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Minnesota (/ˌmɪnəˈstə/ MIN-ə-SOH-tə) is a state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" but actually has 14,380 bodies of fresh water covering at least ten acres each; roughly a third of the state is forested; much of the remainder is prairie and farmland. More than 60% of Minnesotans (about 3.7 million) live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, known as the "Twin Cities", the state's main political, economic, and cultural hub and the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Other minor metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas include Duluth, Mankato, Moorhead, Rochester, and St. Cloud.

Minnesota, which gets its name from the Dakota language, has been inhabited by various Indigenous peoples since the Woodland period of the 11th century BCE. Between roughly 200 and 500 CE, two areas of the indigenous Hopewell tradition emerged: the Laurel complex in the north, and Trempealeau Hopewell in the Mississippi River Valley in the south. The Upper Mississippian culture, consisting of the Oneota people and other Siouan speakers, emerged around 1000 CE and lasted through the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century. French explorers and missionaries were the earliest Europeans to enter the region, encountering the Dakota, Ojibwe, and various Anishinaabe tribes. Much of what is now Minnesota formed part of the vast French holding of Louisiana, which the United States purchased in 1803. After several territorial reorganizations, the Minnesota Territory was admitted to the Union as the 32nd state in 1858. Minnesota's official motto, L'Étoile du Nord ("The Star of the North") is the only state motto in French; this phrase was adopted shortly after statehood and reflects both the state's early French explorers and its position as the northernmost state in the contiguous U.S.

As part of the American frontier, Minnesota attracted settlers and homesteaders from across the country. Its growth was initially based on timber, agriculture, and railroad construction. Into the early 20th century, European immigrants arrived in significant numbers, particularly from Scandinavia, Germany, and Central Europe; many were linked to the failed revolutions of 1848, which partly influenced the state's development as a center of labor and social activism. Minnesota's rapid industrialization and urbanization precipitated major social, economic, and political changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the state was at the forefront of labor rights, women's suffrage, and political reform. Consequently, Minnesota is unique among Midwestern states in being a relative stronghold of the Democratic Party, having voted for every Democratic presidential nominee since 1976, longer than any other U.S. state. (Full article...)

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Official portrait, 2015

Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American politician and comedian who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018. He first gained fame as a writer and performer on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where he worked for three stints. He first served as a writer for the show from 1975 to 1980, and returned from 1985 to 1995 as a writer and, briefly, a cast member. After decades as an entertainer, he became a prominent liberal political activist, hosting The Al Franken Show on Air America Radio.

Franken was elected to the United States Senate in 2008 as the nominee of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL, an affiliate of the Democratic Party), defeating incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman by 312 votes out of nearly three million cast (a margin of just over 0.01%) in one of the closest elections in the history of the Senate. He was reelected in 2014 with 53.2% of the vote over Republican challenger Mike McFadden. Franken resigned on January 2, 2018, after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him. (Full article...)
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Blue Line light rail in downtown Minneapolis

The Metro Blue Line is a 12-mile (19.3 km) light rail line in Hennepin County, Minnesota, that is part of the Metro network. It travels from downtown Minneapolis to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and the southern suburb of Bloomington. Formerly the Hiawatha Line (Route 55) prior to May 2013, the line was originally named after the Milwaukee Road's Hiawatha passenger train and Hiawatha Avenue, reusing infrastructure from the former and running parallel to the latter for a portion of the route. The line opened June 26, 2004, and was the first light rail service in Minnesota. An extension, Bottineau LRT, is planned to open in 2028.

The Blue Line is operated by Metro Transit, the primary bus and train operator in the Twin Cities. As of December 2022, the service operates from approximately 3:19 am to 12:50 am with 15‑minute headways most of the day. The route averaged 32,928 daily riders in 2019, representing 13 percent of Metro Transit's ridership. The line carried 10.6 million riders in 2015. (Full article...)
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Largest cities

2020 Rank City 2020 Census[1] 2010 Census[2] Change County
1 Minneapolis † 429,954 382,578 +12.38% Hennepin
2 Saint Paul †† 311,527 285,068 +9.28% Ramsey
3 Rochester † 121,395 106,769 +13.70% Olmsted
4 Bloomington 89,987 82,893 +8.56% Hennepin
5 Duluth † 86,697 86,265 +0.50% St. Louis
6 Brooklyn Park 86,478 75,781 +14.12% Hennepin
7 Plymouth 81,026 70,576 +14.81% Hennepin
8 Woodbury 75,102 61,961 +21.21% Washington
9 Maple Grove 70,253 61,567 +14.11% Hennepin
10 Blaine 70,222 57,186 +22.80% Anoka
Ramsey

 †  County seat
 ††  State capital and county seat

See List of cities in Minnesota for a full list.

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Sources

  1. ^ "United States Census Bureau". U.S. Census Bureau. August 12, 2021. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  2. ^ "2010 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File". American FactFinder2. U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census. Retrieved November 24, 2012.[dead link]
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