Southern Californians can expect to see high wait times at the airports and congested traffic on the freeways during the holidays this year.
And because Christmas and New Year’s days both land in the middle of the week, the weekends before the holidays are expected to be the busiest times to travel.
But the good news for road warriors is that gasoline prices are down nationwide.
Around 119.3 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home between Dec. 21 and Jan. 1 using all modes of transportation, according to the American Automobile Assn. About 107 million travelers — or 90%— are expected to be driving to their destinations, which is 2.5 million more than last year.
This year’s overall travel projection breaks the last record travel set in pre-pandemic 2019 by 64,000 people, according to AAA. The agency expects 3 million more travelers this holiday season than last year.
“This is the time of year when lifelong memories are made with loved ones, and travel plays a big role in that,” said Stacey Barber, vice president of AAA Travel. “This year, with Christmas Day falling on a Wednesday, we’re anticipating record-breaking travel numbers the weekend before and the weekend after the holiday.”
Interstate 10 from Los Angeles to Palm Springs is expected to take two hours and 53 minutes on Dec. 22 if travelers leave around 7:45 p.m. — an 81% increase from the typical drive time, according to a news release from AAA .
The 113-mile trek from San Diego to Palm Springs could take more than three hours on Dec. 20 if drivers leave around 6:15 p.m., according to AAA.
For the Bay Area, it could take up to three hours to travel from San Francisco to Sacramento using Interstate 80. From San Francisco to Napa, it’s expected to take nearly two and a half hours for travelers who leave Dec. 21, which is an 82% increase from the typical drive time.
“With a near record number of auto travelers expected this holiday season, drivers should expect delays in and around major metro areas, with Sunday, December 22 expected to be the nation’s worst day to travel,” Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at INRIX said in a AAA news release. “Our advice is to avoid traveling during peak commuting hours during the week. If schedules allow, leave bright and early or after the evening commute.
Gas prices are expected to be lower this year compared to last year, when the national average was around $3.12, according to AAA. Demand for gas tends to decrease in December due to the frigid temperature, more remote work and the rise of online shopping. The national average as of Friday is $3.05 per gallon, according to the Auto Club. In Los Angeles, it is $4.36 per gallon, down from $4.70 a year ago.
Los Angeles is one of the cities with the highest rental demand for the holidays, with the busiest days for car pickup being Dec. 20 and Dec. 21, according to AAA car rental partner Hertz.
Northern California is expected to see a series of atmospheric river storms beginning over the weekend that could further complicate holiday travel.
“It’s going to be pretty messy, especially Monday and Tuesday if you’re trying to travel during those days,” National Weather Service meteorologist Dial Hoang said. “In the North Bay especially, we expect pretty intense rain, increased flooding concerns and possibility for damaging wind gusts, mainly at the coasts and higher elevations.”
Dana Ferguson and Clay Masters at MPR News are reporting a Democratic state lawmaker-elect, Curtis Johnson, is barred from taking the oath of office after Ramsey County District Judge Leonardo Castro ruled Friday that the candidate had failed to comply with state residency requirements, putting the 67-67 tie in the Minnesota House in peril and giving Republicans a line on a slim majority.
Ian Russell at KARE 11 is reporting the St. Paul Public School district board has voted unanimously to offer the superintendent job to Dr. Stacie Stanley, the current superintendent of Edina Public Schools.
Callan Gray at KSTP reports the Minnesota Department of Corrections sent out a memo in October that limited book purchases by inmates to Hamilton Books, HarperCollins, and Penguin Random House. Amazon and Barnes & Noble purchases are not allowed.
David Schuman and Stephen Swanson at WCCO News checked in with the Minnesota State Patrol following Thursday’s snowfall. Between midnight and 8:30 p.m., there were 453 crashes with 38 resulting in injuries and one fatality; 281 vehicles went off state roadways; 37 semis jackknifed and more than two dozen spinouts were reported.
Adam Uren at Bring Me the News reports police responding to a call of a suicidal male found the bodies of a man and a woman in a vehicle at Duluth International Airport on Thursday.
Christina Cauterucci at Slate muses on all of those Harris-Walz camo caps: “Campaigns try to ignite the American imagination, to conjure fantasies of a brighter tomorrow or stir up fears of a nation in decline. Swag from a losing campaign provides a lasting container for those visions. It suggests an alternate history, a route not taken that could have led to a million different worlds better or worse than this one, in a concrete physical form.”
