By HERON MARQUEZ ESTRADA, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Vodka-soaked candies are the latest method kids are using to get drunk.

That's the warning being sent to hundreds of schools and police agencies, asking them to watch for kids getting drunk by eating Gummi bears soaked in vodka.

One is a high school student. The other, by his own admission, is "older than dirt."

One talks about sports. The other talks about life, business, politics and other adult issues.

But Jake Sobiech and Alan Miller share one thing in common: They are stars, in their own limited universes, courtesy of government-run local-access cable TV.

Rick and Barb Durig are heading to Russia this week. But they don't know when they are coming back -- or whether they will return with the three girls they are trying to adopt.

"Our trip is still on," said Rick Durig, among several present and future adoptive parents of Russian children who met with U.S. Sen. Amy Klobucha, D-Minn., on Sunday. "This is our final visit, we hope."

A Minnesota restaurant has settled its trademark-infringement lawsuit against McDonald's over the corporate giant's use of the slogan "Who's Your Patty?"

"It's our trademark," said Bonnie Notermann, co-owner of Lion's Tap in Eden Prairie, Minn., and "we will be using it."

When Kari Palashewski arrived at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis last Aug. 21, 2008, it was to say goodbye to her 22-year-old daughter, who'd been fatally injured in a car crash. Hours later, Palashewski was saying a tearful and totally unexpected hello -- to a 1-pound, 12-ounce granddaughter born four months prematurely as her mother, Jamie Baer, lay in a coma at HCMC.

When Zubaz were all the buzz 20 years ago, the pants were so popular that their distinctive zebra print was worn by everyone from singer Billy Joel to wrestler Jesse Ventura.The Minnesota creation grew into such a worldwide fad that they could be found everywhere from the sidelines of NFL games and NBA arenas to the wilds of Antarctica.

The college campus of the future is expected to break ground about 20 miles southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul this year, turning the small community of Chaska into a college town and perhaps transforming higher education in the process.The EdCampus Twin Cities will have the traditional library, student center, cafeteria and administrative offices on its 50-acre grounds.