St. Paul

Second time’s the charm for rejected absentee voter

Paula Guerra, the St. Paul woman who tried to vote absentee from New York State where she’s caring for an ailing parent, phoned the Ramsey County Elections office Wednesday afternoon to check on her ballot. As the Minnesota Independent reported yesterday, the county had rejected her first absentee ballot due to improper witnessing and she wanted to know whether her second attempt had arrived on time and passed muster. “I thought I would have to live with never knowing,” she said.

Identical twins? PiPress and Strib strikingly similar today

City Pages’ Ben Palosaari notices the striking similarity between today’s editions of the Minneapolis and St. Paul papers, from identical headlines and photograph on each paper’s lead story to much of the rest of the pages’ offerings: dueling pieces on Denny Hecker’s woes, the new James Bond flick and the latest on the Coleman/Franken recount.

MnIndy video: Franken sues for voters’ names on rejected absentee ballots

The Al Franken for Senate campaign announced today it is suing Ramsey County in hopes that a favorable court ruling will compel all Minnesota counties to release the names of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected in last week’s election. Attorney Marc Elias said the campaign may present cases of wrongly rejected absentee ballots to the newly-formed canvassing board that will oversee the recount in the U.S. Senate race between Franken and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

Video and more after the jump.

2010 governor’s race: Pawlenty, Rybak gain rivals — not counting each other

Already by Tuesday, two men had tiptoed onto Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s turf this week. The city’s revitalization chief, Bob Miller, says he’ll run for the mayor’s job next year, the Southwest Journal reports. And on Monday Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a move on the green-jobs territory that Rybak — joined by another guv-wanna-be, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman — has spent years staking out. Meanwhile, as Pawlenty gears up for a potential presidential bid in 2012, a different Minneapolis official threw his hat in the ring for governor: State Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL).

Terrorizing Dissent: New documentary highlights police and protesters at RNC

The Republican National Convention. For many, that week in September brings back memories of the acidic smell of tear gas and pepper spray, police in riot gear on every corner and thousands of protesters in the streets. A two hour documentary by the Glass Bead Collective and Twin Cities Indymedia, features disturbing, never-before-seen footage of the RNC and police actions against protesters in the streets of St. Paul. The entire documentary is available on the Terrorizing Dissent website.

A clever trailer puts Sen. John McCain accepting the Republican party nomination in front of images of tear gas and protester arrests.

Chamber of Commerce funnels money to Norm Coleman to protect banks, thwart unionizing

National businesses and banks have been feeding Norm Coleman major sums of cash this last quarter, despite the fact that corporations and, especially the financial sector, are withering in a crippling economy and asking taxpayers for bailouts. According to a story in L.A. Times last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent $30 million on lobbying in the third quarter of this year, more than twice as much as it spent for the same purpose in the previous quarter. And a chunk of that change is going to Minnesota senator Norm Coleman.

Slideshow: Michelle Obama in St. Paul

Michelle Obama made a stop in Rochester Monday to campaign for her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama before making her way north to address a crowd of 4,500 at Macalester College in St. Paul. MnIndy copyeditor Nancy Olsen was there and captured these scenes. Look for a report by MnIndy’s Paul Demko soon.

When it comes to negative equity, the Twin Cities are seriously under water

A story last week by the Wall Street Journal reveals a growing and troubling trend: One in six homeowners are under water, or living in a home in which they owe more than it’s worth. In the Twin Cities the economic picture is even more dismal. Minneapolis and St. Paul rank fifth in the nation’s most in-debt households, meaning that area homeowners have less equity in their homes–and are more in debt–than the national average.

RNC8 supporters urged to phone in protests to officials today

With several members of the RNC8 — the people charged with felonies in conjunction with planned protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last month — heading to court today for hearings in their cases, the Friends of the RNC8 are asking supporters to phone three local officials today to urge that charges [...]

Riders in black honor victims of recent bike deaths

Dressed in black and wearing orange armbands, hundreds of bicyclists took to the streets of Minneapolis, St. Paul and several suburbs for two 14-mile memorial rides in honor of four local cyclists killed last month in collisions with motor vehicles.