Recent Updates

  


Dear 66B DFLers:
I write to you today as an 8 term State Representative and I realize most folks in Minnesota will know me mostly as just that – a Civil Law and Data Practices person, Tax Committee liaison for Saint Paul, Chair of the Saint Paul Delegation and, of course, lawyer.  I’d like to introduce you to where I come from and what drives my passion for service to Saint Paul at the Minnesota Legislature.
I grew up in Brooklyn Park where I matriculated through the Osseo School district. Junior High and High School were especially hard on me and they shaped how I approached my life thereafter in pursuit of justice for those who weren’t able to stand up for themselves.  Those teenage hardship years resulted in me attending seminary for three years with the Redemptorists, a Catholic...

  


 
My Fellow DFLers:
Thank you for attending our 2018 Precinct Caucus at Roseville Area High School on February 6.  Your participation is crucial to our success in retaking the Minnesota House of Representatives in November. Conventional wisdom suggests our district is not important to candidates, but as was seen at precinct caucuses, we had 4 statewide candidates for the DFL endorsement choose our senate district in which to participate on caucus night.  That speaks volumes to your importance as delegates.
Another reason why your participation is so important is because of the role our district plays in electing statewide candidates.  The next DFL governor will win based on the turnout and participation of people in our district, and of the few districts like ours located primarily...

Buried under the rubbish of news about US Tax law hijinks was Cardinal Bernard Law’s funeral.  Cardinal Law’s fall from grace arrived as news surfaced of his complicity in enabling abusive priests in his archdiocese to sexually abuse kids.  In 2002, the drip-drip-drip of daily scandals in the Catholic church generated outrage that, at the time, all but guaranteed Cardinal Law could no longer leverage his contacts, charm, and reputation to dodge accountability for offenses in the same way he and so many other clergy had previously done.  So, he traded in Boston for Rome, where the Pope gave him a golden parachute to live out his days in the manner befitting a Cardinal, and where the outrage of American press was muffled across an ocean and cultural barrier.
You’d have thought that we...

Preface. We’ve all got our indelible quirks. Mine is that (once in awhile) I’m that guy who throws the turd in the punch bowl.  When the group is moving south I’m sometimes inclined to move north, especially when the group is starting to look like lemmings, and south is the direction of an ethical cliff.  That’s how I’m beginning to feel today, after this week’s events – so, this blog is me…moving north.
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- due process (n)
1 : a course of formal proceedings (as judicial proceedings) carried out regularly, fairly, and in accordance with established rules and principles called also procedural due process 2 : a requirement that laws and regulations must be related to a legitimate government interest (as crime prevention) and may not contain...