Where things stand in Minnesota on the eve of the debate. KSTP reports: “Just over six weeks until Election Day and it appears the presidential race in Minnesota could be the most competitive since 2004. According to our exclusive KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, Democrat Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump 46 percent to 39 percent. The poll of 625 ‘likely voters’ across the state was conducted September 16-20 among landline, cell phone and tablet users.”
GOP chair Keith Downey is bullish, however:
Debate prediction: by week’s end Trump leading nationally, clear path to 270, MN in play, Clinton desperate. #mngop
— Keith Downey (@KeithSDowney) September 26, 2016
Here’s management’s side in the Allina nurses contract dispute. The Star Tribune’s Jeremy Olson takes a look at Allina CEO Dr. Penny Wheeler: “In her first round of nurse contract talks since becoming Allina’s CEO, Wheeler has become a lightning rod, deciding to take on the nurses’ costly health insurance benefits even as competing hospital systems punted on the issue and quickly reached three-year contracts that only changed nurses’ wages. … Her stance, to some, has put her in conflict with her own views. In the past, she has questioned the value of high-deductible health insurance, and yet now she wants to move nurses from their low-deductible union plans to a menu of lower-cost Allina corporate options. Two of those options are high-deductible plans.”
Two sides to every coin. NPR’s Camila Domonoske reports (via MPR): “Former Wells Fargo employees who say they were fired for following the law have filed a class-action lawsuit seeking $2.6 billion in damages as the fallout continues over the creation of millions of secret, unauthorized bank accounts. … Two employees are named in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of all the bank’s employees in the past 10 years who were penalized for not making sales quotas.”
Look, we just don’t have that much going on here in flyover land, OK? In the New York Times’s Dan Barry has a meditation on Minnesota’s favorite lumberjack: “ He’s huge in Minnesota. Huge. … In Bemidji, he towers like Colossus over the lake. In Brainerd, he sits in a building that barely contains him while he spins tall, self-referential tales. In Akeley, he holds people in the palm of his massive hand for the endless photo ops. … He’s big. Very big. A lot of people say so. A lot. … But why does this guy generate such fascination? Just what is it about Paul Bunyan?”
In other news…
Not if big B&B has anything to say about it: “Should Stillwater allow vacation rentals? Residents asked to weigh in” [Pioneer Press]
Plenty of opportunity to remember: “Prince’s family books three nights of dance parties to coincide with tribute show at Xcel” [Pioneer Press]
Have a little fun with this: “Signs can go wild during election season” [Star Tribune]
Few details on this right now: “St. Paul shooting victim was 16-year-old girl from Minnetonka High School” [Pioneer Press]
Another neon light bites the dust: “About time: Work begins on face-lift for Minneapolis City Hall clock” [Star Tribune]
