By CHRIS SERRES, Minneapolis Star Tribune
$75 billion mortgage bailout no help to many homeowners
Nine months ago, the Obama administration offered banks $75 billion in taxpayer money to rework troubled mortgages.
Big banks now offer payday loans
For more than a decade, the nation's payday lenders have battled the perception that they operate on the shadowy fringe of the mainstream financial system, outside the reach of government regulators and rules dictating prudent lending.
Now, payday lenders have a powerful new ally in their quest for respectability: big banks.
Attention shoppers, jars and cartons are shrinking
John Schafer wore a pained expression as he stepped back from the snack food display at a Minneapolis grocery store.
He held two bags of Old Dutch Puffcorn, each costing $2. Yet one weighed 10 ounces and the other 9 ounces.
In Minneapolis, stray bullet hits girl, strikes fears
MINNEAPOLIS -- For Jasmine Krebs of Minneapolis, the evening of Sept. 11 started out like any other.After finishing her homework and chatting on WeeWorld.com, a social-networking site for kids, the 11-year-old ran outside in her pajamas to look for a toy she left behind her family's backyard swimming pool.
Dispute over Islamic dress puts 6 women's jobs at risk
Six Somali women claim they were ordered by the manager of a suburban Twin Cities food-processing plant to wear pants and shirts to work instead of their traditional Islamic clothing of loose-fitting skirts and scarves, says the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil liberties group representing the women.

