Pawlenty attack on public sector unions rated ‘Pants on Fire’ wrong

Gov. Tim Pawlenty got it wrong in his weekend Wall Street Journal piece that decried a perceived growth in public sector jobs and high pay for government employees, according to the St. Petersburg Times’ Politifact: “Not only did he apparently mangle the time frame, contradict his own definition of federal workers and fail to acknowledge the huge caveat of Census worker hiring, he also repeated a statistic that had been criticized as inaccurate as long as six months ago.”

Restaurant owner says Emmer misspoke on $100k waiter pay

The owner of the Eagle Street Grill told a Star Tribune columnist on Tuesday that none of his servers make $100,000 a year. Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer used an example of Eagle Street servers making that kind of…

Horner agrees with Emmer on server pay — sort of

Updated: Independence Party candidate Tom Horner told MinnPost on Wednesday that he agreed that a tip credit would be “part of the solution” in the hospitality industry. GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer has been taking flack from unions and DFLers…

Emmer responds to criticism over service worker minimum wage plan

Republican endorsed gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer emailed supporters Tuesday evening defending his recent statement that he’d decrease the minimum wage for tip-earning workers. Emmer took heat from DFLers and unions a day after making the comment at a St.…

Minnesota a big loser in China trade deficit

Minnesota ranks sixth in the nation in terms of job losses due to the trade deficit between the United States and China, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a liberal…

Harkin: Health reform will pass – with or without GOP support

Calling yesterday’s health care summit in Washington the “the final port of call” in achieving health care reform, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) says he can see “that final harbor… without binoculars,” adding that he thinks action on a…

Reed won’t abide by DFL endorsement in race against Bachmann

The campaign of Dr. Maureen Reed says it will not abide by the DFL endorsement should it go to her opponent, state Sen. Tarryl Clark, the St. Cloud Times reports. Reed’s campaign says she hasn’t gotten a fair…

Legislators pitch amendments on guns, health care, labor and — amendments

When state legislators want to make major changes to law, sometimes they put the law to the voters to decide. This year, they’re asking Minnesotans where we stand on issues like guns, health care and labor unions. There’s even a bill to ask the voters whether the state Constitution should be amended to change the way Minnesota amends the Constitution.

Union membership up for first time since 1983

The percentage of American workers represented by unions rose in 2007, reversing a quarter- century decline in union membership.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 12.1 percent of the workforce was made up of organized labor, up…

Franken on WGA strike: “Not even for Colbert”

As The Daily Show  and The Colbert Report return to the air, Publishers Weekly looks at the…