Late night host Jimmy Kimmel hasn’t forgotten about Tim Walz:
Since opening in 1922, my pharmacy, St. Paul Corner Drug, has been a trusted source in serving all of the health needs of our neighbors. However, it’s becoming much more challenging for independent pharmacies to survive. While our doors have remained open, many others in our state have not been as fortunate.
The reality is stark: In 2023 alone, 24 independent pharmacies in Minnesota closed their doors for good. These closures represent a loss of accessible healthcare for communities, particularly in underserved areas. Staffing shortages, rising costs, and an increasingly complex healthcare landscape are just a few of the challenges contributing to this alarming trend.
One resource that has been invaluable to independent pharmacists like me is pharmacy services administrative organizations, or PSAOs. These organizations provide critical business and administrative support, helping us navigate the many nonclinical aspects of running a pharmacy. Over 80% of independent pharmacies nationwide rely on PSAOs for assistance with tasks like compliance, operational optimization, and interactions with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). I happen to be a proponent of Independent PSAOs which I have found work best with my independent pharmacy.
For roughly $200 a month, PSAOs take on time-consuming administrative burdens, allowing pharmacists to focus on what truly matters: patient care. This partnership ensures that independent pharmacies can remain competitive and continue serving our communities.
John Hoeschen
It’s important to clarify what PSAOs do — and don’t — do. While they work on behalf of pharmacists, advocating for fair treatment and better terms in negotiations with PBMs, they do not set drug prices or influence patient costs. Their sole focus is supporting pharmacists, helping us manage the behind-the-scenes operations that keep our doors open and our communities healthy.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. At its peak, Minnesota had around 500 non-chain pharmacies. But today, that number has dwindled to approximately 110. Each closure represents not just a loss for the pharmacy’s owners but also for the local economy and, most importantly, for the patients who rely on these trusted health care providers. PSAOs offer a lifeline, enabling independent pharmacies to overcome challenges and continue providing vital care and Services.
As a small business owner, I’m proud of the role St. Paul Corner Drug plays in our community. We don’t just fill prescriptions — we counsel patients, administer vaccines, and serve as a reliable health care resource for our neighbors. But sustaining this level of service isn’t easy, and without the support of PSAOs, it would be more difficult than ever.
Policymakers and community leaders must recognize the importance of PSAOs in supporting independent pharmacies. For over 100 years, we’ve been committed to caring for our neighbors. With the continued support of PSAOs, independent pharmacies like mine can keep that commitment alive for generations to come.
John Hoeschen is a pharmacist and the owner of St. Paul Corner Drug.
I was nearing the end of my trip to my parents’ house in western Massachusetts for Thanksgiving when my phone lighted up with an alert that was both familiar and shocking: “ONGOING WILDFIRE; VISIBILITY AND AIR QUALITY IN AREA DUE TO SMOKE MAY BE REDUCED.” During my childhood in rural New England, wildfires were virtually unheard of, mostly because the region receives more than 3 feet of precipitation in an average year, with autumn typically being one of the wettest periods. This year, however, September and October each saw less than 2 inches of rain, making this the driest fall in at least two decades.
The same was true for most of the country. On Nov. 5, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported that more than 85% of the continental U.S. was experiencing “abnormally dry” conditions (or worse) — the highest proportion since the organization — a partnership between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — began keeping records in 2000.
Amazingly, this included places like Asheville, N.C., that had been devastated by flooding during Hurricane Helene in late September. After being deluged with 14 inches of rain over three days, which was far more than the soil could absorb, the city saw just 0.03 inch in the entire month of October. The ground has dried out enough that almost 90% of the state of North Carolina is now in a drought, less than three months after the deadliest flooding in the state’s history.
Closer to home, while reservoir levels in Northern California are healthy after recent atmospheric rivers brought historic rainfall, conditions in the lower Colorado River Basin have worsened in recent months. The area is currently classified by the U.S. Drought Monitor as experiencing “extreme drought,” with Lake Powell and Lake Mead both barely one-third full.
