AFTERNOON EDITION

Parenting. It’s bad for you. That’s the takeaway from a U of M study. TIME’s Bonnie Rochman writes: “In the latest knock against parenthood, researchers from the University of Minnesota looked at 838 women and 682 men and concluded that having children — particularly for moms — is linked to an array of negative outcomes. Mothers had a higher body-mass index and didn't eat as healthily as childless women, chugging more sugary drinks and eating more total calories and saturated fat. Both moms and dads exercised less than their child-free counterparts, but in a completely unfair twist, fathers' BMI didn't differ from that of men without children. Parents are more apt to not take good care of their health at a time when they really need to be modeling healthy behavior for their miniature doppelgangers. That, of course, is easier said than done. The pressures of parenting are relentless, and sometimes it's easier to stick a frozen pizza in the microwave than fuss with coaxing kids to whole grains and leafy greens.” Which is why we pretty much stuck to Mountain Dew and Funions.

The much-/over-discussed Vikings stadium bill was made official today, and much like its preview last week, it is being met with precious little enthusiasm. I could go somewhere else, but MinnPost’s Jay Weiner is pretty much one-stop shopping on this issue. Jay taps on a long list of issues. But this one is especially good: “Where is the commitment in the bill from [the business community]? New Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission Chairman Ted Mondale and longtime stadium backer Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, have challenged business leaders to come to the fore and back a stadium bill. Star Tribune business reporter Neal St. Anthony wrote last week that some CEOs have pledged $25,000 to help advocate for a stadium. Twenty-five thousand dollars? Gimme a break. A suite will cost at least four times that in a new Vikings stadium. Shouldn't this legislation require the team to make some kind of showing that it can sell the inventory it is seeking? Shouldn't the state's "business community" — which has been generally opposed to tax increases — guarantee it will purchase those 100 or 125 suites and the 7,000 or more club seats the team needs to sell to make this a success?"

Over at Field of Schemes, the commendably skeptical blog hosted by Neil De Mause, he adds: “Quote of the day on all this is from co-sponsor Sen. John Harrington, who insisted: ‘It's very simple. This is a jobs bill. It's between $700 [million] and $900 million in jobs.’ Except, of course, that a typical stadium project generates about one full-time equivalent job for every $250,000 in expense, while a decent job-creation program costs more like $25,000 per job or less. So a more accurate assessment would have been ‘it's $90 million in jobs, at a cost of $600 million in taxpayer dollars’ — but somehow that probably wouldn't have the same rhetorical impact.”

Nobody’s second-guessing T-Paw’s staffing for his presidential run. Michael D. Shear of the New York Times comments on this morning’s choice of a campaign director. “[T]he former governor of Minnesota, has snatched up [28-year-old] Nick Ayers, one of the Republican Party’s young star operatives, to manage Mr. Pawlenty’s 2012 presidential campaign. The announcement, to be made in a statement Monday morning, is a bit of a surprise since Mr. Ayers is close to Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi and himself a potential 2012 candidate. Mr. Ayers worked as the executive director of the Republican Governors Association in 2009 and 2010 when Mr. Barbour was chairman.”

At TIME, Michael Crowley writes: “The hire may also be significant because Ayers worked at the RGA under its chairman, Haley Barbour, who happens to be one of Pawlenty's chief rivals for the nomination. There's some dispute this morning as to whether this says anything about whether Barbour will actually dive into the race, although it's worth noting that the Mississippi Governor with be taking his southern drawl up to flinty New Hampshire this week, which should provide an entertaining study in cultural contrasts (and cultural overlap: One of Barbour's Thursday stops will be at a gun shop in Hookset. Pawlenty will be in the Granite State this week, too, before dropping in on a big Tea Party rally in Boston on Friday.)”

Your “classic” barely-driven, TLC-lathered 1997 Mercury Mystique might be worth more than you think. Tom Robertson of MPR files a story on the high price of used cars: “The used car shortage is happening across the country, according to AuctionNet, a data supplier for the auto industry. The shortage has pushed wholesale used car prices up every month last year, which has meant a steady rise in prices on Davey Mills' car lot. Mills points to a 2005 Chevy Malibu Max as an example. It's a nice looking car with 60,000 miles. A year ago, Mills would have sold it for around $5,000. Today, the car is priced at nearly $8,000. Mills said he thinks the recession forced people to hang onto their cars longer. ‘I think it is the economy that's driving what's happening,’ Mills said. ‘I think people are tightening up their belts for sure and fixing what they have.' "

                                           
“My client never touched the bridge” … other than when they designed it. Jeff Baenen of the AP reports on the California design company that wants out from lawsuits over the I-35 bridge collapse: “Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Pasadena, Calif., contends it's not liable in the 2007 disaster because too much time had passed since the bridge was built in the 1960s. Jacobs argued that a state law put a 10-year limit on liability. But the Minnesota Court of Appeals last August allowed the state's claims to go forward. ‘My client never touched the bridge,’ James O'Connor, a Minneapolis attorney for Jacobs, told the six Supreme Court justices. The state had a 1962 contract with Jacobs' predecessor company. ‘The issue here is indemnity,’ O'Connor said. ‘That was the obligation that was stolen from us.' " Or, in other words, they are the real victims.

Somebody’s gotta take the fall. In the case of the collapse of the Minnesota Wild, it is coach Todd Richards, who was canned today. Michael Russo’s Strib story says: “The conversation was brief inside GM Chuck Fletcher's office. Richards' reaction? ‘Just disappointed. Just disappointed in myself, that's all,' he said. ‘I needed to do a better job — simple as that.’ As veteran Andrew Brunette said Monday, it's amazing how fast it unraveled. ‘Eight weeks ago we're talking about Todd as 'Coach of the Year,' Brunette said. ‘Things happened so fast.’ Richards agreed, saying, ‘That's the way it went a lot of times with us over two years. Things were going good and things then got bad. At times they got better, but at times they didn't get better.' ” And then they got worse.

They found $110,000 to continue Minneapolis’ bike rental program. Madeleine Baran’s MPR story says: "Sibley Bike Depot, a volunteer-run bicycle shop in St. Paul, created the library with a $193,000 grant from Bike Walk Twin Cities. The library was one of dozens of programs to receive funds as part of a $22 million federal pilot program to increase walking and bicycling in the Twin Cities. Last week, program organizers found out they'll be receiving up to $110,000 in funding for 2012, in addition to funding for this year. The season kicked off on Saturday at CLUES, a Latino social services agency in south Minneapolis. The group is one of 16 nonprofits partnering with the bicycle library to recruit riders.”