am.mn

“As one of my good friends and supporters, I want you to know that today we filed the paperwork to create the R.T. Rybak for Governor Committee.” And so Minneapolis’ newly re-elected mayor at long last made his intentions clear — though murky syntax made it sound like he is one of his own good friends [...]

Last year a website was created to answer the then-burning question, “Is Barack Obama a Muslin?” This morning, news outlets across the land carried the headline: “Woman first Muslin to win Opus Prize.” The Minnetonka-based Opus Prize Foundation awarded $1 million to Aicha Ech Channa, president of the Morocco Association for Women’s Solidarity, who is, [...]

Actor Jon Voight dances to Minnesota Republicans’ tune over the next two days, appearing tonight with Gov. Tim Pawlenty at the first local fundraising event for his new Freedom First PAC in Minneapolis and on Thursday with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Washington, D.C., answering her call to storm the U.S. Capitol to stop health [...]

Fair warning to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe: Gov. Tim Pawlenty is watching you. “We want Olympia Snowe in the big tent,” he told MSNBC’s Morning Joe today, “but she can’t say she’s a Republican and vote against the Republican position much of the time.” Also in cable-news drama today, Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson [...]

Getting named in a developer’s lawsuit on Thursday, five days before Election Day, was bad enough. But Friday wasn’t much better for Minneapolis Council Member Diane Hofstede, whose office got more than 50 calls after the city’s public works department towed cars to clear University Avenue for cleaning without having posted required warning signs. Among [...]

Lawsuit Day often comes before Halloween and Election Day (ask Norm Coleman). Sure enough, Thursday saw a federal judge give President Obama a treat, confirming his U.S. citizenship in throwing out a “birther” suit. In Minnesota, six citizens filed suit (pdf) against Gov. Pawlenty and a trio of commissioners over unallotment cuts. And in Minneapolis, a [...]

Ballot referendum measures in Minneapolis and St. Paul will be decided by voters next week, but the cities’ daily newspaper editorial boards say today how those votes should go. The Star Tribune says to vote yes on eliminating the city’s tax board, and the Pioneer Press says to vote no on instant-runoff voting. So remember: [...]

Businesses have been so effective with Adopt-A-Highway efforts that Gov. Tim Pawlenty is expanding the program — to Build-A-Highway. T-Paw’s two examples of public-private road projects involve UnitedHealth and Burrill & Co., suggesting a novel reason to oppose health care reform: anything that hurts medical-industry behemoths’ bottom lines could hold back road-building in the state. 

With his new focus on getting re-elected next week, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman released a 30-second TV ad called “Good Guy.” A real TV ad — not to be confused with the official a 30-second “Chris Coleman for Governor” ad someone posted at YouTube the other day — that oughta show those Eva Ng [...]

U.S. Sen. Al Franken has it in for Brian Williams. That’s one conclusion to be drawn from Franken’s backing of a bill that would end tax breaks for pharmaceutical ads of the sort that pepper TV network news shows. Meanwhile, Franken is having unintended side effects of his own. National Geographic magazine is challenging other [...]