Popular : March 2017

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Outdoor recreation

Minnesotans participate in high levels of physical activity,^[147] and many of these activities are outdoors. The strong interest of Minnesotans in environmentalism has been attributed to the popularity of these pursuits.^[148]
In the warmer months, these activities often involve water. Weekend and longer trips to family cabins on Minnesota's numerous lakes are a way of life for many residents. Activities include water sports such as water skiing, which originated in the state,^[149] boating, canoeing, and fishing. More than 36 percent of Minnesotans fish, second only to Alaska.^[150]
Fishing does not cease when the lakes freeze; ice fishing has been around since the arrival of early Scandinavian immigrants.^[151] Minnesotans have learned to embrace their long, harsh winters in ice sports such as skating, hockey, curling, and broomball, and snow sports such as cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling.^[152] Minnesota is the only U.S. state where bandy is played.^[153]
State and national forests and the seventy-two state parks are used year-round for hunting, camping, and hiking. There are almost 20,000 miles (32,000 km) of snowmobile trails statewide.^[154] Minnesota has more miles of bike trails than any other state,^[155] and a growing network of hiking trails, including the 235-mile (378 km) Superior Hiking Trail in the northeast.^[156] Many hiking and bike trails are used for cross-country skiing during the winter.

Sports, recreation and tourism

Minnesota has a very active program of organized amateur and professional sports. Tourism has become an important industry, especially in the Lake region. In the North Country, what had been an industrial area focused on mining and timber has largely been transformed into a vacation destination. Popular interest in the environment and environmentalism, added to traditional interests in hunting and fishing, has attracted a large urban audience within driving range.^[140]

Organized sports

Main article: Sports in Minnesota

The University of North Dakota and St. Cloud State University during the WCHA Final Five at the Xcel Energy Center.

Minnesota has professional men's teams in all major sports. Minnesota Vikings play in the National Football League since 1961. The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome hosted the team from 1982 to 2013 season; it has been torn down and U.S. Bank Stadium now stands in its place.
The Minnesota Twins play in the Major League Baseball since 1961, having won the 1987 and 1991 World Series. The team plays at Target Field since 2010. The Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association played in the Minneapolis Auditorium from 1947 to 1960, after which they relocated to Los Angeles. The Minnesota Timberwolves joined the NBA in 1989, and play in the Target Center since 1990.
The National Hockey League's Minnesota Wild play in St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center and reached 300 consecutive sold-out games on January 16, 2008.^[141] Previously, the Minnesota North Stars competed in NHL from 1967 to 1993, which played the 1981 and 1991 Stanley Cup Finals.
Minnesota also has minor-league professional sports. NASL Minnesota United FC replaced the Minnesota Thunder in 2010 and plays at the National Sports Center in Blaine. They will eventually join Major League Soccer in 2017 or 2018.^[142] The Minnesota Swarm play at the Xcel Energy Center and play in the NLL (National Lacrosse League). Minor league baseball is represented both by major league-sponsored teams and independent teams such as the St. Paul Saints, who play at CHS Field in St. Paul.
Professional women's sports include the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association, winners of the 2011, 2013, and 2015 WNBA Championships, the Minnesota Lightning of the United Soccer Leagues W-League, the Minnesota Vixen of the Independent Women's Football League, the Minnesota Valkyrie of the Legends Football League, and the Minnesota Whitecaps of the National Women's Hockey League.
The Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I school competing in the Big Ten Conference. Four additional schools in the state compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey: the University of Minnesota Duluth; Minnesota State University, Mankato; St. Cloud State University and Bemidji State University. There are nine NCAA Division II colleges in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, and nineteen NCAA Division III colleges in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and Upper Midwest Athletic Conference.^[143]^[144]
The Hazeltine National Golf Club has hosted the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, U.S. Senior Open and PGA Championship. The course will also host the Ryder Cup in the fall of 2016, when it will become one of two courses in the U.S. to host all major golf competitions.^[145]
Interlachen Country Club has hosted the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, and Solheim Cup.
Winter Olympic Games medallists from the state include twelve of the twenty members of the gold medal 1980 ice hockey team (coached by Minnesota native Herb Brooks) and the bronze medallist U.S. men's curling team in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Swimmer Tom Malchow won an Olympic gold medal in the 2000 Summer games and a silver medal in 1996.
Grandma's Marathon is run every summer along the scenic North Shore of Lake Superior, and the Twin Cities Marathon winds around lakes and the Mississippi River during the peak of the fall color season. Farther north, Eveleth is the location of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

