This Saturday’s a great excuse to patronize your favorite local bookstore— or adventure to one you’ve never been to— when Independent Book Store Day ushers in a host of goodies. For one thing, 28 Twin Cities stores are giving out Rain Taxi’s Twin Cities Independent Bookstore Passport 2024, illustrated by local artist Kevin Cannon. Gather 15 stamps and you can enter to win a Prize Pack, filled with gift cards and signed books. Get all 28 stamps and you can enter to win the grand prize: a $25 gift card to all 28 stores.  Besides that enticement, many of the stores are celebrating with thei ..read more

It turns out I’m not hardcore enough to be able to endurance-watch three Shakespeare History plays in one day as part of the Guthrie Theater’s marathon series, but I did check out the first of the Henriad by seeing Richard II. I’ve been so impressed with Tyler Michaels King’s past performances (his portrayal as the emcee in Theater Latte Da’s “Cabaret” haunts me to this day), and I was excited to see what he was going to do with one of Shakespeare’s most foolish and ineffective rulers.  Helped along by a gaudy and over the top costume design by Trevor Bowen, Michaels King’s Richard  ..read more

WASHINGTON — Jen Shaffer, whose genealogy business took off after she used TikTok to market her services, is among millions of Americans concerned about the future of the popular social media platform as the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on legislation that could ban the app. Shaffer, who lives in New Brighton, traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to try to persuade Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith to vote against the bill that would require TikTok, owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance, to change its ownership within a year. If not, mobile app stores and web-hosting providers would ..read more

There’s no question construction of the 13.4-mile Blue Line light rail extension will affect property owners, businesses and renters along the route. But so far, many of them say they want more assurances from Hennepin County and Met Council planners ranging from financial support to more certainty about how the project will affect them. Planners earlier this month unveiled ideas — but few details — of how they want to help local residents and businesses navigate construction, as a proposed $70 million package from the Legislature to help those affected is still in play.  Yet even with a ..read more

The Legislature’s adjournment date of May 20 is fast approaching. Before legislators leave the halls of the Capitol — unlikely to return until 2025 — the Senate should make time to vote on two historic confirmations.  The highly qualified leaders running the Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency have yet to be confirmed by the DFL-led Senate. Doing so would fortify the commissioners’ positions at the helm of their agencies and provide a moment to celebrate the role of women in leadership positions. When appointed in 2019, Commissioner Sarah Strommen m ..read more

You have just a few more days to catch a wonderful exhibition at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, featuring the work of Carolyn Świszcz and Natasha Pestich. Both artists received the McKnight Printmaking Fellowship, and while they weren’t chosen specifically to create work that bears relationship with each other, the exhibition rings of a nice conversation between the two artists’ bodies of work.  For one thing, I kept thinking about notions of the “American Dream” as I wandered through the show. In the Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that in the new country citizens wou ..read more

Two months after a cyberattack on a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary halted payments to some doctors, medical providers say they’re still grappling with the fallout, even though UnitedHealth told shareholders on Tuesday that business is largely back to normal. “We are still desperately struggling,” said Emily Benson, a therapist in Edina, Minnesota, who runs her own practice, Beginnings & Beyond. “This was way more devastating than covid ever was.” Change Healthcare, a business unit of the Minnesota-based insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, controls a digital network so vast it processes nea ..read more

Kailez Campbell, a 20-year-old student at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, grew up playing soccer in Blaine, which is home to the National Sports Center, the world’s largest amateur sports facility, according to the company. In an effort to upgrade the facility, the Blaine City Council last week approved $12 million in property tax abatement to help fund the installation of 10 new artificial turf fields. But Campbell, as well as Blaine City Council member Lori Saroya and other residents, have voiced concerns about the potential for forever chemicals in the synthetic turf. “Blaine has ..read more

Ryan Faircloth at the Star Tribune reports Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, was arrested Monday in Detroit Lakes on suspicion of first-degree burglary. Deena Winter with Minnesota Reformer reports a watchdog group alleges Sen. Nathan Wesenberg, R-Little Falls, “filed a misleading [campaign finance] report.” “Wesenberg lent his campaign $10,805. He then reported making a $5,000 payment on the principal and $1,000 interest payment to himself. The principal on the loan was listed as unchanged — despite the $5,000 payment.” Deena Winter, Minnesota Reformer An update on a standoff in Woodb ..read more

Paul Walsh at the Star Tribune is covering the developing story of SWAT personnel being dispatched Monday morning to a Target store in Woodbury that was put on lockdown. A customer inside reported that the lockdown ended around 11 a.m., but little else is known at this writing. Adam Uren at Bring Me the News reports six people were arrested in Mankato after the execution of a search warrant led to the discovery of 6,000 pills containing the potentially deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. Kirsti Marohn at MPR News is following a bill being debated at the State Capitol that would update Minnesota ..read more