Metro briefs: Minneapolis mayor's answer to stress relief? Cute cats

Mayor Betsy Hodges, who previously gained Internet notoriety for live-tweeting a viewing of "Die Hard," is touting another moment of online stardom — and noting that clicking through cat pictures has helped her get through "tense" council hearings.

Last Friday, the mayor tweeted to the website "Cute Overload," thanking the site for posting a picture she'd submitted of her cat, Argyle, watching Aretha Franklin perform on the "Late Show With David Letterman."

Hodges said she's a longtime fan of the website, which posts photos and videos of animals (other recent updates include a slow-motion video of a chihuahua popping bubbles and a series of photos of kittens Photoshopped to resemble sloths).

And, the mayor said, she turned to Cute Overload to help her get through stressful meetings while she was serving on the Minneapolis City Council.

"When I was on the City Council," she wrote, "I would bring up your website on my screen during tense debates just to have a little balance of my attention. So thank you for being awesome!"

Erin Golden

Mississippi Market will break ground Monday for its third food co-op in St. Paul, bringing a long-awaited grocery store to the Dayton's Bluff area next summer.

The store building will include space for offices, a classroom and a kitchen to prepare deli items. The co-op will open with about 60 employees and may add up to 30 more in the first two years.

The Housing and Redevelopment Authority, which consists of City Council members, set up a tax-increment financing district on the block that will help finance the development of a new affordable senior housing complex next door to the co-op.

KEVIN DUCHSCHERE

A Scott County transformer company has been penalized by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for operating without a required air-quality permit that regulates pollution emissions.

Jordan Transformer, which repairs industrial electrical transformers, began operating its facility without a permit in 2004, according to a release by the MPCA. Owners failed to submit annual and semiannual emissions reports to state regulators; the company also added equipment that had the potential to increase air pollution.

The company has agreed to pay the state a $85,000 fine in installments through February 2015. It is also required to submit emissions inventories for 2004 through 2012 and pay for those missed years.

Liz sawyer

Edina has four new neighborhood associations already formed or in progress.

The Pamela Park and Strachauer Park neighborhoods have officially formed associations; Chowen Park and Normandale Park have held organizing meetings and are in the process of getting established.

Karen Kurt, Edina's assistant city manager, said the city is encouraging the associations as a way to promote communication and give residents an avenue for getting involved in issues of concern.

Kurt said the city also hopes to develop a core of emerging leaders. "Now we're to the point where we can start to bring leaders together, and they can learn from one another," she said. "It's about what they as a group of neighbors want to accomplish."