Minnesota Legislative Reference Library
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3/1/2010
The Bridge Collapse as a Story of the Decade
The Minneapolis bridge collapse was mentioned in two
columns in the new issue of Governing magazine.
Donald Kett writes the Potomac Chronicle column.
He listed the bridge collapse in his article, "A
Decade to remember: 10 Years, 10 Highlights for Federalism." The
bridge was noted again in a column by Alex Marshall, "The
Aughts: The Decade of Infrastructure. As the decade
ends, there's little to cheer save a notable exception:
infrastructure."
Marshall writes: "This was the decade of infrastructure.
This was the decade when a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis
and focused a nation's attention on the vast litany
of rusting and decrepit bridges, among other infrastructure,
and the need for funds to repair them. This was the
decade when a new bridge was built and opened in just
over a year — a compliment to the capacity
of professionals to work fast when needed."
2/24/2010
The Legislative Time Capsule Consolidates Statistics by Session
Check out the new Legislative Time Capsule pages!
During the past 40 years of the Library's history, we have tracked statistics about the Legislature. What first started as typewritten lists in notebooks became text files on a computer and then pages on our website. Still, researchers looking at individual sessions had to find and compile statistics from many databases and web pages.
We've taken a giant step toward useful consolidation of legislative statistics on the web, combining scattered data for each legislative session. You can quickly find information on members, bills, laws, vetoes, dates, special sessions, leadership, and more. The pages draw information from the House and Senate, the Office of the Revisor of Statutes, Legislative Manuals, and lists compiled by the Legislative Reference Library.
The Legislative Time Capsule pages will only get better as we add data and categories. For example, lists of committees are available now back to 1917, but the remaining years will be added soon. As time and staffing allow, we will add election results, legislative district descriptions, links to books and articles about the activities of each year, and more. If you have comments or questions about the pages, or suggestions for information you would like to see included, email us at refdesk@lrl.leg.mn.
2/23/2010
Marijuana Reports from the 1970s
In the old days, researchers from around the country
and around the world borrowed reports
from our collection. Now we view each request
as an opportunity to scan additional documents,
making them available to the researcher and to
everyone, and saving on postage. Recently someone
from New York was researching Minnesota's marijuana
policy in the 1970s. As a result these documents
are now available online.
Marijuana and Misdemeanant Minnesota Courts, a Memorandum by Judge Herbert E. Wolner, Hennepin County Municipal Court, 1973.
Preliminary Memorandum, by the Marijuana Task Force, prepared for the Minnesota Legislature, 1973.
Report on Drug Education Program for People Arrested for the Possession of a Small Amount of Marijuana, by the Department of Public Welfare, 1978.
The Use of Marijuana in Minnesota, prepared for the State Alcohol and Drug Authority by the Minnesota Behavirial Insitute, 1975.
2/20/2010
Evidence-Informed Policymaking: The 2010 Family Impact Seminar
The University of Minnesota Children,
Youth & Family Coalition sponsored
the 2010
Family Impact Seminar for legislators
and legislative staff on February 18 and 19. The
speakers addressed "Evidence-Informed Policymaking:
Improving Accountability and Outcomes for Children,
Youth and Families." The seminar was a useful combination
of research concepts, examples of programs, and
discussion of the issues facing policymakers in
using evidence and research to craft sound policy.
Although it's hard to match the experience of attending
the seminar, reading the Information
Brief created for the seminar
provides great background. One article, "Evidence-Informed
Policy to Improve Impact and Accountability," describes
various types of studies and evaluation. It also
answers the question: Why is it "evidence-informed"
rather than "evidence based?"
