mprb

Gov. Pawlenty will be speaking to citizens all day long today as he travels around the state … of Virginia. He didn’t cancel his trip to campaign there for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell despite the howling of critics ever since excerpts surfaced from McDonnell’s 1989 academic thesis (pdf) revealing his preference for retrograde social policies [...]

Lawyers for each side called the other’s case “absurd” in a court hearing Thursday into whether the Minneapolis City Council was out of line when it denied a place on the November ballot to a charter amendment that would make the city’s park board more independent. At stake is greater autonomy for the parks to levy taxes that backers say would get them off a path to financial — and possibly existential — ruin.

“Panel tells DNR moose hunting should be allowed.” Other news media also cover a new report from Minnesota’s Moose Advisory Committee to the state Department of Natural Resources, but only the Star Tribune’s headline hinted at the potential gallows humor in a Palinesque death panel for Minnesota’s biggest mammals. The committee proposes a moose harvest (sorry, [...]

When Republican Tom Conlon leaves the St. Paul School Board this summer, he’ll also be leaving Minneapolis and St. Paul with only two elected city officials not from the DFL Party.

Found, in the Republican National Convention Minneapolis St. Paul Host Committee’s filings with the Federal Election Commission over the last few days: big corporate donations (Target, Best Buy and UnitedHealth each gave more than $1 million) and a sizable sum left over unused ($4.7 million). Together with analyses of donors’ lobbying activities, they tell a tale about the costs and benefits of throwing a party for the national Republican Party.

Lost amid the news accounts and watchdog reports: some of the lesser line items that suggest their own story lines. Here are a few, after the jump.