St. Paul Legal Ledger articles from November 2007

St. Paul Legal Ledger archives from November 2007

Metro. Council Transportation Comm. approves plan for new station in Bloomington.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Ten of 17 Hiawatha Line light-rail stations will be expanded and a new station built in Bloomington under a plan approved by the Metropolitan Council Transportation Committee. The panel voted last week to spend $1.5...

Twin Cities business community could learn lesson from Salt Lake City transit.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw The Twin Cities business community could learn a thing or two from their Salt Lake City counterparts about how to solve a transportation funding stalemate. Concerned that serious traffic congestion could threaten the...

Picture still fuzzy in Minnesota on cameras in state courtrooms.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Dan Heilman A committee considering whether to open the state's courtrooms to cameras was supposed to make a recommendation this month, but, as it turns out, it's still a developing story. The Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on...

Third time's a charm for historic bridge near Silverdale in Koochiching County.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson A historic wrought-iron bridge will soon have a new home in northern Minnesota. For decades, the 130-year-old span has carried Highway 65 traffic across the Little Fork River near Silverdale in Koochiching County. It...

Preparations under way for Richfield's 2nd roundabout.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Plans are progressing for a two-lane roundabout at one of the most crash-prone intersections in Richfield. City officials are preparing to demolish a vacant service station at 66th Street and Portland Avenue to make...

Election Tuesday in Minnesota.
November 3, 2007... Byline: Legal Ledger Staff On Tuesday's general election, voters in 99 Minnesota school districts will decide if they want to increase their district's property tax levies. The Minnesota School Boards Association says it is bringing in...

In Winona, City Manager Eric Sorenson fights for open spaces and LGA.
November 5, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Winona City Manager Eric Sorensen's childhood on the South Side of Chicago might seem like a world away from the southeastern Minnesota city on the Mississippi River he has called home for the last 20 years. But...

Minnesota wrestling with the health-care beast.
November 5, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Health care costs are exceeding the rate of increase for wages and inflation of Minnesotans, and legislators on a health insurance system panel want to do something to stem the increasing tide. While the growth in...

Dave Hage heading to Minn. Sen. Amy Klobuchar's office as communications director.
November 5, 2007... Byline: Legal Ledger Staff Star Tribune editorial writer Dave Hage said last week he will leave the paper to join DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar's office as her communications director. Hage will replace Semonti Mustaphi, who worked on...

The increasing influence of bloggers is getting the attention of Twin Cities public relations firms.
November 5, 2007... Byline: Bob Geiger Think of it as trying to herd cats. PR firms increasingly are attempting to get their arms around the unfettered world of the blogosphere, developing a new service segment called blog relations. They monitor blogs that...

Profiling the Legislature: State Rep. Julie Bunn.
November 5, 2007... Byline: Frank Jossi When Lake Elmo DFL activist Julie Bunn could not convince anyone to run for the Lake Elmo 56A seat in 2006, she decided to do it herself. The economist-turned-legislator was part of a DFL sweep of District 56 in...

Profiling the Legislature: Sen. Thomas Bakk.
November 5, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt Sen. Thomas Bakk, DFL-Cook, is anxious to talk about his desire to be Minnesota's next governor. It's Tuesday, Oct. 23, and that day's edition of the Mesabi Daily News carries a story in which Bakk publicly reveals for...

Election results highlight school funding problems in Minnesota.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Bev Petrie of Stillwater spent the last six months waging a grueling campaign to pass three operating levy increases for Stillwater public schools. One of the three passed. During a press conference Wednesday morning...

New Minn. Supreme Court Justice should be open-minded, willing to listen.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore The retirement of Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Sam Hanson at the end of the year gives Gov. Tim Pawlenty his third chance to appoint someone to the state's highest court. It's unclear at this point whether the...

Proposed makeover for Mayo Civic Center in Rochester still 'a dream'.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson A proposed $75 million upgrade that would nearly double the size of the Mayo Civic Center could generate much-needed new business activity for Minnesota's third-largest city. That's why the long-awaited project is at...

Security improvements for Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Two redesign projects inside the Hennepin County Government Center will improve both the look and the security system of the downtown Minneapolis building. The weapons screening system and the service desk are getting...

In Ramsey County, judges voicing some budget frustrations.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Barbara L. Jones When the 8.3 percent budget increase the Legislature gave to the courts last spring got allocated among the 10 judicial districts for fiscal year 2008, three districts didn't receive a slice of the pie. The state's...

Minnesota city's initiative to turn old school into affordable housing receives federal financing.
November 8, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt When it comes to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), most people think of crops, meat and dairy, not apartments. But in the central Minnesota city of Little Falls, an initiative to turn a century-old...

Minnesota's 'Fiscal Disparities' funding system under review.
November 12, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw A tax proposal to fund the Mall of America expansion last session shocked awake commercial real estate interests at the Capitol. While lawmakers were debating the omnibus tax bill in conference committee, a provision...

