AM.MN: State’s top cop hails from county sweating layoffs

Minnesota’s new Police Officer of the Year, Chad Peterson, is deputy sheriff on a force of 13 in a county that — at least until a Tuesday reprieve — was fearful of having to cut its law enforcement budget by half. Officials in Mahnomen County were sure their population of 5,190 put them in range for Gov. Pawlenty’s unallotment cuts to Local Government Aid (Pawlenty exempted counties with fewer than 5,000 residents and cities with fewer than 1,000). But the governor’s plan spared Mahnomen and four other counties said to have fewer than 5,000 residents.

A ticked-off loser in the population-count game and other news from around Minnesota, after the jump … 

HOUSTON: City claims stale population count of 1,003 costs it $130,000. The latest data would put Houston (pop. 989) under the 1,000-resident threshold for cities to escape the governor’s unallotment cuts. [Winona Daily News, Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities]

STATEWIDE: Job data due. Minnesota’s unemployment rate for last month (8.1 percent in April) will be announced today by Commissioner of Employment and Economic Security Dan McElroy — whose hold on his own job has been the subject of speculation. [Associated Press]

OTTERTAIL: Tractor-pull founder missed. This weekend’s Smokin’ Hot Tractor Pull is the first since the February death of Bill Ferrell, who brought the event to national preeminence in just six years. [Detroit Lakes Tribune]

WINONA: Landlord signs 10-year lease with newspaper. The Winona Daily News, which traces its history to 1855, is feeling warm and fuzzy about its relocation to the historic Winona Knitting Mills building. [Winona Daily News]

FERGUS FALLS: Downtown art gallery hosts grand opening tonight. The nonprofit Kaddatz Gallery celebrates its first exhibit by unveiling a plaque to mark the former Kaddatz Hotel’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places. [Minnesota Public Radio; Fergus Falls Daily Journal]

BEMIDJI: Buy Bada Bing? Open only a year, Bemidji’s Bada Bing restaurant is already for sale. Owner Chris Villell says his family will be growing in August and with all the commuting between his two restaurants in Brainerd and Bemidji … boy, are his arms tired. Bada Bing! [Bemidji Pioneer]