The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced final rules that prohibit financial institutions from charging consumers fees for paying overdrafts on automated teller machine (ATM) and one-time debit card transactions, unless a consumer consents, or opts in, to the overdraft service for those types of transactions.

Before opting in, the consumer must be provided a notice that explains the financial institution’s overdraft services, including the fees associated with the service, and the consumer’s choices.

Hooray for the Fed! This has been a long time coming, and it will go a long way toward ending some outrageous banking practices.

To date, not a single DFLer has announced intentions to run against Rep. Erik Paulsen, the first-term congressman who has proved to be far more conservative than his predecessor, Jim Ramstad, the consummate moderate in what most believe is a moderate district.

But at least one prominent DFLer, state Sen. Terri Bonoff of Minnetonka, is contemplating getting into the race.

…If she decides to run, Bonoff said that this time, “I’m going all the way.” That means she will not again pledge to abide by party endorsement and will enter a primary if DFLers endorse someone else.

I get the sense that CD3 is going to be a tough battle in 2010. Not insurmountable, but definitely tough. 2008 was our best chance in a long time with the open seat. Now that Paulsen is in Congress, he’s taking a page from John Kline’s playbook — developing a hard-right voting record, but keeping quiet and not causing any controversy. Whoever ends up running in CD3 will have a lot of work to do explaining Paulsen’s record.

Many of the issues we hear Gloria address in these interviews are regarding people’s basic questions about feminism and an abbreviated understanding of sexism in American society.  Gloria Steinem is a very smart and very talented individual, so it is quite annoying to see her pigeonholed as the poster child for second wave feminism.  This also robs us of deeply exploring more current and perhaps relevant dialogue and scholarship about feminism, and challenging us to use a more third wave feminist lens.

Along these same lines, she does address (on MPR) the New York Times op-ed that was harshly criticized last year before the election… but I’ll let you listen yourself.

*Really, womenwinning?  Your name is two words squished together and half boldface?  Really?

Dear Friends,

I am excited to inform you that I am starting a new business venture, Madia Law LLC – a dynamic and aggressive law firm that will serve Minnesota’s consumers, small businesses, and immigrant communities…

…Madia Law will focus on consumer law, business litigation, and immigration law. Consumers have been defrauded by powerful interests with alarming regularity in recent times and I want to use law to help even the odds. Small businesses often need strong representation on a variety of issues but can’t afford massive litigation costs – I want to help. Finally, Madia Law will seek to represent underserved immigrant communities that need legal assistance in navigating complex immigration laws.

More information is available at the firm’s website. Best of luck to Ash in his new endeavor.

Paulsen, however, is not waiting to find out who his opponent will be.  Filings released today reveal that Paulsen raised over $221,000 in the 1st Quarter of 2009. That’s a pretty healthy sum for the first quarter of the cycle during a recession.  His cash on hand is not as impressive - only 190,000.  If a Bonoff or some other DFLer gets into this race sometime in the near future, they should not have much trouble staying at financial parity with Paulsen.

In related news, 4th District Congresswoman Betty McCollum reported raising a little over $100k in the 1st quarter, she has a similar ammount on hand.

Just think about some of her recent rhetoric. During the election, she called for an inquiry into whether members of Congress had “anti-American views.” Recently, she’s called herself a “foreign correspondent behind enemy lines” and called for Minnesotans to be “armed and dangerous.” She seems unable to control herself. Now she sees even the most benign Federal programs in stark, revolutionary terms. Here’s what she said about a proposed expansion of the AmeriCorps service program:

I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.

Increasingly, Bachmann seems unable to focus on her day-to-day responsibilities to her district and her country. Instead, she’s caught up in some imagined revolution against the leadership of her country. At some point, we need to ask: At what point does Bachmann stop being a “kook” and start being a serious danger?

‘I want to run again for office, and I want to win next time. However, for a number of reasons, I don’t think that I’ll be running for Congress in 2010. I had a good shot at it, I gave it everything I had - as did my team - and I came up short. While, in retrospect, I think I made some mistakes that I’ll correct the next time I run, I think somebody else should run against Paulsen in 2010 - and beat him.’

Despite the fact that he lost, I came away from the 2008 elections impressed with Ashwin Madia. His upset of Terri Bonoff in the endorsement race was simply stunning. Say what you will about the tactical choices his campaign made in the general election, but no one can argue that Madia didn’t work his ass off to win that race. I am glad he plans to run for office in the future. I hope he starts out a little further down the food chain next time. I think Madia would be a fantastic addition to the state legislature.

CD6: Bachmann 46, Tinklenberg 45, Anderson 6
CD3: Paulsen 46, Madia 41, Dillon 10
Sen: Coleman 44, Franken 39, Barkley 16
Pres: Obama 49, McCain 46, Other 3

Regular MNpublius readers have seen a lot of polls and SUSA has always been the right-wing outlier. One reason is that SurveyUSA only polls people it knows are likely voters. The problem with that, is that in 2004 for example, over 20% of the electorate voted with the same day registration process. If there is a remotely similar situation this Tuesday, be mindful that SUSA would have not polled any of those people.

Another way to look at this is to compare KSTP/SUSA to other polls. Here’s FiveThirtyEight’s breakdown of recent polls on the presidential race in Minnesota:

So when Survey USA and KSTP say that Obama is only leading by 3, how far off might their polling for Senate, CD3 and CD6?

If you’re interested, dig into the crosstabs: CD3, CD6, Senate, President. Normally I consider the crosstabs are worthy of further analysis but I don’t feel like bothering digging into a throwaway poll.

UPDATE: Paul Demko at Minnesota Independent points to Nate Silver of The Plank and FiveThirtyEight:

Don’t worry too much about that SurveyUSA result in Minnesota, which shows Obama just 3 points ahead. SurveyUSA’s polling in Minnesota has been very, very weird all year; they’ve never shown Obama with larger than a 6 point lead in their likely voter model, and had McCain ahead in the state as recently as October 1st. SurveyUSA does not have a Republican lean in general, but in Minnesota, it has consistently had a huge one.

Talking about CD3 ads, I guess the campaign tailspin going on in Eden Prairie right now involves Team Paulsen using footage illegally:

In his most recent television campaign ad Paulsen uses footage of his opponent Ashwin Madia from a TPT show Almanac that aired earlier this month. This ad has appeared on local television outlets, Rep. Paulsen’s website and is posted on YouTube, TPT reports.

From a TPT press release (emphasis mine):

In previous campaigns, we have requested that candidates - Democrats, Independents and Republicans - cease use of similar material, and all have complied…Twin Cities Public Television has sent two formal requests to the Paulsen campaign to remove all TPT footage from their ad; as of today, that request has not been honored.We are therefore issuing this statement, taking appropriate legal action…

Way to go, Team Paulsen.

We just can’t be sure whether Erik Paulsen believes in global warming, because he refuses to tell us. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he didn’t: that would be right in line with his horrendous record on the environment. Paulsen consistently votes against bills that would reduce pollutants and emissions that contribute to climate change. He also regularly votes against stronger standards for renewable energy.

The worst part, though, is that Paulsen seems to know that 3rd district voters won’t like his views on the environment. As a seasoned career politician, he knows that he can only win by sweeping his real policies under the rug. He’s no moderate like Jim Ramstad was, but he hopes he can appear like one just long enough to fool you.