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Residents of Hawaii, Wyoming and Connecticut shoulder the heaviest state tax burdens in the nation. The least state taxes per person are paid by those living in Texas, South Dakota or Colorado, U.S. Census figures for 2004 show. The tax burden is important because it helps determine a state's business climate, carves a hole into taxpayers' wallets and influences individual decisions on where to live. The tax burden weighs so heavily in some states that people have called the moving van to escape to a lower-tax state.

Saint Paul Police officers arrested a teacher at St. Paul elementary school Thursday for probably cause of criminal sexual conduct with a 9-year-old. Mathew Christopher Curran, 52, was arrested without incident outside Aerospace Magnet School on St. Paul's East Side, according to St. Paul police. Just before 10 a.m. Thursday, school officials learned of allegations sexual contact between Curran and a 9-year-old student and contacted police.

WINONA, Minn. -- After all the radio interviews, after all the newspaper stories and television stories and hundreds and hundreds of e-mails, Carrie Rethlefsen ended her lesson in free speech and democracy today by doing a simple thing: She walked into school with her "I [heart] My Vagina" T-shirt's message in plain sight. About 40 classmates had walked in just seconds before after turning their T-shirts inside out. And, minutes later, she emerged with another lesson learned. The administrators at Winona Senior High School mean what they say. They sent her home for the day. "I'm happy," said Rethlefsen, 18....

EXCELSIOR, Minn. (AP) - Carver County sheriff's deputies were stationed at Minnetonka Middle School West on Tuesday after the school was tipped to an alleged threat by one student against other students. Paul Moore, a district spokesman, said a parent called the school anonymously last week to tell them threats had been made via instant messaging. "The kids did a great job immediately being in tune to the danger and telling adults, and everyone has been fully cooperative," Moore said. The student has admitted the threats and is not in school, Moore said. Data privacy rules prevent the district from...

"Blue Tongue", a bullfighting equivalent to Mad Cow in Canada, has descended, out of the blue on Pamplona, home of the annual Bull Run. In what breeders lament is their worst crisis in a century, some 65 percent of Spain’s bull-breeding farms are affected by the blue tongue virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Looks like Pamplona bulls won’t be standing let alone running by this July’s bull run. The new millennium seems to have ushered in the Century of the Rare Virus. Bypassing acres of swampland, the mosquito-borne West Nile disease showed up in, of all places, New York...

<p>GREAT FALLS, Montana (AP) --Montana's Libertarian candidate for Senate has turned blue from drinking a silver solution that he believed would protect him from disease.</p> <p>Stan Jones,a 63-year-old business consultant and part-time college instructor, said he started taking colloidal silver in 1999 for fear that Y2K disruptions might lead to a shortage of antibiotics.</p>

Raven, a 12-yr-old whose uncle is fighting in Iraq made a necklace from red, white and blue beads from a jewelry kit she received for Christmas. She wore it to school as a token of support for her uncle andSchenectady school officials immediately banned her from displaying her unique neckwear in a belief such "gang-related" jewelry violates policy, court papers alleged. Raven was threatened with suspension if she continued to wear the beads.

St. Paul - A man who allegedly put a 13-year-old girl in a dog kennel for days at a time, hit her, read her diary, and strip searched her, was charged this week with unreasonable restraint of a child. Eric Bare, 42, of St. Paul, admitted to child protection workers that he did lock the teenager in the kennel on two different occasions, once for three consecutive days, and once for seven consecutive days. Bare said that he "fixed up the kennel nice" and that it was "a suitable temporary living arrangement." Bare is not the girl's father, but she...

THE first true colour image of Saturn reveals that the ringed planet is not the silver orb visible from Earth but a deep shade of blue. Instead, the image - released yesterday by the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado - shows that Saturn's northern hemisphere is a soft azure, striped by the shadows of the planet's rings. In this image released by NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2005, a true color view from the Cassini spacecraft taken Jan. 18, 2005, shows the moon Mimas as it drifts along in its orbit against the azure backdrop of Saturn's...

