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1 week ago | 
kstp.com | Ashley Halbach |Tom Hauser KSTP
State funding that helps non-public schools with essential expenses like busing and textbooks is in jeopardy for the first time in more than 50 years under a budget proposal from Governor Tim Walz that is making its way through the state legislature. “For over 50 years, we’ve had the support of our local government making sure students have the essentials,” says Tricia Menzhuber, principal of St. John Paul II Catholic School in northeast Minneapolis.
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1 week ago | 
kstp.com | Emily Baude |Tom Hauser KSTP
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says a conservative group is trying to “smear” him for political reasons in a response to secret audio recordings posted by the Center of the American Experiment. The nearly hour-long audio recording includes a conversation between Ellison and a group of East African business leaders in 2021, some of whom later were charged in the $250 million “Feeding our Future” federal criminal fraud case.
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2 weeks ago | 
kstp.com | Cory Knudsen |Tom Hauser KSTP
Gov. Tim Walz was invited to speak at a veteran’s rally Wednesday and received a rocky reception. He took the stage in the Capitol Rotunda to a mix of cheering and booing along with a heckler yelling that Walz is a “coward.” The governor asked the heckler to let him finish while some other veterans shouted down the heckler. “Hey, there’s some passion in the building, which is a good thing,” Walz said while trying to calm things down.
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3 weeks ago | 
kstp.com | Cory Knudsen |Tom Hauser KSTP
Bills in the Minnesota House and Senate aim to put significant restrictions on homeowner association (HOA) boards across the state, aimed at transparency and accountability. However, many HOA board advocates say the proposed new laws go too far and will increase resident fees and potentially hurt property laws.
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3 weeks ago | 
kstp.com | Cory Knudsen |Tom Hauser KSTP
Democrats consider the universal meals program in Minnesota schools one of their signature achievements in the 2023 budget. They object to making changes to the program even in the face of a projected long-term $6 billion budget deficit. “What I’m trying to do here is bring a pragmatic approach to school meals while also trying to bring balance and focus on funding our schools,” Rep. Andrew Myers, R-Tonka Bay, said while introducing a bill to have some families pay for their kids’ school lunches.
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3 weeks ago | 
kstp.com | Emily Baude |Tom Hauser KSTP
Minnesota U.S. Senate candidate Royce White defends the campaign finance reports he filed that show more than $1 million of donor money went to “credit card fees,” which is nearly 70% of his $1.43 million in operating expenses in the 2024 campaign against Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar. When asked to explain the high credit card fees, White said he isn’t happy about it.
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4 weeks ago | 
kstp.com | Kyle Brown |Tom Hauser KSTP
President Donald Trump issued an executive order this week effectively putting more control of election law in the hands of the executive branch. Despite pushback from state elections officials around the country, Trump says the moves he ordered are necessary. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon is pushing back against the order. The two main changes involve requiring all people registering to vote to prove they are U.S. citizens and that all ballots must be received by Election Day.
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4 weeks ago | 
kstp.com | Emily Baude |Tom Hauser KSTP
With just over 50 days left in the 2025 session of the Minnesota Legislature, there’s not much public evidence that a lot of progress is being made on budget compromises between Republicans and Democrats. “An official condemnation from this body of the unprecedented blanket pardon by President Trump given to approximately 15-hundred people,” said Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park), the author of the resolution.
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1 month ago | 
kstp.com | Cory Knudsen |Tom Hauser KSTP
For just the second time since the Minnesota Legislature empowered it to determine pay raises for dozens of state officials, the state “Compensation Council” recommends significant pay increases for the Minnesota governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state auditor. Under a draft report by the council reviewed by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the governor’s salary would increase from $149,550 in fiscal year (FY) 2024 to $174,775 in FY 2025 and $200,000 in FY 2026.
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1 month ago | 
kstp.com | Emily Baude |Tom Hauser KSTP
The families of hockey player Jack Jablonski and football player Ethan Glynn lived through traumatic injuries to the two student-athletes 11 years apart. However, they are now linked in their fight for more insurance coverage for “catastrophic” injuries from the Minnesota State High School League. “Our lives changed in an instant,” Leslie Jablonski told the Minnesota Senate Education Policy Committee about her son Jack’s injury in 2011.
