Elton performs at royal wedding reception

Prince Harry asked Sir Elton John to perform at the lunchtime reception to celebrate his marriage to Meghan Markle.

Sir Elton John has performed at the wedding reception for the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Prince Harry asked Sir Elton to perform at the lunchtime reception hosted by the Queen at Windsor Castle "in recognition of his close ties to the royal family".

The statement from Kensington Palace did not say what songs were performed, but Sir Elton did sing a version of Candle in the Wind at the funeral of Harry's mother, Diana.

Meghans home for sale worth $1.395 million,You Can Live In Meghan Markle's Former Toronto Bachelorette Pad

With the upcoming royal wedding to Prince Harry, Meghan Markle definitely doesn't need to rent out her Toronto home anymore. She'll be living in a cottage at Kensington Palace after all! However her former rental is now on the market for $1.395 million, according to Realtor.

The three-bedroom home was the soon-to-be royal's crash pad while filming Suits. With a lovely backyard for kicking back during the summer and a cute little kitchen, we have a feeling that the actress had quite a fun time in her Canadian home. Click ahead to explore the space.
By Shelby Wax

The royal wedding cake has been revealed

It's absolutely stunning

In case you didn't know, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry just got married at St George's Chapel in Windsor.

And now that the ceremony and procession is over, it's time for the most important part: the cake.

Acclaimed London baker Claire Ptak of Violet Cakes gave us a sneak peak yesterday of the process it takes to make a cake for 600 people - and Kensington Palace have just revealed the magnificent result.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wedding declaration

SO BEAUTIFUL :)

WATCH FULL CEREMORY:The Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

BEAUTIFUL CEREMONY

Royal Wedding FULL ceremony of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Watch Royal Wedding: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle kiss on St. George's Chapel steps

The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle tied the knot with Prince Harry at Windsor Castle, St. George's Chapel. She arrived at the venue in a fabulous royal wedding dress, designed by Clare Waight Keller.

The royal couple exchanged vows as Dean of Windsor asked if there was any reason Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should not marry. He then turned to the couple and asked, "Harry, will you take Meghan to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?" "I will," he said, as the church giggled. He asked the same to Meghan and she, too, said, "I will."

Prince Harry gave a peck to Meghan Markle on the lips and the couple showed their love to the whole world.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex kiss in front of St George's Chapel as they exit

They left St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle after tying the knot at the royal wedding ceremony, led by The Dean of Windsor. The Archbishop of Canterbury also officiated as the couple make their vows.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will now embark on a carriage procession along a route including Castle Hill, High Street, Sheet Street, Kings Road, Albert Road, Long Walk and finally Windsor Castle.

There will be a reception at St George's Hall for the couple and guests from the congregation.

Meghan Markle’s sister in HOSPITAL after ‘confrontation’ with paparazzi

MEGHAN Markle’s half-sister has been taken to hospital after an alleged run-in with photographers.

SAMANTHA ATTACKED WITH QUESTIONS AND ACCUSATION AGAINST HER,DURING HER INTERVIEW

The Royal Wedding has taken another huge dramatic turn on the same day Meghan's dad was taken into surgery for a major heart operation.

The bride-to-be's half sister Samantha Grant, 52, is now reportedly in hospital too after suffering a broken ankle and fractured knee.


Entertainment website TMZ reports Samantha’s boyfriend told them the couple have had a "confrontation" with the paparazzi.

He reportedly claimed they were driving in Florida when a photographer veered in front of them trying to take a picture, forcing the couple to swerve out of the way and hit a concrete barrier.

TMZ states: “He says Samantha hit the windshield and fell to the floor mat. Samantha, who has MS, was unable to life herself up.

“He says her foot was twisted backward.


“He drove Samantha to the E.R. where doctors are treating her.”

This comes as Markle's half-sister launched a scathing attack on the US actress just days before the Royal Wedding.

Samantha said Meghan, who will marry Prince Harry on Saturday, had no right to tell her not to speak about the family affairs.

