12/23/09: This week's Minnesota news from other media

Mayo Clinic says it could lose $11 million under a proposal by DFLers in the Minnesota Legislature to save a health-care program for the poor, reports Heather J. Carlson in the Rochester Post-Bulletin. The story adds, "Clinic lobbyist Frank Iossi said the proposal by state lawmakers would more than double a Medical Assistance surcharge that hospitals pay the state."

"Failing to get unanimous city council support," reports Mike Rose in the Austin Daily Herald, "the Austin Charter Commission will likely put proposed changes to the city charter on the ballot during next year's general election, a commission member said Tuesday."

The Prairie Skyline Foundation has received a $7,000 Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Fast Track Grant from the Minnesota Historical Society, writes Natalie J. Ostgaard in the Crookston Daily Times. The grant is for a Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception reuse study.

"A new contract between Mankato's teachers and its school district could be headed to a state arbitrator as substantial ground still exists between union and district negotiators," reports Dan Linehan in the Mankato Free Press.

And David Unze writes in the St. Cloud Times, "The College of St. Benedict will receive a $599,950 grant to help attract, keep and graduate female students in math, physics and computer science, the college announced Monday." The article says the National Science Foundation grant will be paid between Aug. 1, 2010, and July 31, 2015.