Economy

James Dobson’s Focus on the Family announced Wednesday that it’s cutting 75 jobs due to a decrease in profits and donations, according to the Denver Post. The organization, which works to prevent expanded rights for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, has cut more than 40 percent of its workforce over the last year. [...]

A new report released Thursday shows that one in five LGBT Minnesotans lack health insurance. PFund, a foundation committed to strengthening Minnesota’s LGBT community, commissioned the study (pdf) including a survey by Rainbow Health Initiative of 1,100 LGBT Minnesotans about their health and health care.

Advocates and economists say support for such a program misses lessons from the housing crisis.

An $838 billion economic stimulus package passed the Senate today by a vote of 61 to 37. Minnesota’s only senator, DFLer Amy Klobuchar, voted for the bill.
Congressional leaders will have to negotiate the Senate bill with an $820 billion stimulus bill passed by the House, a process leaders say should be completed by week’s end.
Minnesota’s [...]

As the budget battle at the Capitol gets going, Republicans are promising to obstruct efforts to both cut expenses and raise taxes. DFLers are looking at a pending stimulus plan from the White House in February in order to guide how the budget session takes place. And at least one DFLer thinks that Pawlenty might change his stance on taxes (or “revenue enhancements”) to help fill the historic $4.8 billion deficit.

Congress members will get a $4,700 increase as part of a yearly cost-of-living adjustment at the start of the year. The cost to taxpayers? About $2.5 million. But Rep. Tim Walz, DFL, will not be getting a raise: He’s returning it to the taxpayers.
Bluestem Prairie reports that each year Walz has to send a letter [...]

The $14 billion bailout of the auto industry passed the U.S. House on Wednesday by 237 to 170, but the majority of Minnesota’s Congressional delegates voted against it. The bill will give loans to General Motors and Chrysler to aid them in continuing operations and staving off probable layoffs.
Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum and James Oberstar [...]

New numbers from the real estate website Zillow.com, via CNBC:
Home values fell 9.7 percent year-over-year in the third quarter to a Zillow Home Value Index of $202,966, according to the third quarter Zillow Real Estate Market Reports, which encompass 163 metropolitan areas.
Home values have dropped a total 12.8 percent since the market peaked in 2006.
Year-over-year [...]

Bloomberg News reports that the Federal Reserve Bank is “refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.” Reporters Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Alison Fitzgerald add that Bloomberg has tried to obtain the information through a Freedom [...]

Before Rep. Michele Bachmann’s Oct. 17 statements on MSNBC about “anti-America views” she feared some in Congress hold, the airwaves in the 6th Congressional District were relatively quiet. But over the past two weeks well over $1 million in campaign contributions from people outraged by her comments have poured into the campaign of DFLer El [...]