Some residents of northeastern Minnesota are worried that a new bill passed by the state Legislature could force certain in-progress mining projects to a halt, writes Marshall Helmberger of the Ely Timberjay.
Housing prices near Duluth remain more stable than prices in the rest of the state, reports Patrick Garmoe of the Duluth News-Tribune. The median price of a home dropped by 4.2 percent in 2008, but was only the second slip in the past 20 years.
According to an AP story in the Rochester Post-Bulletin, three school districts in southwestern Minnesota are considering implementing a four-day week to cut costs.
City Council officials in Virginia, Minn., were told that they could not take pay cuts to help balance their budget, writes Bill Hanna of the Mesabi Daily News. A state statute requires that no elected official may have a change in salary until after the next municipal election.
Minntac, U.S. Steel’s largest iron ore operation, laid off half of its workforce last Thursday, reports Charles Ramsay of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. The layoffs are considered temporary until the market improves.
