The Star Tribune and Pioneer Press will not run “Doonesbury” strips in their papers next week. The strips mock Texas’s mandate that women seeking abortions get a sonogram wand inserted in their vaginas.
According to columnist Jim Romenesko, Thursday’s strip contains the line, “By the authority invested in me by the GOP base, I thee rape.”
An upcoming Star Tribune statement will tell readers, “We have substituted Garry Trudeau’s ‘Doonesbury’ cartoon strip planned for this week with alternatives. We believe the original strips planned for this week regarding Texas abortion laws contained inappropriate material for family reading.”
The Pioneer Press will do something similar.
Metro Transit LRT getting a makeover
The Hiawatha light-rail line and future transit corridors are coming under one name and will be known by colors. In action taken Wednesday by the Metropolitan Council, the transit system will be known as “Metro” upon the opening of the Central Corridor line in 2014.
Each segment of the transit web will have its own color. The Hiawatha line that runs from downtown Minneapolis to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America will be called the Blue Line. The Interstate 35W bus rapid transit line will be Orange, while the one for Cedar Avenue will be the Red Line. The Central Corridor rail line connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul will be the Green Line. The system’s logo will change from a “T” to an “M.”
(via StarTribune.com)
Crashed Ice (by weeks101)
Tom got back from his holiday break in the Twin Cities, where this happens.
We hope you all had(/have) a wonderful holiday season!
So in Minnesota, the Twinkle Buses strike the Twinkle Bicycles with impunity?
Yes, and if you’re a snowman, you ride free. But there’s a catch…
Union Depot Light Rail Platforms (by MSPdude)
Are streetcars the answer to our transit and environmental needs?
Both Minneapolis and St. Paul have expressed interest in streetcars, and Minneapolis landed a $900,000 federal grant to explore the idea. The city has embarked on a study of a possible nine-mile line along Nicollet and Central Avenues from 46th Street in south Minneapolis to a transit station just outside of Columbia Heights. (via MinnPost)
Blue Door - and the Juicy Blucy - headed to Longfellow
The new address, at 3448 42nd Av. S. — just down the block from the neighborhood’s terrific new Turtle Bread Co. outlet — certainly means more breathing room.
“It will be slightly larger from what we have now,” said (co-owner Jeremy) Woerner. “Let’s say it’ll go from tiny to small.” That means roughly 80 seats, compared to 40 at the current Blue Door.
The former appliance store is going to require a lot of work. “The building was built in 1919, and it seems like no one has put any money into it ever since,” said Woerner. “It has been used and abused. It takes a lot of imagination to see the possibilities, I’ll just say that. But when you walk in, it’s a great space. We fell in love with it.”
Food-wise, expect to encounter the same emphasis on cheese-stuffed burgers — dubbed “Juicy Blucys” — and what have to be some of the Twin Cities’ best French fries. The bar will continue to focus on craft beers.
(via StarTribune.com)
Oh yes! Dinner at Blue Door and a movie at the Riverview Theater!
About 1,000 stingless Chinese wasps were released in the Summit Hill area of St. Paul on Friday as part of efforts to control the spread of invasive emerald ash borers.
The two species of wasps, obtained from Michigan, are natural predators of the borers. They seek out borer larvae in trees and lay eggs on them. The following year, the wasp larvae finish consuming their hosts, become adult wasps and then go after more borer larvae.
State and city officials hope they’ll provide another way to limit the spread of emerald ash borers, which were discovered in the state in 2009 and have spread to portions of several cities in the Twin Cities. They also are in two southeastern Minnesota counties.
The stingless wasps have been released at all of the other sites as well, according to Mark Abrahamson, emerald ash borer project coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
After the city’s second EAB infestation was discovered two weeks ago, the city cut down six affected ash trees near Summit Avenue and Dale Street on Monday.
Emerald ash borers have destroyed millions of ash trees across the Upper Midwest since they were accidentally introduced in North America about a decade ago.