This could be a problem for water managers in Los Angeles and San Diego, especially since those cities have received less than 10% of the typical rainfall amounts since the beginning of October. That in turn has contributed to explosive wildfires like the Franklin fire in Malibu, as dangerous winter wind patterns are beginning to occur at a moment when, in a more normal year, the fire season would already have been ended by heavier rain.
These patterns of boom and bust, where unusually heavy rainfall is interspersed among periods of acute drought, are a notable effect of climate change. Hotter air is also “thirstier” — it can hold more moisture and it causes water to evaporate more quickly. As a result, climate change is causing droughts to set in faster during periods of low rain as more groundwater is lost into the atmosphere. Once this extra water vapor is in the atmosphere, there is an increased potential for extreme precipitation. But more intense rain does not necessarily lead to more replenishment of groundwater — instead it mostly means more runoff since the top layers of dirt can easily receive more rain than they can absorb.
Counterintuitively, this is particularly true after a long drought — soil that is well-hydrated (but not saturated) is able to quickly conduct water downward because of surface tension, while the same process can take more than 100 times longer in parched soil. Moreover, without proper stormwater management, every gallon of water that escapes as runoff is a gallon that is unavailable for use during subsequent droughts. (A 2021 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers gave a “D” grade to the country’s stormwater infrastructure.)
The result of all this is that, according to a recent U.N. report, more than 75% of land worldwide experienced higher aridity during the last 30 years (as compared with the previous three decades) even as global precipitation increased by almost a tenth of an inch over the same period.
One additional complication comes from vegetation. Land plants not only depend on rain to survive, but they also play an important role in returning moisture to the atmosphere to produce more rain. In fact, the dominant mode of terrestrial groundwater loss is a process called “transpiration,” which occurs when water is pulled out of the soil by a plant’s roots and then evaporates from its leaves during photosynthesis.
As the air becomes hotter, it becomes easier for plants to lose water to transpiration, especially because photosynthesis occurs during daylight hours when temperatures are highest. If plants cannot get enough water through their roots to meet this demand, they will develop air bubbles in their vascular system and die.
This can lead to a dangerous feedback cycle in parts of the world where transpiration is a major source of water vapor that becomes precipitation, such as the Amazon rainforest: as drought conditions become more common, parts of the rainforest wither and die (or are burned in wildfires), leading to decreased transpiration, which causes less rain to fall, which kills more trees, and so on. A recent study suggested that if deforestation and climate change continue unabated, between 10% and 47% of the Amazon could transition from lush rainforest to arid savanna over the next 25 years.
There is one factor working in the other direction: carbon fertilization. A major reason that plants lose so much water through their leaves is that they need to open microscopic pores called stomata to absorb carbon dioxide, which (along with water and sunlight) is a key ingredient in photosynthesis. As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere increase, plants may need to open their stomata less frequently, leading to decreased transpiration and preserving more groundwater.
There is some disagreement in the scientific community over the question of how climate change will affect plant health and groundwater availability across a variety of biomes, with competing models and approaches providing different answers.
Ultimately, this uncertainty should prompt increased preparation, not less. This means implementing measures that will alleviate catastrophic flooding, such as floodplain management and replacing pavement with living “green” infrastructure rather, as well as improvements that will conserve water during droughts, including more efficient irrigation systems and replacing thirsty lawns with xeriscaping. Otherwise, communities will see only more death and economic disruption as the drought-deluge cycle continues to intensify.
Ned Kleiner is a scientist and catastrophe modeler at Verisk. He has a doctorate in atmospheric science from Harvard University.
It’s not unusual to fight for a good bargain during the holiday shopping season. It’s a whole different story when the fighting starts in the parking lot outside the store.
That’s what authorities say happened this week at the Cidatel Outlets in Commerce about 5 p.m. when a group of people attacked a 19-year-old woman over a parking spot and then stole her mother’s purse in the middle of the brawl.
Natalie Martinez and her mother, Patricia Cupa, were looking for parking Wednesday when they saw an open spot next to a vehicle with one of its doors open, the pair told KTLA-TV.
Martinez waited a few minutes and then honked her horn to let the person in the other car know that she was going to park in the empty stall. After pulling into the spot, a group of people exited the neighboring car and became hostile, KTLA reported. The groups exchanged words and then the argument became physical, Martinez said. The video doesn’t show who started the fight.
