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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

MN Labor Calls Walker’s Campaign Economic, Political Failure

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Wednesday, September 23, 2015   

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The failure of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's presidential campaign is a big victory for labor, and Minnesota unions say it shows the weakness of his hard free-market ideology.

Walker looked like a serious contender for the GOP nomination this summer, but after he failed to make 1 percent support in a CNN poll, Walker killed his campaign this week.

Jennifer Munt, public-affairs director for The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Walker ran on union busting - but that's gone bust, for Walker and the big corporate players who said he was their choice.

"You can't build a campaign by tearing down working people and their aspirations," she said. "The American people just won't let the Koch brothers pick a president who is going to exploit hard-working Americans."

Under Walker, Wisconsin cut taxes for the wealthy and reduced collective-bargaining rights. Munt said Minnesota has done just the opposite and now has a higher median income, lower unemployment and faster job growth. She said Minnesota also has a much healthier state budget and even a better business climate, according to Forbes magazine.

"Wisconsin is trailing us in job creation, quality of life," she said. "We taxed the rich, we raised the wage, and now our state has the fifth-fastest-growing economy in the nation."

Munt predicted that this clash will show up as an important part of the presidential election. As she put it, "income inequality is the issue of our times."

"We're really tired of CEOs earning 300 times more than a typical worker and bankers paying a lower tax rate than a secretary," she said.

At his exit, Walker said he hopes to help stop the Republican front-runner. That front-runner, billionaire developer and TV personality Donald Trump, has said corporations should have less influence in politics. Trump now says he would cut taxes, but previously he has said he might raise taxes on the rich.


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