Cultural crisis alert! Too much "leg and backside."The Strib’s Kelly Smith reports on a crackdown in Minnetonka: “Minnetonka High School Principal Dave Adney sent a message to parents Monday asking them to talk to their daughters about whether it's appropriate to wear spandex like yoga pants or other tight-fitting leggings with T-shirts. The combination, he said, can expose ‘more leg and backside’ and can ‘be highly distracting for other students.’ On Tuesday, he said he's already heard from more than 70 parents and other high schools from Forest Lake to St. Paul, all in support of him. ‘It must have touched a nerve,’ he said.” How long before teenage boys organize a protest?
And it’s an even dozen … . Joseph Lindberg at the PiPress writes: “Minnesota health officials have confirmed another case of fungal meningitis in a national outbreak linked to back-pain-treating steroid shots mixed by a specialty pharmacy in Massachusetts. The number of Minnesota cases is now 12. The most recent case is a man in his 50s who received an injection at a metro clinic. Nobody infected in Minnesota has died from the outbreak. Of the 12 infected, eight are male and most are middle-aged.”
It seems Gov. Dayton wants to avoid a perception that the Vikings’ new billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded stadium is, you know, a “rich people’s” kind of place. On the NFL wire, the story says: “Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton says he will fight any effort by the Minnesota Vikings to charge fans extra fees to buy season tickets in the new publicly subsidized football stadium. In a sharply worded letter Tuesday, Dayton told team owner Zygi Wilf that he is distressed by reports the team may charge seat license fees to help generate money for the stadium. Dayton says he will urge a public authority to block any such move. … The governor has long pushed for what he calls a ‘People's Stadium.’ He says he won't let the result be a ‘Rich People's Stadium.'" Presumably the governor will also object to $50 game-day parking and $150 end-zone ticket prices, right?
Points for persistence … In the Duluth News Tribune, Sam Cook writes:"Lonnie Dupre wants one more shot at Alaska’s Mount McKinley. The Grand Marais explorer with 15,000 miles of Arctic travel under his mukluks will once again attempt to become the first person to reach the summit of America’s tallest peak solo in January. He’ll start his climb in late December. His previous attempts to reach the summit of the 20,320-foot peak in 2012 and 2011 were thwarted by severe weather. Earlier this year, Dupre decided to call off his second attempt after being pinned down for a week by hurricane-force winds. ‘It’s a beautiful, beautiful but unforgiving place,’ said Dupre, 51. ‘The challenge of it, for me, is very intriguing. … I feel alive when I’m doing that stuff.’ ”
It’s a big day for Best Buy in Manhattan.Thomas Lee of the Strib writes: “When Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly meets investors in New York today, the affable Frenchman will be speaking to two constituencies: Wall Street and founder Richard Schulze. The former wants to know whether Joly has the strategy and fortitude to fix the struggling consumer electronics giant. The latter wants to know if he can trust Joly to run Best Buy should he succeed in taking the company private. … Investors already suspect Best Buy’s holiday sales will be bad. Just how bad is an open question. Schulze certainly would like to know. A source close to the founder told the Star Tribune that he will delay his takeover bid until mid-December to see whether a weak holiday performance will further depress Best Buy’s languishing stock price, now trading around $15 a share. Why pay $24 to $26 a share, as Schulze originally proposed in the summer, when you get away with $18 or $19 a share?” Maybe the numbers would improve if they opened Thanksgiving morning?
We’re getting a “B” grade on premature babies. A KMSP-TV story says: “Minnesota earned a B grade on the March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card, released Tuesday. One in 10 babies are born premature in Minnesota. … While the overall risk of death is small, it is double for infants born at 37 weeks of pregnancy, when compared to babies born at 40 weeks. The premature birth rate in Minnesota dropped to 9.9 percent in 2011. That is down from a high of 10.7 in 2005. Nationally, the premature birth rate fell to 11.7 percent, giving the United States a collective C grade on the March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card.”
Drop the Snickers or you’re a dead … trick-or-treater.John Lauritsen’s WCCO-TV story about a guy, you know, just standing up for his rights is getting some play: “[A]ccording to police, 44-year-old Orrin Hager provided a pretty big scare of his own. They say he went after a group of boys in St. Louis Park who he thought had stolen Halloween candy from one of his kids. According to a St. Louis Park Police spokesman, Hager pulled up to a group of kids near 27th St. and Brunswick Ave. They say he began yelling at them and then got out of his car to confront them. And in his hand, according to a police, was a gun. And not just any gun – an AK-47 assault weapon. The boys told police that Hager repeatedly accused them of taking candy from his child. One of the boys said that Hager then pulled out a ‘long gun,’ and that is when they ran.”
North Dakota is a big reason why the U.S. may surpass Saudi Arabia in oil production by the end of the decade. The AP says:“North Dakota has set an oil production record for the fifth consecutive year. The state Department of Mineral Resources said Tuesday that crude production through September totaled more than 173.9 million barrels. That's up from the record 152.9 million barrels set last year. Agency spokeswoman Alison Ritter says the state is on pace to surpass 200 million barrels in 2012.”
There are 68 miles of new streets in Minneapolis. Brandt Williams of MPR says: “Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak says the city's biggest road project this year was the reconstruction of Nicollet Avenue between Lake Street and 36th Street. The project involved the complete removal of the road surface plus storm sewer and sidewalk reconstruction. … ‘About a year and a half ago, I think, we did a press conference down the street and walked down a street that looked a lot like I imagine them to look like in the middle of Mogadishu,’ Rybak said. ‘Today, we look at a beautiful street and I drive down this many mornings and I really want to get out of the car and roll down it, I'm so excited’." Mayor … for god's sake, not in that nice suit.