Outdoor recreation

Fishing in Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis

The common loon's distinctive cry is heard during the summer months on lakes throughout the state.^[146]

Media

The Twin Cities area is the fifteenth largest media market in the United States as ranked by Nielsen Media Research. The state's other top markets are Fargo–Moorhead (118th nationally), Duluth–Superior (137th), Rochester–Mason City–Austin (152nd), and Mankato (200th).^[135]
Broadcast television in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest started on April 27, 1948, when KSTP-TV began broadcasting.^[136] Hubbard Broadcasting, which owns KSTP, is now the only locally owned television company in Minnesota. There are currently 39 analog broadcast stations and 23 digital channels broadcast over Minnesota.
The four largest daily newspapers are the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, the Pioneer Press in Saint Paul, the Duluth News Tribune in Duluth and the Post-Bulletin in Rochester. The Minnesota Daily is the largest student-run newspaper in the U.S.^[137] Sites offering daily news on the Web include The UpTake, MinnPost, the Twin Cities Daily Planet, business news site Finance and Commerce and Washington D.C.-based Minnesota Independent. Weeklies including City Pages and monthly publications such as Minnesota Monthly are available.
Two of the largest public radio networks, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and Public Radio International (PRI), are based in the state. MPR has the largest audience of any regional public radio network in the nation, broadcasting on 37 radio stations.^[138] PRI weekly provides more than 400 hours of programming to almost 800 affiliates.^[139] The state's oldest radio station, KUOM-AM, was launched in 1922 and is among the 10-oldest radio stations in the United States. The University of Minnesota-owned station is still on the air, and since 1993 broadcasts a college rock format.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Minnesota

Election results from statewide races^[125]
Year	Office	GOP	DFL	Others
2014	Governor	44.5%	50.1%	5.4%
2014	Senator	42.9%	53.2%	3.9%
2012	President	45.1%	52.8%	2.1%
2012	Senator	30.6%	65.3%	4.1%
2010	Governor	43.2%	43.7%	13.1%
2008	President	43.8%	54.1%	2.1%
2008	Senator	42.0%	42.0%	16.0%
2006	Governor	46.7%	45.7%	7.6%
2006	Senator	37.9%	58.1%	4.0%
2004	President	47.6%	51.1%	1.3%
2002	Governor	44.4%	33.5%	22.1%
2002	Senator	49.5%	47.3%	1.0%
2000	President	45.5%	47.9%	6.6%
2000	Senator	43.3%	48.8%	7.9%
1998	Governor	34.3%	28.1%	37.6%
1996	President	35.0%	51.1%	13.9%
1996	Senator	41.3%	50.3%	8.4%
1994	Governor	63.3%	34.1%	2.6%
1994	Senator	49.1%	44.1%	6.8%
1992	President	31.9%	43.5%	24.6%