It comes just a day after Piers Morgan slammed Meghan, calling her a "little vulture" for constantly speaking about the Royal Wedding and trashing Meghan.

'Please stay'; RB Leipzig fans send message to Everton's Ademola Lookman

Ademola Lookman left Everton and the Premier League on loan in January and took the Bundesliga by storm in RB Leipzig's colours

Gareth Southgate has announced his 23-man England squad for the World Cup and Ademola Lookman isn’t in it.

But the fact some had even suggested including the fresh-faced winger speaks volumes about how far he’s come since swapping Everton for RB Leipzig on loan last January.


Lookman started just one Premier League game in the first half of the season and, to his credit, had the ambition and the drive to leave his comfort zone in order to kick-start a career that had stalled somewhat since an £11 million move from Charlton Athletic in January 2017.

The 20-year-old forced through a move to Bundesliga high-flyers Leipzig against the wishes of his Everton manager Sam Allardyce, who wanted to keep the youngster close by in Derby County, according to The Independent.


But, with the German top flight season now over, Lookman can reflect on what proved to be a very good decision. In just seven league starts, he scored five goals and set up three more. In his final game for Ralf Hasenhuttl’s side, Lookman tore apart the usually solid Hertha Berlin away from home, netting one and assisting two as he inspired a thrilling 6-2 win.

And, unsurprisingly, Lookman has been inundated by requests from Leipzig supporters hoping he will stay for another year.


This alone should be a reminder to Everton just what a talent they have on their hands.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Royal Wedding Could Cost as Much as $43 Million

But it's bringing in big money to Britain.

The upcoming nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is going to be one hell of an expensive event. We're just not sure how expensive.

The total

NEWS FLASH: MEGHAN'S DAD "I CHANGED MY MIND I Want to Walk Her Down the Aisle", BUT ...

Meghan Markle's dad has had a change of heart -- this after his daughter contacted him -- and he now wants to go to England and walk her down the aisle ... but there's a serious snag.

Thomas Markle just told us he's back in the hospital after experiencing serious chest pains and doctors are performing a battery of tests on him. He says the doctors told him his heart was "seriously damaged" after his heart attack a week ago.

Thomas tells TMZ Meghan tried calling him Monday but he was not near his phone. She followed up with a text telling him she loved him and was concerned about his health. He says she harbors no ill feelings toward him for making a deal with a paparazzi agency to stage photos of him getting ready for the wedding.

As for the Queen being upset with him, Thomas scoffed, saying, "I don't think the Queen is thinking about what I'm doing."

Thomas says he's thought about it and now believes what he did with the photos was not a serious transgression, although he calls it "stupid." He says he now wants to make the trek to England, telling us, "I hate the idea of missing one of the greatest moments in history and walking my daughter down the aisle."

Thomas says if doctors let him out of the hospital he will risk his health and fly to England so he can be with his daughter. Whether he gets released this week is problematic. Thomas says he's lobbied the doctors, asking if he can get out Wednesday, but they have been noncommittal.

As for his eldest daughter, Samantha, talking to the press, Thomas echoed the sentiment our Meghan Markle sources have sounded, saying Samantha has had no real relationship with Meghan as an adult and has no knowledge of Meghan's relationship with Prince Harry.

Bottom line, he says, "Of course I'd walk her down the aisle. This is a historic moment. I'd like to be a part of history."

Meghan Markle’s mom quits job at mental health clinic

Meghan Markle and Doria Ragland

Meghan Markle’s mom has quit her job at a Los Angeles mental health clinic days before the royal wedding, to pursue her dream of opening her own practice, according to a report.

“Doria [Ragland] is no longer working at the mental health clinic … It was Doria’s decision to leave,” a source told Us Weekly. “She has talked about starting her own private practice, focusing on working with elderly patients.”

Markle, 36, has previously gushed about her yoga-teacher and social-worker mom – who is about to fly to the UK to help with preparations for the big day.

“We can just have so much fun together, and yet, I’ll still find so much solace in her support,” Markle wrote in an essay titled “Ten Women Who Changed My Life” for Glamour last summer. “That duality coexists the same way it would in a best friend.”

