AM.MN: Warm up for health care bill by reading Cohasset’s new pet ordinance

Have you read the 1,000-page health care bill? That’s become a standard challenge in national political debates. But big government stalks small towns too: A pet-licensing push in Cohasset over the summer has increased by tenfold the number of animals wearing government-issued tags around their necks. And now the city council has passed revisions ballooning its animal-control ordinance from four pages to an Internet-hobbling 16 pages long — including restrictions on where dogs can do their business.

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

TWIN CITIES: Mayors join to battle for business. Competing with China and California rather than each other is the motto for 34 metro-area mayors. [Star Tribune]

MINNEAPOLIS: Twin Cities, one paper? As the Star Tribune’s post-bankruptcy board of directors takes shape, a leading investor has no plans to merge the daily with the St. Paul Pioneer Press but says it “makes a lot of sense.” [Star Tribune]

WADENA: Carrying on Carrie Nation’s fight. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, founded in 1874, drew only a six-pack of members to its annual state convention. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

ST. JOSEPH: Families with missing members draw hope from California case. Patty Wetterling says the release of Jaycee Lee Dugard inspires her as she waits for her son, Jacob, to come home. Meanwhile, 100 gathered Saturday in Thief River Falls to pray for the return of a local woman who disappeared last October. [Associated Press; Morris Sun Tribune]

HIBBING: Flu influences back-to-school shopping lists. Hand sanitizers now go hand in hand with glue sticks. [Hibbing Daily Tribune]

STATEWIDE: With stay-cation trend, the thrill is gone. Half the campsites at Minnesota State Parks are still available for Labor Day weekend. [St. Cloud Times]