Fair denizens of Minneapolis (and foul ones, too), the gauntlet has been thrown down. Raleigh, North Carolina has outpaced us in population.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

No one supports binge drinking, except of course me. But Rep. Morrie Lanning and the Strib trying to curb drink specials in bars adds to some already arcane and goofy liquor laws.

Coming from Japan back to the United States, one of the oddest adjustments has been the liquor laws. Thinking a beer might go nicely with baked yams and boiled asparagus, I asked the helpful Kowalski's clerk where I might find the beer. He pleasantly showed me around to the O'Doul's.

Yeah yeah, says I, but where's the, you know, beer? The answer of course was "it's at the beer store, and you're out of luck, because it's Sunday." This is a far cry from the land of the rising sun, where your friendly neighborhood grocer has not just Kirin Ichiban, but wine, sake, and liquor that could thin off paint. Not that I'm often awash in liquid enjoyment, but this particular Puritanism put me on a bit of tilt.

Now, there's the Strib's new editorial touting efforts by State Rep. Morrie Lanning (R-Footloose) to combat drink specials in bars. Get me my pitchfork.

The Violence Policy Center just released a report on what it is calling a "national crisis" of black homicide victims. FBI statistics for 2005 were studied and Minnesota tied New Jersey for 16th largest rate of black murder victims per capita.

DAILY DISH: WHAT'S NEW AROUND THE SITE

The Slumlord of South Minneapolis, Jonathan Kaminsky's feature this week, uses the power of the Web in a way that I wish more investigative projects would. Many of the facts in the story can be corroborated by supporting legal documents, and within the story you can find links to image files that verify important facts.

Also, we created an interactive map of properties owned by the story's subject, Spiros Zorbalas.

The economy's in the tank and the 35W bridge is just a memory. The solutions to these problems, says the New York Times' Bob Herbert, go hand in hand.

Tuesday is the feistiest of all days of the week. It all starts with the name. The name comes from the Old English term Tiwes dæg, which refers to the Nordic god Tyr, deity of war.

So it's fitting that the Republican candidates are scrapping with each other while preparing for the first of two successive throwdowns. We'll be following the Florida primary live on Elephants in the Room as the road to the brokered convention continues.

With the whole "god of war" connection and all, I guess I should have posted Philosopher or Warrior on a Tuesday. But then a lot of people would say that every day has been Tyr's Day for the past five years.

"City Pages announced who its new food critics will be, and it unveiled plans for expanded restaurant coverage both in the paper and online. Taking over Dara’s chair covering the new and noteworthy openings is Rachel Hutton, formerly of Mn Mo, and James Norton, whose work I have referenced before on this blog, will cover the ‘deals on meals’ angle. All of this begins on February 20, and both of the new hires will be blogging and podcasting as well. I like the work of both these writers, and CP’s commitment to its food section and its plans to grow it is good for the local food scene."

The dismal science is detail-laden, so it's easy to glaze over at talk of federal reserve policy and forget the impact it has on your life. That's why I'm a big fan of the graphical representation. Unsure of what a few percentage points one way or the other means? Me, too. Pictures! I want pictures!

First a monkey assault. Now a shark attack.

In a disturbing/awesome instance of shark-on-shark cannibalism, the Mall of America's Underwater Adventures was the scene of feral aggression Friday when a sand tiger shark named Jessie--which at nine feet long and over 300 pounds is the aquarium's largest shark--took a bite out of a white tip reef shark about half her size.

Desperate to avoid a feeding frenzy, workers rushed to save the bleeding victim and pulled her out with feeding tongs. The maimed shark is expected to make a full recovery and was reportedly delicious.

Hat tip: KARE 11.