South Dakota
By Eric Ostermeier on August 24, 2010
Gopher State job data trend lines generally favorable compared to the nation and the Upper Midwest region
By Eric Ostermeier on August 16, 2010
Defeat of four-term Democratic Congresswoman would mark biggest fall since statehood for a South Dakota U.S. House incumbent in back-to-back contested elections
By Eric Ostermeier on August 2, 2010
Democrats have won gubernatorial elections in Minnesota only four times since statehood without also holding one of its neighboring four states; last time was 1954
By Eric Ostermeier on April 26, 2010
Republicans have never carried both single-member at-large districts in the same election cycle; Democrats have won 25 of 29 U.S. House contests in the Dakotas since 1982
By Eric Ostermeier on April 25, 2010
Just 17 women have appeared on the gubernatorial ballot in 257 elections across Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, and Wisconsin; only 2 from major political parties
By Eric Ostermeier on April 15, 2010
The South Dakota Democratic Party's plunge from 49 percent of the vote in 2004 to falling off the ballot in 2010 is the greatest in the nation since the end of WWII
By Eric Ostermeier on January 11, 2010
Republicans have swept nearly half the gubernatorial election cycles in the region over the past 100 years, including 1990 and 1994
By Eric Ostermeier on December 22, 2009
Gopher State jumps from 26th highest foreclosure rate in nation to 18th highest over the last 12 months
By Eric Ostermeier on December 17, 2009
Politically schizophrenic Gopher State's 23-year dry spell without a DFL gubernatorial victory trails only GOP strongholds of South Dakota and Utah for longest in the U.S.
By Eric Ostermeier on November 20, 2009
Unemployment in Minnesota has increased 35.7 percent from one year ago
By Eric Ostermeier on November 8, 2009
Region supported amendment banning abortion services from bill by 12-11 vote
By Eric Ostermeier on October 8, 2009
Minnesota has 5th highest number of fatalities in the nation in 2009
By Eric Ostermeier on September 21, 2009
Minnesota continues to have the highest foreclosure rate in the Upper Midwest
By Eric Ostermeier on September 15, 2009
Uniform Crime Reports data released this week finds the Gopher State's overall crime rate falling to its lowest level since 1969
By Eric Ostermeier on August 25, 2009
As it turns out, the three-tenths of a percent decrease in jobless claims announced last week by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development is the backdrop to an even larger story of (relatively) good economic news for Minnesotans. While Minnesota has endured record setting increases in unemployment over...
By Eric Ostermeier on August 21, 2009
New unemployment data released this week for the month of July in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin provides largely good news on the labor force front in the Upper Midwest. In Minnesota, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 8.4 percent in June to 8.1 percent in July. Minnesota's jobless...
By Eric Ostermeier on July 27, 2009
June was not a good month for jobs in the Upper Midwest, with unemployment increasing in Minnesota and three of its four neighboring states - Iowa, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. While unemployment remains below the national average across the region, the current rate of increase of jobless claims remains on...
By Eric Ostermeier on July 16, 2009
The South Dakota Department of Labor released new unemployment numbers Wednesday for the month of June - numbers which solidify the past twelve months as the worst stretch in modern history for the Mount Rushmore State's job market, according to available Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data going back to...
By Eric Ostermeier on June 28, 2009
The newly released 2008 state rankings by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) finds the State of Wisconsin has passed Minnesota for overall health care quality in the United States. Minnesota, ranked #2 in 2008, was the top state in...
By Eric Ostermeier on June 17, 2009
New unemployment numbers released by the South Dakota Department of Labor quickly doused the short-lived optimism about the economic situation in the Upper Midwest, which had seen historic increases in the jobless rates across the Upper Midwest halt and slightly reverse course in April in four states - South Dakota,...
