Leith Anderson, Tim Pawlenty's pastor for nearly three decades, is retiring.

​Leith Anderson, the influential head of the National Association of Evangelicals who counts Tim Pawlenty among his 5,000 parishioners, is retiring from his leadership position with Eden Prairie's Wooddale Church.

Anderson said Pawlenty's run for the Republican presidential nomination has nothing to do with his retirement, which comes after 35 years.

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The head shops' lawyer says he'll fight the decision.

​A Hennepin County judge denied a motion to delay the ban on synthetic drugs today, meaning the Minnesota law will go into effect Friday as planned.

The motion was filed by a collective of head shops that have been diligently fighting to keep synthetics legal. They filed a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota earlier this week, arguing that the ban is unconstitutional and not supported by scientific research.

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Heather

Black henna tattoos are blamed for the allergic reactions of 35 8th-graders.

​35 Twin Cities 8th-graders have reported experiencing allergic reactions -- including blisters and lesions -- the Minnesota Department of Health said today. And it suspects the reactions were due to a chemical commonly used to give henna tattoos their black coloring.

These tattoos, made popular by celebrities like Madonna and Vanessa Hudgens, and ubiquitous at fairs and outdoor concerts, are a lot more dangerous than, say, drawing on your arm with a ball point pen. And MDH has now issued an official warning against black henna.

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Maroon Day aims to curb the deadliest day on Minnesota highyways.

​The State Patrol isn't worried about the looming government shutdown. Its got 600 Troopers on duty today -- every Trooper on the payroll, as a matter of fact -- and they've pulled over 1,100 drivers.

And even though it's only lunchtime, eight of those stops have included suspected drunken drivers.

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​Michele Bachmann has long bolstered her family values bona fides in political campaigns with the story of how she and her husband Marcus raised 23 foster children along with their five biological kids.

Now she's explaining why they took on the challenge -- but again in the context of helping her political ambitions.

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More than half the survey respondents would support increased cigarette prices.

​If the stress from thinking about Minnesota's budget deficit makes you think about lighting up a smoke, think again. Nearly 60 percent of Minnesotans would support increasing cigarette state taxes on tobacco to help solve the state's looming $5 billion budget deficit.

Those respondents supporting a tax increase weren't thinking in small numbers: 70 percent of those who favored an increase would approve of raising cigarette prices by up to $1.50.

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Maria Ann Mihalik was sentenced to three years probation for stealing patients' drugs for personal use.

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Maria Anne Mihalik,  the 31-year-old Superior Wis., woman caught stealing Dilaudid from patients' IV bags, was sentenced to three years probation on Wednesday. She was arrested in May last year after faking her way around Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, siphoning out patients' drugs to feed her own habit.

She was a licensed nurse -- only not at that hospital. Also, they don't usually teach nurses that patients should share.

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Bachmann gets the good word from Paul Revere.

​Her epic gaffe about mass murderer John Wayne Gacy reminded us yet again that Michele Bachmann has a legendary grasp of U.S. history.

Here's the presidential candidate who says the Revolutionary War started in New Hampshire, for example. And that John Quincy Adams was a Founding Father, and blacks have always been treated the same as whites.

And now we know where she learned all this: She was a witness to all this history!

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Hennepin County mugshot

Have you seen this man? Big Joe is on the lam

​Joseph "Big Joe" Gustafson, a former Hell's Angel-turned bail bondsman who terrorized north Minneapolis for years, has been charged with seven felonies -- and he's on the run.

Authorities aren't saying whether they know where Gustafson might be headed, but when they catch him, there will be plenty of evidence to put him in jail for a very long time.

As we documented in our February 2010 cover story, "Fallen Angel," Gustafson is the mastermind of a north criminal organization. The charges against him include felony racketeering, kidnapping, making terroristic threats, aggravated robbery, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and arson.

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No throngs to pal with the Palins.

​The rules set up by Mall of America officials for Sarah and Bristol Palin's book signing yesterday seemed to have been written in anticipation of an army of fans.

"'Camping out' is not allowed," the rules read. "Beginning at 5 a.m., guests will be allowed to line up."

But there was no teeming crowd of rabid Palinites at 5 a.m. And less than a half hour into the appearance of Bristol, Sarah, and Todd Palin, the crowd had dwindled to a trickle of latecomers.

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