State Senator and candidate for Governor Becky Lourey has scheduled a press conference for 10 o'clock this morning to announce that she has chosen North Minneapolis businessman and former pro football player Tim Baylor to be her running mate as the prospective Lieutenant Governor. Baylor accepted Lourey's offer more than three weeks ago but needed some time to put his business affairs in order before making the decision official.

In an exclusive interview with City Pages yesterday, Baylor said that he was most consonant with Lourey in her ambitious initiatives to enhance education and health care, and in her support for conceal and carry gun legislation. As for Lourey's opposition to recent legislation that provides public funding for a Twins stadium, Baylor initially said, "Because I am a sports guy, we disagree on stadiums," before amending it to say that he and Lourey have a common concern about first providing funding for more important priorities such as education and health care.

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THESE DAYS

A war widow who wants the government to put a Wiccan religious symbol on her husband's memorial plaque held an alternative service Monday as a protest, hours before an official Memorial Day ceremony nearby.

1970s pop star Marie Osmond has launched a personal crusade to clean up the Internet after learning her two teenage daughters have been posting sexually explicit correspondence on their MySpace pages. Sounds like cleaning up the Internet begins at home, Marie.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Web and print designer Ryan Bickett blogs on marketing, music, and photography (with the occasional pet photo thrown in) at RhynoDesign Blog.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The National Review's 50 greatest conservative rock songs

Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I would give the entire Congress, of which I'm a member, an F for results."

-- Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN), cutting loose as his political career draws to a close

CITY PAGES BLOGS

Steve Monaco has this week's movie quiz at Couch Pundit.

THESE DAYS

Reporters pretending to be teens on the Internet to bust pedophiles may make for great reality TV, but the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled it isn't enough to get their targets arrested.

A British study suggests the Roman Catholic Church-approved "rhythm method" may kill more embryos than other methods of contraception.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

The pseudononymous Pauline Kilar sifts through internet detritus, picking out the good stuff and posting it at Dodging Invisible Rays.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

So dark the comedy of man: The Norman Rockwell Code

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"She's had damn rapists, child molesters and lying authors on her show. And if I'm not a rags-to-riches story for her, who is?"

-- Ice Cube, on being snubbed by talk show queen Oprah Winfrey

Name the new Twins ballpark!!!

Stadium expert weighs in on Twins ballpark

If anything was sorely missing from the recent stadium debates at the Capitol, it was a dutch-uncle figure to bring some much-needed reality to the proceedings. Lawmakers, in fact, would have been wise to consult Neil deMause. In 1998, deMause co-authored Field of Schemes, the authoritative book on stadium boondoggles across the country. Since then, deMause has tracked stadium deals on his web site of the same name, and through various stories on the business and politics of sports in numerous publications.

More recently, deMause contributed to a new book from Baseball Prospectus called Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong, where he dispassionately dispels the many myths surrounding the economics of new ballparks. DeMause watched the Twins deal closely, and did this Q&A with City Pages via e-mail.

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THESE DAYS

The evidence from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, shows the outer boundary of the solar system distorted as though it has been punched from below.

The Hercules (CA) City Council voted unanimously to take the unprecedented step of using eminent domain to prevent Wal-Mart from building a big-box store on a 17-acre lot near the city's waterfront.

Durex has launched New Zealand's first ever National Condom Week in conjunction with Family Planning, to celebrate the condom.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

If you're finding it difficult to live without your Norwegian blogging fix, a Minneapolis secretary who goes by the name Norwego may be able to help.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS (ANIMAL EDITION)

Rate My Kitten

10,000 workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk were each paid two cents to draw a sheep facing left

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"We hired campaign organizers, and it was very much like a political campaign. Instead of 'get out the vote' it was 'get out and hold hands.'"

-- Hollywood promoter Ken Kragen, reminiscing on the 20th anniversary of Hands Across America

Shed a tear for Citibank. Send an e-card to MBNA. A front-page story in today's Wall Street Journal suggests that the major credit issuers are feeling the pain of lower profits. The American consumer--better known as the American debtor--has begun to pay off a greater chunk of her balance each month.

In fact, repayment rates, according to some measures, are at their highest level in 10 years. Home-equity loans and monthly balance-shifting have helped the plastic warrior to hold down payments. (It would be unpatriotic to just stop spending.)

The interest payments of "revolvers"--customers who fail to pay off their balances each month--have long represented the most profitable part of the credit card industry. To maintain profit levels, your friends in consumer banking have considerately boosted the rates they charge to their most indebted customers and jacked up late fees, which now routinely run to $39.

Here's where the quiz comes in. Though card-issuers continue to bait the mailboxes of Americans with introductory rate offers, the average monthly rate has climbed steeply in recent years.

What, according to the Nilson Report, a credit-tracking firm, is the average monthly interest rate on an American credit card?

And for entry in the plastic hall of fame: What was the average rate five years ago?

(If you don't submit a guess by tomorrow, you'll owe us five answers on Monday.)

THESE DAYS

Americans spent more than four billion dollars last year on Internet gambling, despite a de facto prohibition on such wagering in the United States.

As Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie await the birth of their first child, they have apparently given Namibian Governor Samuel Nuuyoma the honor of picking its name.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Could someone encourage Mark Wheat or Jill Riley to update Current Cue, the blog from Minnesota Public Radio's sister station?

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

An illustrated variation on The Caine Mutiny

Scooby Doo and crew meet their match when they run into Jason at Camp Crystal Lake in an episode of Robot Chicken

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I feel a bit silly in that outfit but, believe me, my wife, really, really likes it."

-- X-Men 3 star Hugh Jackman, on his wife's preference for Wolverine in the bedroom

Lack of insured patients endangers clinics

When La Clinica en Lake shuts down on July 14, roughly 5,000 people will lose their primary healthcare provider. The overwhelming majority of the five-year-old Minneapolis clinic's clients are poor and Hispanic.

Mavis Brehm, executive director of West Side Community Health Services, which operates La Clinica, says that it simply wasn't economically feasible to keep the facility open. She notes that last year alone the clinic ran a $900,000 deficit.

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CITY PAGES BLOGS

For the three of you who haven't seen it yet, Corey Anderson reveals the shocking myths uncovered in the motion picture The Da Vinci Code at American Idle.

Peter S. Scholtes has some great photos from Art-A-Whirl at Complicated Fun.

THESE DAYS

Tampa police say a man and his girlfriend were arrested after investigators found ecstacy hidden in a baby's crib.

15-year-old South Carolinian Candice Hardwick led a small protest march Monday against her high school's ban on Confederate flag clothing.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

WCCO reporter and all-around lovable scamp Jason DeRusha dishes on his personal life and delivers behind-the-scenes anecdotes at Jason's Talking About...

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

A short film featuring everyone's favorite drinky crow

Nike+iPod

Greg Kinnear stars in the movie version of Eric Schlosser's polemic Fast Food Nation.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"Here's LL Cool J. Don't call it a comeback. He's been here for years, rockin' his peers, puttin' 'em in fear, makin' tears rain down like a monsoon, explosions overpowerin' the competition. LL Cool J is towerin'."

-- XM Satellite Radio's newest DJ, Bob Dylan, introducing "Mama Said Knock You Out"