The city is concerned that a victory could "completely eliminate 'disparate impact' civil rights enforcement, including under the Fair Housing Act." A statement from St. Paul says this unintentional outcome is the main reason why it's dismissing the petition. The case involves a group of 16 landlords that claim the city's housing code enforcement violates the Fair Housing Act. The lawsuit will still go to trial in Federal court later this year.

The St. Paul City Council has ordered six families still living in a pair of condemned apartment buildings in the city's Payne-Phalen neighborhood to move out by Monday. The 33-unit Westminster Court apartment complex had hundreds of code violations and was foreclosed on, and the new owners need to vacate the buildings in an effort to bring them up to code.

Thirty workers have walked off the job to protest a new dress code at Dianne's Fine Desserts. After a worker's long dress was caught in a piece of floor machinery, women were forbidden from wearing dresses that hang below the knee. The workers are Muslim and say dressing modestly is a tenet of their religion.

The Pioneer Press reports city police found an enormous fiberglass cow bolted to a trailer and abandoned in the street, so they hauled it into the impound lot. The owner, whoever that may be, has a right to reclaim it, but the trailer isn't registered. If no one claims the cow, the city will auction it.

The city says not more than 30 percent of the homes on a block can be rentals, but some homeowners say that rule is illegal and unconstitutional. They say the city is unfairly restricting what they can do with their property and not giving them equal opportunity to obtain rental licenses.

The In-Forum reports residents claim they're being short-changed -- currently, the city is offering to buy their flood-prone property for about 88 percent of its market value. That's a lot less compared to other buy-outs in the Red River Valley -- which have averaged around 108 percent.

Homeowners near the University of St. Thomas will now find it difficult to convert their houses into student housing after Wednesday's vote by the St. Paul City Council to enact a 150-foot buffer between off-campus student apartments. The Pioneer Press says university area residents have long complained of student "party houses" and late-night drunken behavior.