Minnesota panel: Alternatives needed to replace fossil fuel-based gas.
November 12, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Ethanol has a long way to go before it supplants fossil fuel-based gasoline in the cars U.S. consumers drive. In fact, corn-based ethanol alone probably could never replace gasoline, which is why the U.S. needs to...

Sarah Janecek on roster of contributors at MinnPost.com.
November 12, 2007... Byline: Legal Ledger Staff Sarah Janecek, longtime GOP lobbyist and co-publisher of Politics in Minnesota, is on the roster of contributors at the newly unveiled online-based publication MinnPost.com. In an interview last week, Janecek...

Profiling the Minnesota Legislature: State Rep. Tony Cornish.
November 12, 2007... Byline: Frank Jossi Tony Cornish (24B) freely boasts he's the Capitol's leading "gun nut." He proudly points to the "conceal-and-carry" law he authored and battled to get passed, as well as the "Castle Doctrine" legislation he is chief...

Profiling the Minnesota Legislature: Sen. Chris Gerlach.
November 12, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt Sen. Chris Gerlach, R-Apple Valley, wants you to think of him as a free-market warrior. He feels it's his mission to guard the marketplace against unnecessary regulation and release his constituents from the shackles...

Report touts the value of pro sports venues.(Report)
November 12, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson A new report from the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission makes a case that the public benefits outweigh the costs of investing in professional sports facilities. The commission released the 22-page report...

Dueling press releases in Minnesota, Seifert vs. Sertich-style.
November 15, 2007... Byline: Legal Ledger Staff House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, last Wednesday fired off a press release assailing DFLers for creating an "expansive and expensive" operation at the Legislature. In the press release, Seifert...

Minnesota to consider geothermal help.
November 15, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw City officials in Baxter would like to use the warmth trapped under the earth's surface to heat their new city hall, and they'd like some help from the state to do it. On Tuesday, Dennis Coryell, city manager of the...

Cities in Twin Cities metro area knee-deep in comprehensive development planning.
November 15, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Predicting short-term growth is hard enough, but when every city and township in the seven-county metro area is expected to forecast growth through 2030, it can be downright daunting. That's the challenge facing about...

Twin Cities-area Met Council bracing for deluge of development plans.
November 15, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson By the end of 2008, city, county and township governments in the seven-county metro area must update their comprehensive development plans, which forecast local growth for the next 25 years. The deadline is required by...

Construction industry learns how to win friends and influence people.
November 15, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The folks at St. Paul-based Hunt Electric knew they had the know-how to win their share of big-time projects, but they wanted to do a better job of lighting up the conference rooms with their pitches and...

Minnesota lawyers that became forever entwined: The Class of '55.
November 15, 2007... Byline: Michelle Lore More than half a century ago, the lives of a small group of future lawyers became forever entwined when they began clerkships at the Minnesota Supreme Court. What has distinguished this particular class of law clerks...

Worthington-based Newport Laboratories fights evolving enemy on American farms.
November 15, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Billions of dollars are spent on the front lines of the fight against new human diseases, but a young Minnesota company has become a leader in another important fight: combating the rise of new diseases among the...

Commentary: Backup! Backup! Backup!
November 15, 2007... Byline: Bruce L. Dorner The warning is to be heeded. You can never have too many backups of your precious data. Programs can always be reinstalled, but data can vanish in the blink of an eye. The key to a really good backup system is...

Big change in store for Minnesota VA.
November 19, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw A commission appointed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty will recommend today that the state board that oversees Minnesota's five veterans homes be abolished. The Veterans Long Term Care Advisory Commission will present its final...

Debating fix for Minnesota's military voting problem.
November 19, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw During the 2006 general election, Minnesota's men and women serving in the armed forces overseas in Iraq and elsewhere mailed their absentee ballots back home. They expected their votes would count. But about 20...

Minneapolis writer publishes new book on Minnesota politicians.
November 19, 2007... Byline: Legal Ledger Staff Minneapolis writer Barry Casselman explores Minnesota's early political history and anticipates the state's future power brokers in a book due out this week. The 108-page work, entitled "North Star Rising:...

Minnesota U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose to speak in public.
November 19, 2007... Byline: Legal Ledger Staff Minnesota's embattled U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose on Tuesday will be at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs to talk about the problem of international sex trafficking. Paulose's speech will focus on the...

Profiling the Legislature: Sen. Chris DeLaForest.
November 19, 2007... Byline: Frank Jossi Chris DeLaForest (49A) has been thinking a lot lately about taxes and asking a disarmingly simple question: Why does the state tax property? He paints a hypothetical scenario about a blue collar couple living on 20...

Profiling the Legislature: Sen. Michelle Fischbach.
November 19, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt When former Sen. Joe Bertram, DFL-Paynesville, announced his resignation a week before the first day of session in January 1996, it sent shockwaves throughout the state. After 15 years in the Legislature, the popular...

