Well, here’s hoping this one works out better than the last one. MPR’s Tim Nelson and Riham Feshir report: “Bernard Hebda will be keeping his job running the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. … Hebda was named the apostolic administrator of the Twin Cities archdiocese last year, in the wake of the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche. They stepped down last summer, amid a clergy sex scandal that included criminal charges against the archdiocese. … Prosecutors said the church had failed to protect children in its parishes.”
Still lagging behind Seattle and Portland, though. The Star Tribune’s David Peterson writes: “The seven urban and suburban counties in the Twin Cities metro area have hit the 3 million mark for the first time, and as a group are growing six times faster than the rest of the state. … The seven inner metro Twin Cities counties have grown by 162,000 people, or 5.7 percent, in the half-decade since the last federal census in 2010, compared with growth in outstate Minnesota of 0.9 percent during that period.”
Minnesota’s institutions of higher education would like their piece of the legislative pie. In the Pioneer Press, Christopher Magan explains what the U and MnSCU are after: “Leaders of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system say the 2015 Legislature left a $21 million hole in their budget that they hope lawmakers will fix this year.… Without additional financial support from the Legislature, the 54 MnSCU campuses will face budget cuts, system leaders told the House Higher Education Policy and Finance Committee on Wednesday. … University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler was also before the committee detailing his system’s $39 million supplemental budget request, which is also backed by the governor. … It includes new spending on cybersecurity, health care training and mining initiatives.”
“PBS Newshour” has a long report on what St. Cloud schools are doing to welcome immigrants. Corey Mitchell, who writes for Education Week, reports: “Bishar Hassan spends his days navigating the halls and classrooms of Talahi Elementary School, working to embrace and empower the dozens of Somali students who have arrived since the start of the year. … Across town, his brother, Ahmed Hassan, fills a similar role at Discovery Community School, another campus that has experienced a recent surge in enrollment of Somali students. … The Hassan brothers are part of a growing community of Somali residents in this central Minnesota city of 65,000. The recent influx of immigrant students is nothing new in the St. Cloud school district, where English-language-learner enrollment has spiked by 350 percent in the past 15 years.”
In other news…
Nice to see at least one place not going out of its way to pander to millennials: “St. Paul’s ‘40-plus’-only bar: Bad business? Illegal? Or brilliant?” [City Pages]
Some good news about heroin, sorta: “Narcan credited with saving man from potentially fatal heroin overdose” [Inforum]
Makes sense, given how well the steel industry is doing: “Cliffs CEO wants iron plant in Minnesota” [Duluth News Tribune]
Minneapolis’ own lead crisis: “MPCA: Lead Levels in Air High in North Minneapolis” [KSTP]
Did you notice how some cars last night were barely dusted with snow, and others seemed to be carrying around a foot of it? Here’s why:
All or Nothing: Oddball storm bisects Twin Cities. My perspective on a crazy storm. https://t.co/gKTsNv7YCL #mnwx pic.twitter.com/GEA9J7dl0k
— MPR Weather (@MPRweather) March 24, 2016
Pip, Pip, cheerio! “Pip Hanson, one of the founding bartenders who helped create Minneapolis’ national-class cocktail scene, is returning from his astonishing London run.” [Mpls St. Paul]
Walker backs Cruz, but also wouldn’t object to an open convention. Just sayin’! [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
