Just across the border. The Rochester Post Bulletin’s Jeff Kiger reports: “Mayo Clinic is working on plans to build an approximately 100,000-square-foot medical facility in the small town of Hudson, Wis. … A proposal by Mayo Clinic Health System–Northwest Wisconsin Region has been submitted to the Hudson planning commission. … ‘Preliminary plans indicate a medical facility building which is approximately 100,000 square feet and would include approximately 60-75 clinic rooms, six to eight operating rooms and four procedure suites. The proposed medical facility will have a clinic function as well as an outpatient surgical function,’ according to the permit application.”
A light rail impasse, but not for the Southwest line. The Star Tribune’s Janet Moore reports: “Negotiations over whether the proposed $1.5 billion Bottineau Blue Line light-rail project will share most of its route with freight trains appear to have stalled. … The 13-mile Blue Line extension would link downtown Minneapolis with Brooklyn Park, operating along eight miles of right of way owned by BNSF Railway Co. … The Metropolitan Council, which is planning the project, must negotiate with the Texas-based rail giant to share the alignment north of the Twin Cities. … But in a Jan. 9 letter, BNSF Senior General Counsel Richard Weicher said the company ‘is not prepared to proceed with any discussion of passenger rail in this corridor at this time.’”
Meet the Minneapolis city council’s new leaders. The Southwest Journal’s Dylan Thomas writes: “City Council President Lisa Bender said cities like Minneapolis are entering a ‘new era,’ one in which legislative gridlock in state houses and in Washington, D.C. has given municipal elected officials an opportunity to take the lead. … ‘Cities like Minneapolis are taking on issues that city councils didn’t deal with: minimum wage and paid sick time, housing pressures. Things that legislators or the federal government typically dealt with on a much larger scale,’ she said. … With the stakes so much higher, Bender said, it “makes sense” that the disagreement and debate between council members is amplified.”
No surprise here. The Star Tribune’s Rochelle Olson reports: “The shuttered McNally Smith College of Music filed for federal bankruptcy Thursday, two months after abruptly closing without giving faculty and staff their final paychecks. … In the 112-page filing signed by Chairman of the Board John E. ‘Jack’ McNally, more than 100 pages are used to list the names of creditors. … In the filing, the school had to check boxes broadly describing its debts and assets. The school checked the box indicating assets between $10,000,001 and $50 million. The college’s estimated liabilities are between $1,000,001 and $10 million.”
In other news…
Mark your calendars: “Dayton eyes March 14 date for State of the State” [Pioneer Press]
It’s the yellow hourglass: “Lucky Charms Is Retiring This Marshmallow in the Spring” [People]
High rate in St. Paul: “ICE immigration arrests increased in 2017” [Pew]
They knew the risks: “Cow breaks loose from livestock show in heart of NDSU’s campus” [Fargo Forum]
