Minnesota Lawyer

Fights over the Good Book in public schools have a long and ignoble history in the United States - from 19th century Bible Wars (when riots broke out over whose version of the Bible would be read in the morning) to current conflicts over Bible electives.

Chief Ramsey Country District Judge Kathleen Gearin has found that Gov. Tim Pawlenty's decision to "unallot" and not spend moneys appropriated by the Legislature "crossed the line" into unconstitutional action.

When GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty erased the $381 million for GAMC through "unallotment" and a line-item veto in order to cover the shortfall in the state budget, his pitch was that most of the people on GAMC could be shifted to other state programs, such as MNCare, or federal programs, like Medicaid.

To no one's surprise, last week's budget forecast once again showed that Minnesota's state spending was expected to exceed anticipated revenues by a significant amount.

Last week’s Leadership Summit in St. Paul, and a similar gathering late last week sponsored by civic groups and the St. Paul Pioneer Press, demonstrated the timeless wisdom about the value of experience.

Let’s set an end-of-decade, breathtakingly bold goal of a 50 percent increase in the percentage of our young adults who have some sort of higher-education credential on their resumes.

No one can ever accuse Minnesota politicians of participating in the types of shenanigans that occur in Illinois, Louisiana or New Jersey, but to be so naïve as to think that horse-trading, log rolling, and political payoffs don’t take place in Minnesota is just wrong.

Just as the governor and Legislature are entitled to, local units of government in Minnesota are given the statutory authority to appoint qualified personnel to key positions.

Saying that someone deserves to be killed certainly gets anyone’s attention. But when does saying that or something like it pass from just being hateful speech that offends, or just so much hot air, to what the law calls a “true threat” – and the catalyst for criminal prosecution?

Complacency is the road to irrelevance and decline – as it is in nature. If you are not growing and adapting, you are becoming anachronistic. And who wants to become a loser by willing choice?