Hockey enthusiasts from across the country will be gathering at Lake Calhoun January 21-22 for the first U.S. Pond Hockey Championships, reports Kari VanDerVeen in the Southwest Journal.

The three-day tournament is expected to draw 128 teams, according to the event’s organizer, Fred Habeman. “I knew there was a lot of passion out there for pond hockey,” Haberman said. “But I was overwhelmed by the response.”

The City Council Friday bid a fond farewell to outgoing city coordinator John Moir and welcomed his replacement.

In a unanimous vote, the council approved the appointment of Steven Bosacker, former chief of staff to Governor Jesse Ventura as the new city coordinator, replacing the outgoing John Moir.

Venerable WCCO-TV is bringing the news to the people--on Nicollet Mall, at least.

As Jeremy Stratton reports in the Downtown Journal, the folks at Channel 4 have redesigned their news studio to face the downtown mall as part of longer-term project to make the newscast more public. “It’s a tremendous opportunity to be a window on all that’s happening in this vibrant Downtown area,” said WCCO vice president Ed Piette.

Citing his sterling resume and his contribution to coordinating the city’s new 311 program, a key City Council committee on Monday enthusiastically endorsed Steven Bosacker to replace John Moir as city coordinator.

For several months, Becca Vargo Daggett has been working to help citizens better understand the ramifications of the city's move toward selecting a private vendor to create and manage a Minneapolis Wi-Fi network. Daggett, a research associate for the New Rules Project of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, argues that, like suburban Chaska and other cities in Minnesota and across the country, Minneapolis would be better served by a municipally owned wireless network.

Local impresario Dean Seal has long been known for his role in creating the local Fringe Festival and for his illustrious theater resume in general. The last couple of years, though, has taken Seal into a very different sphere—divinity school and work as a hospital chaplain. He hasn’t lost his connection to the stage—as evidenced by this weekend’s show, Spirit in the House, at Patrick’s Cabaret—but we were curious about his new vocation and about the links he’s been exploring between spirituality and theater. Observer editor Craig Cox contacted Seal earlier this week via e-mail and recorded this exchange.

Mixing hyperbole with humility, Mayor R.T. Rybak and City Council Member Barbara Johnson took their places this morning at the helm of a City Hall hoping to move beyond four years of financial and ethical crises and embrace an ambitious social and economic agenda.

A consortium of community development groups has delivered a list of proposed reforms in the city’s inspection process and is demanding that the City Council call public hearings on the issue in January.

Tonight at 6 p.m., a small collection of enterprising young politicos will gather at Urban League headquarters in North Minneapolis with the intention of creating a new local political party. Against all our better judgment, we wish them the best of luck.

Hey, it snowed over here, too!!