Minnesota is known for a politically active citizenry, and populism has been a longstanding force among the state's political parties.^[126]^[127] Minnesota has a consistently high voter turnout (due in part to its liberal voter registration laws) with virtually no evidence of unlawful voting.^[128] In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, 78.2 percent of eligible Minnesotans voted—the highest percentage of any U.S. state—versus the national average of 61.2 percent.^[129] Previously unregistered voters can register on election day at their polls with evidence of residency.^[130]
Hubert Humphrey brought national attention to the state with his address at the 1948 Democratic National Convention. Minnesotans have consistently cast their Electoral College votes for Democratic presidential candidates since 1976, longer than any other state. Minnesota is the only state in the nation that did not vote for Ronald Reagan in either of his presidential runs. Minnesota has gone to the Democratic Party in every presidential election since 1960, with the exception of 1972, when it was carried by Richard Nixon and the Republican Party.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties have major party status in Minnesota, but its state-level "Democratic" party is actually a separate party, officially known as the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). It was formed out of a 1944 alliance of the Minnesota Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties.
The state has had active third party movements. The Reform Party, now the Independence Party, was able to elect former mayor of Brooklyn Park and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura to the governorship in 1998. The Independence Party has received enough support to keep major party status. The Green Party, while no longer having major party status, has a large presence in municipal government,^[131] notably in Minneapolis and Duluth, where it competes directly with the DFL party for local offices. Official "Major party" status in Minnesota (which grants state funding for elections) is reserved to parties whose candidates receive five percent or more of the vote in any statewide election (e.g., Governor, Secretary of State, U.S. President).
The state's U.S. Senate seats have generally been split since the early 1990s, and in the 108th and 109th Congresses, Minnesota's congressional delegation was split, with four representatives and one senator from each party. In the 2006 midterm election, Democrats were elected to all state offices except for governor and lieutenant governor, where Republicans Tim Pawlenty and Carol Molnau narrowly won reelection. The DFL posted double-digit gains in both houses of the legislature, elected Amy Klobuchar to the U.S. Senate, and increased the party's U.S. House caucus by one. Keith Ellison (DFL) was elected as the first African American U.S. Representative from Minnesota, as well as the first Muslim elected to Congress nationwide.^[132] In 2008, DFLer and former comedian and radio talk show host Al Franken beat incumbent Republican Norm Coleman in the United States Senate race by 312 votes out of 3 million cast.
In the election of 2010, Republicans took control of both chambers of the Minnesota legislature for the first time in 38 years and, with Mark Dayton's election, the DFL party took the governor's office for the first time in 20 years. Two years later, the DFL regained control of both houses, and with Governor Dayton in office, the party had same-party control of both the legislative and executive branches for the first time since 1990. Two years later, the Republicans regained control of the Minnesota House in the 2014 election,^[133] and in 2016, the GOP also regained control of the State Senate.^[134]

Regional

In addition to the city and county levels of government found in the United States, Minnesota has other entities that provide governmental oversight and planning. Some actions in the Twin Cities metropolitan area are coordinated by the Metropolitan Council, and many lakes and rivers are overseen by watershed districts and soil and water conservation districts.

Federal

Minnesota's United States senators are Democrat Amy Klobuchar and Democrat Al Franken. The outcome of the 2008 U.S. Senate election in Minnesota was contested until June 30 the next year; when the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of Franken, Republican Norm Coleman conceded defeat, and the vacant seat was filled by Franken.^[124] The state has eight congressional districts; they are represented by Tim Walz (1st district; DFL), Jason Lewis (2nd; R), Erik Paulsen (3rd; R), Betty McCollum (4th; DFL), Keith Ellison (5th; DFL), Tom Emmer (6th; R), Collin Peterson (7th; DFL), and Rick Nolan (8th; DFL).
Federal court cases are heard in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, which holds court in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, and Fergus Falls. Appeals are heard by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in St. Louis, Missouri and routinely also hears cases in St. Paul.

Tribal

The State of Minnesota was created by the U.S. out of the homelands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe native peoples. Today the remaining native governments are divided into 11 semi-autonomous reservations that negotiate with the US and the state on a peer nation-to-nation basis:
Four Dakota Mdewakanton communities:

Seven Anishinaabe reservations:

The first six of the Anishinaabe bands compose the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, the collective federally recognized tribal government of the Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, and White Earth reservations.

Law and government

As with the federal government of the United States, power in Minnesota is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.^[121]

Executive

Main article: Governor of Minnesota

Governor Mark Dayton

The executive branch is headed by the governor. Governor Mark Dayton, DFL (Democratic Farmer Labor), took office on January 3, 2011, to become the first DFL governor to hold the seat in two decades. The governor has a cabinet consisting of the leaders of various state government agencies, called commissioners. The other elected constitutional offices are secretary of state, attorney general, and state auditor.