News of Ragland, 61, quitting her job came the same day that Markle’s dad, Thomas, announced he wouldn’t be walking his daughter down the aisle after being caught staging photos with a paparazzo.

The “Suits” star’s mom and her father divorced when she was six-years-old.

Prince Harry, 33, has described his future mother-in-law as “amazing” to the BBC and flew her out to Toronto to join him and Meghan at the Invictus Games last year.

The mother-of-the-bride is expected to have an important role during the May 19 ceremony and it is thought she’ll ride with Meghan in the car to St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, according to the Daily Mail. She’s also expected to meet Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, her in-law Prince Charles and Prince William and his wife Kate before the nuptials.

Markle and her mom will spend the night before the wedding at Cliveden House, an Italian-style mansion that became a luxury hotel in 1985, where rooms can cost up to $2,000 a night.

US opens new Embassy in Jerusalem as dozens killed in Gaza clashes

Ivanka Trump, Mnuchin unveil embassy plaque

The US officially relocated its Embassy to Jerusalem on Monday, formally upending decades of American foreign policy in a move that was met with clashes and protests along the Israeli-Gaza border.

At least 43 Palestinians were killed in Gaza as deadly protests took place ahead of and during the ceremony in Jerusalem — making it the deadliest day there since the 2014 Gaza war.

President Donald Trump did not attend the ceremony in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood, but in a video message broadcast at the event he congratulated Israel, saying the opening had been "a long time coming."



Trump records message for embassy opening 02:26

"Today, Jerusalem is the seat of Israel's government. It is the home of the Israeli legislature and the Israeli supreme court and Israel's Prime Minister and President. Israel is a sovereign nation with the right, like every other sovereign nation, to determine its own capital, yet for many years we failed to acknowledge the obvious, the plain reality that Israel's capital is Jerusalem," Trump said in the prerecorded remarks.

"As I said in December, our greatest hope is for peace," he added.

But that hopeful vision made for a jarring juxtaposition with the climbing death toll in Gaza, televised images of Palestinians running from gunfire and the decision by the Pentagon and State Department to boost the Marine Corps presence at US embassies across the Middle East and Africa.

The celebratory air at the official opening ceremony in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood also contrasted sharply with calls from international leaders who expressed alarm at the spike in violence and appealed for calm, with some US allies denouncing the US decision to break with international norms by moving the embassy.

France expressed its official disapproval. South Africa pulled its envoy from Tel Aviv, while Turkey pulled its ambassadors from both Washington and Tel Aviv. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told an audience in London that the US prefers "to become part of the problem rather than the solution" and that it "has lost its role as mediator in the Middle East peace process."

Calls for calm

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations, told reporters there is "no chance" that Palestinians will engage in the US-led peace process, while President Mahmoud Abbas called for three days of mourning.

Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the Trump administration, expressed "strong condemnation" of Israel's use of force against Palestinian civilians, the official Saudi press agency said. Queen Rania of Jordan, another close US ally, tweeted that it was "a dark and sad day in history, marked with more Palestinian sacrifices."

"When will the world's conscience mobilize to give Palestinians the rights so many of us take for granted?" the Queen asked. "May God have mercy on those who lost their lives defending Jerusalem's proud Arab identity."

The UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, was "profoundly alarmed by the sharp escalation of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory and the high number of Palestinians killed and injured in the Gaza protests," said his deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Guterres added that Israeli security forces "must exercise maximum restraint in the use of live fire" and "Hamas and the leaders of the demonstrations have a responsibility to prevent all violent actions and provocations."

Palestinians run for cover from tear gas during clashes at the fence separating Gaza and Israel.

Palestinians set tires on fire during a protest on Monday.

Monday was the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel (though not according to the Jewish calendar by which it is normally marked in Israel -- that was last month).
On Tuesday, Palestinians will mark what they call the "Nakba" or Catastrophe, in memory of the more than 700,000 Palestinians who were either driven from, or fled, their homes during the Arab-Israeli war that accompanied the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
Trump's decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and relocate the Embassy from Tel Aviv is contentious for Palestinians, who hope to claim part of the city as their future capital.

