In doing so, it joins efforts like our own Daily Glean, Bring.mn and City Pages Blotter as winnowers and prioritizers of the information firehose the web opened. Like those local efforts, it's human-curated — in this case, by Bob Ingrassia, whose hobby-site Newsbobber was a forerunner. So why would you want to check it out?

1. Bob is a true omnivore. The sites listed above also use mainstream sources, but also blogs, small-town papers and national sources with local interest. However, Bob is in the Panethon of local news hounds; his Minnesota Blog Directory, still at Newsbobber for the moment, is as definitive as these things get. I notice he's also curating photographs at "Minnesota Today" — a very nice addition — and incorporating guest curators, which is smart if he finds the right folks.

2. It's nicely designed. Because MPR is getting Legacy Amendment cash, it needs to make sure it covers the whole state, which it graphically regionalizes. (One beef: the site doesn't appear to let you set a "home" region.) The arts and cultural calendar — also a Legacy must — runs the risk of being a link dump rather than efficiently curated, but it does offer city, category and calendar customization.

3. If you subscribe to "Minnesota Today's" Twitter or RSS feeds, links go directly to the originating news outlet. At Bring.mn, you go to a Bring page first, which can be annoying, though you can see that site's "stacks" of similarly relevant stories. "Minnesota Today" doesn't appear to have a "related stories" feature.

4. There's a bit of original content, beyond what MPR already does. Ingrassia looks to be writing the "Statewide" blog. There's also an moderated "Insight Now" blog, curated by MPR's Michael Caputo. It's lightly used so far, although it appears to have gone live only a few weeks before "Minnesota Today" did. And the page also boasts selected audio from MPR's archives.

Will I use "Minnesota Today" regularly? Not sure; I get paid to be an omnivore, but I'll follow the Twitter feed and see how much valuable stuff gets added to my info-stream. For those of you who don't get paid to wallow in news all day, "Minnesota Today" could well be a very efficient clutter-cutter.

Is it worth $400,000 in state cash? Erm, er ... I'm not sure taxpayers are getting a ton more here than from existing for-profits or non-profits without direct subsidy. (The state money also feeds a content-sharing service between MPR and other media outlets, including non-metro newspapers.) "Minnesota Today" does underscore MPR's place as the statewide news source, and is another step in the digital future, and I'm glad Bob and others are getting paid.