Effective immediately, KSAX-TV will no longer produce and broadcast its regularly scheduled local news cut-ins. The move affects 17 employees at the Alexandria television station. KSAX Station Manager Ed Smith told the Echo Press, "The rising costs of technology, along with increased competition in viewing choices, have made it impossible for the station to remain profitable in its current form." The ABC affiliate will continue to offer central Minnesota viewers local and national programming from its Twin Cities-based sister station, KSTP-TV.

The Orchestra is grappling with a $2.9 million deficit. The 16 jobs being eliminated include positions in public relations, marketing, and finance but no musicians.

St. Paul-based Ecolab plans to close its Grand Forks office next July, the Herald reports. The facility has 144 full-time employees who support accounting, customer service, human resources, information technology and other administrative functions related to Ecolab's Pest Elimination business. Layoffs could begin as soon as January. Some employees may be able to work from home or take other jobs at Ecolab locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois or Indiana.

The cuts will be spread evenly across the company's Marshall and Bloomington offices. The company has about 2,500 Minnesota workers among its 16,000 employees. Two years ago its workforce was twenty percent larger.