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Star Tribune | December 11, 2018
Metro Transit took a bold step Monday with plans to one day have all of its buses powered by electricity, joining other cities across the country making the move away from diesel fuel.
“It’s an aspirational goal, but we think this plan is set up to be fully successful,” Brian Funk, Metro Transit’s deputy chief operating officer for bus said at Monday’s Metropolitan Council Transportation Committee meeting.
About 60 people packed the committee meeting to applaud the council’s plan to go all-electric — provided operational details can be worked out, including where charging stations will be located, and how the buses will operate in a cold climate.
In particular, labor unions, environmental and transit advocacy groups supported the plan to buy more electric buses in the next four years, with the ultimate goal of phasing out diesel buses entirely.
The Coalition for Clean Transportation, a group of Minnesota-based environmental and social justice groups, said adding electric buses is “an important step to reduce pollution and climate change.” The group, along with the Twin Cities Transit Riders Union, canvassed transit riders for the past several months and found “improving health by reducing pollution was a critical concern.”
“Renewable energy and transit are critical pieces to transitioning Minnesota to a livable environment free from fossil fuel emissions, where everyone can travel without the burden of pollution safely and economically,” said Janiece Watts of Fresh Energy, in a statement.
Metro Transit has already purchased eight 60-foot articulated electric buses for C Line rapid bus service, which will link downtown Minneapolis with Brooklyn Center through the city’s north side. The C Line is expected to begin service next summer.
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal | December 10, 2018
A Forrester Research Inc. report has selected the Twin Cities as one of the hottest U.S. markets to find tech talent.
The national market research firm broke its top-scoring cities into three groups: “elite,” which covered markets where tech talent is abundant but expensive; “value,” which refers to markets that give employers the most “bang for buck;” and “high-growth,” which covered “promising” tech hubs.
The Twin Cities ranked No. 2 in the value category, behind Chicago. Phoenix, Miami and Pittsburgh rounded out the top five.
“[Value talent markets] offer the most bang for buck when we compared the quality and quantity of available tech workers to operating costs,” Forrester said in a blog post covering the report. “These cities offer exceptional value to end-user firms looking for talent to lead their business technology efforts.”
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Pine City Pioneer | November 30, 2018
The unemployment rate in Pine County dropped to 2.5 percent in September 2018 – a new record for the lowest jobless rate ever recorded in Pine County – before rising to 2.9 percent in October 2018, which is still the second-lowest all-time unemployment rate in Pine County since records were first kept in 1990 by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).
This continues a string of record-shattering months in the county. To put it in perspective, before 2018 the previous record low unemployment rate in Pine County was 3.4 percent, which had been tied in three different months: October 2017, October 2000 and October 1999.
That record was broken in July 2018 when Pine County unemployment hit 3.3 percent, and broken again in August 2018 when unemployment fell again to 3.1 percent. As stated above, the new all-time low of 2.5 percent was set in September 2018, and the new second-lowest rate of 2.9 percent in October 2018.
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Star Tribune | December 10, 2018
Duluth is poised to become a TV capital. The Independent Television Festival, formerly headquartered in Los Angeles and now based in Vermont, will announce Monday that it’s moving to the Lake Superior port city.
“We’re dang excited,” said Riki McManus, director of the Upper Minnesota Film Office, who won over ITVFest Executive Director Philip Gilpin with her tour of Duluth’s historic arts and theater district and its rugged beauty. “It’s planting a flag that Minnesota could be the state for independent television.”
ITV’s claim to fame since its founding in 2006 has been a five-day festival that brings together nearly 1,500 participants, including more than 100 representatives from HBO, Disney, Netflix and Bravo, all sniffing for new talent to fill the ever-growing appetite for shows.
Major deals take a back seat to networking; up-and-coming talent like “Drunk History” co-creator Jeremy Konner and “New Girl” actor Jake Johnson have credited past fests for helping them make significant connections when they needed them most.
“We’ve become known as a place where a first-time filmmaker winds up sitting next to an Emmy-winning producer,” said Gilpin, walking around downtown Minneapolis last week without a coat, just like a veteran Midwesterner. “A lot of time, it’s not so much about selling a concept as it is people getting to know each other. A quaint environment with a small-town vibe helps.”
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