Benito Hernandez Romo

​Benito Hernandez Romo Jr. was looking for a job when he stole a car, prosecutors say.

Romo was in Apple Valley for a job interview when he took someone else's car for a joyride. According to police, the car's rightful owner parked his car at a train station in Apple Valley just before 7 a.m. January 30. The keys stuck in the ignition, but with a bus to catch, the owner left the readily steal-able car behind.

The car was gone when he returned that evening.

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Met Council

Southwest LRT would feature 17 stations along a 15-mile track from Eden Prairie to Target Field.

​The first Central Corridor train won't run for two more years, but Gov. Mark Dayton already has Southwest LRT on his mind.

Yesterday, in his bonding proposal, the Governor included $25 million for what would be the third LRT line in the metro.

While Rep. Mike Beard, R-Shakopee, chair of the House Transportation Policy and Finance Committee, has vowed to stop Southwest LRT "dead in its tracks," the proposed line appears to have strong support from the business community.

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Mn/DOT says they will assess the situation, and figure out if the complaints have merit.

​Late last fall, as part of 2011's epic construction overhaul in the Twin Cities, Mn/DOT built a noise wall along I-94 in Minneapolis, just east of the Mississippi River.

The purpose was to reduce highway noise to the nearby neighborhoods, but Prospect Park residents are complaining that it did just the opposite.

Neighbors say that because the new wall is excessively high, it's ricocheting noise over a smaller wall on the other side of the highway -- amplifying the sound, rather than muffling it. And they are not happy. Here's what one resident wrote on a neighborhood message board:

One morning I woke up thinking that it must be very windy outside, and soon realized that it was the highway - not the wind - that I could hear inside my bedroom. I dread opening the windows this summer and for the first time in 13 years I've thought about selling and leaving this neighborhood.

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Take the noon train from Minneapolis to the 7 p.m. Twins-Sox game in Chicago? Possibly in a few years.

​Imagine hopping on a train in downtown Minneapolis and getting off less than six hours later in the heart of Chicago, with a stop in Milwaukee in between.

Sound farfetched? Right now, it might, but the Minnesota Department of Transportation is moving ahead with plans for a 400-mile, high-speed rail line that would connect the Midwest's two most happening cities. (Sorry, Omaha.)

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be the reason filling up is so expensive these days.

​The average gas price in the Twin Cities as of Monday was $3.27 per-gallon -- 19 cents more than a year ago and 8 cents more than just a week ago.

Who or what's to blame for this new-found pain at the pump?

Patrick DeHaan, a senior petroleum analyst for gasbuddy.com, says we should pin the blame on a country that George W. Bush once classified as a member of the "axis of evil."

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Public funds are being used both to spur development and keep beleaguered businesses afloat.

​Two years before its scheduled opening, the area along the Met Council's $957 million Central Corridor project is already undergoing redevelopment  -- but is it a case of government throwing good money after bad?

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Kosher Mountain Retreat

Rabbi Ginsberg wants his air perks back

​Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg has just won a small victory for airline passengers tired of being treated badly.

A consultant, author and speaker, Ginsberg flies hundreds of times per year, and counted on his Platinum status for meals, upgrades, and more comfortable seats. But three years ago, a Northwest representative called to tell him the airline was dropping Ginsberg.

"I was told that I complained too much about services," Ginsberg explains.

Now, instead of a series of small complaints from Ginsberg, the airline's going to have to deal with one big one.

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MN Senate

Sen. Claire Robling wants to take transportation planning away from Met Council

​A proposal to overhaul the Metropolitan Council--the agency responsible for long-term transportation planning, including bringing in money to expand light rail--is gaining ground in the Legislature.

At the heart of the matter is a conflict over transportation priorities: Planning for growth versus maintaining current infrastructure. And the people behind the bill--the pro-growth faction--are pretty unhappy with the decisions the council has recently made.

"They want to take that transportation planning ability away from the Met Council," says Susan Haigh, the council chair.

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Federal funds grease the rails.

​So it turns out the $478 million check really was in the mail.

We were a little leery last week when St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman used his State of the City address to declare federal funding had been approved to cover half the cost of the Central Corridor light rail project.

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The feds agree to help fund the Central Corridor line.

​The 11-mile Central Corridor light rail project has taken a major step forward. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman says the check is in the mail for the $460 million federal grant the project was banking on.

The Federal Transit Administration OK'd the grant and sent it to Congress for final approval in February--even as construction on the line was already under way.

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