The FBI is reporting that it stopped an imminent terror attack by an 18-year-old at the Mall of America after a two-year sting operation that ended with agents selling the suspect a rifle and ammunition before arresting him on the spot. His plan was to execute an attack at MOA on Oct. 24, the day of a large Hmong arts celebration at the mall. 

The Detroit Lakes campus of the Minnesota State Community and Technical College is slated to close as early as the summer of 2028 after the cost of building repairs and upkeep grew too high. There are 111 students currently enrolled in two programs there — nursing and radiologic technology — and the latter will be moved to the system’s Moorhead campus while the former will be relocated in Detroit Lakes.

Charges have been filed against Veronica Marie Brown in the shooting that occurred at Minneapolis nightclub Reign last July 19. DNA testing of cartridges from the scene showed that Brown and two other suspects were 100 billion times more likely to be the source of the DNA than three unknown people. Brown said she doesn’t remember what she did that night, which is certainly one way to play it.

Last month, several patients of two Minnesota doctors received letters from UnitedHealthcare that their doctors were dead. These were followed a few weeks later by a second set of letters, indicating that the doctors were in fact alive and, bonus, still in-network. So much for the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns. 

More than 1,000 businesses in the Iron Range have now received grants from Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation, which funds two grant programs with taxes from the mining industry. Recent grantees include Virginia’s Maco Theater, which used the money to convert the nearly 100-year-old theater from the city’s steam heating system to natural gas. 

In a surprise to exactly no one, it turns out voter fraud is exceedingly rare, even after a massive investigation by the administration that resulted in the indictment of 10 Minnesotans. 

It’s really no surprise that Trump’s team could find so little voter fraud in Minnesota. In the two general elections from 2018 to 2020, Minnesotans cast roughly 6 million votes. Court records show there were just 40 convictions for registering or voting illegally in those years. That’s just 20 convictions in each cycle — or 0.00067% of votes cast.

The Potluck Food Hall at Rosedale Center is closing up shop in mid-October after a near seven-year run, taking with it shops including OG Za Za and Smack Shack. Don’t worry, Auntie Anne’s will remain open as it’s an autonomous unit for mid-mall snacking and not part of the food court.

And finally in your (not really) Minnesota news roundup: A recent city council meeting in the small-ish Iowa town of Ottumwa was opened as it generally is, with a prayer by a guest. “Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat at the tree of knowledge,” Matthew Dalbey, a member of The Satanic Temple, intoned, closing with: “Hail Satan.” Local pastor (actually named) Rick Bick spoke shortly after, saying, “That was a curse put on our city when he said hail satan and oh dark god. Most of you know that, and we need to just stop and reverse it.” No word on whether it got reversed.