Vikings beat Packers, face them again in playoffs. Also: Not such a bad cliff

Green Bay Packers v Minnesota Vikings
Adrian Peterson (28) celebrates a touchdown with teammate Christian Ponder (7) in the first quarter against the Green Bay Packers on Dec. 30, 2012 in Minneapolis. The Vikings earned a playoff spot, and a rematch against arch rivals Green Bay next week, with a thrilling 37-34 win.
Andy King/Getty Images

Today on a holiday-shortened version of the MPR News Update: The Minnesota Vikings clinch a spot in the playoffs after beating the Packers by a field goal. What will 2013 bring after a beastly year for Best Buy and Supervalu? And as 'fiscal cliff' negotiations get down to the wire, some economists say we shouldn't worry if it takes a few weeks longer to hammer out a deal.

PURPLE PASSION: The Vikings earned a playoff spot, and a rematch against arch rivals Green Bay next week, with a thrilling 37-34 win over the Packers Sunday at the Metrodome. Adrian Peterson didn't break the single-season rushing record, but he did put the Vikings in position to win. We have the story, and a photo gallery of Peterson's stand-out year.

SOFT LANDING: Negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff will continue today in Washington. If a deal isn't reached to avert massive spending cuts and tax increases, what happens tomorrow? The answer is that early January will probably look a lot like December even if we go over the cliff.

LOOKING FORWARD: This has been a very bad year for two of Minnesota's biggest public companies: Best Buy and Supervalu. Both stumbled badly in 2012 and there are questions about what will be left of each company a year from now.

TOP HEAVY: New analysis by the Wall Street Journal suggests that tuition at public universities has been rising much faster than inflation because of bloated bureaucracies. Laura Brod, a member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, offered her reaction on Morning Edition.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS: As 2012 comes to a close, we've been replaying some of the stories from the past year that our reporters found most memorable. This morning's story was picked by reporter Dan Gunderson, who recalls a story on a Kurdish family in Moorhead trying to rescue a relative in Iraq who faces death threats because he worked for the U.S. military. Hundreds of Kurdish refugees resettled in Minnesota after Saddam Hussein forced them out of Iraq in the 1980s.

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