Food by Lost Fox and drinks by the Fox and Gambit

By A Thread: A photo essay of people who work, live and play downtown — celebration happening now in Mears Park, with free catering by Lost Fox. Yes, I said FREE www.twincities.com/2025/07/28/d...

More details here: t.co/fPDAuZczWg

Breaking news from Des Moines: ICE has detained Dr. Ian Roberts, the superintendent of Iowa's largest school district. The Des Moines Public Schools said "We have no confirmed information as to why Dr. Roberts is being detained or the next potential steps." www.bleedingheartland.com/2025/09/26/i...

Big closures this weekend along I-94W in St. Paul and I-35E -- Maya Bell reports: www.twincities.com/2025/09/25/s...

You are mostly the Mississippi River. Yes, it's true. Your body is 60% water, and St. Paul Regional Water Services gets your tap water from the river and its watershed lakes, so... You're probably more than half Mississippi River water. Read on, Aquaman:

Read some previous student columns here: t.co/D124ssepWI

The @ThreeSixtyMN is looking for writing coaches to help high school students craft opinion columns, the best of which will be published in @MinnPost @SahanJournal and the @StarTribune. They get paid $200 and you get sainted for teaching a teen how to prove a point... a lost art and no easy task

Your water rates have gone up quite a bit in recent years. And here's what they bought -- the $250 million water treatment plant of the future, which comes with things you don't need (yet), like ozone. This civil engineer is proud of that. Here's why: www.twincities.com/2025/09/26/s...

Merritt J. Osborn founded Economics Laboratory in 1923. Osborn Plaza, located outside a building that no longer belongs to Ecolab, could use a name change. Because he’s dead, I think!

JJHILL SAT HERE PLAZA?: Approaching its renovation, Osborn Plaza is getting a new name. Got any ideas? Snoopyville? Pig’s Eye Plaza? The city’s open to your thoughts www.twincities.com/2025/09/25/s... Story by Maya Bell

NOAHs — naturally occurring affordable housing — are a sensitive spot within St. Paul’s rent control landscape. They’re cheap because they’re old. Fixing them up means hiking rents a lot more than 3%. “This landlord has not raised rents in years…” twincities.com/2025/09/25/d...

When Ashland Ave tenants appealed rents going up 28% — almost 10 times what’s seemingly allowed by St. Paul’s rent control — city staff sided with their landlord, and almost half the city council agreed. Still, 7 of the units prevailed. Here’s how. www.twincities.com/2025/09/25/d...

Asha Farhan Hassan has also been charged in connection with the Feeding Our Future scandal, in which she allegedly claimed to be feeding 1,200 meals per day to kids, seven days per week.

CHARGES: She offered families $300 to $1,500 monthly per kid if they claimed their child was autistic and enrolled in her center. Her 18-year-old relatives were "technicians" providing care. Some families demanded more cash, paid for by Medicaid...and you! www.twincities.com/2025/09/24/2...

THE FUTURE OF DOWNTOWN: Randy Meier just said he he has five daughters. Watch Fox 9 live for this forum, which is bringing together St. Paul Mayor, St. Paul Saints' Tom Whaley, state Sen. Sandy Pappas, Mn Wild's Matt Majka, Securian's Chris Hilger... www.youtube.com/live/ZLhsln5...

At age 13, she enrolled in undergraduate studies. At 16, she completed her studies at Texas Woman’s University and was then accepted into nine law schools.

Minnesota's youngest assistant attorney general graduated law school at 19 and chairs St. Paul's downtown Capitol River Council, which has oodles to say about downtown. Meet Taylor Schlitz. Story by Talia McWright and Power 104.7 FM www.twincities.com/2025/09/21/m...

Some sober homes switched to state DHS grants after calling themselves "supportive housing." Now they're in trouble with St. Paul zoning which limits "supportive" to 1,320 feet. Solution: drop distance requirement to 600 feet? Some operators say "Don't change a thing. Good riddance to the new guys."

Beds in sober homes proliferated after investors -- savory, unsavory and in between -- realized that under Obamacare, partnering treatment centers would pay for them using federal money. Then NuWay Alliance and Evergreen scandals forced rule tightening. www.twincities.com/2025/09/21/s...

Raymond Avenue will never be the same. Chroma Zone Fest culminates tonight. Catalonia comes to Dual Citizen!

The storied Playwrights Center reopened today, but not in Minneapolis. It has found a new home in St. Paul — see you there? www.twincities.com/2025/09/19/p... By @jaredography

4 of the 5 candidates wanted the endorsement of a PAC who advocated against childcare access and lobbies government to prioritize business’ interests over the public’s interests. Proud to be the 5th candidate.

On Friday, the St. Paul Area Chamber’s political action committee said it had interviewed four of the five candidates for mayor and chosen not to endorse any of them, given the need for a “transformative leader” to turn around “a sense of stagnation.”

Early voting opened today, and a campaign for the 10-year school levy launches Saturday with St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and challenger Kaohly Her both on board. Who is on the other side? Progressives, in some cases. Introducing the Mary Argos problem: www.twincities.com/2025/09/19/s...

The Minnesota State Capitol campus recently raised a flag -- and another, and another, and another -- one for each of the 11 federally-recognized tribes. The U of M's Maya Bell reports: www.twincities.com/2025/09/17/n...

