Teachers in the St. Paul School District officially have a contract. The school board approved the deal Tuesday night.
The two year agreement promises smaller class sizes and removes four early release days. Teachers also get a half percent cost of living increase each year.
Coon Rapids became the first city in Minnesota to require customers to pre-pay at all gas pumps Tuesday.
In a 5-2 vote the City Council approved the ordinance Tuesday night.
It requires gas station owners to make all gas purchases pre-paid whether its inside or at the pump.
The ordinance goes into effect August 1.
Minnesota’s hunt for a new athletic director has formally begun with the selection of an outside firm and search and advisory committees to help steer the process.
President Eric Kaler announced Tuesday the school will use Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search to identify and screen candidates and arrange and conduct interviews. The firm was used by Minnesota previously to hire three head coaches, Tim Brewster and then Jerry Kill in football and Tubby Smith in basketball. It will cost the school about $100,000, split between the president’s office and the athletic department budgets. Parker has conducted 41 athletic director searches for both public and private universities, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio State in the Big Ten.
“We want the best qualified person in the United States to take this job,” Kaler said.
Finalists are expected to be identified and brought to campus for interviews by late April. Kaler’s goal is to pick Joel Maturi’s successor in early May. Big Ten athletic director salaries range from roughly $350,000 to more than $1 million, and Kaler said Minnesota will probably pay the new AD in the middle of that range.
“I’d be real comfortable with somebody with that sitting AD experience, but I’m open to qualified candidates from really a wide range of backgrounds,” Kaler said.
The search firm keeps the process private to avoid complicating or jeopardizing a candidate’s current job. Kaler won’t be involved in any interviews until finalists are selected. He’ll be debriefed by a four-person search committee until then. The co-chairs of that committee are Tim Mulcahy, the university’s vice president for research, and Mary Jo Kane, a professor of kinesiology and the director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport. She chaired the search committee in 2002 that led to Maturi’s hire.
Advising them will be a 21-member advisory committee of faculty, staff, coaches, current and former athletes as well as off-campus supporters of Gophers sports. Recognizable names are quarterback MarQueis Gray, men’s hockey coach Don Lucia, former football star and current radio analyst Darrell Thompson and former hockey star Lou Nanne.
Maturi has the job until July 1, when he’ll begin a one-year transitional post including teaching, fundraising and advising the new AD. If a big decision is necessary before then, however, Kaler said the new AD would be “in the mix.” Smith’s contract is one potential situation that could need addressing in that timeframe. He’ll have two years left on his original deal after this season, but talks about an extension were recently tabled.
Kaler took over his job just last year, making this one of his most critical decisions. He jokingly called it the “most important hire of the 21st century” before stressing the school’s status “first and foremost” as an academic institution. Kaler also said the biggest challenge facing the new AD will be changing the public perception of Gophers sports, which have largely disappointed the ticket-buying and TV-watching masses in football, basketball and hockey in recent years. The football team in particular has not been to the Rose Bowl in 50 years.
“There is some negativity about Gopher athletics that’s in the community, and I think it’s really unfortunate,” Kaler said. “I think reflecting on what we haven’t been able to do in the past doesn’t really help us going forward.”
He said he wants Maturi’s successor to “really shake the community by the lapels and say, `OK, we can’t do a single thing about the past, but we can be on board as a community.”‘
—
Follow Dave Campbell on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DaveCampbellAP
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Vikings vice president Lester Bagley says negotiations for a new stadium are ongoing.
Team owner Zygi Wilf met Tuesday with Gov. Mark Dayton and chief authors of the stadium bill.
Bagley says there are “complicated negotiations” going on between the Vikings, the state and the city of Minneapolis.
He compared the talks to a prenuptial agreement, saying “we have to live with each other for the next 30 years.”
He says the negotiations are focused on putting a new stadium on the current Metrodome site.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
When a five-judge panel released new state legislative district maps Tuesday it resulted in the clash of political allies and friends.
Legislative districts are redrawn every ten years to reflect shifts in population.
In the House, 30 lawmakers have been paired in redrawn districts. Included are 6 Democratic pairs, 6 Republican pairs, and 2 Republican-Democratic pairs.
Tough decisions will also have to be made in the Senate.
For instance, Senators John Marty (DFL) Roseville and Mary Jo McGuire (DFL) Falcon Heights, who are friends, now find themselves in the same district. The two met privately Tuesday night but say no decisions have been made.
Political analysts say generally lawmakers in this position have three options.They include moving to another district, quitting, or running against one another.
Arron Afflalo hit a tiebreaking floater in the lane with 33.7 seconds remaining in overtime and reserve Al Harrington scored a season-high 31 points as the short-handed Denver Nuggets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 103-101 Monday night.
Afflalo spun past defender Luke Ridnour and swished his shot to put Denver ahead. From there, the Nuggets closed the game out at the line and snapped a three-game skid.
Afflalo finished with 20 points and rookie Kenneth Faried added 14 rebounds as the Nuggets beat the Timberwolves for the 17th time in 18 games.
Kevin Love had 22 points and 13 rebounds for Minnesota, which snapped its three-game winning streak.
Harrington came up big all night, tying the score at 93 on a 3-pointer from the corner with 1:39 remaining in regulation. That would be the last basket before overtime as both teams couldn’t find the range.
Afflalo had a chance to win it at the buzzer in regulation, but his jumper – with Ridnour closely guarding him – clanged off the back of the rim.
In overtime, Afflalo received another chance – and made it count.
