A report released today has more bad news for Minnesota's job numbers. 10,500 jobs were lost in November.
"The jobs retreat was led by trade, transportation and utilities, which lost 4,200 jobs during the month while leisure and hospitality lost 3,600. Also down were construction, off 2,100 and professional and business services, which lost 2,000 jobs."
The numbers would have been even worse if temporary positions for election judges were not included in the report, which the story cites as around 4,900 jobs.
This is yet another indication the Gov. Pawlenty needs to put his full support behind President-Elect Obama's economic recovery plan. Sign the petition telling Gov. Pawlenty to support the plan here.
For more information on the jobs report, check out Minnesota 2020.
Steve Berg at MinnPost has a look at Gov. Pawlenty's resistance to Obama's economic recovery plans.
"Gov. Tim Pawlenty's distaste for President-elect Obama's economic recovery plan is hard to miss. He called Obama's intention to launch the nation's largest public-works program since the Interstate highways of the 1950s 'an elaborate Ponzi scheme' that 'doesn't do anything' to soften Minnesota's horrific budget problems."
Gov. Pawlenty's failure to put an economic recovery ahead of his ideology is troubling. Reinvestment in Minnesota's infrastructure would put people back to work at a time when we desperately need to. Playing politics by walking away from this opportunity to reinvest in Minnesota and create jobs is not something we can afford right now.
Tell Tim Pawlenty to support Obama's economic recovery plan here.
The Star Tribune reports today that several top lawyers in Minnesota have been obtained by Sen. Coleman:
"They have been retained by U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman; his wife, Laurie; Jim Hays, her insurance company employer; and Nasser Kazeminy, a multi-millionaire friend of the Colemans who is accused in the lawsuits of sending them money in 2007 through Hays' company. Coleman's Senate ethics form reports no such payment."
The story has good recap of the events thus far, so go check it out.
Also, make sure to sign the petition urging the Senate Ethics Committee to join the FBI in investigating these allegations.
Others with the story:
Fox 9 has an exclusive story linking allegations of a supporter trying to funnel Sen. Coleman money while he was undertaking home renovations that came in $86,000 over budget.
Check out the story here, with video.
The key line from the story:
"What we know is this: the Senator had costly and over-budget renovations to his home at the same time a contributer was allegedly trying to funnel him money. But he's still criticized for walking away from reporters, while the questions aren't going away"
ABM agrees that these questions aren't going away, which is why we are asking everyone to sign our petition urging the Senate Ethics Committee to join the FBI in looking at these allegations.
The Pioneer Press reports today that the FBI is looking in to allegations that a longtime friend of Sen. Norm Coleman's tried to steer him money through his wife.
"Agents with the FBI have talked to or made efforts to talk to people in Texas familiar with the allegations, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Houston is where the first of two lawsuits was filed alleging Nasser Kazeminy, a Bloomington financier, tried to steer $100,000 to Coleman via his wife's Minneapolis employer. The second suit, filed in Delaware, alleges Kazeminy initially tried to get money directly to the senator."
Check out ABM's call to investigate these allegations and sign the petition to urge the Senate Ethics Committee to take up the investigation.
For more information on the investigation:
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has named 6th District Representative Michele Bachmann one of the 9 most embarrassing members of Congress who won re-election.
Politics in Minnesota has some details on the announcement, noting some of the reasons for her placement on the list:
"The organization detailed the backlash that followed Bachmann's appearance on "Hardball," including former Secretary of State Colin Powell's denunciation of her remarks as 'nonsense'"Alliance for a Better Minnesota released a TV ad Michele's comments and you can view that ad here.
For the other 8 members of the list, check out CREW's website.
The Associated Press has a story out today that details the vast lobbying efforts to prevent regulation of the mortgage sector.
"Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006. Power brokers such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were recruited with six-figure contracts. Freddie Mac paid the following amounts to the firms of former Republican lawmakers or ex-GOP staffers in 2006:
_Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, at Park Strategies, $240,000.
_Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota, at Clark & Weinstock, $360,297.
_Rep. Susan Molinari of New York, at Washington Group, $300,062.
_Susan Hirschmann at Williams & Jensen, former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, $240,790."
Click the link to read the full story about how lobbyists prevented regulations that would have lessened the impact of bad loan practices on the rest of the economy.
The CEO of a major marine technology company is alleging that he was pressured by a friend and associate of Norm Coleman to secretly funnel tens of thousands of dollars to the Senator's family.
Paul McKim, the founder and CEO of Deep Marine Technology, alleges in a civil suit that Nasser Kazeminy -- a longtime Republican donor, friend of Coleman, and DMT shareholder -- directed the company to send $75,000 to the Senator and his wife.
Click here to read entire story from Huffington Post.
More at MN PUBLIUS and The Minnesota Independent
VetVoice has comparison photos:
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2109
The story was just picked up on the front page of DailyKos as their top story:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/30/15513/668/315/646507
KARE 11 (NBC) Article: Attack Ad's Darkened Images Prompt Questions
http://www.kare11.com/news/elections/election_article.aspx?storyid=528296&catid=222
Video: http://www.kare11.com/video/player.aspx?aid=86686
Michele Bachmann is appearing to be a win-win for Tinklenberg and Obama. Not only did she help her Congressional opponent Tinklenberg raise a ton of cash, Bachmann's camments helped with Mr. Powell's decision to endorse Senator Obama. The former Chairmen of the joint Chiefs of Staff said of Bachmann's right-wing rant:
"This business, for example, we've got a congressman from Minnesota whose going around saying, 'Let's examine all congressmen to see who is pro-America and whose not pro-America.' We've got to stop this kind of nonsense and pull ourselves together and remember that our great strength is in our unity and our diversity,"
Click here to read full story from Politico.
Here's a new one, asking Minnesotans to call Representative Bachmann.
Cullen does not look comfortable during this humiliating episode in which he couldn't answer a yes or no question. While the issue isn't necessarily whether or not Norm took free suits, it speaks to the larger issue of Norm playing by his own rules while ignoring the people he is supposed to represent. Can we really trust this guy to be our Senator for 6 more years?
and clueless.
Click here for the video.
of the Republican Party has been to obstruct the Democratic agenda at
all costs. Republican senator Orin Hatch has gone so far as to tout
their obstructionist agenda in the National Republican Senatorial
Committee (NRSC) fund-raising pitch, describing the Senate as the
"firewall against irresponsible Democratic legislation." As the graph
from the front page shows, as of July 22 the Democrats have called a
record 94 cloture votes in the Senate, which nearly doubles the 54
cloture votes attempted in the entirety of the previous term.
NCEC projects that Democrats will likely attempt as many as 118
cloture votes in the Senate by the end of the term. The so-called
"irresponsible legislation" that the Republicans have derailed would
have addressed many pressing problems facing this county, from the
energy crisis to health care.
http://www.ncec.org
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