Minnesota Independent

Republican opens investigaton into hedge fund and advocacy group

By Annie Lowrey | 06.07.10 | 11:54 am

A key Republican suggests that hedge fund Paulson & Co. donated to the Center for Responsible Lending to stoke the housing bubble and thereby increase its returns when that bubble burst. But Rep. Darrell Issa’s new investigation into Paulson & Co. stems not from a congressional investigation or independent study, but from Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group famed for supporting the Tea Parties.

His Moment of Zen: Pawlenty to appear on The Daily Show

By Paul Schmelzer | 06.04.10 | 2:07 pm

Gov. Tim Pawlenty announounced on Twitter and Facebook this afternoon that he’ll be appearing on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart next Thursday night.
He’ll…

Ellison urges investigation of Israeli attack on aid flotilla, end to Gaza blockade

By Paul Schmelzer | 06.04.10 | 1:39 pm

Rep. Keith Ellison backed up his rhetoric of Wednesday, when he called for an investigation into the assault on a flotilla bringing relief supplies to Gaza that left nine people dead, including one American. In a…

Outdated tariff system means the poor pay more

By Martha C. White | 06.02.10 | 11:53 am

Most people take for granted that they know how much an item will cost them when they look at the price tag and figure in the amount of their local sales tax. But low-income Americans end up paying extra for necessities like clothes and shoes — victims of an outdated, inefficient tariff system that inadvertently penalizes the poor.

In gulf spill aftermath, worker safety overshadowed by environmental, economic concerns

By Mike Lillis | 06.01.10 | 8:54 am

The largest oil spill in U.S. history has received no absence of congressional scrutiny. Yet as lawmakers continue to focus their examinations on the environmental, economic and energy implications of the disaster, a number of labor advocates are beginning to wonder: What about the workers?

White House to unveil ‘grand strategy’ on national security

By Spencer Ackerman | 05.26.10 | 10:39 am

John Brennan has a tough rhetorical job ahead of him Wednesday morning. Speaking to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Brennan, President Obama’s most influential terrorism and intelligence adviser, will attempt to reconcile the harder edges of Obama’s escalation in Afghanistan and his enthusiastic embrace of drone-enabled assassinations of terrorists with the broader approach to grand strategy that the White House will finally unveil this week. Some wonder if that reconciliation is even possible.

Is ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ headed for the scrapheap?

By Spencer Ackerman | 05.25.10 | 7:49 am

Less than a month after the Pentagon leadership warned it would unwise to abandon the military’s ban on open gay service this year, a fast-moving legislative effort this week has opponents of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” feeling like the law might finally be on the scrapheap.

Minnesota’s Cargill accused of ignoring law in Indonesian palm oil harvest

By Molly Priesmeyer | 05.21.10 | 5:30 am

Minnetonka-based agribusiness giant Cargill is taking heat from environmental and human rights activists who say the company’s palm oil enterprise is violating laws in places like Indonesia and Borneo. A Rainforest Action Network report finds that the company has cleared and burned rainforests without permits, leaving a wake of destruction. Cargill outright denies the report’s findings.

Anti-establishment backlash unproven as Democrats, liberals finish strong in primaries

By Mike Lillis | 05.19.10 | 8:04 am

If any common message emerged from Tuesday’s primary results across the country it was this: Republicans, who have been hoping that the public’s discontent with “big government” incumbents will translate into huge congressional gains in November, might want to reconsider their strategy.

In oil and coal disasters, parallel tales of lax regulation

By Mike Lillis | 05.13.10 | 6:00 am

Last month’s deadly explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in southern West Virginia, and the more recent fatal blast on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the coast of Louisiana, have at least this much in common: Both were likely preventable, according to a growing number of lawmakers and workplace safety experts — if only federal regulations designed to prevent such disasters had been enforced.