To answer a couple of questions...

I think we are still hiring a few on the 170 right now. I'll probably be headed over that way in the Fall (seat locked for 2 years). You can always go to the 145 as an FO and upgrade to the 170. The pay is the same. Hopefully within the next couple of years we will just become Republic Airways and have 1 certificate. No more Shupubliqua. There are rumors floating around that we will be getting a lot more 170s for Delta here pretty soon once they get their TA straightened out.

As far as commuting from MSP, STL would be your choice base. It's one of our few bases that actually is a hub as opposed to an outstation (in terms of where turns originate) and therefore the trips are much better and commutable. Show times are across the board generally, but typically only the outstation bases have the 5AM stuff (ick). The only thing about STL is that if you upgrade there you will be getting paid the 140 capt. rate which averages about $7 lower than the 145 and I think about $11 below the 170.

Good luck...

Oh yeah, training pay is horrible. When I went through 3.5 years ago it was about $200/week.