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167 days ago
An interesting urban drama has been playing out in the Wedge neighborhood of Minneapolis, home to The Wedge co-op, arguably the Midwest’s best food... An interesting urban drama has been playing out in the Wedge neighborhood of Minneapolis, home to The Wedge co-op, arguably the Midwest’s best food co-operative, and Hum’s Liquors, for whom similar plaudits are not warranted. The issue revolves around a developer’s plan to bring national yuppie grocery legend Trader Joe’s to the stretch of Lyndale between 22nd and 24th Streets. Joe’s attracts big crowds wherever it goes, as evidenced by the ongoing difficulties in finding parking in the dedicated lot at its St. Louis Park store. The Trader only opens where he can sell wine and therein lies the rub. Prohibition-era blue laws still in force require 2000 feet of separation (roughly four blocks) between all alcohol retailers; additional proximity restrictions to churches and schools often extend those boundaries ...195 days ago
Norm Coleman is right, Al Franken is wrong. It pains me to say this. I voted for Al Franken. I would like to see... Norm Coleman is right, Al Franken is wrong. It pains me to say this. I voted for Al Franken. I would like to see him in the Senate. Norm Coleman is a friendly man whom everyone enjoys chatting up and schmoozing, but his finger to the wind politics is not for me. The Minnesota Supreme Court is days away from hearing arguments in Coleman’s election challenge. It comes down to this: absentee ballots were rejected in different counties and municipalities with varying levels of rigor and adherence to the law. I don’t think either side denies this. The election challenge judges concluded that because Coleman could not prove this variance caused him to lose the election, it was not germane. Because that court refused to reexamine every absentee ballot, we don’t know what they would tell us. (I suspect Franken would still win.) But if the shoe was on the other ...208 days ago
This website has received an advance copy of next weekend’s column, penned by the Star Tribune’s editor-in-chief, on topics of interest regarding the newspaper’s operations. Here’s the... This website has received an advance copy of next weekend’s column, penned by the Star Tribune’s editor-in-chief, on topics of interest regarding the newspaper’s operations. Here’s the text: A New Box For a Changing World Bringing the Twitter into your home. By Nancy Barnes, Star Tribune editor As many of you have explained to us, technology is changing the news business, rapidly in some cases. The proliferation of car phones and photostatic copiers is the tip of the iceberg. New devices are emerging every day and you’re telling us that they have meaningful roles in your home and work life and you expect the Star Tribune to understand these devices and modes and keep you informed about how they are changing the suburbs you live in and what’s coming next. ...230 days ago
I went to buy Yankee tickets last weekend. Some friends and I are headed out to NYC this summer to see the new ballparks there.... I went to buy Yankee tickets last weekend. Some friends and I are headed out to NYC this summer to see the new ballparks there. The thinking was that if we didn’t jump on day one, we’d be at the mercy of the scalpers. Lo and behold, what showed up when I asked the computer for five “best available” seats but a quint of prime ducats in the lower deck. Booya . . . no . Face prices on these babies were $2,600. A ticket. No, I didn’t leave a decimal out. (Anything under $50 was sold out, natch.) I don’t begrudge the Yanks what the market will bear, but even the scalpers didn’t want these. Not this year. I mean, Ticketmaster’s “convenience charge” was $60. Talk about robbery. But when the Yankees put their pricing together a year or so ago, they figured someone did want to pay $2,600 a seat, even though a helicopter ride from Wall Street wasn’t ...
257 days ago
One of the less-discussed aspects of the economic meltdown is that it exposed the fraudulence of how most of us are securing our futures.... One of the less-discussed aspects of the economic meltdown is that it exposed the fraudulence of how most of us are securing our futures. Whereas most first-world nations (Canada, Australia, the U.K., France, Sweden, etc.) provide for their citizens’ primary and secondary educations, lifelong health care, and retirement pensions, the U.S., in large measure, denies any responsibility thereof. Instead, we developed throughout the last three decades a system of stock market-based plans to cover people’s retirements (401Ks and IRAs) as fewer and fewer employers offered pensions; college costs (529 plans), as they skyrocket well beyond six figures for a four-year degree; and are dabbling in Health Savings Accounts, where you invest your unused health care dollars and see them grow to cover the ever-burgeoning costs of medical care. ...
