Ryan Winkler

Mar 6, 2014

House passes $500 million tax cut

Republican speakers expressed gratitude, though several used the occasion to criticize the DFL for passing the taxes in the first place.

Feb 19, 2014

Early childhood scholarships to get a push

All but two members of the Minnesota House voted in favor of a $500 million tax cut on Thursday evening. The bill’s overwhelming passage, delayed only by a few political speeches, sets the stage for a race to get the same package approved by the Senate some time next week. House Democrats and Gov. Mark ...

Jan 29, 2014

Top cops, privacy experts testify on surveillance

Amid mounting concern over the use of high-tech surveillance tools such as cellphone trackers and automated license plate readers, a procession of privacy experts and top law enforcement officials testified before a packed crowd at the meeting of the House of Representatives Civil Law Committee on Tuesday.

Dec 4, 2013

House staffer Matthew Bergeron joins 64B DFL field

Bergeron works as a committee administrator on the House Health and Human Services Policy Committee.

Nov 20, 2013

Anzelc proposes ballot initiative to raise Minnesota’s minimum wage

DFL Rep. Tom Anzelc, Balsam Township, said Wednesday that he plans to introduce a constitutional amendment next session that would raise the state's minimum wage from $6.15 per hour to $10 per hour by 2015 and adjust the rate in the future according to inflation. Many state employers play the federal minimum wage of $7.25.

Nov 6, 2013

Lawsuit: Shelve online voter registration

Republican legislators and conservative groups filed a lawsuit this week aimed at suspending an online voter registration program that they claim was improperly implemented by Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a DFLer, without legislative approval.

Sep 27, 2013

Minimum wage advocates gird for 2014 battle

Back in August, under a pavilion at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in 95-degree heat, supporters of increasing the minimum wage in Minnesota kicked off what would soon become a very public campaign. Before then, talk of raising the wage was mostly confined to the halls of the state Capitol, where differing House and Senate bills were considered last session but failed to yield any agreement.

Sep 3, 2013

House, Senate State Fair polls: support for minimum wage hike, gun sale checks

The majority of survey takers favor a raised minimum wage, mandatory background checks for firearms sold at gun shows and legalizing medicinal marijuana.

Aug 27, 2013

House Democrats, Dayton start next minimum wage push

Gov. Mark Dayton, labor activists and House members made an appearance at the Minnesota State Fair on Tuesday to renew a push to raise the state's minimum wage from $6.25 per hour to $9.50 by 2015.

Jul 26, 2013

DFLers are going all in on business subsidies

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.�[...]

Jun 25, 2013

Winkler apologizes for ‘Uncle Thomas’ tweet

State Rep. Ryan Winkler has issued an apology for an incendiary comment he made on Twitter in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the Voting Rights Act.

Jun 12, 2013

Tom Bakk: Remembrance of the session past

In the end, the DFL-controlled 2013 Legislature finished its budget work on time — with four minutes to spare, to be exact. It was 11:56 p.m. on adjournment day by the time the Minnesota Senate wrapped up its vote on the tax bill.