The Pulitzer Prize medal.

Before today, the Star Tribune hadn't won a Pulitzer Prize -- the top honor for newspapers -- in 23 years. But this afternoon, when the winners were announced in New York City, that changed. The paper won not one, but two awards, more than any paper in the country other than the New York Times.

See Also:
-Star Tribune Guild workers rally outside of the newspaper's headquarters
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wins Pulitzer, none for Strib or Pi-Press

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One man's date, another woman's "complete stranger."

On Tuesday night, WCCO producer Tracy Perlman had a pair of tickets to the Twins game. She was planning to go with a pal, but the friend hurt her neck and ended up having to bail. (Hurt her neck? C'mon! Just say you don't want to go if you don't want to.)

Perlman proffered the spare ticket to other friends, but none of them took the bait. So what to do with that ticket? Instead of pulling a Funkhouser and going to the game alone, Perlman ended up making what she calls "one of the strangest decisions of my life" -- offering it up to a complete stranger.

If that's as strange as it's gotten for her, then she clearly doesn't have an OKCupid profile.

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Cummer, shown being arrested during the May 11 demonstration, says he was singled out because he was filming police.

On May 11, 56-year-old Minneapolis resident David Cummer was calmly using his iPhone to film police during the 1% Against Democracy rally in downtown Minneapolis when a group of officers approached him and suddenly placed him under arrest.

"You decide to leave, if not, you're going to be arrested," one officer tells him. "Are you going to leave?" the officer asks. Moments later, the officer directs Cummer to place his "hands behind your back" and handcuffs him.

Cummer was ostensibly arrested for blocking traffic, but at the time about 100 people were milling in the intersection of Hennepin & 8th. Traffic was going to remain blocked whether Cummer stood in the street or not. "The real issue was that I'd been filming them," Cummer says.

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Daughter Number Three

Woodbury's police blotter suggests the Strib and PiPress might be inappropriately inflating circulation numbers.

You may have heard that newspaper are dying, but the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations report shows that for the time being at least, the Twin Cities' major dailies are still alive and kickin'.

The report shows that total circulation for both the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press, including digital versions of each paper, rose slightly over the past six months. Unsurprisingly, rising circulation was a product of readers consuming more of the online versions of each paper -- the PiPress's print-only weekday circulation declined by 10 percent, while the Strib's weekday circulation declined by 5 percent.

Those numbers aren't heartening for hard-copy aficionados, but an obscure item in Woodbury's police blotter suggests they could have been even worse.

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Rogue Media

KSTP cameraman Chad Nelson, left, just moments after being shoved by an unidentified officer, right.

During a "Re-Occupy" Minneapolis demonstration on Saturday night, protesters learned from police they would not be allowed to erect tents in Peavey Plaza. After they marched in the street in protest, 12 people were arrested on Nicollet Mall for public nuisance and impeding traffic.

KSTP cameraman Chad Nelson was filming one of those arrests when a Minneapolis police officer violently shoved his camera away, sending it crashing to the ground. The incident was caught on tape.

Now station management is demanding to know why a member of the press was prevented from doing his job.

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The cop in the background is about the destroy the videocamera that's filming him.

The Occupy movement staged a re-occupation on Saturday, and the TV media showed up to cover the news event. Little did KSTP cameraman Chad Nelson know that he would be assaulted by a cop, who totally thrashes his expensive video camera.

The entire event was caught on tape by Rogue Media and dutifully re-played several times in slow motion so you can see the look of callous disregard on the officer's face as he shoves the camera up and over Nelson's shoulder, sending the expensive equipment hurtling to the pavement.

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Public TV donors in the land of Paul Bunyan don't like profanity.

​Newsweek's decision to include more profanity in the magazine is creating a bit of a shit-show.

In recent years, public broadcasters have helped the beleaguered magazine increase its circulation by offering subscriptions in exchange for donations. But some broadcasters are now rethinking their relationship with the magazine following its recent merger with the The Daily Beast and editorial's subsequent decision to allow R-rated language.

One public broadcaster upset with Newsweek's newfound potty-mouth is Lakeland Public Television in Bemidji, which reportedly may look for a new, less-vulgar magazine to give to donors.

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​Yesterday, we brought you the story of the TimberTrolls, the hottest thing to hit Minnesota Timberwolves' online fanbase since... well, they're probably the hottest thing to ever hit the Wolves' online fanbase.

And while they've only been at it for about a month, the Spaniards have already accounted for a list-worthy trove of photoshopped photos and animated GIFs. So without further ado, and in honor of the No. 7-wearing basketball sensation that made Spain give a shit about Minnesota's NBA team in the first place (actually, let's say it's in honor of No. 7-wearing Derrick Williams -- apparently Joe Mauer was on the brain when this was written), here's the top-seven Troll-inspired images thus far.
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A U of M paper suggests the movie industry itself can reduce the impact of piracy without need for legislation.

​An academic paper co-written by a University of Minnesota economics professor finds there is little evidence for the notion that movie piracy reduces ticket purchases at movie theaters.

That notion, of course, is often a crucial premise in the arguments made by supporters of legislation like SOPA and PIPA meant to strengthen copyright protections and wipe pirated content off the internet.

But "Real Piracy: The Effect of Online Firm Piracy on International Box Office Sales," co-written by the U of M's Joel Waldfogel, found no "evidence of elevated sales displacement in US box office revenue following the adoption of BitTorrent" back in 2003.

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Mpls' social media job market is very solid.

​Social media has revolutionized the way we publish and disseminate information. No longer are journalists ink-stained wretches trying to put together a story before a print deadline -- now we're more like carpal tunnel-plagued pixelheads trying to be the first to tweet the latest scoop.

But, if you're someone looking to make a living as a blogger, online marketing manager, or social media strategist, what cities are the best places to look for work? Well, if a healthy job market and solid salary potential are your motivators, then All Twitter -- "The Unofficial Twitter Resource" -- has just the list for you.

The online publication recently compiled the Social Media Strategy Guide, and it turns out that Minneapolis isn't such a bad place to be for us pixelheads after all.

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