Jill Burcum

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Jill Burcum

Editorial Writer

Phone: 612-673-7846

Jill Burcum has been an editorial writer since March 2008, joining the editorial board after working in the Star Tribune newsroom as an editor and reporter. She writes on a broad number of topics, but is particularly interested in health care, suburban issues and energy policy. Burcum has won numerous awards for her news coverage. Her work helped spur an FDA shutdown of a Georgia tissue bank and caused a Minnesota company to pull a dangerous supplement off the market after football player Korey Stringer's death. In 2009, she won her second Premack Award for public affairs journalism for an editorial that called for a nonpartisan inquiry into ethics allegations in the state attorney general's office. Burcum graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington in 1991 and started her career as a reporter for the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Burcum lives in Andover with her husband and two children.
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Where would Wisconsin Senate candidate Ron Johnson cut spending?

Consider this another salvo in a quixotic quest for spending cut details this campaign season. Wisconsin Senate candidate Ron Johnson, a...

Updated: September 13, 2010, - 05:04 PM

Jill Burcum: Is city’s tax board vital or a luxury?

Board member Carol Becker recently wrote publicly about the difficulty of the decisions Minneapolis faces this year. That led to a post on StarTribune.com about the practicality of the city’s unique form of government, which in turn drew Becker’s response.

Updated: September 08, 2010, - 06:52 PM

Jill Burcum: Carol Becker shouldn't be shocked by baroque city government's big bill

"Democracy is messy,’’ was Carol Becker’s comment to me as she left the Star Tribune building last fall. It was...

Updated: August 28, 2010, - 05:03 PM

A commonsense vote to help manufacturers

A welcome bipartisan breeze blew into the nation’s capital Wednesday as the U.S. House of Representatives passed a key bill...

Updated: July 22, 2010, - 12:46 PM

ESPY Awards honor coach's courageous family

Local coverage of ESPN’s annual ESPY Awards focused on the will-he-or-won’t-he play-again soap opera that is Brett Favre’s career. The...

Updated: July 15, 2010, - 12:20 PM

Erlinder took too big a risk

It’s certainly a relief to have Twin Cities attorney Peter Erlinder back in Minnesota after his harrowing arrest and imprisonment...

Updated: June 23, 2010, - 02:47 PM

Lumberjack likely front-runner for Obey's seat

Another well-known Midwest politician’s name won’t be on the ballot this November. On Monday, David Obey, an influential Democrat who...

Updated: May 05, 2010, - 03:12 PM

Q&A: Time for a mall reinvention

This week's announcement of Brookdale Center's virtual closure -- Sears is the only retail store still open -- felt a...

Updated: April 30, 2010, - 08:51 PM

Q-and-A: 'I tried to stop the car'

Koua Fong Lee's 2007 criminal vehicular homicide trial gathered few headlines outside of Minnesota when it happened. But the Laotian immigrant has become well-known across the nation after problems surfaced recently with sudden acceleration in Toyota Camrys. Lee, a 32-year-old with a family of four, was driving a 1996 Camry when he lost control of it on the Snelling Avenue off-ramp from Interstate 94 in St. Paul and slammed into another car. Two passengers inside died, and another later succumbed to her injuries. Lee has always maintained that he pumped the brake, but the car continued to accelerate. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2008. Lee's attorney is now petitioning the judge for a new trial, citing the Toyota recalls as new evidence. Legal experts have also raised questions about the length of his sentence. On Thursday, using an interpreter, he answered these questions from editorial writer Jill Burcum. Here are his edited responses:

Updated: April 03, 2010, - 03:51 PM

Despite Fox News report, Oberstar still undecided on health reform

The call from a Fox News media relations associate in New York City came late Wednesday afternoon. One of the network's reporters had supposedly confirmed that Minnesota Rep. James Oberstar was one of the pro-life U.S. House representatives who planned to change their "yes" vote on health reform to "no.''

Updated: March 11, 2010, - 01:19 PM