Says Jessie Van Berkel for the Star Tribune, “Gov. Tim Walz wants to spend another $15.7 million to continue repairs to the state’s vehicle licensing and registration system and add employees to handle the backlog of plate, title and license requests. Walz said Thursday he is submitting a request to legislators to spend millions more on the system called MNLARS, which has already cost the state more than $100 million.”
At MPR, Tim Nelson and Matt Sepic report, “A St. Paul man has been charged with attempted murder for shooting a Minneapolis school bus driver following a freeway collision on Tuesday. Kenneth Lilly, 31, faces attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault charges. He is scheduled to be in court Friday. The charges say Lilly shot the bus driver, wounding him in the arm and grazing his head when Lilly approached the bus and fired through the windshield. … Prosecutors say the bus driver was trying to navigate the Interstate 35W-Interstate 94 interchange in poor weather when the bus apparently scraped Lilly’s car.”
From the AP: “Smoke at one of Wells Fargo’s data centers left some of the bank’s customers without access to online or mobile banking as well as other services Thursday. … Business news network CNBC reported that the incident happened at a data center in Shoreview, Minn., at around 5 a.m. CST and was under control starting at 9 a.m. Wells Fargo did not comment on the data center’s location or the possible source of the smoke at the facility. It is unknown how many Wells Fargo customers were impacted. Twitter complaints about Wells Fargo being down were nationwide ….”
The Star Tribune’s Janet Moore reports: “Nice Ride Minnesota is planning a big rollout of electric bikes for rent in Minneapolis come this spring. The Minneapolis-based nonprofit organization, which pioneered bike-sharing in the Twin Cities, already rolled out dockless (nonelectric) bikes last fall in a partnership with a firm now owned by Lyft. Nice Ride said Thursday it expects to have more than 600 bike hubs for dockless blue bikes, docked green bikes and e-bikes located throughout the city this year. … The bikes give cyclists a motorized boost as they pedal.”
MPR’s Brandt Williams writes: “Judges, county attorneys and other legal professionals say Minnesota’s criminal justice system still fails people of color 25 years after the state Supreme Court released a seminal report. The gathering Thursday at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minneapolis included some members of the original Racial Bias Task Force that issued the report. They talked about how the system still fails people of color, and how it has improved. … The most recent data from the Minnesota Department of Corrections show that African-Americans make up 35 percent of the prison population. But they only comprise around 7 percent of the population of the state. Less than 2 percent of Minnesotans are Native American — but are 9 percent of Minnesota prison inmates.”
For City Pages, Hannah Jones says, “… grumble no longer, Minnesotans. Finally, we’ve gotten the recognition we deserve for the one thing we do better than anyone else: endure terrible winters. Thrillist has ranked each state for their ‘horrible’ winters — based on everything from average temperatures to how much their winter sports teams suck. We did it. We won. We won over Michigan, which came in second place, and even Alaska, which came in third. Wisconsin, our rival in all things Midwestern and miserable, has to praise us from its lowly place at No. 7, and Illinois is forgotten at No. 13. This may be the only quality-of-life-related list in existence where we win and Hawaii, at No. 50, eats our icy dust.”
Says KMSP-TV: “Minnesota State Patrol has responded to 562 crashes statewide Thursday and road conditions will remain tough as blowing winds move in overnight. … From 5 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. across Minnesota, there were 413 crashes, with 32 ending in injury. There were 494 reports of vehicles that went off the road or spun out. There were also 18 jackknifed semis.”
This from MPR: “Shopko says it’s closing another 139 stores as the retail chain goes through bankruptcy. Added to previously announced closures in December and January, that brings the total number of Shopko and Shopko Hometown closures to more than 250 stores — about two-thirds of the Wisconsin-based retail chain’s locations. The closure list includes 15 locations in Minnesota, in Hutchinson, Rochester, St. Peter, Austin, Albert Lea, Worthington, St. Cloud, Paynesville, New Prague, Cokato, Glencoe, St. James, East Grand Forks, Mahnomen and Warroad.”
Check your link on the KMSP piece.
Fixed and updated — thanks!