Monday, April 21, 2008 - 12:29 pm
Here's what you need to know about soon to be new MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel: He comes from outside of MnDOT and he has a technical background as a civil engineer. Both of those facts are politically important, especially after a bridge collapse. Interesting that the governor's office went to Sorel instead of the other way around. Sorel sounds like he'll be pro-transit and light rail. He was the USDOT liaison to the Salt Lake City Olympic games and led the effort to build "infrastructure" including mass transit. I asked him if he'd advocate to get Central Corridor back on track and he wasn't ready to commit to that. He did drop the pro-transit term "multi-modal" several times.
Frequent MnDOT critic Senate Transportation Chair Steve Murphy was satisfied with the pick. Murph said he was "very impressed" with Sorel's comments about transit and he thought Sorel "left the door open" to Central Corridor. Murphy spoke with federal Transportation Chair Jim Oberstar who is also "confident" with this selection. Murphy will hold confirmation hearings, but it won't be anytime soon. Pawlenty and Murphy gave great praise to acting commissioner Bob McFarlin who attended the press conference in "support" of the appointment. McFarlin was one of three people interviewed for the job. Sen. Murphy said he would have been "comfortable" with McFarlin as well.
Here's what you need to know about soon to be new MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel: He comes from outside of MnDOT and he has a technical background as a civil engineer. Both of those facts are politically important, especially after a bridge collapse. Interesting that the governor's office went to Sorel instead of the other way around. Sorel sounds like he'll be pro-transit and light rail.
Minnesota history ... your thoughts about Paul Douglas ... and another tune from The Laras.
The Northwest-Delta merger is one of the topics on the minds of our panel of former Republican and Democratic legislators. Fritz Knaak, Phil Krinkie, Wes Skoglund and Ember Reichgott Junge sit on the couch.
Legislative Leaders met with the governor to talk budget ... and the proposed Northwest-Delta merger made waves too. Get the latest from Mary Lahammer.
The Laras are a Latin American folkloric group that will be performing as part of the Hennepin County Library's Children's Day-Book Day festivities that kick off this weekend. For more info go to www.hclib.org.
We present a clip from the Minnesota Channel series Close the Gap, which takes a critical look at disparities — economic, racial and geographical — in the Twin Cities region.
The number of new AIDS cases in our state jumped to the highest levels since the mid 1990s. What's going on? Peter Carr from the Minnesota Department of Health joins us.
Did you know that there's a minor tiff at the capitol involving the Governor's published schedule?
That's the name of a proposed power plant in South Dakota that many environments fear will harm the Minnesota River. Soon Minnesota regulators will vote on whether to allow the power plant to go ahead. We hear from Mark Rolfes, the project manager of Big Stone II ... and from Duane Ninneman with the environmental group CURE.
Today residents in SE Minnesota felt an earthquake that was centered in Illinois. How rare are earthquakes here? Val Chandler with the U.S. Geological Survey is our guest.
