By Lydia Moran

Copyright minnpost

Minnesota House Democrats have chosen a new caucus leader to fill Melissa Hortman’s seat, the Minnesota Reformer reports. Rep. Zack Stephenson, who has represented the Coon Rapids area since 2019, was mentored by Hortman “for 20 years, teaching him about campaigning, fundraising and serving a Twin Cities metro swing district. Stephenson was also a good friend of Hortman’s and served as a pallbearer during her funeral.”

Hundreds Target workers are returning to the mega retailer’s downtown Minneapolis headquarters Tuesday, in a “long-awaited move Minneapolis leaders hope will spark downtown’s commercial resurgence,” the Minnesota Star Tribune reports. “The question is whether the skyways and restaurants start to bustle.”

Custodians, maintenance staff and food service workers in the University of Minnesota system went on strike late Monday. The work stoppage is expected to spread to the Twin Cities campus Tuesday afternoon. “Workers are demanding parity with other university union settlements and preservation of hard-fought gains won in mediation,” the union said in a statement announcing the strike, MPR News reports.

The Mayo Clinic will close six clinical locations across southern Minnesota before 2026, KROC reports, shrinking the health system’s locations from 26 to 19. “Rural and community healthcare across the country is facing significant challenges, including staffing shortages and declining patient volumes,” reads a news release announcing the closures.

Are we in for a colorful fall? “We had about average weather. Trees seem pretty happy,” Eli Sagore, forestry specialist with the University of Minnesota, told WCCO. “My guess is that this is going to be a pretty good fall foliage season.” That is, if an early freeze doesn’t come.