AM.MN: This is only a test. Had this been a real bank robbery …

Chris Steller — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:30:25 +0000

Police swarmed a bank in Benson after a security company misinterpreted a message from its own employee, who was testing the alarm system, as the signal for a robbery-in-progress. Two calls at 2:29 p.m. Sunday sent city, county and state squads scrambling to the Bank of the West, where they set up a perimeter, observing two male subjects inside who, perhaps understandably, did not come out. The standoff unraveled only after the arrival of backups from the police department, sheriff’s office and state patrol — and a phone call to the bank.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

WILLMAR: Farmers praise ‘multimillion-dollar rain.‘ Downpours over the last few days washed away talk of droughts during the Great Depression. [West Central Tribune]

ST. CLOUD: Foreclosures hold steady. The rate of area homes lost to foreclosure so far this year — 47 per month — is about what it’s been for the same period in the last two years. [St. Cloud Times]

OWATONNA: City backs out of Kids First. Sports for junior high school kids isn’t really first — it’s just one of many library and parks programs to get cut off from city funds. [Owatonna People's Press]

BREITUNG: State may take back cash for park. It’s Gov. Pawlenty’s pet project, but the land-deal snag holding up a new Lake Vermillion State Park means locals can’t spend $379,000 on park infrastructure. [The Timberjay]

BENSON: Buyers scarce for homes high-schoolers built. Houses built by construction classes are usually easy for school districts to sell, but not this year — even at rock-bottom prices. [Morris Sun Tribune]

MINNEAPOLIS: Eight want to replace ’807.’ Of the 80 people interested in building a new Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters (now at 807 Broadway St. NE), the number turning in proposals is down to eight — meeting a drastic reduction that goes way beyond the school-dictionary definition of “decimated.” [Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal]

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AM.MN: This is only a test. Had this been a real bank robbery …