Amy Klobuchar

In making the case for his federal same-day voter registration bill, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison points to how much voter fraud was alleged in the “highly scrutinized” Norm Coleman-Al Franken U.S. Senate contest due to Minnesotans’ ability to register to vote on Election Day: none.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has introduced a bill that would extend Minnesota-style, same-day voting rights to all eligible Americans in federal elections.

The U.S. Senate passed the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday with the controversial Matthew Shepard Act attached. The act would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate crimes laws. The bill now heads to the desk of President Obama, who at last week’s Human Rights Campaign dinner promised LGBT advocates he’d [...]

Gov. Pawlenty did Moose Lake’s captive sex offenders a favor by taking away their big TVs Tuesday before his 12-minute appearance on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report.” They were spared captions dubbing him “‘President’ Pawlenty” and claiming he holds a 56-percent approval rating in Minnesota. (Try 45 percent.) And a majority of Minnesotans’ blood might boil to [...]

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is one of several female Democratic senators demanding that health insurance disparities that impact women be eliminated as part of the health reform packages being debated in Congress. For the past two weeks, the senators have been ensuring the issues unique to women don’t get last in the vigorous debate.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar paid a visit to Darfur Saturday — but not the humanitarian crisis flashpoint in Sudan. Klobuchar met with one-third of the town of Darfur, Minn. (pop. 137), about how to fund a new fire station.

Minnesotans disgusted by insipid Twins-Yankees TV commentators might find comic relief in civil libertarians’ online kibbitzing about U.S. Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, who last week voted to renew the Patriot Act without reforms in the Senate Judiciary Committee. In so doing, Minnesota’s senators committed the legislative equivalent of calling a plainly fair ball foul [...]

To paraphrase Billy Martin, who said it was a shame to name Hubert H. Humphrey after the Metrodome, it stinks that Christopher Columbus came to America on a snowy October day like this. A dome would be really nice over the whole University of Minnesota campus, where both of the state’s U.S. Senators are today: Al Franken [...]

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, attached to a large military policy bill, passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday by a vote of 281 to 146 — with support from Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen and opposition from Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson. Next Monday is the 11th anniversary of the murder of 21-year-old college [...]

How long would you need to read a phone book … or its legislative equivalent? Two Minnesota Democrats have signed a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking that bills in Congress be posted online a minimum of 72 hours before a vote. The letter backs a pending resolution that already counts the state’s congressional [...]