AM.MN: New ‘nerve center’ for St. Cloud cops to be vacant due to budget woes

Call it unnerving. St. Cloud’s nearly-done $36 million police headquarters is being built with a “nerve center” where staffers can monitor feeds from downtown security cameras and keep an eye on interview rooms and the building itself. Except there’s a hiring freeze and no money to hire such staff — or six of 12 officers the city promised when voters approved bonds for the building, or even janitors to clean it.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning…

DULUTH: As the City Administrator Turns (over)… Mayor Don Ness canned City Administrator Michael Ashcroft, who he hired only eight weeks ago to replace the guy he hired in February who left on short notice. [Duluth News Tribune]

EIGHTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: Dem rakes in national cash. As a committee chair and long-term congressman, Jim Oberstar has such a high profile that every one of his campaign donations of more than $200 last quarter came from out of state. [Smart Politics]

ST. PAUL: Some see Hmong culture fading. It can be hard for young adults to keep up with the demands of both American society and Hmong traditions like three-day weddings and funerals. [Twin Cities Daily Planet]

DULUTH: Enviro groups close local offices. Due to the dismal economy, Environmental Association of Great Lakes Education and the local office of Clean Water Action both shut their doors. [Duluth News Tribune]

STATEWIDE: Motor vehicles tangle with people not in vehicles. A car killed a pedestrian in Fridley, and a semi killed a 74-year-old man on his bike in Nicollet County. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

VIRGINIA: Ex-Red Owl workers sound call to return to the nest. Any old nation can commemorate a moonwalk — how many towns commemorate a grocery store that closed 20 years ago with a reunion for former staff and customers? [Mesabi Daily News via Minnesota Brown]