Minneapolis / St. Paul News Blog

Perhaps Hell has in fact frozen over. Last night at Minneapolis Public Schools HQ, the school board discussed the likely closure of a number of city schools and the transfer of their students to other schools. And no one screamed. No names were called. Nary an accusation of indifference or ineptitude was floated. We can't say for sure when last there was so much quiet discussion at 807 Broadway, but it's probably safe to say there are middle-schoolers who couldn't say the alphabet last time this happened.

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Britt Robson's last Three-Pointer is now posted at Balls. We thank Britt for all his work at City Pages and wish him well.

Peter S. Scholtes has the last official 2006 list: Top 50 CDs from 2006 at Complicated Fun

We're happy to announce the release of our new Media Taster! The City Pages Media Taster lets you actually hear the great music you read about in City Pages—just launch, click, and listen. Simply download the Media Taster and you'll automatically receive a digital mixtape of music on a semi-regular basis (including free MP3s), legal and free of charge.

THESE DAYS

A University of Minnesota student's graduation is in jeopardy because she's refusing to pay for a scholarship for studies in Tanzania where she suffered sexual harrassment and numerous rape attempts.

A Vancouver woman admitted Monday that she coached her two children—beginning when they were 4 and 8 years old—to fake retardation so she could collect Social Security benefits on their behalf.

A teenage girl in southern Pakistan, whose late father lost her in a poker game when she was two years old, has asked authorities to save her from being handed over to a middle-aged relative.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Steve from Minneapolis photographs and reviews local concerts, and schools the uninitiated on national and international acts with links and videos at Rock 'n' Roll Star.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Top All-Time Political Donors from opensecrets.org

Everyone is having fun at the house party until a couple of drunken Jedis get into it

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"I felt very remorseful for having thrown the phone at someone that didn't deserve it."

— Model Naomi Campbell, who's apparently fine with throwing phones at people who do deserve it. Campbell lost her shit and hit her maid with a cell phone over a pair of missing jeans last year.

This week's cover story, The Next Big Thing by Peter S. Scholtes, is a profile of the diminutive lead singer for Little Man, Chris Perricelli. An excerpt: "Perricelli's singing is the most compelling local Bowie impression since Venus's (of All the Pretty Horses), though he claims to have arrived at his style before people told him he sounded like either Bowie or T. Rex's Mark Bolan... Unlike Bright Eyes', the frontman's quaver doesn't come off like an affectation. And like Jack White, whom he admires, he's so versed in so-called classic rock that he seems to be changing the rules from within." Get to know Chris Perricelli (and listen to Little Man's "Undertow") here, then come back to share your thoughts.

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

City Pages intern and budding model Mary O'Regan leads us through the Marlboro smoke and empty Diet Coke cans with a photo diary chronicling her experiences modeling for the upcoming Voltage Fashion Amplified rock and fashion show on April 11 at First Avenue. Check out the first installment here.

We're happy to announce the release of our new Media Taster! The City Pages Media Taster lets you actually hear the great music you read about in City Pages—just launch, click, and listen. Simply download the Media Taster and you'll automatically receive a digital mixtape of music on a semi-regular basis (including free MP3s), legal and free of charge.

THESE DAYS

Hundreds of women staged a "nurse-in" at a Pennsylvania mall to support a mother ordered by security to stop breastfeeding in public.

Later this month, the Clifton (N.J.) city council is expected to introduce an ordinance setting a limit on how long dogs can bark.

The Telegraph is reporting that the U.S. is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear program.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Zach Korb blogs about community planning, historic preservation, and real estate updates at An Affair with Urban Policy.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

From the Jimmy Kimmel Show: Kathie Lee Gifford's PSA on throwing up in your mouth... a little

Terrorism finger puppets [via BoingBoing]

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"It's good to have a second career."

— White House Press Secretary Tony Snow on Al Gore's documentary winning an Academy Award during Sunday's broadcast

The online magazine Slate today lays out a fascinating case for why the about-to-be-closed sale of the Star Tribune and the trend it caps may actually be good news for journalism. Not good immediate news for anyone drawing a paycheck over on Portland Avenue, but good news for the Fourth Estate As We Knew It and maybe really good news for newshounds hereabouts in a couple-three years when the pendulum resets itself.

(In case you've been living under a rock in recent months, the last week of December McClatchy sold the Strib to a private equity concern for $530 million--less than half what McClatchy paid for it in 1998.)

Jack Shafer explains:

Although this halving of newspaper value, which was unforeseen by such an industry sage as John Morton, is tragic news for McClatchy and Times Co. stockholders, it's potentially good news for journalism. It pops the bubble that had carried newspaper valuation beyond the Van Allen Belt. And by doing so, it presents publishers—and Wall Street—with more rational expectations about what sort of profits the newspaper industry can make without destroying itself.

