Hennepin County Government Center

Hennepin County ( HEN-ə-pin) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapolis to the suburbs and outlying cities in the western part of the county. The county’s natural areas are covered with extensive woods, hills, and lakes.As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,281,565. It is the most populous county in Minnesota, and the 34th-most populous county in the United States; more than one in five Minnesotans live in Hennepin County. Hennepin County is included in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Hennepin County Law Library is a law library located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded in 1883.

Thrivent ( THRYVE-int) is a Fortune 500 not-for-profit financial services organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Appleton, Wisconsin, and founded by Lutherans. As a member-owned fraternal benefit society, it operates under a chapter system, serving nearly 2.3 million members.Operating through its local chapters nationwide, Thrivent and its subsidiaries offer financial products and services including life insurance, annuities, mutual funds, disability income insurance, credit union products, money management, brokerage services, retirement planning and more. In 2013, the organization and its members provided volunteer services to charitable organizations and schools. Reportedly, Thrivent members volunteered more than 8.6 million volunteer hours in 2013 and contributed $182.7 million to organizations and activities that aim to strengthen families and communities.In June 2013, members voted to allow non-Lutheran Christians to join, and in March 2014 the marketing name was shortened from "Thrivent Financial for Lutherans" to "Thrivent Financial". In the middle of 2020, the company was rebranded as "Thrivent".

Government Plaza station is a light rail station on the Blue Line and Green Line in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This station is located on 5th Street South, between 3rd and 4th Avenues South in Minneapolis. This is a side-platform station. Service began at this station when the Blue Line opened on June 26, 2004. To retain a pleasant view of the Minneapolis City Hall from the adjacent plaza area, the shelters at this station are spaced widely apart, at each end of the long platform. This is the only segment of the line downtown along 5th Street where there is not a roadway for automobiles running next to the rails.

The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the Minneapolis Tribune in 1867 and the competing Minneapolis Daily Star in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolidated, with the Tribune published in the morning and the Star in the evening. They merged in 1982, creating the Star and Tribune, and it was renamed to Star Tribune in 1987. After a tumultuous period in which the newspaper was sold and re-sold and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, it was purchased by local businessman Glen Taylor in 2014.The Star Tribune serves Minneapolis and is distributed throughout the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the state of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. It typically contains a mixture of national, international and local news, sports, business and lifestyle content. Journalists from the Star Tribune and its predecessor newspapers have won seven Pulitzer Prizes, most recently winning for Breaking News in 2021. The newspaper's headquarters is in downtown Minneapolis. As of September 2021, according to the Alliance for Audited Media, the Star Tribune is the third largest daily newspaper and fourth largest Sunday newspaper by total paid print circulation in the United States.

The CenturyLink Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota was completed in 1932 and became the tallest building to be built in the city during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Named for its current owner, it was previously known as the Qwest Building and the Northwestern Bell Telephone Building. Originally standing 346 feet (105 m) tall, the structure grew to 416 feet (127 m) with the addition of a microwave antenna "crown" in 1958, followed by the addition of a second tier of microwave antennas in 1972. It was the second-tallest building in the city after the slightly older Foshay Tower for many years, and stands slightly taller than the tower of its neighbor, Minneapolis City Hall. The building has many small details on the exterior, including electric bolts and a stylized bird above the main entrance. When under construction, an unusual move was made by stripping a 1920s Northwestern Bell building on the site and the steel frame was incorporated into the new structure. The building was expanded on its west side in the 1940s.

SPS Tower (formerly known as the 333 South Seventh Street) is a 454.494-ft (139 m) tall skyscraper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was completed in 1987 and has 33 floors and 650,000 square feet (60,000 m2). It is the 16th-tallest building in the city. It was originally a two-tower project, but only the east tower was built. A small landscaped plaza fronting 3rd Avenue South now occupies the plot for the west tower. The two towers would have had a bow-tie shaped footprint, and shared the same lobby at the center of the site. A skyway connects this building to the 701 Building and the Ameriprise Financial Center. The Senator Hotel was demolished to make way for this building.

The US Bank Plaza is a two-tower high-rise building complex in Minneapolis, Minnesota. US Bank Plaza I is a 561-foot (171 m) tall, 40-floor skyscraper. US Bank Plaza II is a 321-foot (98 m) tall, 23-floor skyscraper. Originally called Pillsbury Center, the complex was completed in 1981. The complex has a 500 car parking garage below and is connected by skyway to the Capella Tower, Hennepin County Government Center, Canadian Pacific Plaza, and the McKnight Building. Tower I served as the corporate headquarters of the Pillsbury Company from its 1981 completion until Pillsbury's acquisition by General Mills in 2001. The name of the building was changed to US Bank Plaza in 2004. The towers are clad in travertine marble and have bronze-tinted reflective windows.

The Minneapolis City Council is the lawmaking body of Minneapolis. It consists of 13 members, elected from separate wards to four-year terms, via a ranked-choice method. The council structure has been in place since the 1950s. In recent elections, council membership has been dominated by the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL). As of 2022, 12 members identified with the DFL, while one identified with Democratic Socialists of America. Until the 2021 Minneapolis City Council election, the city's government structure was considered a weak-mayor, strong-council system. However, a charter amendment was passed that gave the mayor more power and reduced the council to purely legislative duties.

The Minneapolis Aquatennial is an annual outdoor event held in the U.S. city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the third full week of July. Originating in 1940, the Minneapolis Aquatennial celebrates the city's famous lakes, rivers, and streams. Advertised as The Best Days of Summer the festivities previously included some 70 events, including sand castle building, beach volleyball, a tennis invitational, a triathlon, parades, Subway Block Party and the final Target Fireworks. The annual "Milk Carton Boat Races," featured various divisions of boat races with boats constructed of milk cartons. The fireworks display is one of the largest in the country, and larger than the city's Fourth of July celebration. Minneapolis celebrated its centennial in 1956 in conjunction with the Aquatennial. The city's sesquicentennial was July 18–27, 2008, the year Minnesota celebrated 150 years of statehood.The Aquatennial was cancelled from 1942 to 1945 because of World War II, and in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minneapolis City Hall and Hennepin County Courthouse (also known as the Municipal Building), designed by Long and Kees in 1888, is the main building used by the city government of Minneapolis, as well as by Hennepin County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The structure has served as mainly local government offices since it was built, and today the building is 60 percent occupied by the city and 40 percent occupied by the County. The building is jointly owned by the city and county and managed by the Municipal Building Commission. The Commission consists of the chair of the County Board, the mayor of the City of Minneapolis, a member of the County Board and a member of the Minneapolis City Council. The County Board chair serves as the president of the Commission and the mayor serves as the vice president. The building bears a striking resemblance to the city hall buildings in Cincinnati and Toronto. The City Hall and Courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Capella University is a private for-profit, online university headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school is owned by the publicly traded Strategic Education, Inc. and delivers most of its education online. Capella has 52 degree programs with over 1900 online courses. Approximately 38,000 students are enrolled from all 50 states and 61 other countries, with 23 percent enrolled in doctoral programs, 47 percent enrolled in master's programs, and 27 percent enrolled in bachelor's programs.