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Minn. Town Outraged After Double Dots Over Its Letter 'O' Are Dropped

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning, I'm David Greene. Minnesota's Department of Transportation was just following federal spelling guidelines when it replaced the road signs outside the tiny town of Lindstrom. They removed the pronunciation mark known as the umlaut. That's the pair of dots above the O in the city's name. The residents of this area, with deep Scandinavian roots, were so angry they were seeing spots. The governor was mad, too. When the news broke he issued an executive order for the DOT to put the dots back. You're listening to MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.