Near Two Harbors, 34 structures burned and Highway 61 closed; in Crow Wing County, a 1,600-acre fire sparked evacuations

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Nothing roils the winter news waters like a suggestion to tear down the skyways over Nicollet Mall, apparently. Last week, Sam Newberg --  via streets.mn -- said that would do a lot to get the street back to something livelier (

). But Minnesota, apparently, loves it petri dish/skyways in the winter.

, Iric Nathanson, author of "Minneapolis in the Twentieth Century: The Growth of an American City," today presents a spirited defense.

"We need to acknowledge that Minneapolis is not a year-around outdoor place," Nathanson writes.

Feds Will Require All New Vehicles to Talk to Each Other

2) MNSURE'S RELUCTANCE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE OBVIOUS (CONT'D)   

Though it's taken some steps to confront the botched rollout of the health care law shopping site, MNsure continues to confound with its slow reaction to obvious problems.

 reports today that people who seem to know what they're doing in the call-center industry are having a difficult time figuring out why MNsure has taken so long to respond to the woes.

“Anybody could get it wrong up front, but what was everybody [at MNsure] doing while all of these people were on hold?” said Fred Weiner, president of a call center company tells the Star Tribune.

In response to long waits on hold for customers, MNsure said in a statement that it is hiring more workers. This is 

 a scathing report with recommendations was issued a couple of weeks ago, recommendations MNsure 

Which followed a question from the local newspaper about why people last week were waiting on hold for 40 minutes.

Last summer, call center firms warned members of the MNsure board of directors that problems were ahead.

3) MINNESOTA SUPERIORITY COMPLEX: METEOROLOGISTS     

With today's 0 and below temperature, Minnesota has dropped to zero for the 36th time this winter, well off the record.

The winter has been "interesting" (in a Minnesota way), but it hasn't been surprising and for that we have to thank -- however reluctantly -- the meteorologists who have gotten winter forecasts right almost every day.

That, alone, should give us the ammunition we need to get through the winter in our usual way: lording over the rest of the country in matters of weather.

Good luck, New York. Let us know if you need any advice. We're here to help.

It will be generally impossible for you to save enough money to retire with the lifestyle to which you've become accustomed, this 

 makes clear. This is not the fault of people failing to save enough money, it says:

5) FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"       

A professor at a university in Canada has apologized for his class assignment: creating a program predicting whether a rape victim would kill herself.

The untold story of Keystone. How a farmer in Nebraska almost killed the oil pipeline

(9-12 p.m.) - First hour: Immigration reform.

Second hour: The doctor’s office seems like a natural place for teens to talk about sex, sexual development and sexual health, but new research shows that doctors spent less than 35 seconds talking about it during annual physical exams - if the topic was even brought up at all. What steps can doctors, parents and teens take to better open the lines of communication on this traditionally-uncomfortable topic?

Third hour: Local author Nicole Helget joins us in studio to talk about her latest novel, "Stillwater," which follows two fraternal twins in Minnesota in the years leading up to the civil-war.

 (12-1 pm) -  Legislative preview: Speaker Thissen and Minority Leader Daudt.

 (1-2 p.m.) - Is the United States' approach to Syria failing?

 (3-6:30 p.m.) -   A growing body of research identifies a strong link between health and housing. If your home is unaffordable or your living situation unstable, your health could suffer. Health insurers are taking note. Some are even committing substantial funding to connect low-income folks to better housing options. MPR's Annie Baxter will have the story.

MPR's Mark Zdechlik will stop by the program to talk about tonite's precinct caucuses.

A busboy in San Jose pursued a long-shot dream. Inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley, he started a business importing the local liquor from his native village in Mexico. But this immigrant did much more: He put a global trade deal to work in his favor. NPR will have his story.

NewsCut

Bob Collins

Author

Why the Nicollet Mall skyways should be saved, how MNsure’s ‘arrogance’ helped create the health care sign-up mess,  the weather could be worse: it could be a surprise,  the fallacy of retirement, and a professor apologizes for his ‘rape assignment.’

Saving skyways, MNsure’s reluctance, and why our weather person is better than your weather person (5×8 – 2/4/14)

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