...]

Last month’s report on the progress of Minnesota schools in meeting No Child Left Behind standards was bleak: 729 schools face sanctions, up from 483 last year.

But lost in the flurry of reporting those dismal results was the fact that there are some outstanding schools in the metro area. While many schools were being added [...]

The Minnesota House and Senate passed a $157 million disaster relief bill in a one-day special session that ran until early Wednesday morning.

The final bill’s major provisions include:

# $38 million for repairing flood-damaged sewer and water systems, city and county buildings, municipal utilities and state and local parks.
# $35 million in grants and loans to [...]

After weeks of tense negotiations and uncertainty, Gov. Pawlenty agreed
on Monday to convene a special session of the legislature to begin at 5
PM on September 11.

The session is to last only one day and will only deal with disaster
relief for flood victims in southeastern Minnesota,as well as costs
resulting from massive fires earlier this year in [...]

The St. Paul Bridges riverfront project came to an abrupt end  Wednesday night when it failed to gain the support of the St. Paul City Council.

The council voted 5-2 against developer Jerry Trooien’s rezoning request to allow a proposed $1 billion dollar mixed-use retail and residential development on the west side of the Mississippi River, [...]

Minnesota state DFL legislative leaders have sent a sharply worded letter to Gov. Tim Pawlenty expressing their frustration at the governor’s reluctance to call a special session of the Legislature.

The letter from House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, sent Tuesday, begins with a recap of efforts to facilitate a special [...]

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling that racial segregation in the nation’s schools was illegal and ordered schools to end the practice. Earlier this summer, the court ruled that schools cannot consider race as a factor in efforts to maintain racial balance.

The school districts in [...]