Dan Olson
A new biography of an early Minnesota bird observer, Dr. Thomas Sadler Roberts, shows him to be a workaholic according to author Sue Leaf. Read more →
MPR News Notes on the news from the Twin Cities
Archives for May 2013
Hart Van Denburg
Tim Nelson reports this morning that St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman is issuing a proclamation temporarily renaming the city’s landmark Wabasha Street Freedom Bridge the “Wabasha Street Freedom to Marry Bridge.” The executive order comes as the state Senate is preparing to vote to make same sex marriage legal in the state, just days after Read more →
Jessica Mador
The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced the appointment of Patrick Kelly as the new director of the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. He assumes the leadership of a massive institution, with an operating budget of $594 million and more than 100,000 veteran patients.
Curtis GilbertHennepin County has won an award for stripping its website of legal jargon and government speak. The Center for Plain Language honored the county with two 2013 ClearMark awards last month in Washington D.C. HennCo has come a long way. Here’s how it used to advise visitors of the rules at the Minnetonka Home School: Read more →
Brandt Williams
Law enforcement officials say members of a north Minneapolis street gang are looking to burglarize homes that appear to contain guns. According to a search warrant request filed recently in Hennepin County District Court by investigators with the FBI Safe Streets Violent Gang Task Force, members of the Loud Pack gang, “target homes with American Read more →
The second wave of James Beard Foundation awards were handed out last night in New York City, but unlike Friday, when Twin Cities based Andrew Zimmern was among the winners, the awards went elsewhere on the culinary map. Restaurateurs Michelle Gayer of “Salty Tart,” and Jack Riebel, of “Butcher & the Boar” had been finalists Read more →
Check out the view of the soon-to-be St. Croix Bridge between Minnesota and Wisconsin. MnDOT has cameras trained on the site, which is already under construction. Crews are building the staging area for the bridge foundations on the Minnesota riverbank. They’re also preparing for road construction on Highways 36 and 95. Workers are also inspecting Read more →
Rupa Shenoy
Breaking Free (a group that provides housing, education and job training for women and girls who have been sexually exploited) held its second two-day event to raise awareness of human trafficking yesterday and today. The first conference was in 2011. This year the group partnered with the Minnesota Men’s Action Network, and that organization’s co-founder, Read more →
A few May Day parades are planned for this weekend, but if the crowd at St Paul’s Cinco de Mayo parade Saturday is an indicator, many people may stay away because of the weather. It usually draws thousands of people, but this time the crowds were thin as Mexican dancers and marching bands went by. Read more →
Travel Channel host and food writer Andrew Zimmern, and “The Perennial Plate” hosts Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine, get to bring James Beard Foundation media awards home to the Twin Cities. The prestigious awards were announced Friday night in New York City. Zimmern was named Outstanding Personality/Host for his show “Bizarre Foods America.” Klein and Read more →