Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Minnesota Business News Round Up, Tuesday, June 10th

The floodwaters in Fillmore County are receding, but they have already hurt business. Lanesboro is known as the tourist destination in the county. A wet spring and now a soggy summer have kept cyclists and boaters away. The county has just declared the area a disaster and more rain is on the way.

For many recent college graduates, job prospects have thinned and landing that entry level job is a chore. The sour economy is challenging optimistic, young members of the workforce who face unemployment rates nearly three times that of the general population. Graduates are also pressured to find employment to pay off record amounts of student loan debt.

June 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. trade deficit widened in April as the surge in oil prices propelled imports to a record, overshadowing the biggest gain in exports in four years. The gap grew 7.8 percent to $60.9 billion, more than forecast and the most since March 2007, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Excluding petroleum, the shortfall was little changed. March's deficit was revised lower.

ATLANTA — Pinnacle Airlines Corp. shares fell nearly 25 percent today after it disclosed that Delta Air Lines plans to cancel its flying contract with the regional carrier, citing poor on-time performance. Eagan-based Northwest Airlines, Pinnacle's biggest customer, has no current plans to change its relationship with Pinnacle. However, Delta is acquiring Northwest, worrying investors about what that might mean for Pinnacle's future if the contract termination sticks.

Wells Fargo & Co. has retained CB Richard Ellis to sell bank-owned residential lots and land in Otsego and Lakeville.

A federal jury in St. Paul has acquitted a Prior Lake businessman of 26 counts of bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy charges involving alleged corruption in casino development and contracting practices with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. Craig Potts, 36, is the former chief executive officer of Cash Systems Inc., which provided check-cashing services to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe for its gaming operation.

Minnesota transportation officials have cut off traffic at three busy river crossings since March, betting that motorists will put up with the hassle of lengthy detours to avoid a repeat of the deadly Minneapolis bridge collapse.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration filed a complaint for permanent injunction against seafood processor Captain's Select Seafood, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., and two of its top officers for violating the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). The FDA's enforcement action follows the company's extensive history of violating the FD&C Act and the agency's Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations. FDA's HAACP regulations require that all seafood processors develop and implement adequate plans that identify all food safety hazards that are likely to occur for each kind of seafood product, and contain preventative measures that the processor can implement to control those hazards. "We simply can't allow a company to put the public's health at risk by not having ade

The owners of Canterbury Park, a race track and card club in Shakopee, Minn., have signed a letter of intent with RED Development L.L.C., a Kansas City–based retail developer, to explore the possibilities of adding destination retail to the property. Canterbury Park Holding Corp. and RED will examine the feasibility of a master-planned retail, entertainment and mixed-use development that would be integrated into the existing 400-acre property.

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--General Mills announced today its agreement to purchase Denver-based Humm Foods, makers of LÄRABAR® and LÄRABAR JOCALAT™. The brands will become part of Small Planet Foods, the natural and organic products group of General Mills, and a category leader with its Cascadian Farm and Muir Glen brands. The agreement will close tomorrow, June 11.

ST-LAMBERT, QC, June 10 /CNW Telbec/ - Roctest Ltd. "Group Roctest" (TSX:RTT - News) has been awarded a major contract from Flatiron Constructors/Manson Construction Company of Minneapolis (Flatiron-Manson JV), principal contractors for the I-35W Minnesota Bridge construction. The contract includes instrumenting the I-35W Bridge with conventional vibrating- wire products and fiber optic instruments. This bridge project is a world-first for Group Roctest for this type of combined applications as it also combines Roctest newly introduced SensCore concrete corrosion monitoring system.

With gas prices bumping up against $4 a gallon, many employees are wondering if they could work at home and ditch their increasingly costly commutes. Some organizations are showing more enthusiasm for telecommuting. But most employers aren't sold on the value of letting employees work from home

As fuel costs rise, operators of ambulance and helicopter fleets in the Twin Cities are rethinking how they do business.

