HSA deposits surpass $1B for UnitedHealth’s OptumHealth Bank: It’s already a huge health insurer. Now, United Health Group  is one of the Twin Cities’ largest banks, with its OptumHealth Bank moving past the $1 billion mark for deposits (all of the health savings account variety) it has on the books. The bank, part of Minnetonka-based and chartered in Salt Lake City, has assisted thousands of employers in setting up HSAs for workers. Read full story

Delta traffic continued gains in June: Delta Air Lines has strung together two months of traffic gains. The Atlanta-based airline, the largest carrier at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said its system traffic in June jumped 4.2 percent. Load factor, or how full its planes were, increased 2.2 points to 87.7 percent. Domestic traffic increased 1.2 percent, and international traffic dropped 8.8 percent. Read full story

Minnesota Zoo reports near-record attendance: Nearly 1.34 million people visited the Minnesota Zoo in the past 12 months, slightly down from the previous fiscal year. The number was the second-best attendance record in the Apple Valley zoo’s 32-year history. The zoo said attendance was helped by favorable spring weather and record attendance for the popular Farm Babies event in April. Read full story

Taste of Minnesota reports roller-coaster weekend for attendance: The jury was still out Tuesday on whether attendance was able to stay up at the annual Taste of Minnesota event in St. Paul, which for the first time dipped into visitors’ wallets to improve musical line-ups and other entertainment options. Friday and Sunday each saw 20,000 people visit, comparable to last year’s attendance numbers. But Saturday attendance dipped to 12,000. Read full story