Greater Minnesota

Duluth chooses Arizona agency over local firms to market the city to tourists
The Duluth City Council voted 8-1 Monday night to award a multimillion-dollar tourism marketing contract to a company based in Tucson, Ariz., over objections from some in the business community who wanted the city to hire a local firm.
‘Green Gold’: Booming demand for holiday greenery sparks illicit trade in northern Minnesota
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says unlicensed bandits are snipping off the tops of spruce trees, trying to cash in on a market that one legal harvester calls “green gold.” 
In western Minnesota, a writer rooted in two worlds seeks common ground
Columnist, county commissioner and former farmer Brent Olson is a “bleeding-heart liberal” in the middle of rural Minnesota Trump country. He tries to bridge that political and social gap in his national writing and through his local community work.
Rochester police say burglars targeting Asian victims
The Rochester Police Department said in a statement Wednesday that the burglars targeted five homes, mainly in the northwestern part of the city, between Nov. 13 and Dec. 3. All of the victims are of Asian descent.
St. Cloud appoints first Somali American to city council
On a unanimous vote, the city council appointed Hudda Ibrahim to fill a vacancy on the seven-member board. She replaces Jake Anderson, who was elected St. Cloud mayor last month.
For this Minnesota living history teacher, the past is never dead
Arn Kind turned his passion for the past into a second career making history entertaining and educational in school classrooms and small town libraries across Minnesota. From Vikings to the voyageurs to Vietnam, he delivers lessons like few others.
Deaths from ATV crashes in Minnesota surged in 2024
As of Nov. 5, 30 people have died in ATV crashes on Minnesota roads, ditches and trails in 2024. That number surpasses a previous high of 27 people killed in 2020.
Old machines, new traditions fuel Rollag’s ‘Ladies of Steam’
Nicole Wallace’s love of steam powered engines began as a hobby. Today, she leads a global sisterhood of women with a passion for the vintage machines.
Defendants in human smuggling case convicted on all counts
A jury in Fergus Falls took only about an hour to return verdicts of guilty on all charges to two men accused of human smuggling. The trial arose from the hypothermia deaths of a family from India who in January 2022 were directed to walk across the border from Canada into Minnesota during a bitterly cold snowstorm.