An arctic cold front will move through the state today bringing snow showers and leaving frigid temperatures to linger through early next week. Strong northwest winds will usher in the cold air with readings falling below zero early the coming evening. Wind chills will drop off quickly to 20 to 30 below tonight as air temperatures fall below zero and winds slowly diminish. The coldest days ahead will be Monday and Tuesday of the coming week. High temperatures are expected [...]
The state added another 9,100 jobs in December, according to figures released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). In addition to those gains, job figures from November were revised from 10,800 jobs gained to 12,300 jobs gained. The state has added about 50,700 jobs over the past year, a growth rate of 1.9 percent, compared with a growth rate of 1.4 percent nationally. The state unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 5.5 percent last [...]
Gas prices in St. Cloud have slowly been decreasing the past few weeks — in fact the average retail gasoline prices in Minnesota have fallen over 8 cents per gallon this past week alone. Don’t get too excited, though. According to GasBuddy.com’s 2013 Fuel Price Outlook, $4 per gallon gasoline is to be expected in the coming months. Towards the end of February, the upward trend will begin and continue until sometime in May. While projected to begin to decrease [...]
New data released by the Minnesota Department of Health today clearly shows that the state is experiencing a very severe flu season, with significant numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Although the numbers of hospitalizations reported rivals the 2009 pandemic, there is no evidence of a new influenza virus circulating and state health officials stressed that the profile of the disease outbreak is very much in keeping with other very severe seasonal influenza years. To date, Minnesota hospitals have reported [...]
The St. Cloud Salvation Army exceeded its Christmas campaign goal this year. Four other cities in Minnesota also exceeded their goals – Rochester, Fairmont, Brainerd, and Austin. Some unexpected large gifts, including one for $250,000 and another for $100,000, and thousands of other well-timed gifts that poured into mailboxes last week helped the Salvation Army Northern Division meet their fundraising goals. “We are grateful for the outpouring of gifts throughout Minnesota and North Dakota,” said Lt. Col. Daniel Sjögren, Salvation [...]
College graduates will see more opportunities for employment in 2013, according to the ninth annual MN College Job Outlook survey. Half the employers surveyed plan to increase their hiring, which is up from 36.4 percent in 2012 and is the highest since 2007. Industries most likely to increase hiring are financial services, retail and business services. View a summary of the findings (PDF). Conducted by the university’s Career Services Center, the MN College Job Outlook surveys employers recruiting new college graduates [...]
The 2013 economic outlook from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis calls for continued growth in the Minnesota economy. Based on the Minneapolis Fed’s statistical model, employment in Minnesota is expected to grow by a solid 2.2 percent, while the unemployment rate is predicted to drop to 4.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. Growth in personal income is expected to exceed 5 percent. “The Minnesota economy continued on its upward trend in 2012, and it looks like growth [...]
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension today announced that the gun likely used to kill Cold Spring Police Officer Tom Decker has been recovered. On Wednesday, January 2 just after 2 p.m., Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) agents were attempting to conduct a follow-up interview at the home of a Cold Spring resident as of part of the investigation into the shooting death of Officer Decker. The individual they hoped to interview fled the agents, entering an outbuilding on his [...]