The city is also home to deeply holy sites for Jews and Christians. The issue has been so thorny that international negotiators had left the question of Jerusalem to the final stages of any peace deal.


Protesters clash as US Embassy opens 
Trump's decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and relocate the embassy is contentious for Palestinians, who hope to claim part of the city as their future capital.
The city is also home to deeply holy sites for Jews and Christians. The issue has been so thorny that international negotiators had left the question of Jerusalem to the final stages of any peace deal.
At the ceremony Monday, politicians and dignitaries -- including Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, -- watched as US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin unveiled the US seal, turning what was formally the consulate building into the embassy.

Kushner, who is also a senior adviser to the US President, called for unity in his address.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd L), his wife Sara Netanyahu (L), Jared Kushner (3rd L), Ivanka Trump (C), US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (R) and US ambassador to Israel David Friedman (2nd R).

Jared Kushner (C), Ivanka Trump (C-R), US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (R) and US ambassador to Israel David Friedman (2nd R).

"We believe it is possible for both sides to gain more than they give -- so that all people can live in peace -- safe from danger, free from fear and able to pursue their dreams," he said.

"Jerusalem must remain a city that brings people of all faiths together."

'Stronger than ever'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump for his support on Twitter hours ahead of the opening ceremony.

"What an amazing day! Thank you, @POTUS Trump," Netanyahu said while retweeting a Twitter post from Trump.

The opening of the embassy happened a day after Israel celebrated Jerusalem Day, marking what Israelis consider the reunification of the city.

Speaking at the ceremony, Netanyahu hailed the alliance between America and Israel as "stronger than ever."

"What a glorious day. Remember this moment. This is history," he said.

"President Trump, by recognizing history, you have made history. All of us are deeply moved; all of us are deeply grateful."

Outside the embassy, police and protesters clashed as tensions ran high.

Fourteen protesters were arrested for confronting police officers and interrupting public order, Jerusalem police said.

peter swift reporting from united states

More than 50 Palestinians killed and over 1,000 injured in Gaza border violence

Israeli soldiers shoot and kill dozens of demonstrators in the deadliest day of violence since the devastating 2014 war

An elderly Palestinian man falls on the ground after being shot by Israeli troops during a deadly protest at the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, east of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Israeli soldiers have shot and killed at least 52 Palestinians and left another 1,200 injured during mass protests along the Gaza border, health officials said.

It was the deadliest day in the region since a devastating 2014 cross-border war, and cast a shadow over the inauguration of the new US embassy in Jerusalem.

In a show of anger fuelled by the embassy move, Palestinian protesters set tyres ablaze and hurled firebombs and stones toward Israeli troops across the border. Later, Israeli forces opened fire from tanks, sending protesters fleeing for cover.

The military said its troops came under fire in some areas, and claimed protesters had been attempting to break through the border fence. It said troops shot and killed three Palestinians who were trying to plant a bomb.

The UN human rights chief said on Twitter that “Israeli live fire in #Gaza must stop now”, and demanded respect for human life.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein decried the “shocking killing of dozens” and the injury of hundreds by Israeli forces in the Palestinian areas. Mr Zeid, a Jordanian prince who is leaving his post in August after a single term, said the international community needs to ensure justice for the victims.

He added on the UN human rights office’s Twitter feed that perpetrators of “outrageous human rights violations” must be held to account.

US president Donald Trump said in a video message played at the new US embassy inauguration – which took place just 45 miles from the bloodshed on the Gaza border – that he remains committed to “facilitating a lasting peace agreement” between Israelis and Palestinians.

“A great day for Israel!” Mr Trump tweeted earlier.

However, Monday’s steadily climbing death toll and wall-to-wall condemnation of the embassy move by the Arab world raised new doubts about Mr Trump’s ambitions to broker what he once said would be the Middle East “deal of the century”.

