For the Pioneer Press, Mara Gottfried writes, “A building that connects a St. Paul downtown light-rail station to the skyway, which was the scene of a double homicide a week ago, will temporarily close, officials announced at a community meeting Monday. During the closure of the tower at Central Station, the plan is to ‘really work on and address the public safety challenges, and help install and work on critical safety infrastructure,’ according to Brooke Blakey, director of St. Paul’s Office of Neighborhood Safety.”
For KARE-TV, Bill Strande says, “Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Monday that the meetings about the proposed merger of Fairview Health Services and Sanford Health have been set. The four public meetings will be next month in the cities of St. Paul, Bemidji, Worthington, and Grand Rapids. … Besides the public meetings, the Office of Attorney General created a dedicated web form and voice mailbox where the public can leave comments about the proposed merger.”
At MPR News, Matt Sepic says, “A woman accused of seeking out and sexually grooming underage sex partners for Minnesota Republican political operative Tony Lazzaro pleaded guilty Monday to charges of sex trafficking and obstruction. Lazzaro, 32, is accused of giving money and gifts to five girls in exchange for sex. In a Minneapolis federal courtroom, Gisela Castro Medina, 20, admitted using social media and her personal connections to find the girls.”
At Forbes, Esha Chhabra writes, “Nora Schaper has the classic startup story: she started a business, HiBAR, from her basement in Minnesota. Now she’s in over 10,000 stores across America, selling salon-quality plastic-free shampoos, plus a few new additions: a plastic-free face wash and deodorant. She’s determined to get plastic bottles out of our bathrooms. Alongside her husband Jay, and two friends-turned-co-founders, Dion Hughes and Ward Johnson, Schaper ventured into the world of bar shampoos with a goal of reducing plastic packaging in the personal care category. She and her husband had already been making soaps out of a studio they’d built in their basement and selling them to natural grocers in Minnesota.”
For KNSI radio in St. Cloud, Jake Judd says, “A St. Cloud lawmaker says he will work to get funding to help revitalize the downtown. Last week, a summit on rebuilding downtown focused on creating private/public partnerships and attracting people to the district. St. Cloud area Rep. Dan Wolgamott was at the summit and said he understands how vital the downtown is. ‘As someone with a real estate background, I know how important having a vibrant downtown is to drawing people to our community, whether it’s businesses, families, or investors. I’m very excited to be working with the mayor and with the city of St. Cloud on this proposal.’ Duluth and Rochester have received millions in bonding dollars for redevelopment projects in the last couple of years. Wolgamott says St. Cloud should be getting some aid, too, and plans to ask for state money to help with redevelopment … .”
Also for KARE, Karla Hult reports, “Hours after the Biden-Harris Administration announced a plan to reduce homelessness 25% by 2025, Minnesota’s largest shelter for families experiencing homelessness said they’d welcome the focused effort. But Grace Rieck, the director of shelter operations at People Serving People also acknowledged the plan may be a bit ambitious, even as it’s absolutely warranted.”
At Patch William Bornhoft says, “The final days before Christmas in Minnesota will feature a deep arctic blast of cold air, along with a couple of inches of snow, according to the latest forecast. Wind chills could reach ‘as low as 40-50 degrees below zero Thursday and Friday morning,’ the National Weather Service said. ‘Plowable snow (2 plus inches) is likely for much of the area Wednesday into Thursday, but there remains a good deal of uncertainty in amounts. Winds will become gusty on Thursday and remain gusty into the weekend.’”
And then there’s this at weather.com, “Winter storm alerts, including watches and advisories, have already been issued by the National Weather Service as far east as the Midwest ahead of this storm. Among the cities included are Chicago, Des Moines, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Omaha. … Wednesday the storm will spread into the Plains as the powerful arctic cold front plunges southward. Snow could be heavy, accompanied by strong winds in parts of the central Plains and upper Midwest. Travel will become hazardous Wednesday night … .”
An ESPN story by David Purdum says, “The greatest comeback in NFL history — the Minnesota Vikings erasing a 33-0 deficit to beat the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday — produced some of the ugliest losing bets you’ll ever see. Let’s start with the ugliest, which comes via PointsBet, an online sportsbook that tends to be more aggressive than other bookmakers with its in-game odds. At halftime, with the Colts leading 33-0, PointsBet was offering Indianapolis at -20,000 odds to win the game. That means in order to win $1, you’d have to put up $200 — and some ambitious folks felt it was worth the risk. … There were some believers in the Vikings as they began to mount their comeback. PointsBet offered the Vikings at 90-1 when they trailed 33-0 at halftime. In comparison, DraftKings had the Vikings at 40-1, Caesars at 30-1, BetMGM at 17-1 and WynnBET at around 15-1. The difference in odds is a stark reminder for bettors to always shop for the best action.”
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