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New blogs for the blogroll; Legislative race roster; Weekly Report back issues posted

Posted 12:08 pm, March 10th, 2008 by Staff

Here at PIM, we've noticed that our stories are getting picked up much more in the state's major media. Two recent examples: the Attorney General unionization battle, and Rep. Joe Atkins' (DFL-South St. Paul) efforts to ban Salvia Divinorum, a shamanistic herb from Central America.

We've added the following new fun and interesting blogs to our political blog directory:
New conservative blogs:
  • America's Mayor: Mayor Nathan McLaughlin of Clarissa, Minnesota shares what's going on out there.
  • Mr. Dilettante: "A befuddled suburban Catholic boy with a liberal arts education tries to make sense of the world."
  • What would AC do? Has a good self-deprecating teaser: "No witty or catchy blog descriptions here. Frankly, I'll be happy if even my mother reads this."
New liberal blogs: Journalism/thinktank blogs:
  • We are dropping Eric Black Ink because his site has gotten combined into MinnPost @ Minnpost.com/ericblack/
  • MPR is getting more bloggy: NewsGrid is the newsroom blog, and News Cut has Bob Collins' special commentary.
  • Political Animal is the blog of the Pioneer Press political staff.
Institutional blogs:
  • Growth & Justice Blog: Minnesota blog for a fair, prosperous, and sustainable economy featuring transportation, urban development and economic topics.
We have posted back issues of The Weekly Report today:
  • The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 35 - 3/7/2008: In this issue: Cuts And Shots; Progress In Motion Arrived; Five "No Regrets" And One "Water Under the Bridge"; The Pragmatist: Rep. Ron Erhardt; Steadfast: Rep. Kathy Tingelstad; Creator, Conscience, Constituents, Caucus: Rep. Jim Abeler; Referencing Jeremiah: Rep. Neil Peterson; Rural Roads: Rep. Bud Heidgerken; Out Of Real Estate And Into Energy With Energy; Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Wild Game; Bits & Pieces; North Star Rising: The "Other" Blue Book; Lobbyist Watch.
  • The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 34 - 2/29/2008: In this issue: Money, Scissors And Overhauls; This Is Not The House!; Stop The Sage Surge: Atkins Takes Away Shamanistic Stuff?; Harness Racing In Minnesota; Hotline Names Cottington A Hottie; An Evening With Daniel Ellsberg; Coleman's Fight For The Senate; Bits & Pieces; February Is "I Love to Read Month!"...So Buy And Read Dean Urdahl's Book!; Lobbyist Watch.
  • The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 33 - 2/25/2008: In this issue: The Transportation Bill At 90 Votes An Hour; The Transportation Bill, The Minnesota Chamber Of Commerce And The Taxpayers League Of Minnesota; $eifert Roll$ In The Dough; A Bold Day; Cell Phone Consumer Protection Proposal Riles Telecoms, Astroturf Group; The AG Unionization Battle; Strib As Vehicle For U.S. Senate Democrats' PR Machine; Ciresi OnDemand; Bits & Pieces; Lobbyist Watch.
Finally, we have also put together a nice chart of state House races which you can download in PDF form here. This chart has this week's latest information, including new primary opponents.
Sarah Janecek's picture

The Influence of the Laptop Agenda

Posted 8:45 am, November 1st, 2007 by Sarah Janecek

The Wall Street Journal has a front page article, today, about the influence of "amateur bloggers" in the major Democratic primary states. In "Self-Appointed Bloggers Get Candidate Face Time," New Hampshire high school Latin teacher Dean Barker, who blogs at "Blue Hampshire," says:

"'It's weird,' he says. 'One minute I'm in the teachers' lounge making copies and the next I'm spending 30 minutes on the phone with Bill Richardson,' he says, referring to New Mexico's governor, one of eight Democrats running for president."

Further in the story:

More new political blogs for the rolls; PIM is joining the national Hotline Political Network

Posted 4:26 pm, October 17th, 2007 by Staff

The Politics in Minnesota website is steadily picking up steam, a day at a time. We are adding several new blogs across the spectrum to our blogroll today, and in the next few days we will join the nationwide Hotline Political Network, a loosely affiliated set of independent political reporting operations from California to New Hampshire. Hotline, published by the National Journal, is a well-regarded hub for national political news, drawing upon thousands of media sources.