WASHINGTON — Minnesota state Rep. Steve Simon, a St. Louis Park Democrat, doesn't consider himself a "Wellstone Democrat." But he used the lessons he learned from Camp Wellstone to help win election last year. Simon said the techniques taught at the camp, established to train activists in the tradition of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, transcend ideology. "A conservative Republican could get as much from the program," said Simon, who was one of 20 Camp Wellstone graduates who won elected office last year, according to the group's tabulation. "The principles are ideologically neutral — energizing people." As it happens, most...

He's not wrapped too tightly, but Larry the Cable Guy knows comedy Larry the Cable Guy doesn't care who you are, he's going to make you laugh. Proud-to-be-a-redneck funny man Larry is bringing his latest joke-telling tour to Wachovia Arena Thursday, Jan. 27 for a night of political incorrectness. He checked in with the Weekender recently, just a few days after the tour kicked off in Houston. Tracing back to his livestock-raising roots in southern Nebraska, Larry and his cohorts had just stopped off at a cattle auction. He admitted spending a good part of the day explaining to the...

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NORTH AMERICA DATES AND TICKETING INFORMATION March 28th San Diego, CA - Sports Arena April 1st Anaheim, CA - Arrowhead Pond April 5th Los Angeles, CA - Staples Center April 9th San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion April 14th Phoenix, AZ - Glendale Arena April 20th Denver, CO - Pepsi Center April 24th Seattle, WA - Key Arena April 28th Vancouver, BC - General Motors Place May 7th & May 9th Chicago, IL - United Center May 14 Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center May 17 & May 18 East Rutherford, NJ - Continental Airlines Arena May 21 New York, NY...

Archbishop Harry Flynn, the spiritual leader of Twin Cities Catholics, and Bishop Peter Rogness, the head of St. Paul's Lutheran Synod, spent Wednesday afternoon with some of Minnesota's poorest citizens, touring a health-care clinic on St. Paul's west side, chatting with toddlers at a child-care center and serving a meal at Loaves and Fishes. It was a powerful statement by two of the state's most influential clerics, but it also sent a much-needed message at a time when Minnesota is retreating from its neediest citizens. As the Legislature begins grappling with the third state budget deficit in as many years,...

[Ungawa! Intrepid global explorer David Von Drehle of the Washington Post Magazine dons his pith helmet and ventures into the geographical Belly of the Bush Beast. Result: another heapin' helpin' of turgid gorillas-in-the-midwest-mist reportage for the Sunday morning brioche set back in Dupont Circle. I know I've covered this ground before (here, here, here, here, and here), but... eh, what the hell. Hat tip to Tim Blair and iowahawk reader Greg E.] DAY ONE: BASE CAMP, IOWA CITY Mission: bring back Von Drehle. The words echo in my mind as I peer out the frost-framed window of 'Pretense,' a moderately...

NEW YORK -- After spending 10 days in London with friends who were outspoken about their disdain for President Bush's policies, Berns Rothchild came home wishing she had a way to show the world she didn't vote for him. "I sort of felt ashamed, and didn't really want to be associated with being an American," said Rothchild, who lives in New York City and voted for John Kerry. Her mother had a suggestion: bracelets, inspired by the Lance Armstrong Foundation's popular "LIVESTRONG" bands, that would signal opposition to Bush. Thousands of miles away, two women in Idaho had the same...

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Anti-Bush Bracelets Say, 'Count Me Blue' NEW YORK - After spending 10 days in London with friends who were outspoken about their disdain for President Bush (news - web sites)'s policies, Berns Rothchild came home wishing she had a way to show the world she didn't vote for him. "I sort of felt ashamed, and didn't really want to be associated with being an American," said Rothchild, who lives in New York City and voted for John Kerry (news - web sites). Her mother had a suggestion: bracelets, inspired by the Lance Armstrong Foundation's popular "LIVESTRONG" bands, that would signal...