I spend a great deal of time discussing issues women face in our country. But I often have to remind myself that the struggles we face in the United States -- be it the gap in wages in the workplace, the struggle to have equal reproductive freedom...
More... Gov. Tim Pawlenty presented a supplemental budget Monday morning that outlines how he wants to erase a $1.2 billion state budget deficit. Aid to cities, counties and health and human services took the deepest cuts in Pawlenty's proposal. The governor, who is in his last year in office, pledged to protect programs for the military, veterans, public safety and money for K-12 classroom education. According to the governor's office, the budget proposal cuts $250 million from aids to local units of government; $347 million from health and human service programs; $47 million from higher education funding, and $181 million from state agencies and other programs. . . .More...
Just one week before the filing deadline for potential Senate candidates, Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat from Indiana, shocked many when he announced today that he would not seek re-election in November.
More... 
Dear Barbie, I owe you an apology...I was a little harsh with you last year. I really wasn't that angry with the outfit, I was more bothered by your impossible body proportions.
More... A candidate for governor is calling for an expansion of gambling in the state. Rob Hahn is in the running for the Independent Party nomination. On Sunday, he proposed allowing betting on stock cars at local tracks across the state. In a news release titled, "Ladies and Gentlemen Start Your Betting," Hahn said the state needs to look seriously at every possible new form of revenue. He said money generated through gambling would go to the state's general fund. "Minnesota can really be a leader in this area of betting on local stock car races," Hahn stated in the press release. "The feedback I've gotten from voters, particularly in the past few days while in Mankato and St. Peter, has been very favorable." ...Stock car racing is popular across rural Minnesota, and I don't doubt that Mr. Hahn has gotten people's hopes up. Unfortunately, WCCO didn't conduct the minimal fact checking about Hahn's proposal. More...
It's a week since the Super Bowl, and we've had time to develop a little perspective. On Super Bowl day I pointed out that 2009 had some of the most sexist commercials known to tv, and wondered what 2010 would mean for women viewers.
More... 
When you make a call on your cell phone, just how much privacy should you expect to enjoy? More importantly, does owning a cell phone give the government the right to track your whereabouts, even if it hasn't shown probable cause?
More... Payment Reform and Coverage for All a Step in the Right Direction
We have been asked about the financial impact of health care reform bills on Mayo Clinic. We reiterate that both the House and Senate bills include important steps toward creating a more equitable and higher value health care system, consistent with the cornerstones of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center. We believe that reform provisions, which set the stage to rework the way Medicare pays for care (with the goal of transforming the current payment methods) have the potential to improve incentives for high quality doctors and hospitals and make it more possible for them to offer the highest quality care at the most reasonable cost. We have concerns about some of the across-the-board cuts in Medicare payments associated with the proposed legislation, which are a continuation of historical approaches to cutting prices rather than addressing utilization of care. However, we cannot quantify the net impact of those cuts with any level of specificity. In addition, the potential positive and negative financial impact of several reform provisions can not be quantified at this point. Expanding insurance coverage to more Americans is the right thing to do, and will also have a financial effect on providers. Doctors and hospitals will see fewer financial losses from charity care and bad debt. Yet, to the extent that this is accomplished through Medicaid expansion, it will result in more patients being cared for in a system that reimburses below cost and does not reward good care provided at a reasonable cost. We are confident that expanding insurance coverage and moving Medicare in the direction of paying for value will positively transform health care delivery in the United States. Reforming health care in America is essential. The status quo is not sustainable, and Mayo Clinic remains firmly committed to moving forward with patient-centered reform.While the Mayo Clinic's Health Policy Center is optimistic that the pay-for-quality reforms in the bill are good step and cautiously guarded about the across-the-board cuts, the gentlewoman from Minnesota's Sixth was quite confident that Mayo would suffer thirty percent cuts in federal funding in her remarks to the audience at a campaign event for MN01 GOP congressional hopeful Allen Quist.
Austin police have cited a local man who led neo-Nazi rallies downtown for abandoning his pit-bull dog when moving out of a rental home. Samuel James Johnson, 29, is being cited for a misdemeanor count of mistreating an animal and is scheduled for a March 1 hearing in Mower District Court. According to the police report, an Austin community service officer got a report about 4:40 p.m. Feb. 1 of the abandoned dog from the property owner at 304 Third Ave. N.W., from where Johnson had moved. The dog was left behind in a locked cage on the home's front porch with no food or water, the report says. The officer found the male pit bull in the locked cage with feces inside the cage and no food or water. With the dog appearing to be vicious with its growling and barking, two other officers helped tranquilize the animal to transport it to the city pound. . . .This situation most likely spells a sad end for the abandoned dog. Was it vicious before being left caged without food or water on a porch in the dead of a particularly harsh Minnesota winter? Would its attitude had been better had not Johnson left him confined to soil the cage? Odds are that no one will try to discover if the abandoned dog responds to humane treatment. More...
Minnesota’s Congressional Women in the News Minnesota’s Local Women in the News Minnesota Women Politicians’ Press Releases Latest News from the House of Representatives