Libraries, rec centers are back online in St. Paul. Yes, you can use a library computer to surf the Internet again — for the first time since a July ransomware attack, reports @MarsKingReports www.twincities.com/2025/09/18/p...

Libraries, rec centers are back online in St. Paul. Yes, you can use a library computer to surf the Internet again — for the first time since a July ransomware attack, reports @MarsKingReports www.twincities.com/2025/09/18/p...

Sign 'o the times...

For $1.7 million, this 4-bay service station/ convenience store/car wash can be yours. That's .56 acres at Snelling and Randolph--a prime location that 6 years ago would have been turned into a 5-story apartment building or some such. But 2019, this is not www.twincities.com/2025/09/18/s...

One of the big triggers Wednesday — if not the biggest — for state Rep. Kaohly Her and Mayor Melvin Carter didn’t concern crime or taxes. It was Cub Foods closing on University Avenue. It was Cub, it was Cub it was always Cub…

Is St. Paul bad for business? Is it time to tear down the vacant CVS at University and Snelling? Homicide is at a 10-year low, so what killed downtown Lunds and Midway Cub? A 5-way mayoral debate at Johnson High Wednesday night at times went for the throat www.twincities.com/2025/09/18/s...

Not passing the special levy referendum for the schools would drop these numbers by $200-$300, but sewer, water and recycling charges would still add another $125 anyway. No matter how you slice it... a tough year all around. Tough choices, tough choices...

All five candidates for mayor of St. Paul will be at Johnson High School tonight taking questions from the audience. The auditorium fits 800. Can't make it? @SPNN will carry the forum on YouTube and replay it eventually on cable access. You going tonight? www.twincities.com/2025/09/16/l...

Introducing PAULIE -- the permit and inspections platform that finally allows St. Paul contractors/business/homeowners to submit permit applications online, pay invoices, save and resume work, receive receipts and notifications and look up past permits. www.twincities.com/2025/09/16/s...

Introducing PAULIE -- the permit and inspections platform that finally allows St. Paul contractors/business/homeowners to submit permit applications online, pay invoices, save and resume work, receive receipts and notifications and look up past permits. www.twincities.com/2025/09/16/s...

In extraordinary coincidence, United Arab Emirates just gained access to hundreds of thousands of computer chips with White House’s help. And Trump and Witkoff families received a $2 billion deposit from the same folks into their cryptocurrency start-up. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

Ramsey County isn't freezing 43 open positions -- it's eliminating 43 FILLED positions. My bad. Here's the updated graf: "To save costs, Ramsey County is looking to eliminate 43 positions that are currently filled, and St. Paul plans a hiring freeze for most of its open positions. The schools...

Property taxes are going up most for some of St. Paul’s poorest neighborhoods and St. Paul School District is asking for a $309-per-median-home, 10-year special increase on top of its regular levy. Tough year, tough choices…Here’s a look at impacts by neighborhood area twincities.com/2025/09/15/h...

Property Taxes! By neighborhood! By @imanicruzen and @FrederickMelo aka the dynamic duo of tax reporting. Ask us anything* after you click on Imani’s heat map, it’s awesome: www.twincities.com/2025/09/15/h...

Under the city charter, city lobbyists can’t lobby the state for specific spending items like the Grand Casino Arena remodel without council approval — and the council did not approve a city legislative agenda until 3 months into the legislative session: twincities.com/2025/09/14/s...

Strike’s over, Farm Aid is back on… @KristiBelcamino reports www.twincities.com/2025/09/13/u...

Some big library projects are moving forward, like Hayden Heights, Hamline-Midway and to a lesser degree Rondo Library security improvements, but funding for the Riverview Library overhaul seems a bit up in the air

FROZEN BOOKS!: Arlington Hills Library would cut 4 hours weekly as a result of frozen hiring, Rondo Library to close for security renovations and bathroom relocation under mayor’s budget proposal — Friends of Library to fund Read Brave, new collections materials www.twincities.com/2025/09/13/h...

FOX: When the appropriately named Fox and Friends presenter Brian Kilmeade suggested rounding up the mentally ill homeless and killing them by lethal injection, he made a mistake. A slip of the tongue, if you will. What he really meant to say was… www.foxnews.com/video/637940...

Strike’s over, Farm Aid is back on… @KristiBelcamino reports www.twincities.com/2025/09/13/u...

FROZEN BOOKS!: Arlington Hills Library would cut 4 hours weekly as a result of frozen hiring, Rondo Library to close for security renovations and bathroom relocation under mayor’s budget proposal — Friends of Library to fund Read Brave, new collections materials www.twincities.com/2025/09/13/h...

#WelcomingWeek.org kicks off all over the world right now. There’s a bunch of events in the Twin Cities, including a naturalization fair at the International Institute and storytelling workshops.

Progressive Baptist Church in St. Paul kicks off global “Welcoming Week” today with immigrants rights workshop conducted hand in hand with legal centers and city of St. Paul www.twincities.com/2025/09/12/s...

Husband-and-wife doughnut crafters took over a derelict maintenance shed and converted it into a mini-cafe. The city, which had given them $24,000 to launch, also slapped them with $5,000 in vacant building fees. As of Wednesday, that penalty has been cut in half. The process was not pretty.