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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Brad Schrade and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about Minnesota U.S. senators

Klobuchar and Franken vote 'yes' on fiscal cliff deal

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: January 1, 2013 - 7:39 AM

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Minnesota’s two Democratic senators cast yes votes on the late-night “fiscal cliff” agreement, which passed 89-8.
 
Sen. Al Franken, who faces reelection next year, expressed reservations about the reach of the deal in reducing debt and helping farmers. But he praised provisions such as tax cuts for the middle-class and the extension of unemployment insurance for the jobless.
 
He added that it was “crucial” to him that the deal worked out between the White House and Republican leaders did not make cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
 
“While I don’t think this package raises sufficient revenues toward paying down the debt or to make the investments in infrastructure, education, and research and development needed to grow our economy, I knew that no bill would have 100 percent of what I wanted,” he said in a statement. 
 
 Sen. Amy Klobuchar also said she had wished for more.
 
“I voted for this compromise because the last thing we should be doing this New Year’s is sticking middle class families with a tax hike,” she said. “I fought for and wanted a larger, more comprehensive plan that balanced revenues and spending cuts.” 

Which Wile E. Coyote cliff?

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: December 20, 2012 - 12:45 PM

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Minnesota economist Tom Stinson, whose biannual poker-faced delivery of the state's economic forecast has become a Capitol tradition, picked a cartoon image to describe the state's fate if the country goes over the so-called fiscal cliff.

The state's post-cliff job loss estimate, he told MPR, was only if "we go completely, Wile [E.] Coyote-style over the cliff and fall all the way to the bottom."

But that description begged the question: Would the fall be more like this?

Or like this?

Through a fine Minnesota Management and Budget spokesman, we got an answer from Stinson on which Wile E. Coyote cliff fall is more representative.

In response to our query, Stinson said: "As with all economic questions the answer is “It depends.” If the period you are observing began the day after the election -- or even the day after Thanksgiving – video #1 (lots of ups and downs, but ultimately a crash) is the proper depiction. If your observations begin December 31, video #2 (The Congress nudging the economy off the cliff) is more appropriate. In either instance the result is the same – the economy starts down at the start of the year, there is a lot of pain when we hit bottom, and it will take a while to climb back up to where we were before falling off the cliff."

 

Franken: Not the day to discuss gun control

Posted by: Baird Helgeson Updated: December 14, 2012 - 4:04 PM

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Hours after a mass school shooting in Connecticut, Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken said now is not the time to discuss reforming the nation’s gun-control laws.

“This is the day for us to have the victims and their families in our hearts, in our prayers and in our thoughts,” Franken said Friday.

The Minnesota senator was at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus to hear from residents about the potential impacts of the so-called fiscal cliff.

He began a news conference after the meeting by discussing the school shooting in which a gunman killed 20 elementary school children and six adults.

“This has been a very sad day,” Franken said. “It’s a horrific event and certainly every Minnesotans' prayers and thoughts are with the families and the friends of those who were killed or wounded, and those who are heeling from those wounds.”

 

Franken cyberstalking bill advances

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: December 13, 2012 - 4:10 PM

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An anti-cyberstalking bill sponsored by Minnesota Democrat Al Franken sailed through the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, despite technical reservations expressed by Republicans and Democrats alike.
 
The bill targets mobile phone apps that can secretly transmit users' location data without their knowledge. Critics say they can be used to facilitate stalking of women and girls, particularly battered women in abusive relationships.
 
The problem is that the same location data technology underlies popular apps like Yelp, Google Maps and Twitter.
 
Franken wants to make it a crime to intentionally operate an app to facilitate stalking. He also wants to close loopholes that allow smart phone, app and wireless companies offering Internet services to collect and share location data without customers’ permission. Industry groups say the necessary share notifications could render some apps all but useless.
 
Though the committee passed the bill on to the full Senate, some members said the bill will need to be refined in the next session of Congress.

Klobuchar-Franken (aides) join in marriage

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: December 10, 2012 - 4:54 PM

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In years of yore, it would have represented a union of political dynasties, a strategic alliance, or, at the very least, an astute diplomatic overture.
 
But in the modern era, we marry for love. And so, over the weekend, the on-the-record voices of U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken decided to get married.
 
Linden Zakula, Klobuchar’s long-time communications director, sought the hand of Alexandra Fetissoff, Franken’s Washington press secretary. She accepted on the spot. They’re both 29.
 
The proposal came Friday night, after Zakula’s last day in Klobuchar’s employ. He is headed to the lobbying world, doing communications for Lockridge, Grindal Nauen, a Minneapolis law firm with government relations practices in St. Paul and Washington.
 
While Zakula took time off from his Senate job this fall to help out on Klobuchar’s reelection in Minnesota, Fetissoff was off in Montana working on the hard fought reelection campaign of U.S. Sen Jon Tester.
 
Senate aides Alexandra Fetissoff and Linden Zakula

Senate aides Alexandra Fetissoff and Linden Zakula

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