For the first time, the Governor's Fishing Opener will be in the metro area: on White Bear Lake next May 8 and 9. Read more...

By Joe Kimball

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has vetoed the paint-recycling bill, which would have established a program for used paint to be dropped off at retailers and paid for by a 40-cent per can fee. I wrote about it here. Read more...

By Mark Neuzil 

With the Star Tribune's newsroom resources stretched, one conservative insider asks why a local reporter wasted time on non-local silliness.

By David Brauer

Bills to impose new limits on automotive emissions traveled a rocky road in the 2008 Minnesota Legislature as advocates hoped that Minnesota would become the 14th state to adopt air standards established by the California Air Resources Board that are more stringent than those of the federal government. Read more...

By Ron Way 

Workers will begin tossing dirt on conservative talk radio skeptics and 5,000 square feet of roof at the Minneapolis City Hall Saturday. That's the first step in the long-talked about, much-ridiculed Green Roof project that was first envisioned by members of a city-county body,  the Municipal Building Commission, four years ago. Read more...

By Doug Grow 

For parents Yalonda and Gary Tate of Brooklyn Park, normal is anything but. "Because we have three girls at three different stages in their life — a teenager, preteen and a toddler — and that's hectic enough without all the other issues," says Yalonda. Read more...

By Roxane Battle

MinnPost commenters had lots to say about counting in recent days — adding up convention delegates, taxes, D.C. living expenses and electoral votes. Other popular topics ranged from genetically modified food to a soccer move. Here's a sampling: 

Beginning in 1994, the great bassist Ray Brown made a series of five recordings titled "Some of My Best Friends Are ..." featuring piano players, saxophone players, singers, trumpet players and guitarists (in that order). Anchored by Brown's working trio, the recordings showcase the talents of guest artists including Oscar Peterson, Joe Lovano, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nicholas Payton and John Pizzarelli. Read more...

By Pamela Espeland 

Take the "show" away from "talk show" and you have, simply, "talk" — which telegenic muckraker Phil Donahue does quite capably by phone from New York. Read more...

By Rob Nelson

If you're reading this before bedtime Thursday and state lawmakers and Gov. Tim Pawlenty have agreed to a budget deal — one that closes a $935 million shortfall — it will be a small miracle. Read more...

By G.R. Anderson Jr. 

It's got to be hard, being a member of Minneapolis Public Schools' loyal opposition. The 50 or so people who sat through the decidedly low-key kickoff to the district's referendum campaign Wednesday night seemed ambivalent at best. Read more...

By Beth Hawkins

The Franken for Senate campaign became a little more traditional today with the announcement that Stephanie Schriock will become  campaign manager in early June. To date, Franken's campaign has not had a single person with the title of campaign manager. Read more...

By Doug Grow 

In this installment, Saitoti and Minnesota's Hans Johnson speak about how Johnson's trip to Kenya seven years ago to record traditional Maasai music evolved into the Maasai Cultural Foundation. Read more and watch the video...

By Steve Date 

Everything was going so well. After a slow start last year, Jason Kubel was very quietly the Twins' best hitter from mid-May through the end of the season, batting .283/.349/.492 to lead the team in slugging percentage and OPS over the final 130 games.
By Aaron Gleeman

Dance fans could go crazy for tap in the next couple of weeks, and several choreographers in the Twin Cities hope they will. A number of shows featuring innovative tap dance are coming up — and a particularly crazy one runs through this weekend — in a variety of venues to suit every sensibility. Read more...

By Camille LeFevre 

It has been a year since the Michael Vick dogfighting scandal broke, and the public has demonstrated both its disdain for animal fighters and its support for strong, anti-animal-fighting laws. But are legislators listening? Read more...

By Jill Fritz 

No recent Twin Cities real-estate development is more highly regarded than Excelsior & Grand, the dramatic remake of an aging commercial strip in St. Louis Park. Widely admired, visited and coveted by other communities, the $180 million mixed-use project begun in 2000 is held up as a model for how suburbs should reinvent themselves in a new century bedeviled by higher energy costs and greater environmental concerns. Read more...

By Steve Berg

I remember rushing home on Friday nights to see "The Brady Bunch" and "The Partridge Family" on ABC-TV, followed by "The Odd Couple" and "Love American Style." This is the black experience in America. Read more...

By Ralph Remington 

In the late 1800s, the U.S. government claimed the land of Minnesota, and pushed the indigenous people onto reservations. The huge pine forests of northern Minnesota were cut, red earth was discovered, and immigrants from a variety of struggling northern and southern European nations moved in to become workers for the mining companies. Read more...

By Elanne Palcich 

Minnesota's property tax is regressive, meaning that a disproportionate share of the property-tax burden falls upon those with the least ability to pay. In recent years, both the amount of statewide property taxes and the degree of property-tax regressivity have increased, contributing to the overall growth in tax regressivity in Minnesota. Read more...

By Jeff Van Wychen