But what transpired after the first punch was captured on cellphone video shared with KTLA.
The group in the other vehicle surround Martinez between the two vehicles, with two people repeatedly punching her while a third person pulls her legs, taking her to the ground. Martinez is also seen fighting back.
A man in the group is shown reaching into Martinez’s vehicle. The person stole her mother’s purse, which was carrying $3,000 in cash for rent, bills and gifts, credit cards and her ID, the pair told KTLA.
Martinez received several bruises and a cut lip, according to the news station.
The incident is under investigation and detectives are working to identify the suspects, said Lt. Jose Navares with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“It’s only a matter of time before they’re caught,” he said.
Seniors have earned their safety net of Social Security and Medicare, but to truly thrive they need to move beyond the well-planned life to add something unexpected: personal risk.
It’s one of the oddest twists of modern society – Americans spend most of their lives being encouraged to work hard to do difficult things. As soon as we hit a certain age, though, it’s all about easing up and backing off.
Grandma, take a break! Give it a rest, Grandpa! You don’t want to chance a fall there!
The problem is, we’ve become so preoccupied with surplus safety at all times for seniors that we have stripped away too many of the surprises and unexpected twists that make life worth living. Is it any wonder that seniors now are battling an epidemic of boredom, depression, and loneliness?
Few people of any age find meaning and purpose in doing the same thing, at the same time, in the same way, every day. We need to mix it up and try something new – a physical challenge, a different setting, a new learned skill.
As a career nurse and chief executive of a complete senior health company, I know that the only risk-free environment is a coffin. No point rushing our way into there.
One of the best solutions to bring risk to seniors is to borrow an idea from the younger generations. Seniors should go gaming.
No, grandparents may not want to take up Minecraft, Fortnite, or Call of Duty. (Though if they want to try it, by all means, go for it.)
I’m also not a big fan of one traditional eldergame, namely, bingo, which is too much about luck and not enough about skill and performance mastery as a source of motivation. There is little in bingo that offers true risks or competition to benefit others.
The better games promote the physical and mental skills that can go unexercised as people grow older.
For families and friends, an excellent plan is to tap into the data collected by Apple watches and Fitbit-style fitness trackers. How many steps a day can you record? How many days a week can you record steps that meet your goal? Instead of making it an individual competition, we see better gains – and more fun overall – when people are assigned to a team.
A team competition makes you responsible to others, not just yourself. It’s human nature to push yourself harder when others are relying on you. Maybe the team is made up of family and loved ones. Maybe it’s friends and neighbors. The overall goal is to get everyone accountable – and moving.
In our own health business, we have 1,000 seniors, aged 60s to 100 and up, who compete in Spark Performances, which include an annual TRY-athlon Tournament, a remote-control National Forklift Racing League, and The Grip Games. There also is the Spark Challenge, where community teams battle for the league championship using walkers, stationary bikes, and arm cranks. Every week the 32 teams in the league tune in to The Really Big Show, an ESPN-style Sports Center wrapup that features results and league standings. Established powerhouse teams are the Dragonflies, Cardinals, and River Rats. The competition is fueled by a $32,000 tournament purse.
Of course, not everyone can do the more physically demanding tasks – though a 95-year-old is one of our leading hallway runners – but every team has a place for someone, including coaches, statisticians, and cheerleaders.
How is it safe to have great-grandmothers running down hallways in walkers? The truth is, it’s not completely safe. But that’s the point. And it’s also really fun.
A few weeks ago, an 80+ woman was competing in the hallway run when she slipped, fell, and cut her knee.
Joel Theisen
In the emergency room, the doctor asked her how the injury happened. “I fell in a triathlon,” she replied.
The doctor thought she was joking — until the woman asked to be patched up as quickly as possible, so she could complete her remaining two events. She was extremely proud and definitely adamant — she really, really did not want to let down her team.
What she saw was a chance to win. What our medical team saw was strength, purpose, and belonging.
Whether in a senior community or in life, aging is a team sport. As our years go up, we depend more on others to reach our goals. Our team may include family, friends, medical professionals, or even a fellow hallway racer on a walker. We’ll do better together, if only we take that risk to challenge our minds and bodies with something new.
Joel Theisen, BSN, RN, is founder and chief executive of Lifespark, a Minnesota- based complete senior health company. Follow him on Twitter: @Lifespark_CEO.
