Metro briefs: MSP Airport rated as one of best managed large airports

Coming in ahead of MSP were Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, while the Vancouver International Airport, in British Columbia, and Tampa International Airport came in fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Air Transport Research Society gathers data on 205 airports worldwide, 82 of them in North America. Data covers general airport information, traffic, aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenue, operating expenses and balance sheets. The group looks at more than 30 performance measures which assess the operating environment of the airport, business diversification efforts, outsourcing and service quality — and then comes up with a score.

MSP Executive Director and CEO Brian Ryks said, "It's the people working behind the scenes who really set MSP International apart."

JANET MOORE

A "Save Our Hospital" ticket has emerged in the North Suburban Hospital Board election, due to concerns that changes at Unity Hospital could be a prelude to its closure.

Linda Hamilton, Corbin Mattila and Bridget Lundquist are running a coordinated campaign in separate races for the six-member board, which founded Unity in 1966 but later ceded management to Allina Health. The board collects $2 million in taxes annually to support the hospital.

Fears of the hospital's closure were stoked by the closing of its maternity unit as part of an expansion at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. Allina officials have acknowledged a transition, including relocating more of its mental health services to Unity, but stated that they are not closing the hospital.

Hamilton is a nurse at Children's Hospital in St. Paul and former president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, the union in a prolonged negotiating battle with Allina over benefits for hospital nurses. She is running for an at-large seat against former board member Rosemary Esler and incumbent Mark Winters.

Lundquist, a nonunion nurse at an Allina clinic, is running against incumbent John Swenson in Mounds View. Mattila, a transportation aide at Unity, is running against incumbent Carol Anderson in Spring Lake Park.

JEREMY OLSON

A Hennepin County judge has ordered Richfield police to return guns seized from a man they believed to have "paranoid delusions."

Ralph Gilbertsen had alarmed police, city officials and managers of his apartment building with a series of letters alleging constant and escalating harassment by the CIA. Police visited his apartment in May 2015 at the request of Hennepin Community Outreach for Psychiatric Emergencies and seized three handguns.

JOHN REINAN

A lecture series about park design and the role of parks in cities leads off this week with an Iranian architect who designed a meandering quarter-mile pedestrian bridge in Tehran.

Leila Araghian will discuss her acclaimed Tabiat bridge, which was opened in 2014 over a tree-lined but heavily trafficked valley. The bridge connects two parks and resembles New York City's elevated High Line.

She will speak at 7 p.m. Friday at Northrop auditorium.

For more information on the Next Generation of Parks lecture series, presented by the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, go to http://tinyurl.com/huqgw6c/.