1.   Raising the stakes in the dispute, the hospital has announced that it plans to hire hundreds of temporary replacement nurses to staff the hospital when the strike begins.

2.   Dr. Kevin Nelson, chief of staff at Fairview Southdale, said both hospitals were operating normally with replacement nurses.

3.   Hospitals flew in several hundred replacement nurses from other parts of the country during the past week in preparation for a strike.

4.   In anticipation of a strike, hospitals had lined up non-contract nurses, nursing assistants, supervisors and replacement nurses to cover for striking nurses.

5.   Thousands of replacement nurses began arriving in the Twin Cities area Wednesday as a dozen hospitals prepared for a threatened strike.

6.   Union members said they were frustrated that replacement nurses were being offered higher pay than regular nurses earned.