Maybe now businesses will notice that Wisconsin is “Open for Business.” In the New York Times, Monica Davey reports that Gov. Scott Walker has signed the “right to work” bill that was fast-tracked through the legislature. The effects of the laws on unions are hard to gauge: “In Michigan, the percentage of workers in unions has dropped to 14.5 percent from 16.6 percent before the changes. Yet in Indiana, the percentage of union members actually grew to 10.7 percent from 9.1 percent in 2012 … In Wisconsin, the percentage of workers in unions has dropped to 11.7 percent in 2014 from 14.2 percent in 2010, before Mr. Walker took office.”

Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Rep. Raúl Grijalva and Rep. Keith Ellison have an op-ed in the Guardian opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. They’d like to see a new standard for these big trade deals: “The US must stop using trade agreements as investment deals for the world’s wealthiest corporations and instead prioritize higher wages, safer work and environmental standards and a healthier world economy. Trade agreements should improve the bottom lines of all Americans, not just of American corporations — or else we shouldn’t enter into them at all.”

Have you noticed that it’s nice out? It might be getting even nicer. Per the Pioneer Press’ Andy Rathbun, the latest forecast for the Twin Cities shows temperatures above 60°F on Tuesday and Thursday. “If Tuesday’s high reaches that milestone, it would be 22 degrees above the 30-year average high for the day and the first 60-degree day since Oct. 27.”

But what’s good for human sanity is bad for ice caves. If you didn’t get out to the Lake Superior ice caves in the last couple of weeks, you’ve only got till 7 p.m. before they are closed for the season, according to Jennifer Brooks in the Star Tribune. For a short season, this is pretty impressive: “In the nine days the caves were open and accessible to visitors this season, 36,000 people trekked across the slippery surface of Lake Superior to marvel at the glittering caves. This weekend alone, the park service saw 17,000 visitors.”

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Is Tom Emmer the new voice of reason in Congress? MPR’s Bob Collins finds the 6th District Republican, successor to Michele Bachmann, “has distinguished himself as the practical kind of politician people insist they want in Washington.”

In other news…

The Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed the decision to throw out the most serious charges against the Waseca school attack plotter. [KSTP]

A St. Paul coin dealer has been charged with bilking clients out of $750,000. [Star Tribune]

Mesabi Daily News executive editor Bill Hanna talks to Rep. Rick Nolan about his daughter Katherine’s battle with cancer. [Mesabi Daily News]

Dan Kraker reports from Chippewa National Forest on the way climate change may accelerate the spread of emerald ash borer. [MPR]

Behold, the hockey hair: