local
The Whistleblower blog was started in 2008. Look for posts by these contributors: James Eli Shiffer, Jane Friedmann and Maria Elena Baca. | Check out the Whistleblower archive.
Find us on Facebook and Twitter. Find our watchdog and investigative work at The Investigators.
The Star Tribune's journalists need your help blowing the whistle in Minnesota. Contact us here.
resize text 
find us on Facebook
follow on Twitter
subscribe via RSS
Posts about Government spends your money
Crosswalk gets new stripe, pothole included
Posted by: James Eli Shiffer Updated: May 20, 2011 - 9:44 AM
Spotted on 4th Street South in Minneapolis: the striping crew didn't let an unfixed pothole get in the way of its work. If the pothole gets fixed, will the painters have to come back?
Her ticket, state's mistake
Posted by: Updated: April 1, 2011 - 9:55 AMLast week, Erika Smith got a ticket in St. Paul for expired tabs. She was peeved, because she dutifully renewed her tabs. Yet the little license plate stickers had something in common with last year’s — they were red.
Tabs are supposed to change color every year. Whistleblower contacted the state’s Driver and Vehicle Services Division, which apologized for the error and said the 2012 tabs should have been gold.
“This was the first we had heard of this oversight,” a division spokeswoman said.
The division wants anyone who received red 2012 tabs to e-mail a photo of the incorrect tabs and license plate number to DVS.motor.vehicles@state.mn.us or visit a deputy registrar office or call 651-297-2126 to have the tabs replaced at no charge.
Should money for gun permits go out of state?
Posted by: Updated: January 26, 2011 - 11:09 AMA gun permit holder recently found an easier way to keep carrying his weapon without renewing his Minnesota permit. Instead of paying $100 and taking a class to renew the license for five years, he found out he can get a nonresident gun permit from Utah.
That state requires only a one-time training class, a $65 first-time fee and then $10 every five years to renew. Utah gun permits are recognized in 33 states, including Minnesota.
“I bring this to your attention because I feel the state of Minnesota is losing out on a bunch of revenue because their permit policies cost the end user too much,” the gun permit holder wrote.
Revenue from gun permits goes to counties, not the state, according to Department of Public Safety spokesman Doug Neville. A Utah permit holder can't do everything a Minnesota permit holder can do either. A Minnesota permit serves as a permit to purchase a firearm, while a Utah permit does not, Neville said. To see a list of out-of-state permits that are valid in Minnesota, click here.
Lt. Doug Anderson, of the Utah State Patrol, said Utah permits are often sought by out-of-state residents because they have one of the most widely recognized permits in the country.
Utah doesn't allow just anybody to get a gun permit. Several types of criminal convictions disqualify you from getting a permit, including a felony, a crime of violence, an offense involving moral turpitude, domestic violence or the use of alcohol.
It's difficult to tell how much money Minnesota counties may be losing to Utah. Anderson said he did not know how many Minnesotans have non-resident Utah gun permits.
Should Minnesota do something about this?
A smooth future for pothole-infested street
Posted by: James Eli Shiffer Updated: January 6, 2011 - 10:43 AM
Street of holes (photo by McKenna Ewen)
A smooth ride might finally be in sight for Minneapolis’ most pothole-infested street. This week, a Minneapolis City Council committee approved the layout of a reconstructed 33rd Av. SE. and adjacent Talmage Av. SE.
Last summer, Whistleblower took a bone-jarring ride down 33rd, which has never been paved and routinely degenerates into a hazardous field of potholes and gullies. See the video here. One day later, the city dumped 17 tons of asphalt to fill the largest holes, but the city’s street maintenance chief said it was only a temporary fix.
It will cost about $4.3 million to pave the streets, which will have gutters, curbs and sidewalks. While the committee’s action means the project is moving forward, the work may start this spring. Or next spring.
Swept up by the tax collector
Posted by: Updated: October 4, 2010 - 12:01 PM
Photo by David Brewster
In Sunday's column, I wrote about a Burnsville couple who received a startling letter from the state Department of Revenue this summer. Jerry Blaschko was personally assessed for a tax debt owed by a golf course where he had served as a volunteer board member 20 years ago. It was up to him to prove that he didn't have anything to do with the golf course and wasn't responsible for unpaid 2009 withholding taxes.
The Blaschkos contacted Whistleblower and state Senator Chris Gerlach to complain that the revenue department should have done some research before sending out the letter assessing personal liability. Their efforts paid off. Last Friday, they received a letter from the revenue department notifying them that Jerry Blaschko was no longer being personally assessed for the $8,574 debt.
To read the state law that allows the revenue department to go after individuals for an unpaid business debt, click here.
ADVERTISEMENT
recent posts
- Company fined for too much sewage
- State: Tobacco buyer evaded taxes
- 'Get rich slow’ broker is facing discipline
- Area nursing homes cited for violations
- Caregiver had sex with client
- Arbitrator upholds deputy’s dismissal
- Garage is eyesore no more
- FTC goes after FTC impersonator
- Salon fined for lax sanitation practices
- Man put on stand, though lawyer was absent
- Fines accrue, but north Minneapolis garage remains an eyesore
- Did the gas pump rip her off?
- Closed bar owes large sales-tax bill
- Cigarette taxes take her breath away
- Insurer now willing to pay flood claim, homeowner says
- Frustration at long waits in a Minneapolis precinct
- 'Vote No' van parked too close to poll
- Election judge instructions go too far
- Some voters may be asked for ID
Post By Category
- Water main break cuts off service to much of downtown Minneapolis
- Kansas sperm donor lawsuit could easily happen in Minnesota ...
- May 26, 1911: Water main bursts, floods North Side
- Crash in Bloomington halts light rail
- How Minneapolis made news in 2012
- Precedent opposes council-to-mayor ascension
- Minnesota Council of Churches director recruits faith leaders to join national prayer effort
ADVERTISEMENT
inside the StarTribune
-
425 Portland Av. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55488
(612) 673-4000
- Company
- Subscriber Services
- Website
- Buy Ads
- Store
- Connect with Us
© 2013 StarTribune. All rights reserved.
StarTribune.com is powered by Limelight Networks
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters