More trouble for Best Buy
Best Buy's second quarter earnings report is not good. A leading Minnesota disease expert says pigs should be kept away from the Minnesota State Fair. Minnesota gets a Supreme Court nominee who could make history. And prosecutors say the St. Paul Police Department has authorized an independent review of its troubled police crime lab. Find out about all that and more in today's Update.
Off a cliff
A new earnings report shows just how big a job Best Buy's new CEO Hubert Joly has on his hands to turn around the company's flagging fortunes. Martin Moylan reports that the Richfield-based electronics retailer's net income for the quarter ending earlier this month fell a whopping 91 percent.
Pigs out?
Michael Osterholm, head of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, tells Tim Nelson that the new strain of H3N2 virus is making a historic leap from pigs to people and says that pigs should be banned from the upcoming Minnesota State Fair.
Historic appointment
Gov. Mark Dayton has appointed Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Wilhelmina Wright to the state Supreme Court. Wright will be the first African American woman to serve on the bench, and Matt Sepic reports that she vows to remember "the aspirations of all" in her position.
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Water, water not everywhere
After repeated delays, the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System treatment plant near Vermillion, S.D. is pumping water drawn from the Missouri River. But Mark Steil says it's still an open question as to when some southwest Minnesota communities will see the benefits of the program.
Gauthier fallout
Dan Kraker reports that two DFLers have announced they'll run for the Duluth House seat currently held by Democrat Kerry Gauthier, who was investigated recently for a sexual encounter with a 17-year old boy at a Duluth area rest stop.
The troubled crime lab
Prosecutors say the St. Paul Police Department has authorized an independent review of its police crime lab, which shut down drug testing after employees acknowledged the lab lacked written standard operating procedures and may have relied on equipment contaminated with illegal drugs.
University of Debt
The Associated Press is out with a story this morning about two new studies that offer emphatic answers to much-discussed questions about higher education: Yes, a college degree is worth it, but yes, it's the middle-class that's getting particularly squeezed with student debt in the pursuit of one.
A line in the sand
President Obama has declared the threat of chemical or biological warfare in Syria a "red line" for the United States, outlining for the first time the point at which his administration could feel forced to intervene militarily in the Arab country's increasingly messy conflict.
"Legitimate rape" firestorm
Missouri congressman Todd Akin has now come under withering fire from leaders in his own Republican Party to quit his race against incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill, after he asserted that women victims of "legitimate rape" can stop themselves from getting pregnant. He's apologized, but a key deadline in the Missouri race looms today.