Legislature

Main article: Minnesota Legislature

The Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul, designed by Cass Gilbert.

The Minnesota Legislature is a bicameral body consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The state has sixty-seven districts, each covering about sixty thousand people. Each district has one senator and two representatives (each district being divided into A and B sections). Senators serve for four years and representatives for two years. In the November 2010 election, the Minnesota Republican Party gained twenty-five house seats, giving them control of the House of Representatives by a 72–62 margin.^[122] The 2010 election also saw Minnesota voters elect a Republican majority in the Senate for the first time since 1972. In 2012, the Democrats regained the House of Representatives by a margin of 73–61, picking up 11 seats; the Democrats also regained the Minnesota Senate.

Judiciary

Minnesota's court system has three levels. Most cases start in the district courts, which are courts of general jurisdiction. There are 279 district court judgeships in ten judicial districts. Appeals from the trial courts and challenges to certain governmental decisions are heard by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, consisting of nineteen judges who typically sit in three-judge panels. The seven-justice Minnesota Supreme Court hears all appeals from the tax court, the workers' compensation court of appeals, first-degree murder convictions, and discretionary appeals from the court of appeals; it also has original jurisdiction over election disputes.^[123]
Two specialized courts within administrative agencies have been established: the workers' compensation court of appeals, and the tax court, which deals with non-criminal tax cases.

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Minnesota

The Aerial Lift Bridge at Duluth

Transportation in Minnesota is overseen by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT for short and used in the local news media). Principal transportation corridors radiate from the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area and Duluth. The major Interstate highways are Interstate 35 (I-35), I-90, and I-94, with I-35 and I-94 passing through the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area, and I-90 traveling east-west along the southern edge of the state.^[115] In 2006, a constitutional amendment was passed that required sales and use taxes on motor vehicles to fund transportation, with at least 40 percent dedicated to public transit.^[116] There are nearly two dozen rail corridors in Minnesota, most of which go through Minneapolis–St. Paul or Duluth.^[117] There is water transportation along the Mississippi River system and from the ports of Lake Superior.^[118]

A Metro Blue Line vehicle in Minneapolis

Minnesota's principal airport is Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport (MSP), a major passenger and freight hub for Delta Air Lines and Sun Country Airlines. Most other domestic carriers serve the airport. Large commercial jet service is provided at Duluth and Rochester, with scheduled commuter service to four smaller cities via Delta Connection carriers SkyWest Airlines, Compass Airlines, and Endeavor Air.^[119]
Amtrak's daily Empire Builder (Chicago–Seattle/Portland) train runs through Minnesota, calling at the Saint Paul Union Depot and five other stations.^[120] Intercity bus providers include Jefferson Lines, Greyhound, and Megabus. Local public transit is provided by bus networks in the larger cities and by two rail services. The Northstar Line commuter rail service runs from Big Lake to the Target Field station in downtown Minneapolis. From there, light rail runs to Saint Paul Union Depot on the Green Line, and to the MSP airport and the Mall of America via the Blue Line.

Education

Main article: Education in Minnesota

The Richardsonian Romanesque Pillsbury Hall (1889) is one of the oldest buildings on the University of Minnesota Minneapolis campus.

One of the Minnesota Legislature's first acts when it opened in 1858 was the creation of a normal school in Winona. Minnesota's commitment to education has contributed to a literate and well-educated populace. In 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota had the second-highest proportion of high school graduates, with 91.5% of people 25 and older holding a diploma, and the tenth-highest proportion of people with bachelor's degrees.^[107] In 2015, Minneapolis was named the nation's "Most Literate City", while St. Paul placed fourth, according to a major annual survey.^[108] In a 2013 study conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics comparing the performance of eighth-grade students internationally in math and science, Minnesota ranked eighth in the world and third in the United States, behind Massachusetts and Vermont.^[109] In 2014, Minnesota students earned the tenth-highest average composite score in the nation on the ACT exam.^[110] In 2013, nationwide in per-student public education spending, Minnesota ranked 21st.^[111] While Minnesota has chosen not to implement school vouchers,^[112] it is home to the first charter school.^[113]
The state supports a network of public universities and colleges, including 32 institutions in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System, and five major campuses of the University of Minnesota. It is also home to more than 20 private colleges and universities, six of which rank among the nation's top 100 liberal arts colleges, according to U.S. News & World Report.^[114]

