Rochester

At an event with First Congressional District candidate Allen Quist on Monday, Rep. Michele Bachmann warned that it’s possible that critics of health care reform could get on a list that would single them out for denial of health care services.

As if to illustrate Allen Quist’s November comment that he and Rep. Michele Bachmann are “two peas in a pod,” the First Congressional District candidate’s campaign announced Saturday that the pair will share a podium on Feb. 1. Bachmann will be taking part in a health care forum the campaign is organizing in Rochester.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty wants to cut nearly $200 million from the Local Government Aid program as part of his plan to eliminate the state’s $2.7 billion budget deficit. While the fiscal hit to the program is less than feared (Pawlenty had originally proposed whacking $450 million from LGA), it will still present a significant fiscal [...]

The sun shines more brightly in St. Louis and Olmsted counties than in any of the seven counties in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, according to a recently completed nationwide evaluation of county Web sites by a group that advocates for transparency in government.

There is a broader solution. With proper leadership we will find it.

Now that the Federal Railroad Administration has told the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern railroad that it is not going to give it the hoped-for $2.3 billion loan to expand into the Powder River Basin, is that the end of a decade-long dream for the [...]

Just six months ago, Murayo Nur Ali was told that she had no hope of being treated for a severe injury she suffered during a gang-rape at age 7.

That was in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. But on Monday, she was full of hope as she stepped out of a private jet that flew her [...]

Once considered a “sure thing,” the proposed Dakota Minnesota & Eastern (DM&E) Railroad expansion into the coal-rich Powder River Basin could be on the verge of collapse. The reasons for this are many and varied, but a last-minute provision slipped into the Transportation Bill earlier this year virtually assuring a $2.3 billion dollar unsecured federal [...]

Tim Walz has segued in the last two years from laid-back school teacher to frenetic campaigner and now equally frenetic congressman-elect. It’s quite a transition. Though official announcements will be forthcoming, here’s what’s happening on the QT:

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I was going to write a straight news story about Barak Obama’s visit to Rochester in support of Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar and Minnesota District 1 congressional candidate Tim Walz, an event that I attended. But it has been amply covered by the Associated Press here and by Matt Stolle of the Rochester Post-Bulletin here [...]

Cross-posted at Vox Verax.

Two articles came out recently in the Rochester Post-Bulletin stating what many in the 1st Congressional District already know:

Rochester can no longer be counted on to deliver the Republican vote.

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