(From StarTribune.com) As he coasts toward probable reelection, Minneapolis Mayor R.T.

Rybak can boast of something that hasn't happened since at least 1990:

parity between the unemployment rates of the city and the seven-county

metro.

Both averaged 5.1 percent last year, after several years of a

steadily narrowing gap. The 13-county metropolitan unemployment rate

was 5.2 percent.

Although there's no way to determine cause and effect, the gap

started to close around the time Rybak began in his first term to beef

up the city's investments in job placement and training.

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