"In even more recent history at both the federal and local level, "evidence-based policy" has become an important term in policymaking. We prefer the broader term "evidence-informed policy" because it takes into account the reality that evidence is just one of many considerations in the policy making arena. One aim of evidence-informed policy is to "increase the relative prominence given to evidence during the policy process with due acknowledgment that other factors such as ideology, professional norms, expert views, personal experience, media interest and politics, will all remain influential."" (p. 4)
2/15/2010
Only 35 Years Ago
While helping someone with older news clippings,
I ran across an article by Betty Wilson from the
Minneapolis Star in January 1975. "'For
Men Only' Cafe yields to DFL Women" described
an occasion when two female legislators, Rep.
Janet Clark and then-Rep. Linda Berglin, along
with Rep.Wes Skoglund, created a furor at the Copper
Ladle Cafeteria in the St. Paul Athletic Club.
A manager had to intervene before the women legislators
were served. (!) The three legislators were offered
a table by two men who were just leaving. I sent
the article to Rep.
Skoglund, who added to the
story. "What was especially funny is that after
we had our food on our trays and tried to find
a place to sit, men
at every table spread out and made sure that all
the seats were taken, although many were filled
with coats, briefcases, newspapers or anything
else that was handy to place on a chair. They
did make room for a 3M executive who, that morning,
had been found guilty of a crime related to Watergate
funds. It was refreshing when the two guys invited
us to sit with them. They told us that while
they may be shunned at the club, their wives would
be proud of them. I suspect that some of
the other men who hogged extra space told their
wives or daughters different stories when they
got home."
Rep. Skoglund said he was going to be sure to pass the aritcle on to his daughters!
2/9/2010
SPLOTS Don't Completely Languish
In a press
conference yesterday Rep. Paul Marquardt
unveiled a bipartisan initiative to solicit government
redesign ideas via a new website and
citizen hotline. At one point he held up a stack
of documents to demonstrate that looking for government
redesign is not new. He called the reports SPLOTS
- Strategic Plans Languishing on the Shelf.
What's
interesting is that over the years, government
reorganization reports have NOT been languishing
on the Legislative Library's shelves. Two reports mentioned at the press conference, Within
our Means and John Brandl's An
Agenda for Reform, have often been requested over the years. We've scanned older reports to
be sure they are available online to everyone, including two frequently requested
series, Minnesota Milestones (several
scanned reports) and the CORE
reports from
the Minnesota Commission on Reform and Efficiency.
Also, many times when a new governor takes office
there is talk of reorganization and becoming more
efficient. We have a giant notebook of materials
on former governors' initiatives. (Here's the table
of contents.)
We'll document this initiative too, and hope for great citizen ideas and positive change.
2/5/2010
Mattresses - a Recycling Success Story
Our Legislative Library receives two publications
from the Natural
Resources Research Institute (NRRI)
at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. The NRRI
Now newsletter is a colorful collection
of short articles about NRRI projects - fun to read.
The Semi-Annual Report is a compilation of one-page
descriptions of current research projects. I'm sure
many projects have important implications, but are
Greek to a layperson - like, "Closing the Loop on
Filter Cake Moisture Analysis and Control."
One project caught my eye, "Goodwill
Industries, Inc. - NRRI Product Development Fund," the objective being
"to develop and exploit a local market outlet for
compacted mattress innersprings recovered from mattresses."
While buyers for the softer parts of shredded and recycled mattresses have been found, preparing the metal springs for recycling to steel manufacturers has proved difficult. The springs don't compact easily and harm the recycling equipment. Happily, according to the project description, "This project caught the attention of a local engineer and designer who after reading an article about mattress recycling in the NRRI Now, proposed a viable solution for the compaction and densification of stripped mattress innersprings. An initial working model of a triple axis mattress compactor was completed and tested using actual mattress springs recovered from Goodwill Industries, Inc (GWI)." They hoped to implement the new compactor in 2009. I was curious and wrote to a project leader - is the new machine in use? It is! Mattress springs are being recycled, and low-income people are benefiting from jobs at Goodwill and PPL Industries. Here are comments from Tim Hagen, the Program Coordinator, about the current status of the program.
