City spent millions on no-bid IT contract: Now some top city officials are casting doubt on whether the 10-year Unisys relationship, which dates back to the era of dialup modems, remains the best deal for taxpayers. What's more, a recent audit found the company wasn't following some of the requirements in its contract. Several of the city's IT players who guided the contract's extensions over the years, all of whom have since left the city, had employment ties to Unisys. (Eric Roper)
Payouts reveal brutal, rogue Metro Gang Strike Force: The stories and payouts to 96 victims of the now-defunct Strike Force, cited in 600 pages of documents released last week in a class-action lawsuit, provide the most detailed picture yet of an out-of-control police squad, and put a price on every wrongful seizure, unjustified punch or dubious raid. (Randy Furst)
Rental in fatal south Minneapolis fire lacked rental license: Records show that the house located at 2812 1st Av. S. never had a rental license from the city, although Jenny Soumountha Syonesa and her family had been renting the house for about two years, according Joel Himmel, a family friend. (Masako Hirsch)
Shock therapy rebounds at Hennepin County Medical Center: Electroconvulsive therapy, once branded a barbaric relic of primitive psychotherapy, has made a major comeback and is being administered to patients thousands of times a year at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. (Abby Simons)
Minneapolis mother of 4 fills Twin Cities' bike-camp void: Twenty miles in a day is (little or) no sweat to this group of kids and their parents in Angie Gustafson's camp. (Curt Brown)
Banks coming back home in apartment boom: After fleeing the construction market after the housing bubble burst, bankers are backing residential projects again. (Jennifer Bjorhus)
Neal St. Anthony: Stadium plan puts heat on Convention Center: The pressure is on the two executives who run the city-subsidized convention center and its partner, Meet Minneapolis, to work in concert to drive revenue higher and convention center expenses lower over the next several years. The convention center has failed to generate the revenue its boosters projected 20 years ago; thus an operating subsidy is required. Also, taxpayers are stuck with Convention Center's bad debts (Eric Roper)
Thieves hit several booths at Uptown Art Fair (Tim Harlow)
Serial robber hits Minneapolis bank, this time wearing rubber nose (Paul Walsh)
In heated western Minn. GOP congressional primary, outsiders challenging incumbent
Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame: A class-by-class list of all members
This retired journalist changed professional wrestling from Mankato
