Pawlenty’s ties to Morgan Stanley execs scrutinized

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign and political action committee has benefited from a large amount of money from top executives of Morgan Stanley, a global financial services corporation which has been implicated in the financial and mortgage meltdown that brought about the Great Recession. A report by the Center for Public Integrity released this week scrutinized Pawlenty’s ties to top executives at the company, finding that he’s raised more than $800,000 in the last month with their help.

Minnesota earns ‘F’ for letting legislators hide what’s in their wallets

Minnesota ranks 40th among the 50 states in requiring financial disclosure of its legislators, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity. That makes the state worthy of one of 20 ‘F’ grades the group handed…

U.S. Senate recount: What’s next?

Al Franken won the U.S. Senate contest by 225 votes. That was the determination that the five-member State Canvassing Board put their signatures to on Monday. Franken duly declared victory, pronouncing himself the “next senator from Minnesota.”

But as subsequent events have made abundantly clear that doesn’t mean the never-ending Senate contest is over. Indeed the legal contest filed by Norm Coleman’s campaign on Tuesday means it could still drag on for months. Here’s a quick primer on what will unfold in the coming weeks.

Center for Public Integrity salutes MnIndy parent and The UpTake

The Washington, D.C.–based Center for Public Integrity salutes MnIndy’s parent nonprofit, the Center for Independent Media, and the Minneapolis-based citizen videoblogging outlet The UpTake in its “Top 10 Website of 2008″ list today. Citing media “from projects to blogs to websites that help keep our country transparent,” the investigative journalism organization named the entire six-site CIM network, but specifically applauded our sister site in Michigan.