Minneapolis / St. Paul News Blog

Screengrab via New York Daily News

The New York Daily News was among many national news outlets that picked up on MPR's billboard story. Click to enlarge.

​Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Collins thought he was hallucinating last week when he was driving a rural stretch of I-35 south after a visit to Wrenshall when he spied a billboard with The Decider's happy-go-lucky visage staring out at traffic, accompanied by the message, "Miss me yet?"

That was no hallucination, as it turns out. By Monday, a listener had e-mailed a picture of the same billboard to the station, so Collins, who writes the Newscut blog, posted the photo along with a public appeal to find out who had paid for the sign - and whether they were serious, or making a joke.

"It was a nice little yarn," Collins said. "Almost a throwaway post."

By Tuesday afternoon, he knew who the billboard's backers were and posted the news. Mary Teske, the general manager of Schubert & Hoey Outdoor Advertising said it was paid for by a group of small business owners unhappy with Washington who evidently wanted to get their message out in a fun way. But by then the story had gone viral and turned into a time suck for Collins.

​The video released in November is pretty shocking. Rolando Ruiz can be seen standing still, with hands on the hood of a Minneapolis Police Department cruiser, when Todd Lappegaard stands behind him and Tasers him in the neck. In a flash, Ruiz can be seen falling to the ground.

Laapegaard, at the time a 17-year MPD veteran, was arresting Ruiz outside Second Precinct headquarters on 19th Avenue NE. He was fired on Jan. 25, after the video spread on the Internet and local TV news outlets, police Chief Tim Dolan called in the FBI for an investigation, and a multimillion dollar lawsuit was filed against Lappegaard and the city.

But Lappegaard wants his job back, and he's going public with his side of the story.

​David Bicking, former Ward 9 City Council candidate, says the Civilian Review Authority chair is attempting to oust him from the board for speaking out against Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan at a forum in late January.

Bicking has been an unapologetic critic of Dolan in the past, particularly for the chief's failure to take action against officers in misconduct cases found by the CRA to have merit. But CRA Chair Donald Bellfield apparently thought Bicking went too far when he learned of Bicking's plans to participate in a forum titled, "Minneapolis Police Chief Dolan: should he be reappointed?"

Bellfield sent Bicking a pointed e-mail the night before the forum that said Bicking's participation would violate the CRA's mission to remain a neutral body.

James Arthur Ray

​While self-help guru James Arthur Ray cools his heels behind bars ahead of another Arizona court date, the daughter of one of his three clients killed last year in a sweat lodge ceremony gone wrong is venting her frustrations to the Star Tribune's Gail Rosenblum.

Apple Valley resident Andrea Puckett's mother, Liz Neuman, died in a Sedona hospital nine days after being dragged unconscious from the "Spiritual Warrior" sweat lodge in October. Two of Ray's other clients died in the sweat lodge, and 18 people were injured. Now Ray has been charged with three counts of manslaughter. He has pleaded not guilty.

​Robert Erickson, the guy who punk'd the St. Paul teabaggers last November, and tried to get ICE agents to deport a group of Europeans a few weeks later, is at it again.

Erickson and his group, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition, mashed up a teabagger promo video with a new message: Send the Europeans back to Europe.

"The original Tea Party trailer was too good to pass up on, so I used it as an opportunity to parody the outrageous rhetoric of the right-wing," he said in a statement.

​With T-Wolves fans forced to accept "progress" as a form of positivity and Wild faithful enjoying a stellar home record but likely to enter the Olympic break as playoff outsiders, the oft-lamented Gopher hoops bunch still may offer the T.C.'s best crack at some major sport, second-season love.

But to feel that warmth, I'm of the opinion that the needed push will come via a cool, Canadian hand.

​When you visit Wisconsin, something happens. Something really bad happens. Like you get drunk enough to think it's funny to steal an ambulance. Let's not forget there was a patient in the back being treated for injuries near a ski hill.

A drunk 24-year-old man allegedly jumped in the driver's seat of an ambulance Monday night at the Tyrol Basin Ski and Snowboard Area in Mt. Horeb. He drove it around the parking lot as responders were in the back of the vehicle treating someone.

​Andy Mannix, the Village Voice Media Fellow working at City Pages, has taken second place in the 50th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program for his investigation into alleged sweetheart real estate deals inside the University of Minnesota's wrestling program.

KARE-TV weather dude Sven Sundgaard has inspired passion in one fan that manages to be funny and creepy all at the same time. Check it out:

Can't get enough Sven? Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

​A federal judge announced Monday that he will sentence Tom Petters on March 10 for running a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme, and experts predict the hammer will come down hard on the fallen business mogul.

Petters could easily spend the rest of his life in prison, says Donald M. Lewis, Dean of the Hamline University Law School.

Lewis says federal guidelines put Petters at a base recommendation of 17 and a half years in prison.