Dayton passes the buck. Again To mark the midpoint of Governor Mark Dayton’s term in office, his office has spent the week touting his record and alleged accomplishments on myriad issues ranging from K-12 education funding to affordable housing. But if Dayton is quick to claim credit, he’s even quicker to assign blame.

In September, the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota reported that dozens of teachers’ union representatives were paid more than $100,000 in fiscal year 2011. In fact, 30 union staffers (and three officers) collected higher salaries last year than the state’s Education Commissioner. Well, according to a new report filed with the Department of Labor, exorbitant pay is the rule, not the exception at Education Minnesota.

FFM Follow Up: City Council votes to publicly release previously withheld analysis of financial risks-- Despite a memo from the city’s bond counsel warning of “substantial risks”, the Gaylord City Council has voted to guarantee to pay up to 16.5 percent of the debt service on $77 million of revenue bonds should the proposed RS Fiber telecom network fail to pay for itself. The bond risk analysis prepared for the city at a cost of $1,500 to taxpayers was initially withheld from the public under a ...

--A month into Metro Transit’s marketing experiment that cut fares with the hope they would add passengers to the flailing Northstar Commuter Rail line is not working. Initial monthly passenger counts indicate that the experiment may be heading full speed in the wrong direction. Metro Transit figures obtained by the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota (FFM) for the first month of the experimental fares indicate that monthly Northstar ridership plunged by more than eight percent , some...

  --Officials in the city of Gaylord have informed the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota (FFM) they will not make public a key analysis of the potential financial risks posed by a plan to invest $70 million in bonding for the RS Fiber telecom network.  Proponents of the municipal broadband project expect RS Fiber to start paying for itself after three or four years. If not, a $4.5 million reserve fund replenished by local taxpayers in eleven cities and two counties partici...

30,000 word rule adds to 169,000 pages of federal regulations on the books --The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed new regulations on six state taconite facilities have not only provoked concern among northern Minnesotans who depend on the mining industry for their jobs and way of life. The controversy has also brought home to Iron Range residents the real life consequences of federal government regulations in the form of a 36 page proposed rule buried deep in ...

ST. PAUL, MN--It may be a challenging time to be a teacher, but it’s apparently a great time to work for the Minnesota teachers’ union. According to a report filed with the U.S.

Construction of the proposed taxpayer-backed telecom network known as RS Fiber has been quietly pushed back until at least next spring. Yet you’d never know this if you visited their website. According to the RS Fiber website, groundbreaking was to occur last month.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN--When superintendent Bernadeia Johnson took over the struggling Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) two years ago, she pledged to renew the district’s commitment to transparency andaccountability. Minneapolis Public Schools had a reputation for secrecy and evasiveness, a reputation they earned. Unfortunately, despite the district’s renewed commitment to open government, some things never change.

Homeowners pursue property rights case despite potential foreclosure and thousands of dollars in lost rental income  --   Ethan Dean never gave up hope during five tours of duty as a US advisor in Iraq and Afghanistan. He kept making his mortgage payments while living halfway around the world, partly due to rent checks from a tenant staying in his house in Winona, Minnesota. Even with his mortgage under water, he continued to hold out hope—until he got back home.