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We ran a little bit behind in posting back issues of the PIM Weekly Report to PoliticsInMinnesota.com. Issues 10 and 11 of Volume 3 were produced by the DFL-oriented PIM staff while Publisher Sarah Janecek was on a vacation to Egypt and Jordan, so they've got a much more DFL-friendly perspective than usual. Here's what we've just posted:

The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 8 - 8/17/07
In this issue: DFL U.S. Senate Contest; Leeches or worms? Capri Pants or a Suit? Special Session Slowdown; Fox News Caught Altering Franken Wikipedia Entries Anonymously; Minnesota Democrat Abroad; Bits & Pieces; Lobbyist Watch; Setting the Record Straight.

The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 9 - 8/23/07
In this issue: PIM Publishing Schedule; PIM @ MNSpeak.com; Olson Leaving Ethics Behind; House GOP Caucus Presidential Poll; Kitty Gamble, Remembered Again; AFSCME Gets a Big Win; 2008 Republican National Convention Update; Gerlach Direct; Fifty Years of Crime and Justice; Bits & Pieces; Lobbyist Watch.

The Weekly Report - Vol. 3, Issue 10 - 8/30/07
In this issue: Janecek's in the Mideast & The Inmates are Running the Asylum; Negative Identities: Senators Craig, Wellstone, Homophobia And Easy Messages; Phillips Incinerator Burning Down; Lively Green and the War on Drugs: Who Patrols the Border Patrol?; Bridge Charity Work; Bits & Pieces; Lobbyist Watch.

We also added a few new blog this week to out Blog Directory.

• Tonka Focus reports on the state of the Minnetonka school system and is filed under our Institutional/Think Tank section.
• MinnesotaCentral, which focuses on Minnesota's 1st District in under the "critical centrist" or Independent banner.
• Lake Minnetonka Liberty, a conservative blog from the Metro's western suburbs, now placed in our conservative section.

Please send in your political blogs (and what you deem the orientation to be) to our staff via our Tips page or at staff@politicsinminnesota.com.

PIM Publisher Sarah Janecek is on an extended tour of the Middle East right now. We have heard very little from her lately, though she told us to let everyone know that "I had my first camel ride, the camel's name was 'Easy Does It,' which was not true of the camel." The full moon rose over the Great Pyramids near her hotel, and few of the political wrinkles of Minnesota will trouble her in the near future.

Due to the holiday weekend, no Weekly Report will be published this week.

PIM now has a regular gig posting a few daily political headlines from the Morning Report on MnSpeak.com. MnSpeak is a pretty nifty site focusing on stuff going on around the metro area, and it has lots of vocal regular posters; in all, a good place to check out what's getting big buzz.

It's been quite a while since we made any front page posts. However, five days a week we post PIM Morning Report batches here. We've been focusing on I-35W bridge and flooding news. Also we've got a new regular section, Big Brain Blogs & Think Tank Thoughts. Our Morning Report editor, Tracey Howell, doesn't have an infinite amount of time to go looking for blog material, since our focus is hard news. So drop her a line if you think something should go in the Morning Report.

We have just added three new political blogs to our massive Minnesota political blog directory. Drum roll please...

• Under institutional/think tank blogs, check out BehindTheMortgage.com by local mortgage guru Alex Stenback.
• Under conservative blogs, check out Carol Cooper's new SteamValveBlog.com.
• Under independent blogs, check out South Lake Minnetonka. We called it an 'indie' because it doesn't have a discernible partisan agenda.

If you've got a blog, consider adding PoliticsInMinnesota.com to your blogroll or sidebar: your readers will appreciate our blend of fresh news and links across the political spectrum! (And we like incoming links too!)

We have also just added a new Congressional Contact Information reference page. Here, you can get the office addresses, senior staff members, websites (both official government sites and campaign sites). It's nothing too complicated, but it should be helpful if you're looking to get ahold of your congressional delegates, or locate regional offices. The senior staff names may be slightly out of date; Members of Congress don't always share this information, and sometimes they don't even like to share their email addresses!

Here are a couple recent issues of the PIM Weekly Report: August 3rd's special bridge edition, and August 10. Our standard policy is to post them three weeks after our subscribers receive them, but we fell a bit behind.

More below the fold...