Consumer affairs

So much for states’ rights: Iowa-based American Future Fund wants the Federal Elections Commission to rule against Minnesota’s long-standing ban on robocalls in order to include Minnesota in its national robocall campaigns, the Star Tribune reports. The group, which bills itself as a “conservative and free market” operation, filed a complaint with the FEC arguing [...]

A watchdog group, Stimulating Broadband, which keeps tabs on stimulus spending on broadband infrastructure, says Minnesota is the only state holding back details about funding priorities. Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s administration says it doesn’t have to disclose the information.

To the victor go the spoils, the saying goes. And so on Tuesday Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak took delivery of 10 pounds of hamburger from Jim Schmitt, mayor of Green Bay, Wisc., in fulfillment of the friendly wager they made on the Vikings-Packers football game. But the Vikings’ win wasn’t the only news since the [...]

Updated: The University of Minnesota marching band forms the corporate logo of TCF Bank on the field at the university’s new TCF Bank Stadium in a promotional video released by the university today.

As Minnesota develops a plan to increase high-speed broadband to rural areas, advocates complain that the organization chosen to map the state’s broadband access — and the process the Pawlenty administration used to make the selection — lack sufficient transparency.

Housing foreclosures are up more than 70 percent in Minnesota this year, according to a recently released national study. But housing groups in Minnesota are reporting a 20 percent decrease in foreclosures. Is there an explanation for the disparity?

A national movement called 10 Percent is Enough is taking to the streets in protest of “usury,” the practice of overcharging borrowers that’s prohibited in the Bible, the Qu’ran and the Torah. Protests in five U.S. cities late last month called on banks to reduce credit interest to ten percent — a figure the group [...]

Minnesota’s congressional delegation spent a lot of time discussing health care this week, but there were other issues to deal with. Railroads, grasslands, student loans and peace in the Middle East all garnered attention from Minnesota’s members of Congress.

A report released this week by the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that Minnesota ranked in the top fifteen states for mortgage fraud claims in 2008 and in the top ten on a couple of measure. Specifically, data from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network found Minneapolis FBI field offices ranked 9th in the number of [...]

The banking industry scored a major victory last week when a watered-down foreclosure bill passed the Senate. Next up is a bill to protect credit card users.