St. Paul

St. Paul is the undisputed billboard capitol of Minnesota. There are currently 561 super-sized signs lining the streets of the city, according to Scenic St. Paul, which has worked for years to reduce the number of such structures. Since April, Scenic St. Paul volunteers have been photographing every single one of the billboards. Yesterday, a special screening of these photographs was held during a luncheon gathering at City Hall to bring attention to the issue.

The Minnesota Independent liveblogged and tweeted (at MnIndyLIVE) the Nov. 26 State Canvassing Board meeting, at which Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie led the five-person board in considering the Al Franken for Senate campaign’s request that they find a way to count votes from all improperly rejected absentee ballots.

You’ve probably heard and read a lot about Minnesota voters whose absentee ballots got rejected and how those non-votes might affect the incredibly close U.S. Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. But have you heard even one word yet from those voters?

“Oh, crap.”

Well, now you’ve heard two words.

It’s become a broken record of late: Home-price declines breaking records. With the economy on the skids and the subprime crisis still unfolding, home values are getting devoured first. This morning the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index was released, revealing that the trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The 20-city index showed year-to-year August price declines of 16.6 percent. Minneapolis saw a drop of 13.3 percent over the year period, with a 1 percent decline from July to August.

During Sunday’s U.S. Senate debate, Norm Coleman touted his record of job creation during eight years as Mayor of St. Paul. He forgot to mention that the city’s job-growth rate during those heady economic times was less than half of that experienced statewide.

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.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that the city will undergo an outside review of the public safety effort tied to the Republican National Convention — but its limited scope may not satisfy calls from various quarters for independent review of police misconduct.

Paul Schmelzer has compiled a remarkable set of Flickr photo essays culled from the pictures taken this week by MnIndy reporters and photographers who were covering the convention in the streets outside Xcel Energy Center.
We hope you’ll take a few moments to go through them. Thanks for your tips, comments and feedback through the week. [...]

Here’s a collection of some of the more striking people shots taken by MnIndy reporters and photographers during this week’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
Editor’s note: The best way to view this slideshow is to 1) click to start it; 2) hover your cursor over the image until the toolbar appears; 3) [...]

These pictures from MnIndy reporters and photographers capture some of the signs on display this week at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
Editor’s note: The best way to view this slideshow is to 1) click to start it; 2) hover your cursor over the image until the toolbar appears; 3) use the icon [...]