The proposal to build a casino in Block E has won over plenty of business types in Minneapolis, and their support is persuading some influential elected leaders that big-time gambling has a place on the city's entertainment strip, Eric Roper reports. Not everyone feels that legalized gambling would be such a wholesome addition to Hennepin Avenue's budding revitalization, however.

A young Somali-American who graduated from Edison High School could be the suicide bomber who killed at least 10 people in Mogadishu, Jim Adams reports. The decision of Abdisalan Ali to leave Minnesota in 2008 was part of a pattern of recruitment by the militant group Al-Shabab, and at least 10 Minnesotans have died fighting in Somalia in recent years. In a 2009 series, a team of Star Tribune reporters investigated the disturbing phenomenon of the missing Somali men.

People who ski, bike, golf, hike or otherwise recreate in Minneapolis's biggest park (so big it actually spills over into Golden Valley) will have a chance to weigh in on Wirth Park's future, Nicole Norfleet reports.

A state agency will speed up the distribution of $750,000 in loans that victims of the May 22 tornado in north Minneapolis can use to fix their homes before winter, Randy Furst reports. The decision follows Furst's story that only five homeowners got loans from a different state program because of eligibility requirements.

Public safety: County Attorney Mike Freeman determined that a citizen's killing of armed robber Darren Evanovich was an act of self defense, so no charges will be filed, Matt McKinney reports. Meanwhile, a party in an apartment just off Lake Street ended Sunday with the killing of 21-year-old Francisco Hernandez, and a suspect has been arrested in the death, Nicole Norfleet reports.

In the local world of comedy, Louis Lee has played the straight man, but the Chinese immigrant who rarely laughs still managed to make the Acme Comedy Company in the Warehouse District into one of the nation's top venues for comics, Tom Horgen reports.