The number of E. coli-related beef recalls jumped last year. And now federal researchers are investigating whether cattle feed made from a by-product of ethanol production promotes E. coli growth in cows. Prior research has established a link between E. coli and distillers grain, an ethanol leftover that's a popular source of cattle feed.

The Grafton City Council has approved a 10-year, 100-percent tax exemption for Marvin Windows to expand its plant. Last week, the Warroad-based company announced plans to nearly double the size of the Grafton plant and add 50 jobs in the next five years.

By dint of both human intention and geographical good fortune, Minnesota is in so many ways a great place to live and work. It also is bedeviled by racial disparities — some of the nation's most pronounced — in graduation rates, incarceration rates, home ownership and health and other measures of well being and potential.

From its name, cap-and-trade legislation sounds harmless enough. Unfortunately, cap-and-trade would be more aptly called "tax and trade" or "tax and spend" and it is far from harmless, posing a serious threat to our economy and our personal freedoms.

More than 300,000 Minnesotans – and millions across the United States – are poised to take advantage of new job opportunities in the growing “green” economy, according to a new report released by a group of labor and environmental organizations.

LAMBERTON, Minn. (AP) ? Authorities in southwestern Minnesota say about $35,000 worth of copper wire has been stolen from a construction site. The Redwood County Sheriff's Office says the copper wire was taken from Highwater Ethanol's construction site near Lamberton, which is about 40 miles from Marshall.

THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. — A large dairy feedlot near Thief River Falls has gotten so smelly that state health officials recently advised people nearby to evacuate. The hydrogen sulfide fumes have been at high levels at Excel Dairy, and people living nearby have complained of headaches, nausea and weakness.

A land-grant university has a unique responsibility to take the long view. The preservation of the past and the realization of the future are inherent in our mission — and as a university, we have an obligation, greater even than that of our elected officials, to thoroughly analyze complex problems and their several solutions before drawing conclusions.

Wilsons The Leather Experts Inc. announced Monday that Nasdaq plans to delist its stock, but the company plans to appeal.

BURNSVILLE, Minn. (AP) - Some Minnesota developers want to build a new minor-league baseball stadium in the southern Twin Cities suburb of Burnsville. The $27 million proposal will be presented Tuesday night at a Burnsville City Council meeting.

On the 338th day, will the breach finally be closed? Builders of the new Interstate 35W bridge have circled Independence Day on their calendars for an important milestone in the $234 million project — completion of the main span over the Mississippi River, and the first day the bridge will cross the river since Aug. 1.

It may be hard to appreciate as you’re shelling out what seems like a small fortune at the gasoline pump, but there are silver linings hidden in the dark clouds of runaway oil prices. As some folks switch from private cars to public transit, total travel on U.S. streets and roads is declining for the first time in decades, reducing both congestion and pollution. Transit ridership is hitting 50-year highs, easing some of the budget pain bus and rail agencies are feeling from the higher fuel prices they must pay, too.

At the Minnesota High Tech Association, rising gas prices have inspired a new policy: Employees can pick one day each week to work from home. Taylor Pettis figures that policy is like a $500 raise. That's how much his gas math tells him he'll save each year by cutting out one 59-mile round-trip drive a week from his Woodbury home to St. Louis Park.

Alliant Techsystems Inc. will combine its launch systems and space systems groups into a single business unit, the company said Tuesday.

Like shopping at Best Buy but don't like their lack of customer service and crappy return policy? They've got an offer for you. Spend $2,500 per calendar year and you'll be considered a "Reward Zone Program Premier Silver Member." The benefits of this membership are immediately apparent. You'll get your own dedicated customer service line that's only for Premier Silver Members, and a more generous return policy as well. Why should good customer service be available to bad customers? We've got the text of a Best Buy Reward Zone Silver Training Document, inside.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures soared $3 early Tuesday, rebounding after their steep decline in the previous session. Crude oil for July delivery rose $3.15 at $137.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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