The Minnesota Sports Authority recently announced minority, women and small business goals for the Architects and Engineers portion of building the new Minnesota Vikings Stadium.

Trent Bowman has joined Associated Bank as assistant vice president, Community Reinvestment Act residential loan officer. He will work with first time home buyers to help them obtain down payment assistance funds, as well their best mortgage solution by assisting them throughout the process from loan origination to signing. Bowman brings 17 years of lending experience to the position and is part of the Emerging Markets Home Ownership Initiative. His office is located at 176 Snelling Ave., North St. Paul.

Metropolitan Council Regional Administrator Pat Born has tapped former St. Paul Police Chief and current Minnesota Senator John Harrington to serve as the next Metro Transit Chief of Police. Harrington served as chief of the St. Paul Police Department from 2004 to 2010, though his service with the department goes back more than 30 years. He was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2010.

Pictured: Former St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington returns to law enforcement

Government sector contracting is fundamentally important to the success of minority-owned businesses. Minorities represent a greater percentage of government contractors in comparison to their share of all small businesses. They also receive a greater share of their revenue from the government contracting than do non-minority owned small businesses. To illustrate this point, consider the following.