In a solemn, pre-dawn ceremony, the flag that's been flying over Minnesota's State Capitol for decades was lowered for the last time. Voices hushed in a crowd of more than a dozen onlookers at 5 a.m. on Saturday as the flag with Civil War-era imagery was carefully carried from the darkened Capitol rooftop to the building's front steps, where two National Guard members folded it into a tri-cornered shape and presented it to the state's Historical Society for preservation. As the sun rose, a new official banner was hoisted on the same flagpole overlooking St. Paul, a stripped-down design featuring...