2/3/2010
MEED Documents
A news story today on Minnesota Public radio, "Business
Leaders Interested in Franken Jobs Plan," profiled
a jobs bill proposed by Sen. Al Franken. The "Strengthening
Our Economy Through Employment and Development
(SEED) Act” is informally known as the “Cash
for Jobs" bill. (press
release) The
Duluth Tribune commented favorably
on the idea in "'Cash
for Jobs' Would
Put Minnesotans Back to Work." The
wage subsidy portion of the SEED Act is based on
a Minnesota program, the MEED (Minnesota Emergency
Employment Development) Program.
There has been recurring interest in the MEED program over the years - we know that because the older reports, including all of the progress reports, in the Library's collection have already been digitized. (11 reports in the Library collection) Evaluative reports include MEED Works : A Look at Minnesota's Investment in People, Jobs and Communities (1985, Jobs Now Coalition), MEED Means Business : Private Employers Assess the State Jobs Program (1984, funded by the Minneapolis Foundation), and MEED Means More Business : Job Growth Through Minnesota's Wage Subsidy Program (1988, Jobs Now Coalition).
1/29/2010
Distracted by the Data
During the 2009 session the Agricultural
Utilzation Research Institute was required
to produce an analysis of green job opportunities
in agriculture. (Ch.
94) The resulting report, Minnesota
Food Production Sector: Growing Green Jobs,
examines ways to increase the number of green jobs
in organic agriculture and the processing of organic
foods, and in locally-grown food programs, conventional,
natural, traditional, and urban farming. It's a
dense report with many suggested action items and
examples of programs around the state. It
balances positive opportunities and challenges
to the industry. For example, expanding locally-grown foods
to food service clients, or the increasing demand
for organic foods, are opportunities. Challenges
include financial stress in agricultural sectors
and a challenging regulatory climate.
Here's the distracted part. It's a beautifully-produced report that invites browsing, with photos and charts and statistics. One box presented Minnesota's national rankings in agricultural production (2008)(p. 3). Minnesota ranked fifth in total cheese production, honey, and mink pelts. Mink pelts? How many minks could there be in Minnesota? I checked the latest edition of Minnesota Agricultural Statistics (pdf)(html), the really great annual compilation from the MN Department of Agriculture. In 2008, there were 196,400 mink pelts produced in Minnesota, and 52,300 females bred.
E-mail or call a librarian at 6-8338 if you would like to borrow the report. *
1/28/2010
Not Too Many Feral Pigs in MN Yet
The destructive aspects of feral or wild pigs
are described in a new mandated report from the
Minnesota Departments of Natural Resources, Agriculture,
and Board of Animal Health, Feral
Swine Report to the Minnesota State Legislature,
January, 2010. (Laws
of Minnesota 2009, Ch. 94, Art. 1, Sec. 100)
From the report: "Wild pigs are opportunistic omnivores that feed primarily by rooting and grazing, which contributes to their role as a problematic species in North America and elsewhere. Rooting, trampling, and compaction influence plant regeneration, community structure, soil properties, nutrient cycling, and water infiltration. Wild pigs may induce the spread of invasive plant species because invasive species typically favor disturbed areas and colonize more quickly than many native plants."
Luckily, there has been only one case of pigs running loose reported in Minnesota, in Big Stone County, according to the report. An article from Outdoor News describes that situation; "DNR Pursues Pork Project in Western Minnesota, March 12, 2009. For a nationwide perspective, see an article in the November, 2009, issue of Farm Journal magazine, "Going Hog Wild."
The report recommends that the Legislature should consider establishing a criminal penalty for the intentional release of domestic animals, including domestic pigs, into the wild. Hopefully that would help prevent the problems in Texas, where there are 2 million feral hogs! As close as Wisconsin, feral hogs have been reported in several counties.
1/22/2010
Mandated Report Titles Longer Than Tweets
Reports mandated
by the Legislature flood in to the Library in January. We notify people of
new reports coming in on our website; the Newly
Acquired Minnesota State Government Reports
page is updated daily. Not everyone checks it, of course, so
we thought we would note interesting titles on
our Library
Twitter feed. That's not always easy - many
of the most interesting titles are over 140 characters!
