Minnesota on Tuesday June 30, 2009

MN: State budget cuts start hitting Wednesday
By Bob Von Sternberg, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Minnesota's state budget meltdown finally starts to bite Wednesday.
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MN: Wisconsin officials yet to agree to Pawlenty's tax reciprocity request
By Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio (St. Paul)
Gov. Tim Pawlenty is using an emergency provision to balance the books on his own through spending cuts and accounting shifts that begin July 1.
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Furloughs cut into state services
By Pauline Vu, Stateline.org Staff Writer
With states facing a $121 billion shortfall in the next fiscal year, a growing number of them have turned to squeezing their workforce for savings, and effects both great and small will be felt.
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MN: Parents' pain helps change how police treat missing adults
By Mark Brunswick, Minneapolis Star Tribune
A law that takes effect on Wednesday is a testament to the perseverance of two parents and an example of what is possible when the average citizen gets involved in the legislative process.
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MN: New Minnesota sales tax begins
By Don Davis, The Forum (Fargo)
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Mike Kilgore says the green Minnesotans pay in a higher tax beginning Wednesday will mean a greener Minnesota in a year.
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US: Ruling adds teeth to state oversight of banks
By Neil Irwin, The Washington Post
For years, state governments have had little power to enforce consumer-protection and lending rules at the country's biggest banks. No more.
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US: Gray wolf back on endangered list, for now
By Baldur Hedinsson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed Monday to reinstate federal protection of wolves in the upper Great Lakes region. In early May, wolves were removed from the list of threatened and endangered species in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota.
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US: Obama steers health debate out of capital
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — With Democrats deeply divided over health legislation, President Obama is trying to enlist the nation's governors and his own army of grass-roots supporters in a bid to increase pressure on lawmakers without getting himself mired in the messy battle playing out on Capitol Hill.
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US: A green way to dump low-tech electronics
By Leslie Kaufman, The New York Times
Since 2004, 18 states and New York City have approved laws that make manufacturers responsible for recycling electronics, and similar statutes were introduced in 13 other states this year.
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