Thursday’s a big day. Aaron Brown writes on Minnesota Brown: “On Thursday, March 3, state regulators will issue its ruling on the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine near Hoyt Lakes. This will be the culmination of at least seven years of debate over the EIS. The controversy centers on whether the development company is accurately reflecting the environmental risk of this form of mining. … Acceptance of the EIS, however, does not mean we’re anywhere close to shovels in the ground. Next would come the actual permitting process. That proceeding uses the data from the EIS to officially determine whether the project should be allowed to begin. Gov. Mark Dayton will have a heavy influence on this part of the process. He has said he knows it will be one of the most important decisions he makes during his time in office and he’ll likely deliberate very seriously.”
St. Cloud State drops some sports. The St. Cloud Times’ Mitch LeClair and Mick Hatten report: “St. Cloud State University announced that it is reducing the number of its intercollegiate athletics programs by six — from 23 to 17 — effective at the end of the 2015-16 academic year, according to a statement released Wednesday morning. … The university will eliminate men’s and women’s tennis, women’s Nordic skiing, men’s cross country and men’s indoor/outdoor track and field, according to Heather Weems, athletics director, who made the announcement at a departmental meeting this morning. In addition to the program reductions, an extensive roster management program will be implemented to achieve Title IX compliance.”
Keith Moyer explains himself. For Poynter, Rick Edmonds writes: “Keith Moyer was in his sixth year of teaching journalism at the University of Minnesota when a former Gannett colleague, Craig Moon, called with a proposal: Would he consider becoming editor-in-chief of the Las Vegas Review-Journal? … Ultimately Moyer said yes, but on one condition: … ‘I needed to meet (Sheldon Adelson and his family) face-to-face,’ Moyer said. ‘I did, and they turned out to be very nice people. I said “I’ve got to hear from you that you are not going to hold sway (on news coverage).” They assured me not and said that they understood that (no interference) would be for the good of the paper.’ ”
This story on Jezebel about how Hillary Clinton dealt with a Minnesotan who was questioning her on her past comments about race and diversity is interesting and all, but we draw it to your attention just to note the correction: “*Correction: an earlier version of this post referred to the man ushering away the young constituent as ‘a man who appears to be a Clinton campaign aide.’ He is, in fact, Mark Dayton, the Governor of Minnesota. Jezebel regrets the error.”
These findings will be interesting. The Star Tribune reports: “A federal judge in Minneapolis has ordered four young terrorism defendants in Minnesota to undergo a ‘risk assessment’ in preparation for a de-radicalization program to be conducted by a German antiterrorism specialist. … [U.S. District Judge Michael] Davis’ order says Daniel Koehler, a German specialist in Islamic fundamentalism, would identify the factors that drove the radicalization of the defendants, identify their risk of reoffending and specify strategies to steer them away from radical ideologies.”
In other news…
Jesse wants you to know: He’s no Donald Trump. [MPR]
How many billionaires in Minnesota? Three. [WCCO]
Suspect arrested in Minneapolis mosque vandalism case. [WCCO]
Good effort but it might be the body armor and rifles more than the camo: “Fashion police: Minneapolis SWAT redesigns uniforms to soften its image” [City Pages]
The skating’s over in St. Cloud. [St. Cloud Times]
A look inside Bob Dylan’s secret archive. [New York Times]
Nye’s Polonaise Room fixture “Sweet Lou” Snider died on Sunday. [MPR]
Thursday
I believe is also the day that Governor Dayton is to announce his decision, he must be a fast reader.