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AM.MN: Media descends on Minneapolis’ ‘Little Mogadishu’

By Chris Steller | 11.25.09 | 8:30 am

am.mn logoUnsealed court documents have unleashed a wave of press about an American ring allied with a terror group in Somalia. Minneapolis “is the center of it,” the local FBI head tells the AP. Now we should

Will flat-screen TV prices drop to sub-‛bonehead’ levels?

By Chris Steller | 11.13.09 | 3:48 pm

As the holidays approach, prices are falling on flat-screen TVs like the ones that Gov. Pawlenty had removed from the civil-commitment facility for sex offenders at Moose Lake. Which suggests a dilemma: at what price point…

MN Sex Offender Program costs $70 million a year but rehabilitates no one

By Paul Demko | 11.13.09 | 9:39 am

By any reasonable standard the Minnesota Sex Offender Program has been an unmitigated failure. In its nearly two decades, it has failed to rehabilitate a single patient. The only people who have graduated from the program have done so in body bags. Yet, since 2003, the program’s budget has ballooned by nearly 400 percent, from $18.5 million annually to $71.6 million.

At least Molnau didn’t tweet the I-35W bridge collapse

By Chris Steller | 11.10.09 | 12:11 pm

lt gov tweetLt. Gov. Carol Molnau mishandled the I-35W bridge collapse badly enough that the state Senate stripped her of her second job as transportation commissioner. But at least she didn’t live-tweet that tragedy, as her counterpart in Missouri…

Bostrom eyeing run for Ramsey County Sheriff’s post

By Paul Demko | 10.27.09 | 2:19 pm

Matt BostromAssistant St. Paul Police Chief Matt Bostrom is likely to challenge Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher in 2010. Bostrom filed campaign papers with the Ramsey County Elections office…

The other jailhouse plasma TV

By Chris Steller | 10.22.09 | 2:21 pm

redwingphotoWhen is buying a jailhouse plasma TV not, to use Gov. Pawlenty’s term, a “bonehead decision“? When it’s in the warden’s conference room, apparently.

Cities flirt with doing without cops

By Chris Steller | 10.20.09 | 2:02 pm

map_mn_125Akeley 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.

Americans’ support for marijuana legalization reaches new high

By Andy Birkey | 10.20.09 | 10:55 am

A Gallup poll conducted at the beginning of October shows that more Americans support the legalization of marijuana than ever before — even if the majority still think it should be illegal.

Obama won’t prosecute medical marijuana users in states where it’s legal

By Andy Birkey | 10.19.09 | 11:35 am

Although medical marijuana use is still illegal on the federal level, the Obama administration said today that it won’t go after patients or their providers in states where it is legal.

Ward Five challengers target Samuels at lively debate

By Paul Demko | 10.14.09 | 4:06 pm

Minneapolis City Council debates are generally polite, drowsy affairs. But Ward Five has a reputation for boisterous, even unruly, political discourse. That might explain why more than 100 people showed up at the Capri Theater on Tuesday night to watch five city council candidates debate the issues.