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Invoking a decades old law that requires any degree granting academic institution to obtain a license to operate in state (and pay a hefty fee for said license), Minnesota has banned universities from offering free online courses through education site Coursera, prompting the site to issue this notice to all Minnesota users: Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so.

Minnesota reverses decision to ban Coursera after "a staggering amount of backlash" 

Thought it was April Fool's for a minute

Wow, so online education is a political issue? How could Minnesota government think an arcane law to pay fees is going to deter anyone?

Update: apparently this article went viral and the MN state government was so embarrassed by the outcry that they have backed off and said that they will introduce legislation to amend the 20-year-old law in question, noting that it "clearly didn't envision free online classes from accredited universities." Read more about it here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/10/19/minnesota_coursera_ban_state_won_t_crack_down_on_free_online_courses_after.html

Minnesota government uses a decades-old law to ban online classes, then reconsiders after public outrage.

A new survey is showing one in five students are "hyper texters" - texting 120 times a day. This group is three and half times more likely to have had sex with their peers. The study goes on to show those who just text a lot, are more likely to fight, drink and take illegal drugs.