By late afternoon, at least 52 Palestinians, including five minors, were killed, the Gaza health ministry said. A total of 1,204 were wounded by Israeli gunfire.

The ministry says this total includes 116 people who were in serious or critical condition.

At the embassy ceremony in Jerusalem, Mr Trump’s son-in-law and chief Middle East adviser Jared Kushner placed the blame on the Gaza protesters.

He said: “As we have seen from the protests of the last month and even today those provoking violence are part of the problem and not part of the solution.”

Mr Kushner and Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka led a high-powered American delegation that also included the treasury secretary and four Republican senators.


The new embassy will temporarily operate from an existing US consulate, until a decision has been made on a permanent location.

In Gaza, the Hamas-led protest was meant to be the biggest yet in a campaign against a decade-old blockade of the territory. The Israeli military estimated a turnout of about 40,000, saying this fell short of what Hamas had hoped for.

The march was also directed at the inauguration of the embassy.

Mr Trump added in his video address that the new embassy was opening “many, many years ahead of schedule”, adding that the US had “failed to acknowledge the obvious” for many years.

He said that he remains committed to “facilitating a lasting peace agreement”, and that he was “extending a hand of friendship to Israel, the Palestinians and to all of their neighbours”.

Moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a key Trump campaign promise – infuriated the Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as a future capital.

The clash is the biggest showdown in years between Israel’s military and Gaza’s Hamas rulers along the volatile border. The sides have largely observed a ceasefire since the 2014 cross-border war – their third in a decade.

The protests mark the culmination of a campaign, led by Hamas and fuelled by despair among Gaza’s two million people, to break the blockade of the territory imposed byIsrael and Egypt after Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Since weekly border marches began in late March, 94 Palestinian protesters have been killed and more than 2,500 wounded by Israeli army fire. Hamas said four members, including three security men, were among the dead on Monday.

The timing of Monday’s events was deeply symbolic, both to Israel and the Palestinians.

The US said it chose the date to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment. But it also marks the anniversary of what Palestinians call their “nakba”, or catastrophe, a reference to the uprooting of hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled from present-day Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

Mr Trump’s decision to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was welcomed by Israel and condemned by the Palestinians.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community. The Palestinians seek the city’s eastern half as the capital of a future state.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has cut ties with the Trump administration and declared it unfit to mediate peace talks.

Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as a capital and view the Trump administration’s change in policy as a blatant show of pro-Israel bias. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly praised Mr Trump’s decision to upend decades of US policy by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.


European foreign ministers have said the embassy move is unwise and likely to exacerbate tensions in the region. Their comments come after the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania blocked the full 28-nation European Union from publishing a statement about the US move.

Trump Decision to Move U.S. Embassy Sparks Violence

                             OVER HUNDREDS DEAD,1000 INJURED

While Jared and Ivanka were celebrating Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, this is what was happening in Gaza:

A mass attempt by Palestinians to cross the border fence separating Israel from Gaza quickly turned violent, as Israeli soldiers responded with rifle fire. Monday became the bloodiest single day since the campaign of demonstrations began seven weeks ago, to protest Israel’s economic blockade of Gaza.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians took part in the Gaza protests, which spread on Monday to the West Bank, where the focus was on opposition to the embassy move.

By 7 p.m., 52 Palestinians, including several teenagers, were dead and at least 1,700 were injured in Gaza, the Health Ministry said. Israeli soldiers and snipers used barrages of tear gas as well as live gunfire to keep protesters from entering Israeli territory…

By midafternoon, the protest nearest to Gaza City had turned into a pitched battle — a chaotic panorama of smoke, sirens and tear gas that stretched along the fence. Emergency workers with stretchers carried off a stream of injured protesters, many with leg wounds but some having been shot in the abdomen. A number were teenagers.

* Could this be the reason Trump is changing his tune so dramatically on China?

A billion-dollar Indonesian property development with ties to Donald Trump has become the latest project in China’s globe-spanning Belt and Road infrastructure project – just as Washington and Beijing are tussling over trade.

