Public comments don’t always reflect behind-the-scenes input.

Both political parties highlighted Minnesota's new absentee voting law when outlining their ground games heading into the Aug. 12 primary elections

Clark Sieben said Indianapolis saw $324 million worth of economic activity owing to it 2012 hosting gig.

Davis said the business community is firmly behind the bid to win hosting rights for the national television event, which he called "a chance to put us on the world stage."

In addition, the state unemployment rate dropped down to 5.1 percent in August, compared to the U.S. unemployment rate of 7.3 percent. Trade, transportation and utilities gained about 6,000 jobs last month, while education and health care were a close second with 5,500 jobs gained. Construction, hospitality and government also made gains, while manufacturing shed 3,400 jobs last month.

Gov. Mark Dayton’s office set politicos and reporters abuzz this week with a late-arriving and mysterious addition to his daily schedule for Wednesday. The update said only that Dayton would be traveling out of state with Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) Commissioner Katie Clark Sieben for a “meeting regarding a possible economic development opportunity for Minnesota.”

Minnesota is setting up a foreign trade office in Germany. The office in the Dusseldorf area in western Germany is the second of what will eventually be five Minnesota foreign trade offices worldwide.

By almost any measure, Katie Clark Sieben’s political career has had a meteoric rise from serving as Gov. Mark Dayton’s campaign finance director to now serving as commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development.