U Of M

Gov. Pawlenty continued his joke-recycling program Tuesday by telling Fox News’ Sean Hannity that having the government watch your money is like having Michael Vick watch your dog for the weekend. Here’s another good one: Putting Pawlenty in charge of General Assistance Medical Care is like letting Steven David Strachota give your puppy flight lessons.
Elsewhere in Minnesota [...]

For state college administrators, the announcement of the Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s unallotment plans was a good news/bad news story. The size of the budgetary hit was not as big as they expected. But, it’s still a substantial amount. The state’s two higher-education systems — which comprise 32 colleges and state universities, plus the four University of Minnesota campuses outside the Twin Cities — will each take a hit of $50 million dollars, or about a 3.6 percent drop.

Al Franken is taking a scolding in some quarters for declaring victory yesterday after the State Canvassing Board certified that he received 225 more votes than former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman in Minnesota’s Senate recount. So it’s probably best if he stays off the front steps of his downtown Minneapolis condo today and makes no public comment about this development: A University of Minnesota political scientist has calculated that Franken stands a 67 percent chance of winning re-election to the Senate in 2014 — assuming he ever gets seated in the first place, that is.

A Minnesota Independent liveblog of state Rep. Erik Paulsen’s lunch hour appearance at the U of M Humphrey Institute met with a few difficulties. The event itself is over now but the liveblog is now available in a reconstituted version. This was the second of three such events with each candidate for Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district seat. (Ashwin Madia, the DFLer, was yesterday; Independence Party candidate David Dillon is Friday.) Check it out after the jump.

DFL candidate Ashwin Madia spoke Monday over the noon hour at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute, in a Charlie Rose-style dialogue with Prof. Larry Jacobs. Tomorrow, Madia’s Republican opponent in the 3rd district congressional race, state Rep. Erik Paulsen, will appear at the same venue. The title of Madia’s presentation today is “Green Fuel, [...]

The Metropolitan Council and the University of Minnesota are expanding a joint research effort aimed at finding a way to turn algae from municipal wastewater treatment facilities into biofuels for our cars.

The research received a boost this week when it was announced that Xcel Energy was awarding the team a $150,000 grant to continue the [...]

“Union-busting.” An “insulting settlement.” Even some tears. The UpTake’s Noah Kunin and Charles Gearin captured reactions by members of the University of Minnesota’s AFSCME union as they found out about a settlement with management. The responses ranged from surprise to anger, and a prediction from one member that the settlement — which will send workers [...]

NFL photogs as “roving billboards”: News organizations are fighting a new NFL rule that will have sports photographers wearing red logo-emblazoned vests while near the field. Likened to “walking billboards,” the highly visible vests will have small Reebok and Canon logos on them. Since the NFL strictly controls the use of non-sponsor logos, says Tony [...]

In case you’ve been busy, here are a few quick stories from the past week.

Minnesota troops and families were fed and linked up across the world.

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Most readers of Minnesota Monitor don’t hang out much with the 1960s generation. Yes, they still listen to their music, but as for their ideas and ideals, well, they’re about as foreign as a far-off war in Iraq.
Or maybe not.
More and more, the Iraq war is touching us here at home. Many of [...]