Dozens of job-killing licensing laws identified in new study   ST. PAUL—A first of its kind report concludes that dozens of state licensing laws make it harder for low-to-middle income Minnesotans to find a job, forcing them to waste valuable time and resources obtaining a license that may not even be required for the same job in another state. License to Work, a study by the Institute for Justice, analyzes license requirements for 102 occupations in all 50 states and the District of Columb...

        A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee oversight hearing this morning in Washington will focus on “whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth” out of $7.2 billion in broadband grants and loans under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Two northern Minnesota projects were singled out in the hearing memo for the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology: a $1.7 million grant to the Leech Lake Reservation Busi...

New report shows municipal network fails to generate sufficient revenue to pay for operations and debt service         The City of Monticello has put bondholders on notice that the municipal broadband network once hailed as a national model is unable to meet its financial obligations with revenue generated from FiberNet Monticello customers. Instead, city leaders now will discuss how to restructure payment of $26 million in revenue bonds to save the faltering broadband networ...

A little publicized federal court case being heard on Tuesday in US District Court in Minneapolis, however, takes the divisive issue away from state lawmakers and propels it to the national level, with the potential to end or embolden what some call compulsory unionization, once and for all.

Featuring: Legislative Auditor report suggests local government consolidation, taxpayer bailout for Vadnais Heights sports complex, St. Paul government housing project, FFM in the news and more!

Not so long ago, kids walked and biked to their neighborhood school as a matter of course.  Now, there’s a federal government program that spends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to prod students and parents to do what used to be second nature:  bike and walk to school.

Featuring: Landfall uproar, a new Tax Foundation study, a Medicaid fraud hearing with a Dayton Administration commissioner as the focus, and end-of-session info at MNStateNews.com.

When Dale Malheim retired from the Army last year, he never planned to be on the front lines in his new hometown of Winthrop, Minnesota.  But the more he learned about the $70 million proposed RS Fiber telecom network, the more he felt duty calling again. So Malheim began a petition drive to force a referendum, thus allowing  Winthrop residents a chance to overturn the city council’s recent decision to support the sprawling countywide broadband network.

FFM hosts capacity crowd for John Stossel, Tax Freedom Day on April 22, As the Turbine Turns, local government lobbying for federal funds, and a quote of the week from Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI).

A Freedom Foundation of Minnesota analysis of Lobbying Disclosure Act filings finds that Minnesota’s local governments spent more than $1.1 million to lobby the federal government in 2011, and at least $3.7 million since the start of 2009. The biggest spenders in 2011 were the City of Minneapolis ($180,000), Hennepin County ($140,000), and Anoka County ($116,000).