Blaine

The rapid devolution of print journalism gets regularly lamented for all the right reasons — among them the losses of investigative voices, institutional memories and checks on the powerful. A less-noted side-effect is cities’ loss of revenue from recycling newsprint.

Dressed in black and wearing orange armbands, hundreds of bicyclists took to the streets of Minneapolis, St. Paul and several suburbs for two 14-mile memorial rides in honor of four local cyclists killed last month in collisions with motor vehicles.

No more dreary town hall meetings for John McCain. The man who has consistently ridiculed Barack Obama for his stadium rallies and ardent followers can now attract thousands of bellowing supporters of his own. Of course they’re not showing up to hear the old man grumble about Iran and insist that he understands the economy. The adoring throngs want a glimpse of the rifle-toting, lipstick-wearing, hockey hooligan Sarah Palin. And so they arrived at the airport in Blaine today by the thousands, toting “Hockey Moms for Palin” signs and sporting buttons emblazoned with “Read my Lipstick: Change is Coming.”

The Minnesota Zoo continued its winning ways at the Capitol yesterday with House and Senate approvals of a bill to remove the salary cap for the zoo’s director. If Gov. Tim Pawlenty approves, the zoo could pay its top dog more than the current legal limit of 130 percent of the governor’s $120,000 salary, or [...]