The Minnesota Independent

The Uptake - Latest Stories

Live feed: Minnesota Senate election contest

By Paul Schmelzer | 01.26.09 | 11:21 am

Beginning at 1 p.m. CST we’ll be carrying The UpTake‘s live feed from day one of the election contest in the fight for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat. Watch it after the jump.

Live video: The State of the State

By Paul Schmelzer | 01.15.09 | 11:00 am

During the 2007 State of the State address (pdf), Gov. Tim Pawlenty referenced the quadriga, a gold statue on the capitol exterior called “The Progress of the State.” The sculpture’s “golden guy in the chariot…

Governor’s speech streams live at noon; state of the state is cold

By Chris Steller | 01.15.09 | 10:46 am

It was 18 degrees below zero in the Twin Cities on Thursday as people left their homes for school or work on the coldest morning in five years. Gov. Tim Pawlenty will give his State of the State address…

Recount Saturday: Watch counting of formerly rejected absentee ballots live

By Chris Steller | 01.03.09 | 11:49 am

Minnesota’s statewide election recount in the U.S. Senate contest between Democrat Al Franken and outgoing Republican Sen. Norm Coleman enters a critical final phase today, as 953 absentee ballots envelopes that were never counted in the first place — by…

Center for Public Integrity salutes MnIndy parent and The UpTake

By Paul Schmelzer | 12.31.08 | 11:01 am

The Washington, D.C.–based Center for Public Integrity salutes MnIndy’s parent nonprofit, the Center for Independent Media, and the Minneapolis-based citizen videoblogging outlet The UpTake in its “Top 10 Website of 2008″ list today. Citing media “from projects to blogs to websites that help keep our country transparent,” the investigative journalism organization named the entire six-site CIM network, but specifically applauded our sister site in Michigan.

UpTake to GOP: Thanks for watching!

By Paul Schmelzer | 12.31.08 | 9:36 am


After state GOP chair Ron Carey aped party blogger Michael Brodkorb’s terminology for The UpTake as a “partisan, liberal” blog, the citizen journalism outfit issued a press release correcting an error Carey…

Live Video: Minnesota Supreme Court hearing on the recount

By Paul Schmelzer | 12.17.08 | 12:50 pm

The UpTake, lauded yesterday by the Columbia Journalism Review for the “multimedia powerhouse” they’ve been providing during the recount, will stream live video of today’s Minnesota Supreme Court hearing. The court will address a request

Live from St. Paul (not), it’s a Franken campaign press conference!

By Chris Steller | 11.25.08 | 5:06 pm

Al Franken may have written for and performed on “Saturday Night Live!” but his campaign has apparently pulled the plug on allowing live video from its now-daily press conferences about Minnesota’s statewide recount. For the last two days, the…

Franken to Ritchie: ‘Ballots have gone missing’ — so find them

By Chris Steller | 11.24.08 | 4:36 pm

The Al Franken for Senate campaign is asking Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to instruct all counties to redouble their efforts to find missing ballots. “There are votes in Minnesota that aren’t even being accounted for, much less being counted,” spokesman Andy Barr told reporters at a press conference at Franken headquarters in St. Paul this afternoon.

Video and more after the jump.