Capitol Retort: Special session hopes; stiff resistance; Zoom bombs

Kevin Featherly May 27, 2020

The sun shines on the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul. AP file photo

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

Capitol Retort: Session memories; test-pilot trials; coughing on cops

Kevin Featherly May 20, 2020

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

Capitol Retort: Bonding blockage; Flynn case dropped; read on Reade

Kevin Featherly May 14, 2020

Gov. Tim Walz puts his mask back on at the conclusion of a press conference Tuesday. GOP House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt has threatened to block the bonding bill unless Walz ends the peacetime emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic. (Star Tribune via AP, pool)

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

Capitol Retort: Judicial challenge, Barr the door, take me out

Kevin Featherly May 7, 2020

Attorney General William Barr last week ordered federal prosecutors across the U.S. to identify coronavirus-related restrictions from state and local governments “that could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens.” In this photo, Barr he speaks April 1 about the coronavirus in the White House press briefing room. (AP photo)

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

Capitol Retort: Budget cuts, direct injection, Great MN Stay Apart

Kevin Featherly April 30, 2020

Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, listens as President Donald Trump speaks Thursday in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (AP photo)

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

Capitol Retort: Peaking early; executive power; ‘one good thing’

Kevin Featherly April 23, 2020

Medical workers administer drive-up COVID-19 tests April 18 outside the Sanford Worthington Clinic in Worthington, Minnesota. The state has sent a team to ensure safe conditions in the southwestern Minnesota city, where multiple people have tested positive at a meatpacking plant. (Star Tribune via AP)

The pressure to reboot an economy that has flat-lined is understandable. But how did Rep. Cal Bahr’s statement strike your ears?

Capitol Retort: Flu v. COVID; supplemental budget; Zooming

Kevin Featherly April 16, 2020

Patients and medical workers wear personal protective equipment because of COVID-19 concerns April 13 outside the emergency room at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. (AP photo: John Minchillo)

John Hinderaker, in a blog post, argues that COVID-19 deaths are “fractions of a normal flu season” and that coronavirus deaths could one day equal flu numbers, which were “barely a news story.” Is he right?

Capitol Retort: Backup player; prison outbreak; quarantine reads

Kevin Featherly April 9, 2020

In this March 30, 2020 photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, holds a brief news conference March 30 with Rear Adm. John B. Mustin as the USNS Comfort, a naval hospital ship with a 1,000 bed-capacity, pulls into Pier 90 in New York. Americans give high marks to state and local governments for their handling of the fast-moving coronavirus pandemic that has swiftly remade everyday life. (AP photo: Kathy Willens)

The president refers to the federal government as a “backup” to states. What do you think about the how he’s handling things?

Capitol Retort: Dark democracy; stay at home; whatchya gonna do?

Kevin Featherly April 3, 2020

In this March 26 photo, several Lawmakers in the Minnesota House practice social distancing from a gallery at the State Capitol in St. Paul as representatives take up bills related to the coronavirus in the state. (AP photo: Jim Mone)

Is the Democracy-dies-in-darkness war cry justified in these dire circumstances?

Capitol Retort: Tough call; Burr, that’s cold; Captain Kirk

Kevin Featherly March 27, 2020

Sen. Paul Gazelka, photographed in 2019 before the social distancing directive, has expressed concern that Gov. Tim Walz’s leadership “should not be unilateral and unchecked” during the COVID-19 pandemic. (File photo)

Sen. Paul Gazelka, while noting that these times call for difficult decisions, expressed public concern that Gov. Tim Walz’s leadership “should not be unilateral and unchecked.”