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.

Peter Hansen, 67, had just mowed his lawn and ducked inside his Vergas home to take a shower, which might have been the safest place for him given what happened next. Hansen made a remarkable escape after an explosion brought his burning home crumbling down around him.

A female employee at a Nicollet County hog farm south of the Twin Cities found a hidden video camera recording in a shower facility, where women are often required to shower to lessen the spread of germs and disease, the Mankato Free Press reports. A total of four recordings with three women, one a topless teen, were discovered. A 53-year-old male employee from New Ulm faces felony charges.

An impressive meteor shower called the Quadrantids is set to hit the northern atmosphere from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesday. You might see up to a meteor a minute if you're far enough from city lights and hardy enough to get up at that hour.

The Italian eatery has been an institution in downtown St. Paul since 1911, and it's 2012 upgrade is impressive, visitors say. The restaurant's new building has been open less than a week, and construction continues as part of a massive overhaul. A new pastry shop was made in Italy, taken apart, shipped to the U.S. and reassembled by Italian craftsmen, WCCO reports.

An ice cream truck owner left his van running outside a St. Paul gas station to keep the frozen treats cold in the 100-degree heat when another man hopped in and made a cool getaway.

The number of oil drilling rigs at work in North Dakota is leveling off, and a state regulator says that's a good thing because the pause "will allow infrastructure and various other things to catch up."

Voters in North Dakoka -- flush with oil boom money and enjoying the lowest unemployment in the nation -- had the chance Tuesday to become the first state to cast off property taxes. But in the end, voters decided to keep the $800 million a year the taxes raise.