These two were part of the group of 142 that were
due on January 15.
1/21/2010
Legislative Committee Deadline Dates - Historically
Peter Wattson, Secretary of the Senate, asked
if we would like to post a table he has maintained
on legislative committee deadline dates over the
years. Great! He updated his descriptive docoment
too, and the resulting Legislative
Committee Deadline Dates page is now available for everyone. It makes
a great addition to the Library's collection of
Historical
Information about the Minnesota Legislature.
1/19/2010
Continuing Interest in Ignition Interlock Devices
A Star Tribune article
yesterday described Minnesota's statewide
ignition
interlock pilot program. Around
500 Minnesota drunk driving offenders are using
the devices on their cars. See "Drink
and Drive: These Minnesota Cars Just Say No."
Legislators have been interested in use of the devices for many years. As early as 1988, the Legislature asked the Department of Public Safety to research several questions relating to the use of ignition interlock devices (Laws of Minnesota 1988, Chapter 681, Sec.18), resulting in a short Report to the Legislature, December 1988.
In 2000, the Legislature mandated a pilot program and report to be done by 2002. (Laws of Minnesota 2000, Chapter 478, Article 2, Sec.1) Nine people participated in the pilot project described in Ignition Interlock Pilot Program: A Summary Report to the Legislature, January 2002. Another pilot project began in 2007, as reported in Ignition Interlock Pilot Project : Preliminary Report to the Minnesota Legislature, December 2008. (Laws of Minnesota 2007, Chapter 54, Article 3, Sec. 5) Based on promising results, that program was expanded and extended in 2009 to the current pilot program. (Laws of Minnesota 2009, Chapter 29, Sec. 2, House Public Information overview)
A state-by-state look a the devices can be found in "Ignition Interlock Devices: Starting Your Engine Sober," a recent Legisbrief from the National Conference of State Legislatures. It notes that 47 states and the District of Columbia have some type of ignition interlock law. Minnesota's program is highlighted.
1/19/2010
More Photos for the Legislators Past and Present Database
The Minnesota
Legislators Past and Present database
includes visual resources in addition to text.
Records for legislators include photos
by the House and Senate Photographers for each
session served from 2001 (the 82nd session) to
the present. In addition, grants from the Minnesota
Digital Library enabled us to add images for all
legislators from the 1913, 1923, 1949, 1963, 1973,
and 1981 legislative sessions, scanned from the
Minnesota Legislative Manuals. 1913 was the first
year that photos were added to the Legislative
Manuals.
This fall, the Minnesota Digital Library scanned member photos from the 1935 and 1957 legislative sessions. We now have images digitized for at least one session in each decade from 1913-2000. Because many legislators served for several sessions each, Legislators Past & Present includes at least one image of 55% of legislators serving from 1913-2000.
Check out the record for long-serving Rep. Willard Munger! He has photos from 1957, 1973, 1981, and 1999.
1/15/2010
Focus on City Finances
According to a just released Minnesota State Auditor's report, cities are relying more heavily on property tax revenue to fund their services. In the past decade (1999-2008) this revenue grew 102%. The report contains many other interesting facts such as "Over the ten-year period of 1999 to 2008, an examination of city finances shows that when adjusted for inflation, 2008 expenditure levels are below 1999 levels and decreased 7 percent over the ten-year period."
E-mail or call a librarian at 6-8338 if you would like to borrow the report. *
645 State Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Blvd
St. Paul, MN 55155-1050
Reference: (651) 296-8338 Circulation: (651) 296-3398
Hours: 8AM to 4:30PM Mon. - Fri. (Legislative history service ends a half hour before closing.)
Legislative Session Hours: 8AM to 6PM Mon. - Thurs., 8AM - 5:00 PM Fri. or later as needed.