One recent University of Minnesota graduate has created his very own land down under in Minnesota’s farmland, replete with kangaroos, an emu and an exotic

bird collection.

Christian Lilienthal graduated from the University’s College of Food and Agricultural Sciences with an agricultural education degree last year. He ...

Plans to close the 52-year-old therapeutic pool located on the University of Minnesota’s West Bank campus are being met with heavy opposition from neighborhood residents and commuting patrons.

In January, the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview sent a letter to pool patrons announcing the decision to permanently close the pool at 2450 Riverside Ave.

The pool is scheduled to close ...

After conducting a 20-year study that spanned two continents, Peter Reich knows a thing or two about leaves.

Reich, a professor in the Department of Forest Resources, received the BBVA Foundation’s Frontiers of Knowledge and Culture award last month for his study that examined the fundamentals of leaf design.

It was 1985 when Margaret Carlson received the phone call from the University of Minnesota beckoning her to fill an open fundraising position.

She said she always intended to work at the University, but as it turned out, fundraising would not be her higher calling.

“I saw there was an ...

Some longtime residents and business owners around campus are accustomed to being approached by various people asking for spare change. Most of the time they’re harmless, but some people have raised concerns recently about panhandlers’ presence on campus.

Kerry Kramp Jr., franchisee of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, said he has recently noticed there have been more aggressive panhandlers around his restaurant. ...

University of Minnesota men’s basketball player Trevor Mbakwe saw another court date come and go without a resolution, all but ensuring that the junior-college transfer will not play this season.

Monday’s proceedings surrounding a felony aggravated battery charge resulted in another status report being set for March 8 in Miami-Dade ...

PE 1262 Marathon Training is no normal class. It meets at 7:30 a.m. Sundays, students are encouraged to run five times a week and the data they log during training may help illuminate the physical effects of long-distance running.

The research could strain the widely held theory that athletes sacrifice explosive power ...

Monday’s snowstorm caused more than its fair share of headaches for Minnesota drivers.

By 2 p.m. there had been 359 crashes that caused property damage, 57 crashes that resulted in personal injuries and 416 vehicles that left the roadway statewide.

There were no fatal crashes.

Minnesota Department of Transportation ...

When winter weather sets in and roads get bad, students of all ages cross their fingers in hopes of a snow day. But students at the University of Minnesota know they’ll probably have to tough it out.

Monday’s snow led to dozens of weather-related school closings across the state. ...

Images of bruised and bloodied men flashing toothless grins have become synonymous with hockey. For years, the sport was once deemed to be too violent for the opposite sex.

But a generation of women is proving that hockey is not just a sport for men, and with rising participation levels in ...

By Kate Iverson & Jahna Peloquin

Happy Love Week, Twin Citians! It’s definitely not too late to do something thoughtful for the friends and lovers on your list. Use our sappy sweet guide filled with suggestions on gifting, entertaining, crafting and more to ensure your Valentine’s Day has a happy ending. Pun intended. This year we’ve teamed up with ...

Wonkette highlights a story first heard on MPR ["Pawlenty buys some Alabama goodwill, but who paid for it?"]

Wonkette ledes their story: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the 2012 candidate everyone’s heard about and immediately forgotten, holds a very special position for the Republican ...

(via @MikeRylander)

Holy Crap!!!!!! #SnackAttackSamurai is the most watched commercial of all time!! http://short.to/16q6w var my_tooltip = new Tooltip('dr2', 'tooltip_dr2')

Sometime around 5:30, I suppose. Or whenever you want to arrive! W.A. Frost is at var my_tooltip = new Tooltip('dr3', 'tooltip_dr3')

According to Shot in the Dark, Bob Collins broke ...

WCCO asks, “are Minnesotans sick of winter?” Yeah, no shit we are. Aren’t we sick of winter every year, about two or three weeks into it?

“We’re tired of it but I’ve been living here for 24 years, so it’s as ...

I'm not saying this is the last week of buzz.mn; I'm just saying it could be. That's all.

So: name this town!

Oh Tom I TOLD YOU. Go HERE for the Sunday strip, complete with clue-emphasizing colorization. (Had to be done.) 

Our long drought is over: finally, someone’s done his part for Miscreant Round-up! Makes up for otherwise slim pickings:

“Theft. Police were called to Coborn's Superstore, 7900 Sunwood Drive NW., in regards to a theft. A man had shoved steaks down his pants and left the store. He was last seen getting into a vehicle.�

Carefully and slowly, ...

Here's this week in Minnesota history, as conveniently compiled by the fine Book of Days, and shamelessly hoovered up here for more than a fifth of a decade:

"1869: Norwegian newspaperman Paul Hjelm-Hansen leaves Alexandria to travel to the Red River by oxcart. Hjelm-Hansen had been hired by the State Board of ...

Another template-busting Sunday strip. As much as we hate to taunt the template this way, and make it feel inadequate for having such a narrow option for the text field, well, its days are numbered. Very extremely numbered. It's ...

It’s the weekly survey of small-town websites, and I expect it will bring the usual gentle chiding: they’re not for the outside world! They’re for residents. I disagree, and so do most of the people who set up the sites, it seems - they’re constantly touting the town’s advantages to draw investment and residents. If so, then they need to ...

