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Michael Zebuhr of Buckhannon, W.Va., was shot about 10 p.m. Saturday while returning to a car with his mother and two others from an Uptown restaurant. Zebuhr, a graduate student at Clemson University, was in Minneapolis to visit his sister with their mother. Police had made no arrests Monday, and officials said that Zebuhr was near death.

Two guys from Minneapolis embark on a four-state tour of topless clubs, shelling out for champagne, lap dances and various favors from VIP-room strippers. The men are Minneapolis police officers. They are on duty. And their commanders know exactly what the officers are doing, handing them cash advances for their cross-country foray. Minneapolis police sent two officers on the road in 2004 to evaluate whether the city should grant a liquor license to a Denver businessman who owns a chain of strip clubs. The license would have given the businessman, Troy Lowrie, control of a well-known downtown Minneapolis club.

In inaugural speeches Tuesday, Mayor R.T. Rybak and new Council President Barbara Johnson appealed to the public for help building a better Minneapolis in the next four years. Rybak asked those gathered to close their eyes and imagine a city with world-class schools, parks, libraries and cultural institutions, a city where residents can take a streetcar, ride a bike or walk to work and shops, a city where all children grow up knowing they can succeed. "One city. One people. Woven together. Working today for tomorrow," he said. "Now open your eyes and roll up your sleeves. It's time to...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A Minneapolis school board member may owe the district more than $29,000 in unpaid health insurance premiums due a computer glitch, according to documents obtained by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. Board member Audrey Johnson's unpaid premiums began adding up during the 2000-01 school year, when she made partial payments, according to a district memo written in May. In the past two school years, the amount jumped by about $20,000 when she was listed as paying nothing.

The investigation of Council Member Dean Zimmermann is the third federal investigation of Minneapolis City Hall in five years. The other two: • In 2001, the last election year, Council Member Brian Herron resigned and pleaded guilty to extortion. He served a one-year sentence for taking money from Lake Street developer Basim Sabri. Sabri, who was captured on FBI videotape tape giving money to Herron, is now in prison in Leavenworth, Kan. In the Herron case, then-Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton brought in an outside lawyer to conduct an independent investigation. Mayor R.T. Rybak currently has no plan for a separate...

The FBI says it has Minneapolis City Councilmember Dean Zimmermann on tape accepting bribes in return for political favors. In court documents obtained by KARE 11, the FBI agent says Zimmermann was given bribes in exchange for his support on a rezoning issue that came before city council. Zimmermann allegedly took $5,000 last year and is said to have needed the money to repay a legal bill. The court documents say Zimmermann also took bribes totaling $2,200 for his re-election campaign. Thursday night, FBI agents raided the city councilman's house and council office. They removed computers, files, documents, voter lists...

A six-candidate Minneapolis mayoral debate dissolved into a shouting match Wednesday between two audience members. The event, sponsored by the student senate at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College, started off with the typical opening statements but soon grew unusual. Mayor R.T. Rybak's name was misspelled on a slide, and candidate Mark Koscielski was identified on a slide as John Blackshaw, who is Rybak's campaign manager. About 200 audience members had a chance to ask questions, and topics touched on such subjects as welfare reform, financial aid for college, corporate age discrimination and prison populations. A black man went to...

Minneapolis school officials have ordered an inquiry into claims that Superintendent Thandiwe Peebles misused her office by assigning school employees to do personal chores and her college work. School Board Chairman Joseph Erickson said he asked outside attorney Dennis O'Brien to check the allegations in two detailed letters sent anonymously to school board members last month. "We feel like it's important and worth investigating," he said. The Star Tribune also received copies of the letters. Employees and former employees interviewed by the newspaper corroborated some of the details, plus similar allegations. They described an office in which employees working for...

You could say Joe has been there for Ace Allgood his entire life. In first grade, when all-day school seemed daunting, Joe persuaded Allgood to march on. When Allgood proposed to his wife-to-be, Stacey, at the top of a roller coaster, Joe was there to lend support. Joe even appeared at the hospital, dressed as a doctor, when Allgood's daughter was born. Think of Joe, as in G.I. Joe, as more dude than doll. At least Allgood and Hasbro, Joe's manufacturer, would like you to. Five well-lighted cases of the foot-long figurines line the basement in Allgood's Minneapolis home. He...

Minneapolis recorded its 27th and 28th homicides on Tuesday, far ahead of the pace of 16 deaths at this time last year. The dying began early, when, at about 5 p.m., a man was fatally shot in the middle of E. Lake Street, which was filled with pedestrians and commuters.

A Minneapolis police officer was jailed Wednesday on suspicion of kidnapping and raping a woman he met at a St. Paul health club while he was off duty. David M. Hansen, 28, was arrested about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at his home in St. Paul and is being held without bail in the Ramsey County jail. Minneapolis Police Chief Bill McManus placed Hansen, who has been on the force about two years, on paid administrative leave once he learned of the allegations Tuesday. McManus said that allegations against one officer don't reflect the work of the whole department. "This is another...

State Auditor Pat Anderson on Friday called on Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak to reimburse the city for his recent $42,000 newsletter because she believes it violates state law. "While it is appropriate for a city to send out a newsletter to communicate with its residents, it is clear that glossy ... photographs of the mayor and a glowing recitation of his accomplishments do not meet that purpose," Anderson wrote. "Frankly, Mayor Rybak should have saved this brochure for his campaign." Anderson said she saw the brochure after getting a complaint from a constituent late Thursday and reading about it in...

An 87-year-old Minneapolis man died Saturday afternoon when his car collided with a light-rail train, ending three months of accident-free operations for the city's new Hiawatha Line. Service at Metro Transit's 12 rail stations was stopped for more than two hours after the crash, which killed Hilmer Arnold Iverson, who had glaucoma and trouble hearing. No injuries were reported by the train's driver or the 40 passengers on the northbound, single-car train. At the south Minneapolis home that he shared with his father, Gregg Iverson said that his father, known as Arnold, had gone to Target to pick up a...

MINNEAPOLIS - State Rep. Phyllis Kahn pleaded guilty to theft on Thursday for stealing campaign literature. Hennepin County District Judge Stephen Aldrich ordered Kahn to pay $200 in prosecution costs but agreed to defer any additional sentence for a year and dismiss the misdemeanor case then as long as Kahn has no similar violations.

Minneapolis Police Chief Bill McManus played the role of the victim Sunday as he stood in front of a large crowd at a south Minneapolis church. He demonstrated how one of his officers allegedly slapped Joel Matos Ramos in the face with an open hand, how the officer spun him around and caused him to hit his head as he was pushed into the squad car and how the officer whispered something into his ear.

A former Minneapolis police officer was acquitted by a judge Thursday of several charges relating to a December incident in which he got into a fight with another driver while he was drunk. A week after a two-day nonjury trial, Hennepin County District Judge Peter Albrecht found Matthew Dukyoun Olson, 27, guilty of first-offense driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor. The judge acquitted him of second-degree felony assault with a firearm; misconduct by a public officer, a gross misdemeanor; and misdemeanor reckless use of a dangerous weapon. Albrecht said his decision came down to when Olson allegedly pulled out his gun...