The Sunday Take

We are winding down on the legislative session and this week, Blois chatted with Kirk Schneidewind, MN Assoc. of School Boards and Scott Croonquist, Association of Metropolitan School Districts on what school districts need statewide from the legislature this session and the overall need of students from this legislature as we are just a couple weeks away from the deadline for the budget and this week Blois centers his take on the level of complication lawmakers have reached when it comes to school funding!

Today we reflect on fifteen years of The Morning Take and Blois invites on Tom Hauser of 5 Eyewitness News and occasionally WCCO Radio to talk about their time since 2010 in working with the confines of covering politics in media and the ever changing landscape during this stretch. We also dive into this past week’s State of the State and other Tim Walz discussion and much more! Finally, this week’s take correlates to the toughness of Minnesota!

After the legislature has taken the week off for Passover and Easter - we look ahead to a few of the bullet points including the deadline approaching on May 19th (in reality June 30th). Then Blois sits down with DFL Chair Richard Carlbom chatting about his beginnings, getting Minnesota to a more balanced state politically, conflict and trust within the DFL and whether Governor Tim Walz will run for the open Senate seat and today’s take is all about who to trust and how to build trust.

This week the state legislature has the Easter-Passover week break so we discuss some of the things you would want to know or need answers on from the state as the legislative deadline approaches ultimately on June 30th - outside of the budget, what are the other key topics that need to be taken care of this session? We discuss this and much more with Senator Nick Frentz (DFL) and Representative Dave Baker (R) and Blois shares his thoughts on the need for government transparency for this week’s take!

It was a busy week nationally with the tariffs creating global economic chaos and the locally Minnesota legislature so far seems to be getting along. Then, Blois chatted with Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan on what she hopes to bring to the Minnesota Senate, some issues commonly heard around the state of Minnesota, building trust with people of Minnesota, the permitting system in Minnesota, rural economics and much more. Then Blois shares his thoughts on the future of the Republican Party when it comes to a 2026 Senate seat and the emergence of legitimate candidates in this week’s take!

We can expect a lot to roll out over the next week and Blois gives the latest on a student at the University of Minnesota who was detained by ICE officials and an upcoming special election in Senate District 6. Then, it was announced this past week that former DFL leader Melisa Lopez Franzen will vie for the soon to be vacated seat come 2026 that Sen. Tina Smith currently holds. She joins Blois to talk about her quest for the seat, the political landscape in Minnesota including her area of Edina, her plans if elected, Social Security, channeling fear and reality in politics and much more! Also we discuss the current landscape of the Republican Party in the United States.

Another very busy week in politics as per usual - Blois discussed the latest developments in the Sen. Justin Eichorn case and Minnesota's struggles with senatorial seats. We had the chance to talk to John McCormick of the Wall Street Journal, asked him about the resurgent Minnesota Governor Tim Walz amid his townhall tour of the midwest, how Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a lot of buzz and huge crowds in Colorado but why this didn't translate for Harris and Walz, and who could come forward for the Democratic side down the line and that is also featured in this week’s take!

Today, Blois offers up your input as far as reflecting on what we learned from the pandemic five years later. We briefly discussed the Tim Walz townhall tours and also chatted with Peter Callaghan who announced Friday after serving the Minnesota political media market as a state government reporter for 10+ years and he joins us to reflect on Minnesota, his time at MinnPost, the future of media,what he learned about his time at the Capital, and transparency in media and politics. .

It has been a busy week in politics as always from the Feeding our Future case continuing on, to the continuation of tariffs being on, off and on again, etc. Blois touches on that, discusses tariffs, Agriculture, Department of Education and more with Representative Brad Finstad and he gives his take on the federal chaos and disruptions taking place!

This morning we chatted with Sen. Jordan Rasmusson about forecasting the state budget forecast set to be released Thursday, federal funding and the HHS spending. Also, Blois gives his take for this Sunday including some of the specifics of this upcoming release and addresses some of the “finger pointing” in Minnesota politics. That and much more with the Sunday Take.