Greater Minnesota

The Rev. Nate Bjorge quit his position with the First Lutheran Church in Little Falls last week after the church voted to remain a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The ELCA, the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination, voted to allow churches to roster gay and lesbian pastors at a meeting in Minneapolis [...]

US Bank is putting its brand on nine banks, but it’s not necessarily an indicator of a robust economy: the Minneapolis-based bank, a division of US Bancorp, is assuming the assets and most of the debts of nine banks that closed on Friday. It was a record-setting day: It’s the most banks closed by the [...]

Republican state Rep. Paul Kohls has put his gubernatorial campaign on hold, according to the Jordan Indepedent. The Victoria, Minn., resident emailed supporters with the news this morning, noting that “it has become clear to me that the activists are lining up in much greater numbers behind some of the other candidates in the race, [...]

Imagine this notice tacked up in Anoka, circa 1970: “Wanted: Future Member of Congress to babysit future Miss America and Fox News host.” That’s just one of the rabbit-holes your mind can wander down if you ponder this fact, that culminates George Will’s column about U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann: she was once Gretchen Carlson’s nanny. [...]

Gov. Pawlenty did Moose Lake’s captive sex offenders a favor by taking away their big TVs Tuesday before his 12-minute appearance on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report.” They were spared captions dubbing him “‘President’ Pawlenty” and claiming he holds a 56-percent approval rating in Minnesota. (Try 45 percent.) And a majority of Minnesotans’ blood might boil to [...]

A watchdog group, Stimulating Broadband, which keeps tabs on stimulus spending on broadband infrastructure, says Minnesota is the only state holding back details about funding priorities. Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s administration says it doesn’t have to disclose the information.

Akeley is the latest Minnesota city to consider going without its own police in response to declining local-government aid (LGA) and, in some cases, population.

Minnesota officials succeeded in fighting off the term “swine flu” earlier this year, but three piglets that were displayed at the Minnesota State Fair last month have been confirmed today as the nation’s first porcine victims of the H1N1 virus.

To the victor go the spoils, the saying goes. And so on Tuesday Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak took delivery of 10 pounds of hamburger from Jim Schmitt, mayor of Green Bay, Wisc., in fulfillment of the friendly wager they made on the Vikings-Packers football game. But the Vikings’ win wasn’t the only news since the [...]

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar paid a visit to Darfur Saturday — but not the humanitarian crisis flashpoint in Sudan. Klobuchar met with one-third of the town of Darfur, Minn. (pop. 137), about how to fund a new fire station.