Author Archives: Kevin Featherly

Kevin Featherly, who joined BridgeTower Media in mid-2016, is a journalist and former freelance writer who has covered politics, law, business, technology and popular culture for publications and websites in the Twin Cities and nationally since the mid-1990s.

Capitol Retort: Judicial hellhole, $1.5B surplus, Dayton legacy

Kevin Featherly December 12, 2018

Gov.-elect Tim Walz takes questions about the state's budget forecast, which was released Dec. 6 in St. Paul. (AP photo: Jim Mone)

Our review of issues in state and national news, with a rotating cast of political people in the know.

An ‘outcomes-based’ Judiciary panel

Kevin Featherly December 12, 2018

Rep. John Lesch, incoming chair of the Judiciary Finance & Civil Law Division, plans to impose strict time limits in the interest of keeping bills moving. In this photo, Lesch makes a policy point on the House floor on April 3, 2017. (Staff photo: Kevin Featherly)

Rep. John Lesch expects new division will be busier, more disciplined

A bipartisan consensus: Trump cost Republicans their MN House majority

Kevin Featherly December 11, 2018

The incoming legislative leaders agree on one thing: It’s Trump’s fault that Democrats won the Minnesota House majority.

More firms sign on for pro-bono tenant cases

Kevin Featherly December 10, 2018

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announces the More Representation Minneapolis initiative on Nov. 14. Behind Frey, from left, are Tom Walsh, executive director of the Volunteer Lawyers Network; Clint Conner, a partner at Dorsey Whitney; Gina Robinson, a client representative to the Volunteer Lawyers Network's Housing Committee; and Luke Grundman, managing housing attorney with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid. (Submitted photo: Office of Mayor Jacob Frey)

Study emphasizes inequities face by unrepresented tenants

Capitol Retort: Trump Tower Moscow, Gopher dopers, new car smell

Kevin Featherly December 5, 2018

Michael Cohen walks out of federal court Thursday, Nov. 29, in New York after pleading guilty to lying to Congress about work he did on an aborted project to build a Trump Tower in Russia. (AP photo)

Our review of issues in state and national news, with a rotating cast of political people in the know.

New corrections subcommittee chair has experience in the system

Kevin Featherly December 5, 2018

Rep. Jack Considine, DFL-Mankato, will chair the new Subcommittee on Corrections, part of the newly christened Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance & Policy Division. (Submitted image)

The Jack Considine group is part of a retooled Public Safety/Criminal Justice Reform subcommittee

Post-‘Mansky,’ no apparel ‘uproar’

Kevin Featherly December 4, 2018

Voters wait for the polls to open Nov. 6 outside St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Mankato, Minnesota. Politicking apparel in polling places was not a major issue during the state’s 2018 elections, Secretary of State Steve Simon says. (AP photo: The Free Press)

Minnesota gets lucky on cybersecurity, despite failure to accept fed bucks

Appeals panel won’t review Lesch defamation ruling now

Kevin Featherly November 30, 2018

The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Nov. 20 denied Rep. John Lesch’s bid to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against him by St. Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson.

Bar Buzz: Canvassing Board certifies ’18 elections

Kevin Featherly November 29, 2018

Supreme Court Justice Paul Thissen, left, signs the official document certifying results of the 2018 elections. Fellow Supreme Court Justice Natalie Hudson, center, also signed the document on Nov. 27, as did Secretary of State Steve Simon, right. Fourth Judicial District Chief Judge Ivy S. Bernhardson and Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Paul R. Scoggin also signed, but are not pictured. (Staff photo: Kevin Featherly)

Panel, which includes four judges, also OKs recount plan

Jack Davies has plan to slay Omnibus Prime

Kevin Featherly November 29, 2018

A proposal from Jack Davies, a former state senator and judge, would render policies passed inside megabills as impermanent as the appropriations they contain. (File photo: Kevin Featherly)

Statutory tweak would soon scrub policies passed in omnibus bills