St. Paul: Lots of colleges, but declining literacy.

​Instead of creating a new food and beverage tax to help fund a Vikings stadium, perhaps the Ramsey County Board should invest in libraries.

The annual Central Connecticut State University literacy study ranked Minneapolis as the third-most literate city in the country in 2011, behind only Washington, D.C. and Seattle.

St. Paul? Things are apparently going to hell in a handbasket on that side of the river, as for the first time since 2005 the capital city fell out of the top ten, all the way down to 12th overall.

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Nyberg, on skates and clad in gorilla suit, pops the question

​Thanks to combined power of Twitter and the Associated Press, a local man's bizarre marriage proposal is now national news.

St. Paul resident Jake Nyberg, 31, wanted to surprise his then-girlfriend Tess Haun when he popped the question. He came up with an off-the-wall plan involving a staged engagement photo shoot, gorilla suits, and ice skates.
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​St. Paul is experiencing a remarkably peaceful year in terms of violent crime. Before last night, the city's had only five homicides in 2011. But the month of October has been marred by a sudden spree of violence, which finally turned deadly last night when a man was killed during an altercation at his home.

St. Paul Police were called to a residential neighborhood, where through the window they witnessed two men struggling with each other. After cops burst through the door, they found one of the men dead. The other was forcibly subdued, and has been taken into custody.

The sixth St. Paul homicide of 2011 comes near the tail end of a rare time of violence in that city: Aside from last night's killing, eight people in the city have been shot during the month of October.
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Lori Gildea is a powerful woman who just insulted you.

​The Minnesota Supreme Court visited Brainerd last night, as part of a "community dinner."

Borrowing a page from Sarah "real Americans" Palin, Chief Justice Lori Gildea took the opportunity to insult the Twin Cities, flatter Brainerd, and embarrass herself.

Fortunately -- or, in Gildea's case, unfortunately -- a reporter for the Brainerd Dispatch was there and caught Gildea's odd assertion.

"I'm so happy to be in real Minnesota," Gildea said.

Okay, well, maybe Gildea was just coming down from an acid trip, and couldn't tell if she'd actually been in the state of her birth. Let's give her a chance to explain.

"Outside of the Twin Cities," Gildea clarified.
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Nicole Salazar caught the cop on tape moments before he knocked her to the ground.

​That Nicole Salazar videotaped her arrest is both fortunate and unfortunate.

It's fortunate because that same tape just helped Salazar, a producer for the Democracy Now! news show, and two other journalists win a settlement in their lawsuit against the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul for bad police work during the 2008 Republican National Convention.

It's unfortunate because in the course of the lawsuit, Salazar was forced to watch the disturbing tape again. Anjana Samnat, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights who brought the case for Democracy Now!,  said she'd been in the room when the tape was played.

"When you looked at Nicole's face during the playing of the video," Samant said, "you could just see her cringe."

The settlement reached yesterday brings monetary compensation to the three journalists, including host Amy Goodman. Perhaps more important, it will force a change in St. Paul Police's official tactics in dealing with large crowds.
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Wikipedia

People in affected areas have 60 days to comment on the closures.

​The U.S. Postal Service might be closing thousands of post offices across the country, and 88 of those being considered for permanent shutdown are in Minnesota.

The Postal Service released a list of 3,653 prospective branches that have become targets for closure, the latest announcement in a rapidly letter-less country.

More than 6,000 post offices have closed in the last decade, including 280 this year.

Six offices in the Twin Cities are now threatened with closure. In Minneapolis, post offices in Dinkytown, Butler Quarter, the Commerce office downtown, and one on Lowry Avenue are under review; in St. Paul, the Riverview office and the Seeger Square Finance office could close.
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City Pages

Fletcher provided these terrorism briefs to City Pages to prove he wasn't lying

​Former Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher has given City Pages a batch of documents he says are some of the terrorism briefs he has been accused of lying about creating.

The documents--some marked "Confidential Law Enforcement Only"--outline investigations of anarchist and protest groups prior to the 2008 Republican National Convention.

"Those are, in fact, domestic terrorism briefs," Fletcher told City Pages.

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Photo: Kyrill Poole

The lights go out in the last dirty bookshop in St. Paul.

​Fly the flag at half-mast, gentlemen -- the last adult bookstore in St. Paul is dead.

Too bad. The Denmark was the kind of place you could really let your hair down, meet a few friends and get a car wash with extra polish.

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Photo: John Polo, Wikipedia

The rest of St. Paul remains above ground ... for now.

​This place is really falling apart.

Just ask the unfortunate soul who plunged 15 feet under a sidewalk this morning near 6th and Wabasha streets in St. Paul.

Downtown St. Paul's sinkhole doesn't sound quite as bad as the 20-footer in Milwaukee earlier this summer that swallowed a Cadillac Escalade, but it might be a good idea to watch your step if you happen to be in the area.

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John Harrington: Not NOLA bound

​The retiring St. Paul police chief was one of three finalists for the New Orleans job, but someone else got picked.

New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu chose Ronal Serpras of Nashville instead.

Maybe it was the southern accent?

Or maybe it was because he knows the town -- Serpras used to be the second in command of New Orleans cops.

It sounds like times are tough in the New Orleans PD right now, according to the Times-Picayune.

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