A subsidiary of Chinese state-owned construction firm Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) signed a deal with Indonesia’s MNC Land to build a theme park outside Jakarta as part of the ambitious project, the company said on Thursday.

The deal is the latest to raise questions about the extent of Trump’s financial exposure to Beijing.

The park – expected to be backed with up to US$500 million in Chinese government loans – is part of an “integrated lifestyle resort”, known as MNC Lido City.

The project includes Trump-branded hotels, residences and a golf course, as well as other hotel, shopping and residential developments.

* You’ll want to read our friend Ed Kilgore’s assessment of the latest move by Republicans on Medicaid.

Frustrated in their congressional efforts to “reform” Medicaid by ending its status as a personal entitlement and rolling back the expanded coverage that 32 states have chosen under the Affordable Care Act, Republicans in many states are now seeking to pare back Medicaid eligibility through work requirements that they hope will discourage enrollment. They’ve largely been given a green light by the Trump administration via waivers. But a new wrinkle in the way these requirements are drawn up is driving concerns (and lawsuits) based on suspicion that the idea is to make urban minority folk work while exempting rural white beneficiaries.

* Can anyone continue to deny that Sean Hannity is Trump’s real chief of staff?

The call to the White House comes after ten o’clock most weeknights, when Hannity is over. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Sean Hannity broadcasts live at 9 p.m. on Fox News, usually from Studio J in midtown, where the network is headquartered, but sometimes from a remote studio on Long Island, where he was raised and now lives…

Their chats begin casually, with How are yous and What’s going ons. On some days, they speak multiple times, with one calling the other to inform him of the latest developments. White House staff are aware that the calls happen, thanks to the president entering a room and announcing, “I just hung up with Hannity,” or referring to what Hannity said during their conversations, or even ringing Hannity up from his desk in their presence.

* We know that Steve Bannon had Cambridge Analytica field-test messages about so-called “scientific racism.” It is interesting how all of that work coincides with what the Russians did on Facebook.

More than half of the Facebook ads created by the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency to influence Americans during and after the last presidential election made references to race, according to a new analysis by USA Today. The news organization reviewed every one of the 3,517 IRA ads released to the public earlier this week by the House Intelligence Committee (IRA), and its reporters discovered that nearly 2,000 of the ads referred to race — accounting for some 25 million impressions from targeted Facebook users…

Fifty-five percent of the ads targeted race, which was also a primary angle for many of the 24 percent of ads that focused on crime or policing. The IRA’s use of divisive racial ads ramped up as Election Day approached in 2016, as well as after Trump was elected. In fact, the vast majority of ads from September 2016 to May 2017 focused on race in one way or another. And while it should be noted that many IRA ads did very poorly with Facebook users, the race-related content performed better on average.

* Way back in early 2015, I suggested that a great way to demonstrate the outcomes of Republican vs Democratic policies is to compare what has happened in Wisconsin and Minnesota since 2010. The Economic Policy Institute just updated the numbers.

Since the 2010 election of Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Governor Mark Dayton in Minnesota, lawmakers in these two neighboring states have enacted vastly different policy agendas. Governor Walker and the Wisconsin state legislature have pursued a highly conservative agenda centered on cutting taxes, shrinking government, and weakening unions. In contrast, Minnesota under Governor Dayton has enacted a slate of progressive priorities: raising the minimum wage, strengthening safety net programs and labor standards, and boosting public investments in infrastructure and education, financed through higher taxes (largely on the wealthy).

Because of the proximity and many similarities of these two states, comparing economic performance in the Badger State (WI) versus the Gopher State (MN) provides a compelling case study for assessing which agenda leads to better outcomes for working people and their families. Now, seven years removed from when each governor took office, there is ample data to assess which state’s economy—and by extension, which set of policies—delivered more for the welfare of its residents. The results could not be more clear: by virtually every available measure, Minnesota’s recovery has outperformed Wisconsin’s.

This is precisely why I’ll be paying a lot of attention to governors races this November.