Building on its success.
November 19, 2007... Byline: Jim Martyka Mark Swenson doesn't hesitate to say it. When it comes to real estate development, the president of Minneapolis-based Elness Swenson Graham Architects Inc. (ESG) maintains that his company has won more awards than any...

USB unit gets $125M in development tax credits.
November 19, 2007... Byline: Mark Anderson Efforts to rebuild the nation's lowest-income communities got a financial shot in the arm last month when the U.S. Treasury announced its allocation of $3.9 billion in New Markets Tax Credits. One of the biggest...

Minnesota state VA to take control of veterans homes - again.
November 23, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Responding to recent patient-care violations at the Minneapolis Veterans Home, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Monday eliminated the board that has run the state's five vet homes since 1988 and put them under the Minnesota VA....

Benton County cites low ridership projections to quit Northstar Corridor Development Authority.
November 23, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson The proposed second phase of the Northstar Commuter Rail line has lost a financial supporter, casting some doubts on the long-term vision of a line extending from Minneapolis to the outskirts of St. Cloud. On Nov. 6,...

Phase 1 of Northstar Commuter Rail construction in Minneapolis stays on track.
November 23, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Northstar Commuter Rail construction is rolling along, despite the challenges of bumping up against multiple competing projects in a tight downtown location. "Everything is very much on track," said Northstar...

Eleven bidders vie for Northstar Commuter Rail contract in Minneapolis.
November 23, 2007... Byline: Adam Johnson Knutson Construction Services Inc. of Golden Valley submitted an apparent low bid Thursday to construct four Northstar Commuter Rail stations north of Minneapolis. The $14.17 million estimate was the lowest of 11...

Jahn named publisher for Twin Cities-based newspaper group.
November 26, 2007... Byline: St. Paul Legal Ledger Staff Steve Jahn has been named vice president and publisher of Finance and Commerce and its Twin Cities-based sister publications, Minnesota Lawyer and the Saint Paul Legal Ledger. Jahn has 20 years of...

Senator Steve Murphy pulls no punches at Minnesota Legislature.
November 26, 2007... Byline: Bill Clements Politicians like to paint the most attractive public portraits possible of themselves. Perhaps the most popular among male politicians is the straight-shooting, tough-talking man of the people. And state Sen. Steve...

Disagreements among Minnesota lawmakers cause revised Capitol restoration plans.
November 26, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw Architects last week presented state lawmakers a new state Capitol restoration plan that will take longer and cost more money to construct than previously proposed. Legislators during the 2007 session failed to agree...

Profiling the Minnesota Legislature: State Rep. Matt Dean.
November 26, 2007... Byline: Frank Jossi Matt Dean (52B) has been a busy man. For a week in mid-November, the Dellwood Republican and a host of other legislative members of the Capital Investment Finance Division have driven around the state looking at more...

Profiling the Minnesota Legislature: Sen. David Hann.
November 26, 2007... Byline: Todd Messelt Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, is a fiscally and socially conservative Republican who is also an evangelical Christian. And although his stand on the issues follows the expected course given those attributes, he...

Minnesota Government Briefs: November 26, 2007.
November 26, 2007... Byline: St. Paul Legal Ledger Staff Forecasting the state's finances Just about everyone at the state Capitol will be on the edge of their seats at 11:15 a.m. Friday when officials from the Minnesota Department of Finance unveil the...

Historical society's request to repair James J. Hill House among $4B in Minn. bonding requests.
November 29, 2007... Byline: Charley Shaw The mansion that railroad magnate James J. Hill built has stood exposed to the elements atop a bluff overlooking downtown St. Paul since it was completed in 1891. Officials at the Minnesota Historical Society, which...

Some in Twin Cities building industry pushing for facade ordinances and inspections.
November 29, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson In the mid-1970s, a female pedestrian suffered a fatal injury on a Chicago street. The culprit? A piece of terra cotta that fell 16 stories and struck the woman after it came loose from a nearby building. The woman's...

Group to study facade ordinances for the Twin Cities.
November 29, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson There's a minor movement afoot to study the need for regular inspections of building facades in the Twin Cities. At its Dec. 11 meeting, the local Building Enclosure Council, a branch of the American Institute of...

Project labor agreement for Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis appears to pass legal muster.
November 29, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson A recently signed agreement to use only union labor for the Interstate 35W bridge project appears to be legal. Minnesota Associated Builders and Contractors officials questioned the legality of the project labor...

'Sidewalk superintendents' teach public about I-35W bridge project in Minneapolis.
November 29, 2007... Byline: Brian Johnson Bridge building may be the best spectator sport in Minnesota. Why not? It's got to be more entertaining than watching the Vikings lose 34-0 to the Green Bay Packers. Here's the deal: Bridge contractor...