With the State Legislature finishing their regular session for 2023, the focus shifts to Washington D.C. this Memorial Day weekend.  Blois catches up with Minnesota Congressmen Dean Phillips and Brad Finstad to chat about topics after labor and the economy, most important being the ongoing Debt Ceiling negotiations.

As the State Legislature remains to end their year on Monday, Blois Olson takes some time to talk about the impact of the 2023 session for all Minnesotans.  He welcomes DFL Sen. Nick Frentz and GOP Sen. Minority Leader Mark T. Johnson on the program to hear their opinions on how the session went.  Plus, our host gets your input on whether the DFL reached too far with the laws they passed.

On this Mother's Day, Blois looks into this week's big stories effecting the scope of state politics:

• Outdoors sporting and broadcasting legend Ron Schara highlights the politics of fishing during this 2023 Walleye Opener.
• KSTP-TV political reporter Tom Hauser discusses the results of a recent poll the news outlet put together on how unified (or divergent) we are all when it comes to certain political issues.

Blois gives his thoughts on the most pressing story making headlines this first week of May.  He also speaks to the following guests:

• United Steelworkers Local 2705 president Chris Johnson tells us about iron ore mineral rights leases being approved for Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. on the Iron Range.
• Twin Cities Public Television political reporter Mary Lahammar previews what to expect during the last couple of weeks of the 2023 legislative session.

During this week's edition, Blois dives back into education and what help the industry is asking for from state lawmakers.  He gets help identifying some of the issues from Josh Crosson, executive director of EdAllies, and Kirk Schneidawind, executive director of the Minnesota School Boards Association.

The dreaded annual exercise that is Tax Day has passed for another year.  In the spirit of this past Tuesday's standard deadline, Blois undertakes the topic for this week's edition of the show.  He chats about it with the following guests:

• Eric Harris Bernstein, Policy Director for We Make Minnesota
• Mark Haveman, Executive Director of the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence
• Paul Marquart, new commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Revenue

On this week's edition, Blois digs in to a conversation of the worsening relationship between elected officials and the media.  To help with the discussion, our host chats with Park Street PR CEO Brian McClung and Star Tribune political reporter Rochelle Olson.

On this Easter Sunday, Blois takes some time to chat with a couple of first-time state legislators.

• Longtime political staffer Danny Nadeau explains how different it is to actually be in one of the elected seats over at the State House.
• State Sen. Grant Hauschild discusses his journey from being a city councilman to taking a seat at the Capitol.

Even though the State Legislature has the week off, that doesn't mean any rest for the world of politics.  Blois welcomes the following guests on this week's show:

U of M Humprhey School professor Larry Jacobs explains the school's newly-released study on the effectiveness of Ranked Choice voting.

MinnPost reporter Peter Callaghan checks in to discuss several topics, including ongoing revenue, any possible gun legislation, education issues, and more.

On this episode of the Take, Blois once again focuses on the state's budget surplus.  This time around, he asks guests from the State House's Ways & Means Committee to guide us down the pathways that each political party hopes to spend the surplus.  Committee chair Liz Olson gives the DFL viewpoint, while committee Lead Republican Pat Garofalo offers the GOP plan.