From Obama to Dayton, elected leaders settle for mere baby steps from the status quo

Congress has less than a month to write an encyclopedic spending bill funding every agency in the government.

Is the Supreme Court of 2013 radically liberal or radically conservative? The answer, it turns out, is both.

Westrom made stops in Moorhead and his hometown of Elbow Lake on Thursday to announce the campaign, which he had been mulling for weeks. National Republicans have been eager to field a strong candidate to run against Peterson, who they say is vulnerable in 2014 over the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

Tea Party activists are reacting with alarm to Rep. Erik Paulsen’s comments suggesting that he would be willing to break with GOP House leadership in order to end the federal government shutdown.

Starting next month, MNsure will spend $3.5 million on advertising to alert the public about the launch of the state-run health insurance marketplace. Open enrollment is set to commence on October 1.

MNsure aims to balance the risk pool by courting the young and healthy.

Premiums remain a huge issue in the debate over Minnesota's health insurance exchange, MNsure. One fear is that it will potentially raise health insurance costs for all Minnesotans. Others argue the opposite, suggesting health costs will flatten as the exchange creates a wider marketplace.

As insurers submit their proposed charges in every state under the Affordable Care Act, a pattern of large premium increases may emerge. And opponents of the 2010 health-care law will pounce. But the news media and the public shouldn’t succumb to their hysteria.

Rep. Joe Atkins (Staff photo: Peter Bartz-Gallagher) Legislation establishing a health insurance exchange cleared the House on a largely partisan vote on Monday evening. The 72-58 vote followed more than five hours of contentious debate over the proposal to provide a marketplace for individuals and businesses to purchase insurance products under the federal Affordable Care Act.