Well, someone’s going to have to rent all those luxury apartments they built in Uptown. A new Met Council report suggests: “The demand for housing in the Twin Cities area to suit a rapidly growing population of older adults is projected to surge in the coming decades…” The Star Tribune’s Paul Walsh continues: “Specifically, the 65-and-older population will more than double — from 307,000 in 2010 to 783,000 in 2040 — outpacing the growth in the working-age population. By 2040, nearly one in five Twin Cities residents will be an older adult.”
Collin Peterson, the politician who takes a lic … well, it’s been a while since he’s taken a licking, but in any case he’s going to keep on ticking. MPR’s Brett Neely says the western Minnesota Representative is already gearing up for 2016: “Even after a years-long battle to pass a farm bill and a tough re-election race last fall, he says he’s energized to keep his job in Minnesota’s sprawling and increasingly Republican 7th District — the most Republican district in the nation to elect a Democrat. …While he’s left himself an out, Peterson has held fundraisers and stayed active in agricultural issues, including the avian flu outbreak that’s struck the state. ‘I’m running until I’m not,’ he said in a recent interview. ‘Right now, I’m running.’ ”
Proton beam … me up, Scotty. Folks at the Mayo Clinic are pretty excited about their new, $188 million proton beam cancer-therapy center, as the Rochester Post Bulletin’s Brett Bosse reports: “The new Rochester proton beam center will be much more advanced than the facility touted by the Hagens thanks largely to ‘pencil beam’ technology. The new technology allows radiation traveling at two-thirds the speed of light — or 125,000 miles per second — to be pinpointed within 1 millimeter on the patient, according to Dr. John Black III, co-chairman of the Proton Beam Steering Committee. …‘This is like Star Trek on steroids,’ Black quipped.”
This story in the New York Times about the complicated federal tax situation faced by marijuana businesses has little connection to Minnesota, where selling the drug remains mostly illegal, but for this one historical tidbit:
Congress passed that law in 1982 after a cocaine and methamphetamine dealer in Minneapolis who had been jailed on drug charges went to tax court to argue that the money he spent on travel, phone calls, packaging and even a small scale should be considered tax write-offs. The provision, still enforced by the I.R.S., bans all tax credits and deductions from “the illegal trafficking in drugs.”
Now that’s chutzpah.
In other news…
Happy birthday, Minnesota! 157 years young. [Brainerd Dispatch]
The case keeps growing against the U’s psychiatry department: “Report: Deep distrust at Fairview over U psychiatry research” [MPR]
Opening arguments today in the Dakota County assisted suicide trial [AP via ABC News]
“Do you know your mental health first aid?” [St. Cloud Times]
In case you missed it: Prince’s new track, “Baltimore” [Rolling Stone]
Someone otter’ve done something. “Zoo levels criticism in wake of otter-iPhone battle” [MPR’s NewsCut]
The quality of beer at the new Vikings stadium will be rivaled only by the quality of the football played there. “MillerCoors signs deal for new Vikings stadium” [Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal]
Graydon Royce on the Minnesota Orchestra’s “symphonic diplomacy” [Star Tribune]
What kind of monster steals a baby… kangaroo? “Baby kangaroo and four goats stolen from Wisconsin zoo” [USA Today]
Duluth’s Old Central High School is going to need someone new to clean its clock. [Duluth News Tribune]
