Minnesota Lawyer

It was February 2007. In London, one of the world's largest banks, HSBC, was busy writing down its mortgage-backed securities by $10.5 billion as the world plunged into a subprime mortgage crisis during which more than 100 mortgage companies would fail, suspend operations or be sold.

A delegation of local officials who met with congressional leaders late last month to talk up the I-94 Gateway Corridor returned home feeling good about the project's prospects.

It's mid-September, and a festive crowd that's unusually diverse for the Twin Cities has gathered in St. Paul's Lowertown for a book launch.

The Obama administration has allocated $500,000 to an ambitious St. Paul project aimed at helping challenged children in the Frogtown and Summit University neighborhoods to get a leg up on life.

State data show the number of job vacancies in the metro area rose 32 percent in the second quarter compared with the same quarter a year ago.

Think of Bob Hume as that big, beefy, bespectacled hurler who shows up in the final innings when the baseball game is on the line-with a killer pitch.

According to the U.S. State Department, about 30 percent of ethnic Karens in Burma are Christian; the majority practice Buddhism. But 90 percent of those emigrating to the U.S. are Christians-mostly Baptists converted by American missionaries two centuries ago.

From now on, for about a two-mile stretch of the Samuel H. Morgan Regional Trail, pedestrians will not have to deal with those dratted bicyclists.

Mapmaker was Matt Kramer's first job. His subsequent route has taken some unexpected twists and turns.

With her self-deprecating grin, shoulder-length hair and upbeat demeanor, Sharyle "Shar" Knutson is no one's stereotype of a big-city union boss.