SAN DIEGO — A man suspected of placing his wife’s body in a freezer at their Allied Gardens home allegedly forced a friend at gunpoint to help conceal the death, according to an autopsy report unsealed Thursday.
The report by the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office also states the body of Margaret Haxby-Jones was only discovered last December after her husband suffered a stroke and the friend came forward to tell the woman’s family where the body had been hidden for approximately nine years.
The details come a week after San Diego police revealed their suspicions around the involvement of the husband, Robert Haxby, who died in February. Police said they investigated the possibility that Haxby hid the body so his wife’s benefits would continue to be paid out. However, investigators could not gather enough evidence to prosecute the case.
Police did not respond to requests for comment Thursday on whether the unnamed friend who allegedly helped hide the body was being investigated for any possible crimes. A spokesperson for the district attorney referred questions to police.
The body was discovered at the home on Zion Avenue near Eldridge Street, where Haxby-Jones and her husband lived.
The friend who spoke with investigators said she had died from natural causes at 72 years old, the autopsy report says. She was reportedly obese, in a declining state of health and suffered from dementia. However, the autopsy report states that, due to the prolonged concealment of the body, the cause of death could not be determined.
Her husband concealed her death for financial purposes, according to the report. He coerced the friend, reportedly at gunpoint, to help move the body into a chest freezer in the backyard of the house, officials said. The body was concealed with a tarp, and the friend was sworn to secrecy.
Upon the discovery of her body, the life of Haxby-Jones became a mystery to solve for the Allied Gardens community.
Haxby-Jones had worked for 20 years as a nurse anesthetist before she resigned her post in 1999.
Haxby-Jones purchased the Zion Avenue home in the mid-1980s, according to a woman connected to the family who spoke to the Union-Tribune. She married her husband but the two ran afoul of the Internal Revenue Service and a lien of $13,000 was put on the home.
The issue with the IRS was resolved around the same time as her disappearance in 2015.
Between 2013 and 2020, police responded to the home nearly 20 times for calls ranging from welfare checks to mental health situations to reports of elder abuse. None of these calls led to the discovery of her body.
According to the autopsy report, three weeks before her body was discovered, Haxby-Jones’ husband was admitted to the hospital. When his death became imminent, the friend told the family on Dec. 21 that Haxby-Jones was in a freezer on the property behind the house that was “excessively cluttered with belongings,” the autopsy report reads.
The family went over to the home and did not initially find the freezer that night. But the next day, the family returned and found the freezer tucked against the outside wall of the house, according to the report.
It was determined that the last time Haxby-Jones had been seen alive was about 10 years earlier, according to the report. She would have been 81 years old at the time of her discovery.
Police last week said the case has been placed on inactive status pending new information.
WASHINGTON — A government shutdown was imminent Friday as Donald Trump, aided by billionaire Elon Musk, torpedoed a short-term budget bill negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democrats and an alternative favored by the president-elect failed.
After Musk flooded his platform X with calls to kill the compromise, which would have funded the federal government for three months, Johnson withdrew it from consideration for a much slimmer bill that did not include Democratic priorities but included a Trump priority – an increase in the nation’s debt ceiling.
But a vote late Thursday on that alternative failed, with 38 Republicans and nearly all Democrats voting against it. The prospect of a government shutdown a minute after midnight on Friday seemed imminent.
All of Minnesota’s Republican House members voted for the bill and all Democrats voted against the failed effort.
On Friday morning, Johnson said he is working on another, last-minute attempt to stave off the shutdown. But he is not consulting Democrats whose votes he would need to push the legislation through Congress.
The chaos in these last few days of the 118th Congress revived threats among House GOP lawmakers to oust Johnson, R-Louisiana, when an election for that leadership role is held in January. Also revived: Whispers of replacing Johnson with Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District – who has several times said that he’s not interested in the job.
The impact of a government shutdown would grow over time. In Minnesota about 17,000 federal workers would be affected. Some would work without pay, if they are considered “essential employees.” That includes the TSA agents on the job during the busiest travel season, members of the military and employees of federal prisons.
Most federal workers would be furloughed without pay. While Social Security checks would still be disbursed, those who work for the agency would not be available to process new applications and resolve problems.
