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Even at the very tippy-top of Minnesota, health facilities are bracing for more state cuts. International Falls’ Memorial Hospital could lose $2.5 million once Gov. Pawlenty unallots. A nursing home manager says there’s a $24 gap in funding per day per patient — and expects that trend to continue for four years. The head of an assisted-living and chemical-dependency treatment facilities chafes under the uncertainty about the governor’s intentions: “He hasn’t shown his hand. Everything is in limbo … You can’t cut food.”

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

WILLMAR: Planned Parenthood sees rise in cash-conscious clients. “They’re doing the math,” says the Willmar clinic’s director, about the women and men flocking in for low-cost services. [West Central Tribune]

AUSTIN: New jail’s foundations laid. A petition for a voter referendum on the $29 million jail never got a hearing, but the Mower County coordinator lauds the project: “The new jails are like a mini-prison. This is big time stuff.” [Austin Daily Herald]

DULUTH: State’s roads could benefit from a bed of taconite. The iron-ore byproduct would come from the Iron Range’s western end, where asbestos fibers aren’t a problem. [Minnesota Public Radio]

BRADBURY TOWNSHIP: Loggers restricted to three-day week. An old logging road sees so many recreational users, it can only be used for transporting logs Tuesday through Thursday. [Mille Lacs Messenger]

LITTLE FALLS: Stimulus project to stop snow blowing across road — with plants. Federal economic-stimulus money for plantings along the road to Fort Ripley might help save on the state’s snowplowing budget. [St. Cloud Times]

PERHAM: Museum offers free seminar on Victorian courtship. Learn how the ways a lady held her fan bespoke something to her suitors and other etiquette of yesteryear from a Rochester-based expert. [Perham Enterprise Bulletin]