Ridnour missed a layup with 17.1 seconds remaining. The Nuggets then gained some breathing room at the free throw line, but still had to hang on in the waning seconds.
Up by three points, Julyan Stone, who was filling in at point guard, turned the ball over. But with time winding down, Martell Webster elected to drive in for the layup instead of pulling up for a game-tying 3, paving the way for Denver’s win.
The Nuggets lost their cool and control of the game late in the third quarter.
Leading 76-69, Andre Miller became irate over an offensive foul and kept barking at the officials, eventually leading to his ejection. The Timberwolves took advantage, using an 11-2 run to take the lead.
Miller’s ejection forced the team to rely on the little-used Stone down the stretch.
The banged-up Nuggets were without Danilo Gallinari (left ankle), Nene (left calf strain) and Rudy Fernandez (lower back strain). They also lost speedy point guard Ty Lawson to a sprained left ankle in the second quarter. His status is day-to-day.
Coach George Karl is hoping to keep the team afloat and not lose ground in the playoff race until he gets all his pieces back. Nene might return later this week and Gallinari could be back on the court soon after the All-Star break.
The possible addition of former Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler might just help. He watched the game Monday night from a suite with team executive Masai Ujiri sitting by his side.
Chandler’s in town as he looks at potential landing places for when his time in China is finished. He signed with Zhejiang Guangsha of the Chinese Basketball Association during the lockout and is ineligible to return until his team signs off and FIBA, basketball’s governing body, gives him clearance.
Asked if he had chatted with Chandler yet, Karl said with a grin, “Is he here?”
The Timberwolves weren’t at full strength, either, as center Darko Milicic didn’t make the trip due to a stomach ailment. Milicic just recently returned to the lineup after missing a few games with a sprained right ankle.
They also lost another center when Nikola Pekovic left with a sprained right ankle. He had seven points and seven rebounds in 15 minutes.
Both teams were playing on consecutive nights. The Timberwolves were coming off a dramatic 92-91 win over Philadelphia, while the Nuggets were reeling from a 124-118 overtime loss to Oklahoma City in which Kevin Durant had a career-high 51 points.
Behind the play of energetic point guard Ricky Rubio, Minnesota jumped out to a 14-point lead early in the second quarter. But Harrington came off the bench to spark the Nuggets, leading the team on a 17-2 run. Harrington scored 14 points in the first half as Denver took a 51-46 lead into the locker room.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Kevin Love will deliver a truck full of coats to a local homeless shelter as part of his annual outreach event.
Love hosted the coat drive for a fourth straight year to benefit The Salvation Army Harbor Light Center, just around the corner from the Target Center arena where the Timberwolves play their home
games. The delivery will take place on Tuesday afternoon.
Donated coats were collected over the past three weeks. Love will play in his second NBA All-Star game next weekend.
He’s in his fourth year in the league.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
The Minnesota Vikings say the organization has reached a tentative deal with the University of Minnesota on how much the team will pay to use TCF Stadium while a new Vikings stadium is being built.
Vikings spokesman Lester Bagley declined to name a dollar amount, but said the “agreement in principle” would add about 3,000 temporary end zone seats to the 50,000-seat stadium. Bagley says other details need to be resolved before both parties sign off on the deal.
The Star Tribune says the Vikings paid $1.7 million to play a game at TCF Stadium after the Metrodome roof collapsed in December 2010.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
It’s been a busy day for crews who are clearing the roadways, and some spots are better than others.
KSTP.com Meteorologist Patrick Hammer says about two to five inches of snow fell across the metro overnight Monday, and we could see some more snow showers again on Tuesday afternoon.
The temperatures are in the mid 30′s so roadways will be slushy, but not very slippery. Most of the slush and snow has disappeared from highways, but parking lots and side streets are still slushy.
The City of Plymouth has declared a snow emergency alert. Full city snow removal began in the city at 7:30 a.m.
Four women from the Twin Cities were killed in a crash on I-94 near Alexandria Monday afternoon. The women were freshman at North Dakota State University. Three of the women were roommates.
The Minnesota State Patrol says 18-year-old Lauren Peterson of Prior Lake, 19-year-old Jordan Playle of Elk River, 18-year-old Megan Sample of Rogers, and 18-year-old Danielle Renninger of Excelsior died when they lost control of their car and went through the median into oncoming traffic.
Peterson was driving, and roads were slippery at the time of the crash. Authorities say all of the women were wearing seat belts, and no alcohol was detected.
Two other vehicles were involved in the crash. The people in those vehicles sustained non-life threatening injuries.
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS found Facebook pages and Twitter feeds for the women who were clearly loved by so many people.
A friend wrote on Peterson’s Facebook page, “Prior Lake is missing a part of its heart and soul. You were one of the most fun and carefree people to be around.”
A friend wrote on Sample’s Facebook page, “You brought so much light into this world. It’s so sad that you left so soon. You will be dearly missed.”
The family of Jordan Playle released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying:
“We would like to express our deepest condolences to the other families involved in this tragedy. We will miss our little girl. Jordan approached life with great joy and happiness. She loved life, and brought the best out in the people around her. Jordan enjoyed meeting other people and valued the differences in everyone. No one could have had a better daughter, sister, or friend! We thank you for your continued prayers and support during this difficult time. We ask the media to respect our privacy.”
There are grief counselors at all of the women’s former high schools and at North Dakota State University to help any students coping with this loss.
Additional details have not been released.
Click here to view photos of the students.
Load Times Plugin made by Ares Free Download