A solid quarter for Best Buy, if you don’t mind the sales drop … . Kavita Kumar at the Strib says, “Best Buy’s adjusted profit from ongoing operations rose more than 10 percent during its first fiscal quarter, the company said this morning, sharply higher than analysts expected. But the company’s revenue fell 3.3 percent, which was faster than investors expected, and executives said not to expect a sales rebound during the next two quarters because manufacturers have no major new products until the holiday season.”
MPR’s Liala Helal has a heartwreching report on how a Minneapolis child who fell 11 stories earlier this month is surviving. Musa Dayib is expected to be released from the hospital Friday — nine days after arriving with “multiple fractures in his spine, arms and ribs, and … a concussion. He also has a punctured lung.”
This is one of the other things you do when you’re the Governor. Joe Lindberg of the PiPress says, “Gov. Mark Dayton has signed a bill renaming the Wabasha-Nelson Bridge in southeastern Minnesota after a Wabasha native killed in the Vietnam War, according to a statement released Thursday. The Minnesota 60 span over the Mississippi River, linking the cities of Wabasha, Minn. and Nelson, Wis., will be called the ‘Michael Duane Clickner Memorial Bridge’ after a lifelong resident of Wabasha who was killed in action on April 11, 1970 in the Binh Dinh Province of Vietnam.”
As you would expect … . Donovan Slack of USA Today reports, “Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken signed on to a letter to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell on Wednesday urging him to send the message that racism has no place in the NFL by endorsing a name change for the Washington Redskins.”
Not much change in our exports in 2013. Adam Belz (again) of the Strib says, “Minnesota companies exported $20.7 billion worth of manufactured, mining and agricultural products in 2013, according to figures released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. That’s slightly below Minnesota’s record $20.8 billion in exports in 2012. Declining exports to Canada, China, Japan and South Korea offset growth in Mexico, Germany, Belgium and the Philippines. Minnesota was 20th among states for export sales in 2013, matching its position in the previous year.”
If your heap was heisted, it may not be coming back … . In the Strib, Paul Walsh reports, “A longtime criminal is in custody Thursday and accused of plucking dozens and possibly well more than 125 abandoned vehicles from along Twin Cities roadsides in recent months and then selling them for scrap, authorities said. Towing operator James C. Jennings, 50, of St. Paul, remains jailed without bail in Anoka County after his arrest Wednesday on suspicion of receiving stolen property. … Jennings was probably collecting $300 to $600 per vehicle, with the price based on weight.”
That report last week critical of the U of M’s administrative compensation? It’s back, after being re-checked. Alex Friedrich of MPR reports, “The U dropped from third to fourth in the report’s list of public universities with the worst overall records of high administrative spending and declining investment in full-time faculty and financial aid. So that’s an improvement of sorts. … The report chopped a year off the period it studied. It said the U increased spending on non-academic administration by 44 percent — instead of the previous calculation of 125 percent.”
MPR’s Friedrich also posts a letter from the MCTC professor reprimanded over a racially-charged incident last fall. “The note below just came in from Minneapolis Community and Technical College instructor Shannon Gibney … . ‘I will no longer have any disciplinary action from the college in my permanent file with regards to the incident last fall in which the college determined that I discriminated against two white males students during a discussion of structural racism in a Mass Communications class. However, as far as I know, the college’s determination that I violated its 1B1 policy *by discriminating against two white males students*, which is meant to protect all members of the community’s protected class status, is still in place.”
Not sure what this means for keeping Kevin Love, but … . Marc Stein of ESPN says, “The Minnesota Timberwolves have made ‘significant progress’ in their attempt to hire Dave Joerger away from the Memphis Grizzlies to be their new coach, according to sources close to the process. Sources told ESPN.com that although compensation details with the Grizzlies have to be worked out, Minnesota’s fast-moving bid to make Joerger its next coach is gathering momentum.”
Meanwhile, the Metrodome’s urinals are on sale, the Strib’s Walsh reports. Nobody knows the troubles they’ve seen.