Our new political blogs for the Minnesota political blog directory:
  • Under journalist blogs: HometownSource.com/blogs, the ECM Hometown Source blog, which brings together four blogs written by the staff at HometownSource.com: The Upsider Blog by Patrick Tepoorten, Infinite Learning - Endless Possibilities by Elyse Kaner, The Howzer Connection by Howard Lestrud and Places I Remember by H Burke.
  • Under conservative blogs: ChisagoGOP.blogspot.com is holding it down for the GOP in Chisago County, with four regular contributors.
  • Under liberal blogs: Minnesota Farmer-Labor Caucus is keeping an eye on State House races and holding DFL pols accountable to progressive values.
  • Under liberal blogs: LiberalMediaElite.com, which described itself in a pretty awesome way: "...a foul-mouthed political blog from America’s Heartland. Since we’re from the Midwest—the Heartland, that is—we have considerable moral weight. Because Midwesterners are the simple, yet trustworthy and moral, idiots savant of the American imagination. It’s true. Look it up."
  • Under conservative blogs: GopConventionReport.com by Nicole Russell tackles the staffing and bits and pieces of early news about the 2008 Republican National Convention on its way to St. Paul.
  • Under liberal blogs: MnImmigrantRights.net is covering immigrants' rights events in Minnesota, mostly event notifications. Runs on the Drupal engine, just like PIM!
  • Under conservative blogs: M4GW.com, Minnesotans for Global Warming, an alternative conservative take on climate change, with funny images and material available, by Elmer Beauregard.
  • Under conservative blogs: NorthStatesman.ning.com, "Save the USA while it still exists," looking out for globalization trends like the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), the NAFTA Superhighway, the U.S. Rep. Ron Paul presidential campaign, offbeat conservative and tech news. [Also Ning.com is a nifty base service to build a social networking site like NorthStatesman from.]
Those are all the blogs to add that we've got right now. If you have already sent a blog notification into staff@politicsinminnesota.com and it's not here, it must have gotten lost in the shuffle, so send us another note!

If you have a blog we already listed, we'd really appreciate it if you returned the favor and add PoliticsInMinnesota.com to your own blogroll, and perhaps even a handy link to the well-rounded daily material of the PIM Morning Report, a helpful link for readers of any political orientation!

Update 10/19: We just posted two more back issues of the PIM Weekly Report:
  • Politics in Minnesota: The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 13 - 8/10/07: In This Issue: The Race to Replace Ramstad; The Rammer is Rich; More Big Changes At The Star Tribune; A Modest Edina Media Spectacle; Larry Craig: Whose Waterloo?; Bits & Pieces; Lobbyist Watch.
  • Politics in Minnesota: The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 12 - 9/21/07: In this issue: The 3rd: Ramstad Retires; The 1990 Ramstad GOP Endorsement Victory Redux; The 2008 GOP & DFL Endorsing Contests; Who Wins?; MnDOT's Travelin' Gal; Media Machinations; Back in Black: Blogger With PR Machine; Tunheim Acquires New School; Bits & Pieces; More Web Media Is Good Web Media; Stillwater Levy Blog Wars Get Way Too Personal; Lobbyist Watch.
We still have to dig up and post Vol. 3, Issue 11, a task for next week!

More Minnesota blogs -- and back issues of the PIM Weekly Report posted - for free!

Posted 4:20 pm, October 3rd, 2007 by Staff

We ran a little bit behind in posting back issues of the PIM Weekly Report to PoliticsInMinnesota.com. Issues 10 and 11 of Volume 3 were produced by the DFL-oriented PIM staff while Publisher Sarah Janecek was on a vacation to Egypt and Jordan, so they've got a much more DFL-friendly perspective than usual. Here's what we've just posted:

The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 8 - 8/17/07
In this issue: DFL U.S. Senate Contest; Leeches or worms? Capri Pants or a Suit? Special Session Slowdown; Fox News Caught Altering Franken Wikipedia Entries Anonymously; Minnesota Democrat Abroad; Bits & Pieces; Lobbyist Watch; Setting the Record Straight.

