The Sunday Take

A detailed 20-page complaint filed by federal prosecutors reveals chilling details about the actions by Vance Boelter, the suspect in targeted, political shootings that left former Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark dead, and State Senator John Hoffman and his wife seriously injured. Here's reaction from local hosts on WCCO in Minneapolis, plus commentary on our ov...

Yesterday was the darkest day in Minnesota history where we lost Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and reflecting on Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette as they recover from an assassination attempt. Blois shares his thoughts as we replay last Sunday’s conversation with Speaker Hortman as they discuss being cordial with each other amid the tensions in the special session. Then...

Now that we are hours away from meeting, Blois brought on the four leaders to join in on discussion for today’s Sunday Take ahead of Monday’s special session. We begin with Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and Rep. Lisa Demuth and then transition to Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson and Majority Leader Erin Murphy to discuss several topics including the process that brought them to this point, imm...

Another Sunday, another week closer to the final deadline to a deal in the legislature on the budget and the clock is ticking - Blois breaks down some of the uncertainty amid this chaos at the Capitol. Fatima Moore of SotaCann joins Blois to talk about the state government putting a surprise tax on cannabis before business overall is up and running due to the disarray of the implementation of the...

This Sunday marks five years since the events involving George Floyd had taken place and so much has changed while much has also stayed the same. Blois sits down with Nekima Levy Armstrong, Activist and Attorney and Andy Mannix with the Minnesota Star Tribune to discuss and reflect on social justice, where Minneapolis is at today, the state of the Minneapolis Police Department and what should or n...

It indeed is the final countdown or so we hope for the oh-so eventful Minnesota legislative session where there hopes to be a resolution on the budget as Monday is the “deadline” of May 19th but we will need more time - we chatted with Mary Lahammer political analyst with TPT Almanac. Then Blois gives us his take on the importance and impact of open meetings and transparency in politics - and all...

Time is winding down towards the deadline about a week and change left until the May 19th deadline! Blois invited Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R) on today to talk about the current session, his experience being on the boat with Governor Walz for the fishing opening weekend and also Senator Judy Seeberger (D) joins as we try to engage on what some of the main points of what needs to be done...

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...

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...

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 fo...

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 D...

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 econ...

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...

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 o...

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,wha...

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.

There is still a ripple effect being felt in the Senate since Tina Smith announced she would not be seeking re-election and we talked about that, the current session (compared to previous ones) , the needs of the state from health, public safety, Ag and farmer needs and much more with Sen. Judy Seeberger as well as the push back against DFLers, Then Blois gives us his take!

We are almost a week in from the big news of the week that Senator Tina Smith was not seeking re-election and a new seat would be filled in 2026 so Blois reflects on the legacy Sen. Smith is leaving and what could lie ahead for Minnesota and we also talked to one of the senatorial candidates in Adam Schwarze on what he brings to the table for the needs and future of Minnesota. Finally, Blois share...

Today, Blois weighs in briefly on the power sharing agreement reached this past week. Also - this coming November, there will be an election for council seats and of course mayor in Minneapolis and one of those running for that mayoral seat is Dr. Dewayne Davis, a pastor a man led by faith talks about the various aspects of the needs of Minneapolis - from public safety, affordable housing, among o...

News broke late in the week that there are security concerns at the capitol building in Minnesota that have not yet been addressed so we talked to Mary Lahammer who is a political analyst for PBS Twin Cities and she discusses more on this story she published, we also dive into DFL leader Ken Martin being elected as the next Democratic Committee Chair! That and Blois brings us this week’s take!

It was a busy back end of the week in the House that led to a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling in which no quorum was found and thus the Minnesota political world moves on to the question will there be a power-sharing agreement? Will both sides find a compromising way to resume operations - so we chatted with both Rep. Melissa Hortman and Kristin Robbins about what lies ahead amid a standoff.

For today’s Sunday Take we recap the chaotic week that it has been in the House, we also discussed goals for the next session with Sen. Erin Murphy and Sen. Mark Johnson as 2026 is in fact an election year and there is a lot to break down, as well as what may lie ahead for Sen Mitchell and look ahead to inauguration week with Monday ushering in the new presidency of the 47th President elect Donald...

For today's Sunday Take , Blois sits down with Republican House Leader Lisa Demuth and DFL Leader Melissa Hortman discussing the opening days of the legislative session!

Tackled a variety of topics in today’s Sunday Take with Blois Olson as he chatted with the new GOP chair for Minnesota Alex Plechash about the 2020 Election, BPOU’s, January 6th four years later and much more! Also for today’s take - what do YOU the listeners want to see or hear in 2025 ?