Law Enforcement

As the holidays approach, prices are falling on flat-screen TVs like the ones that Gov. Pawlenty had removed from the civil-commitment facility for sex offenders at Moose Lake. Which suggests a dilemma: at what price point can the state ethically buy 50-inch TVs for sex offenders?

By any reasonable standard the Minnesota Sex Offender Program has been an unmitigated failure. In its nearly two decades, it has failed to rehabilitate a single patient. The only people who have graduated from the program have done so in body bags. Yet, since 2003, the program’s budget has ballooned by nearly 400 percent, from $18.5 million annually to $71.6 million.

Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau mishandled the I-35W bridge collapse badly enough that the state Senate stripped her of her second job as transportation commissioner. But at least she didn’t live-tweet that tragedy, as her counterpart in Missouri is doing today with a hostage standoff in a Jefferson City government office building.

Assistant St. Paul Police Chief Matt Bostrom is likely to challenge Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher in 2010. Bostrom filed campaign papers with the Ramsey County Elections office today and will begin raising money for the contest. The challenger already boasts an impressive array of supporters: U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, Ramsey County Commissioners Victoria Reinhardt [...]

When is buying a jailhouse plasma TV not, to use Gov. Pawlenty’s term, a “bonehead decision“? When it’s in the warden’s conference room, apparently.

Minneapolis City Council candidate Melissa Hill says she’ll likely appeal a Pittsburgh court’s ruling today that her conduct last month during a political demonstration was disorderly.

Akeley is the latest Minnesota city to consider going without its own police in response to declining local-government aid (LGA) and, in some cases, population.

A Gallup poll conducted at the beginning of October shows that more Americans support the legalization of marijuana than ever before — even if the majority still think it should be illegal.

Although medical marijuana use is still illegal on the federal level, the Obama administration said today that it won’t go after patients or their providers in states where it is legal.

Minneapolis City Council debates are generally polite, drowsy affairs. But Ward Five has a reputation for boisterous, even unruly, political discourse. That might explain why more than 100 people showed up at the Capri Theater on Tuesday night to watch five city council candidates debate the issues.