The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 9 - 8/23/07
In this issue: PIM Publishing Schedule; PIM @ MNSpeak.com; Olson Leaving Ethics Behind; House GOP Caucus Presidential Poll; Kitty Gamble, Remembered Again; AFSCME Gets a Big Win; 2008 Republican National Convention Update; Gerlach Direct; Fifty Years of Crime and Justice; Bits & Pieces; Lobbyist Watch.

The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 10 - 8/30/07
In this issue: Janecek's in the Mideast & The Inmates are Running the Asylum; Negative Identities: Senators Craig, Wellstone, Homophobia And Easy Messages; Phillips Incinerator Burning Down; Lively Green and the War on Drugs: Who Patrols the Border Patrol?; Bridge Charity Work; Bits & Pieces; Lobbyist Watch.

We also added a few new blog this week to out Blog Directory.

  • Tonka Focus reports on the state of the Minnetonka school system and is filed under our Institutional/Think Tank section.
  • MinnesotaCentral, which focuses on Minnesota's 1st District in under the "critical centrist" or Independent banner.
  • Lake Minnetonka Liberty, a conservative blog from the Metro's western suburbs, now placed in our conservative section.

Please send in your political blogs (and what you deem the orientation to be) to our staff via our Tips page or at staff@politicsinminnesota.com.

A few website tweaks; the Publisher's on vacation in the Middle East

Posted 6:21 pm, September 4th, 2007 by Staff

PIM Publisher Sarah Janecek is on an extended tour of the Middle East right now. We have heard very little from her lately, though she told us to let everyone know that "I had my first camel ride, the camel's name was 'Easy Does It,' which was not true of the camel." The full moon rose over the Great Pyramids near her hotel, and few of the political wrinkles of Minnesota will trouble her in the near future.

Due to the holiday weekend, no Weekly Report will be published this week.

PIM now has a regular gig posting a few daily political headlines from the Morning Report on MnSpeak.com. MnSpeak is a pretty nifty site focusing on stuff going on around the metro area, and it has lots of vocal regular posters; in all, a good place to check out what's getting big buzz.

It's been quite a while since we made any front page posts. However, five days a week we post PIM Morning Report batches here. We've been focusing on I-35W bridge and flooding news. Also we've got a new regular section, Big Brain Blogs & Think Tank Thoughts. Our Morning Report editor, Tracey Howell, doesn't have an infinite amount of time to go looking for blog material, since our focus is hard news. So drop her a line if you think something should go in the Morning Report.

We have just added three new political blogs to our massive Minnesota political blog directory. Drum roll please...

  • Under institutional/think tank blogs, check out BehindTheMortgage.com by local mortgage guru Alex Stenback.

  • Under conservative blogs, check out Carol Cooper's new SteamValveBlog.com.
  • Under independent blogs, check out South Lake Minnetonka. We called it an 'indie' because it doesn't have a discernible partisan agenda.

If you've got a blog, consider adding PoliticsInMinnesota.com to your blogroll or sidebar: your readers will appreciate our blend of fresh news and links across the political spectrum! (And we like incoming links too!)

We have also just added a new Congressional Contact Information reference page. Here, you can get the office addresses, senior staff members, websites (both official government sites and campaign sites). It's nothing too complicated, but it should be helpful if you're looking to get ahold of your congressional delegates, or locate regional offices. The senior staff names may be slightly out of date; Members of Congress don't always share this information, and sometimes they don't even like to share their email addresses!

Here are a couple recent issues of the PIM Weekly Report: August 3rd's special bridge edition, and August 10. Our standard policy is to post them three weeks after our subscribers receive them, but we fell a bit behind.

More below the fold...

Minnesota Independent Blogroll


Sorry, we don't have more 'independent' blogs listed yet. Please send us some (via website feedback or staff@politicsinminnesota.com)!

Notes about the PIM blogroll


Minnesota right / conservative blog directory


A big ol' index of conservative, right-of-center and perhaps RINO blogs. We're mixing in the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers - a well-known authoritative index of conservative bloggers in Minnesota.

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