We begin Monday with this week in our history, from the indispensable Book of Days.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the arrival of the first passenger train in Fairmont. I wonder if anyone got off. Or on. They must have known it was coming, unless the tracks were laid at night and covered with brush to make ...

Another Sunday strip, and I apologize for not cleaning it up as much as usual. You will admire the frank, shameful penitence of the last panel, though. 

Solution posted early this evening.  Good luck!

Your host is bedeviled by meetings and video shoots and column work today, so no time for Miscreant Roundup. Seems a good time to introduce a new feature, though: name that Minnesota Town! This feature ran in the Sunday color ...

This week we head off to Dodge County - first up, it’s Dodge Center in Dodge County. So even when you get out of Dodge, you’re still in Dodge.

Logo? No. Slogan? Two: “A Solid Foundation,� and my favorite, “Stepping Toward the Future.� Sounds rather tentative. Picture of downtown: yes, and it’ ...

Neighborhood coffee shop and cafe in the heart of Powderhorn Park, ...

Joëlle Vitiello is a professor of French and Francophone studies at Macalester College in St. Paul.  She also studies Haitian literature, and happened to be in Port-au-Prince on January 12, so she was an eyewitness to the earthquake in Haiti.  The Daily Planet interviewed Vitiello about her experiences during the earthquake, the aftermath, and what the future ...

When 16-year-old Bria Jones emerged in the waiting room after having a cavity filled, her mother, Copper Oya, expressed a mixture of gratitude and relief.  MORE »

Minnesota construction workers - among the hardest hit nationally by the great recession - are encouraged by lawmakers' plans to adopt a major infrastructure bonding bill. The state Senate is set to act Monday on a $1 billion bill, with the House slated to follow a week later, putting a bill on the governor's desk before the end of February, DFL leaders ...

I have been watching with interest as a couple of Minnesota school districts have discussed shortening their school week to four days.  The heart of the issue is budgetary constraints.  The expected savings would be derived from reduced salaries, less heating/cooling of buildings , and reduced transportation needs.  Unfortunately, the economic gain would rob these kids of opportunities.& ...

Once in a blue moon the start of the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day fall on the same day. This is one of those unusual years when we celebrate both holidays on February 14. In looking for special ways to celebrate that won't break the budget, I sat down with Daniel Lam of Shuang Cheng in Dinkytown and selected three delicious ...

It all comes down to the dress. Aside from a woman's wedding (and arguably her funeral), no occasion demands more physical primping and pampering than the ominous high school formal.  MORE »

Northeast Minneapolis happens to be the area in the city where many of the streets are named after United States Presidents so it seems fitting that this neighborhood mark Presidents' Day in a special way. What better way to commemorate our presidents than with a walk through the neighborhood that marks many of their names? var my_tooltip = new Tooltip('dq7', 'tooltip_dq7')

The Vietnamese Community of Minnesota celebrated the 2010 Tet Festival last Saturday at Armstrong High School in Plymouth.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson started out the event with a welcome, followed by an ancestral blessing ceremony performed by community elders and the Dragon Dance performed by Hung Vuong Association of Minnesota.

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I was somewhat surprised to read recently about a new psychological malady, which goes under the rough title of "post-Avatar depression." Some viewers of James Cameron's brilliant science fiction/fantasy epic reportedly are experiencing confusion and depression - a few folks are having suicidal thoughts.

A recent

Rep. Tom Emmer introduced a bill last Thursday mandating photo identification in order to vote in Minnesota. Emmer, a Republican candidate for governor, has gained the support of the Tea ...

Mike Bonanno (left) and Andy Bichlbaum demonstrate the Survivaball

Long before college conservatives were planning videotaped ACORN stings or Tea Partiers were wielding copies of “Rules for ...

Text and image via hartanderson.org

When Republican activist Rae Hart Anderson last ran for Minnesota Senate, she ended up conceding the race to Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, the state’s first Hindu legislator, by ...

Photo: WDCpix

Former Sen. Norm Coleman has been hitting the trail to promote the new think tank he’s heading up. The American Action Network hopes to take advantage of the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning rules ...

At a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Los Angeles last week, Rep. Michele Bachmann offered a candid view of her positions on Israel: Support for Israel is handed down by God and if the United States pulls back its support, America will ...

Photo: wdcpix.com

Mike Huckabee is invading Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s turf. The former Arkansas governor and likely 2012 presidential candidate will be visiting Minnesota in April to var my_tooltip = new Tooltip('dr5', 'tooltip_dr5')

National Tea Party Convention organizer Judson Phillips. Photo: David Weigel

NASHVILLE — In the weeks leading up to the National Tea Party Convention, Judson Phillips didn’t do much talking ...

Minnesota's Joe Basel. Photo: David Weigel

NASHVILLE — Justin Elliot picked ...

Reps. Keith Ellison and James Oberstar have signed on to a letter written by Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., that urges the Senate to pass the public option for health care reform as part of any reconciliation process.

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In a fiery fundraising pitch for the American Conservative Union Strikeforce, Rep. Michele Bachmann asks supporters, “Will you let Barack Obama KILL conservatism?” Calling the president a “political street fighter,” she says his “agenda is a dagger ...