Health

Minnesotans have low rates of premature death, infant mortality, cardiovascular disease, and occupational fatalities.^[95]^[96] They have long life expectancies,^[97] and high rates of health insurance and regular exercise.^[95]^[98]^[99] These and other measures have led two groups to rank Minnesota as the healthiest state in the nation; however, in one of these rankings, Minnesota descended from first to sixth in the nation between 2005 and 2009 because of low levels of public health funding and the prevalence of binge drinking.^[95]^[100]
On October 1, 2007, Minnesota became the 17th state to enact the Freedom to Breathe Act, a statewide smoking ban in restaurants and bars.^[101]
Medical care in the state is provided by a comprehensive network of hospitals and clinics headed by two institutions with international reputations. The University of Minnesota Medical School is a high-rated teaching institution that has made a number of breakthroughs in treatment, and its research activities contribute significantly to the state's growing biotechnology industry.^[102] The Mayo Clinic, a world-renowned hospital based in Rochester, was founded by William Worrall Mayo, an immigrant from England.^[103]^[104]
U.S. News and World Report's 2014–2015 survey ranked 4,743 hospitals in the United States in 16 specialized fields of care, and placed the Mayo Clinic in the top four in all fields except psychiatry, where it ranked seventh. The hospital ranked #1 in eight fields and #2 in three others.^[105] The Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota are partners in the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics, a state-funded program that conducts research into cancer, Alzheimer's disease, heart health, obesity, and other areas.^[106]

A youth fiddle performance at the Minnesota State Fair

Stereotypical traits of Minnesotans include "Minnesota nice", Lutheranism, a strong sense of community and shared culture, and a distinctive brand of North Central American English sprinkled with Scandinavian expressions. Potlucks, usually with a variety of hotdishes, are popular small-town church activities. A small segment of the Scandinavian population attend a traditional lutefisk dinner to celebrate Christmas. Many of these Scandinavian cultural characteristics and personality traits are satirized on the nationally syndicated public radio program A Prairie Home Companion. Life in Minnesota is depicted in movies such as Fargo, Grumpy Old Men, Grumpier Old Men, Juno, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Young Adult, A Serious Man, New in Town, and in famous television series like Little House on the Prairie, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls, Coach, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and Fargo. Major movies that were shot on location in Minnesota include That Was Then... This Is Now, Purple Rain, Airport, Beautiful Girls, North Country, Untamed Heart, Feeling Minnesota, Jingle All The Way, A Simple Plan and The Mighty Ducks films.
The Minnesota State Fair, advertised as The Great Minnesota Get-Together, is an icon of state culture. In a state of 5.4 million people, there were over 1.8 million visitors to the fair in 2014, setting a new attendance record.^[94] The fair covers the variety of Minnesotan life, including fine art, science, agriculture, food preparation, 4-H displays, music, the midway, and corporate merchandising. It is known for its displays of seed art, butter sculptures of dairy princesses, the birthing barn, and the "fattest pig" competition. One can also find dozens of varieties of food on a stick, such as Pronto Pups, cheese curds, and deep-fried candy bars. On a smaller scale, many of these attractions are offered at numerous county fairs.
Other large annual festivals include the Saint Paul Winter Carnival, the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, Minneapolis' Aquatennial and Mill City Music Festival, Moondance Jam in Walker, Sonshine Christian music festival in Willmar, the Judy Garland Festival in Grand Rapids, the Eelpout Festival on Leech Lake, and the WE Fest in Detroit Lakes.