Friday's Minneapolis City Council meeting brought two different payouts over one alleged police misconduct incident. The full council approved a $10,000 payday to Christopher D. Perry and $5,000 to his brother Mario P. Perry, who was a juvenile when the two ran afoul of the cops on November 16, 2004.

Payouts over claims of police misconduct are nothing new in this town (see "The Hit Parade Revisited," CP 7/20/2005), but this incident seemed rooted in some rather, uh, dubious behavior. According to a city attorney's memo urging the council to approve settlement, MPD officers James Burns and Michael Geere were cruising the north side looking for "an identified murder suspect known to frequent" 4050 Bryant Avenue North. The officers found a car "with four occupants" illegally parked in the alley behind the address. Officer Burns approached the car and "smelled marijuana and saw a 'philly blunt' in the ashtray," according to the memo from the city attorney's office.

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Britt Robson tries to find the positive in the Timberwolves' recent performances at Balls.

We remember the inventor of electronically enhanced tap dancing at Corpus Obscurum.

Download free MP3s from local artists such as Duplomacy, Telephone!, Hockey Night, the Blind Shake, and more at Music To Go.

THESE DAYS

Fake bull testicles and other anatomically explicit vehicle decorations would be banned from Maryland roads under a bill pending in the state legislature.

A jailer at a Mississippi county jail was arrested and charged with introducing contraband after money and marijuana were found in his mashed potatoes.

The Humane Society of the United States says its investigating coats—some with designer labels such as Andrew Marc and Tommy Hilfiger from higher-end retailers—manufactured with fur from dogs.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Twenty-eight-year old St. Paulite Kelly is beginning her ninth year blogging about conquering the three-egg omelette, imaginary eye tumors, and shoes that smell like cat pee at Wonderment.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

A gallery of retro flight attendant cheesecake shots

Top 10 Christian Tourist Traps

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"Whitaker is knock-kneed—my father was bowlegged."

— Jaffar Amin, critiquing Forest Whitaker's Oscar-winning performance of his father, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, in the film The Last King of Scotland

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Diablo Cody has Juno cast updates at the Pussy Ranch.

Download free MP3s from local artists such as Avenpitch, Future Wives, Romantica, Brother and Sister, and more at Music To Go.

THESE DAYS

KFC has asked Pope Benedict XVI to bless the Fish Snacker Sandwich, a Lenten addition to the chain's otherwise chicken-centric menu.

Actor and national dodgeball champion David Price is suing the writer, Rawson Marshall Thurber, and distributor of 2004's Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, claiming elements of the hit movie were derived from Price's script.

New Zealand's newest television station is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow using a $10 kitchen wok.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Darrell Schulte blogs on vacuum cleaner shopping, scratchy mom legs, and rocking horse butt stink at Schulte in Minnesota

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

From McSweeney's: Condensed Letters to Penthouse Forum

A Wikipedia list of famous smokers

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"It's ridiculous, this is something that never happens to translators."

— Israeli translator Gili Bar-Hillel, on the fame he has received from translating the Harry Potter series into Hebrew

The University of Michigan released their American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) on Tuesday for the fourth quarter of 2006. The ACSI is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States. So, how did our hometown corporations fare? The biggest gain in retail on ACSI's 100-point scale came from Richfield-based Best Buy, whose score rose 7 percent to 76. The report cited top-line products and extensive service offerings as factors, while opening numerous stores during 2006. In the department and discount stores category, Wisconsin-based Kohl's ranked highest with a score of 80, while Minneapolis-based Target dropped 1.3 percent to 77. Eden Prairie's SuperValu dropped 4 percent to 74 in the supermarket category, with the recent acquisition of poorly performing Albertson's stores impacting their score. The rest of the numbers after the jump...

CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS

Britt Robson combs through the wreckage of last night's Wolves' loss to the Bobcats at Balls.

Download free MP3s from local artists such as Askeleton, the Hopefuls, Chris Koza, M.anifest, the Plastic Constellations, and more at Music To Go.

THESE DAYS

An Oconomowoc, Wisconsin man said he broke into an apartment with a cavalry sword because he thought he heard a woman being raped, but the sound actually was from a pornographic movie his upstairs neighbor was watching.

On the first day of Lent, the Church of England launched a comedy club that will feature only clean comedians.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Bryan Lambert mocks, judges, and chides those he considers... um, not so smart at, appropriately enough, You Are Dumb.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Blogger gloveshot has posted the entire 1970 yearbook of St. Louis County School #70, the year the Embarrass high school closed

Horror movie legend Boris Karloff in a cigarette lighter commercial

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"She thought lice were eating her hair extensions, so decided to get rid of them as soon as possible."

— a source for Britney Spears on why the singer went nutzoid and shaved her head between brief stints in rehab