Clearbrook News

Just in time for the peak summer driving season , gas prices are once again climbing, once again putting a strain on budgets already stretched too thin.

Minnesota legislators met almost 19 weeks with one overriding job: Balance the state budget.

Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, has been given credit in media reports for suggesting to Gov.

" Legislators on an education funding committee took the weekend off. A spat among Minnesota lawmakers negotiating a health-care spending bill interrupted talks Saturday.

" Forget about the deadlines. That was the message Wednesday night from House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis. Legislators earlier this year set today as the deadline for House and Senate negotiators to work out differences in bills the two chambers passed to finance state programs.

Minnesota counties seeking reform this session instead find legislators doing the math necessary to balance the state books.

Coming off a successful 2008 election cycle, Beltrami County Democrats didn't feel the need to crow or lambaste at their off-year convention Monday night.

IF YOU attended any of Enbridge Pipelinesa information sessions or read its public relations materials about its plans for the Northern Gateway pipeline from Edmonton to Prince Rupert, you might have come away feeling reassured that the environment of our local mountains, rivers and coastal waters is in good hands.

Minnesota senators blasted an idea to take $95 million a year from Twin Cities transit programs to fund school bus programs around the state, but leaned toward considering school buses as part of the transit ...

About 2,000 people could start working this summer on a pair of oil pipelines in the Upper Midwest.

" Horse owners want to be included in Minnesota's agriculture industry. In many cases, horses are not considered livestock, something some Minnesota lawmakers and horse owners are trying to change.

With a deepening recession, don't expect the Minnesota Legislature to suddenly find money to protect any one budget area, local legislators told a group of teachers Saturday morning.

Beltrami County commissioners decided Tuesday to keep work on a Minnesota veterans home on a fast track, despite tepid support from state officials.

Disaster. Crisis. Insane. Unfair. All are words Minnesota's city leaders used to describe the prospect of the state chopping payments later this month.