November 5, 2008 - MN Sec. of State Mark Ritchie 1:30 pm presser on how the recount will be conducted.
November 14, 2008 - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger discussed the 2008 election results and their implications, at a recent discussion sponsored by the Minneapolis Club and the Minneapolis Foundation.
November 24, 2008 - MPR’s Kerri Miller interviews Arthur Levine, President of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and Vincent Tinto, Professor at Syracuse University, on the cost of high education.
November 24, 2008 - DFL U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar will convene national health care leaders for a summit in Minneapolis. Klobuchar says she organized the event to give industry leaders an opportunity to discuss ways to strengthen America's health care system, including Medicare. She says the goal of the summit is to examine how to offer quality healthcare at an affordable price.
November 24, 2008 - MPR’s Elizabeth Baier reports on DFL U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar holding meeting with national health care leaders for a summit in Minneapolis. Klobuchar says she organized the event to give industry leaders an opportunity to discuss ways to strengthen America's health care system, including Medicare. She says the goal of the summit is to examine how to offer quality healthcare at an affordable price.
December 11, 2008 - In selecting Tom Daschle to be his health and human services secretary, President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that he wanted Mr. Daschle, a former South Dakota senator, to pursue something that had eluded federal officials for decades: securing affordable, accessible health care for every single American. Whether Mr. Daschle, a former Senate majority leader, can succeed where others failed is unclear. Year after year, Mr. Obama said, "our leaders offer up detailed health care plans with great fanfare and promise, only to see them fail, derailed by Washington politics and influence peddling." Even Mr. Daschle, who will also be director of a new White House Office of Health Reform, acknowledges that the task will be difficult. In a recent book, he portrays the health care industry as a collection of special interests and predicts they will wage all-out war to defeat reform. Mr. Obama said Mr. Daschle, as head of the new office, would be the lead architect of proposals to expand coverage and rein in health costs.
December 17, 2008 - MPR’s Elizabeth Stawicki reports on arguments to the Supreme Court regarding ejected absantee ballots. An attorney for Norm Coleman's re-election campaign told Minnesota Supreme Court justices that the idea the estimated 1600 rejected absentee ballots in the Senate recount fit neatly into a category is an illusion. The court heard arguments on the campaign's petition to stop counties from adding wrongly rejected absentee ballots to their recount totals; or at least set uniform rules as to how counties should open and count those ballots.
December 23, 2008 - A group of about 50 Native Americans will ride on horseback into the Mankato area later this week. Their arrival will mark the end of a nearly 300 mile trip to mark the 146th anniversary of the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The group has endured blizzards and long stretches of below zero temperatures in their journey from the Missouri River to the Minnesota River. They saddled up again this morning in southwest Minnesota for one of the last legs of what they call a ride of reconciliation. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Steil reports.
December 26, 2008 - Tom Horner, MPR's Republican political analyst; and Todd Rapp, MPR's DFL political analyst, review the big political events of the year and preview 2009. Topics include Barack Obama’s election win of the U.S. presidency, economic challenges, and Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race recount.
January 8, 2009 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews R.T. Rybak, Mayor of Minneapolis about President-elect Obama economic speech. In his speech today, President-elect Obama also recognized the budget problems local governments are facing these days. Here in Minnesota, the Governor and the legislature are working to close a 4.8-billion-dollar budget shortfall. And, that has meant less aid money for cities and counties. The president-elect tried to offer local leaders some words of hope.