And Minnesota companies with federal contracts – which account for billions of dollars in revenue every year – would find that their applications for new contracts are on hold. Some with existing contracts may find their payments have stopped until the federal government reopens.
The failed agreement with Democrats that Musk and Trump derailed, called a continuing resolution (CR) would have extended the 2018 farm bill for another year, given farmers and ranchers $10 billion in disaster aid, and increased payments for several programs in the federal agriculture safety net, benefitting Minnesota’s wheat, corn and soybean growers.
The new money for farmers and ranchers was promoted by GOP lawmakers. But to attract enough votes to pass, the CR also included Democratic initiatives, including a bill sponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Ted Cruz called the “Take it Down Act,” that would require social media companies and websites to remove non-consensual, pornographic images created with artificial intelligence, a phenomenon that has recently exploded.
The more than 1,500-page CR also contained a provision that would allow the sales of E15 year round and give members of Congress, whose pay has been frozen since 2009, a cost-of -living raise in the amount of $6,600. Rank-and-file lawmakers currently earn $174,000 a year.
The proposed pay raise was torched on social media and condemned by GOP lawmakers. It was also opposed by some Democrats in “purple” districts, including Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District.
The dysfunction in Congress has resulted in an inability to pass the 12 spending bills needed to fund all government agencies. So the government has been funded since Oct. 1 – the beginning of the federal fiscal year – through a CR that expires at midnight on Friday.
Efforts to avoid a shutdown were made more difficult by Trump’s insistence that the CR raise the debt limit, a move that stunned lawmakers.
Trump hailed the GOP’s latest effort to avoid a shutdown, which would lift the debt limit for two years.
Raising the debt limit allows the federal government to borrow more money to meet its obligations. The national debt is now about $36 trillion and efforts to lift the cap provokes widespread criticism.
Trump said he wants the debt limit to be raised now, while Joe Biden is president and not when he is in the White House. Without a hike in the debt limit, the federal government would end the ability to meet its obligations in May or June, roiling financial markets and likely leading to an economic depression.
Congress last raised the limit 18 months ago, after Republicans and Democrats agreed to suspend a cap on how much the government can borrow until after the 2024 presidential election to avoid a politically difficult vote during the campaign season.
But, with plans to push tax cuts and drastically increased border spending, Trump is concerned a spending cap will limit his ability to pursue his agenda.
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th District, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said “President-elect Trump is responsible for the impending shutdown.”
“We had a bipartisan agreement and a plan to keep the government open, but Elon Musk and President-elect Trump had their own idea – and it failed…” McCollum said.
She urged GOP leaders to “return to the original bipartisan agreement that Democrats and Republicans from both the House and Senate agreed upon to keep the government open for the American people.”
This and that
Sen. Amy Klobuchar was named the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee in the new Congress, which will shift to GOP control after November’s election.
The announcement of Klobuchar’s new job came Wednesday, the day after Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, was named the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee.
While the Minnesota lawmakers will both be in the minority in the 119th Congress, their position as top Democrats on the agricultural committees will give them some clout when Congress tries again to craft a new five-year farm bill.
Quinnipiac University released a poll this week that showed Minnesota native Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, has little public support for his confirmation.
Only 33% of the respondents of this national poll said Hegseth should be confirmed, while 39% said he should not be confirmed and 28% said they hadn’t heard enough about him.
Another controversial pick, Robert Kennedy Jr., the nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, had more support – 44% said he should be confirmed. But 45 % said Kennedy should not be confirmed and only 9% said they hadn’t heard enough about the controversial candidate.
Kristi Noem, Trump’s choice for Secretary of Homeland Security and Kash Patel, the nominee to head the FBI, also had the support of only 33% of the poll’s respondents. Meanwhile, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s choice for Secretary of State whose candidacy has created little controversy, won a majority of the respondents’ support, 53%.
Hegseth’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled for Jan. 14 and expected to be contentious. The former Fox News host has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in his hotel room in 2017 and has been subject to allegations of out-of-control drinking and mismanagement during his time as the head of two veteran organizations. Hegseth denies all allegations.
In case you missed it:
Your questions and comments
A reader graciously said he liked our story about how Minnesota’s mining industry will get a boost in the second Trump administration, but he asked for more reporting on the state’s role in permitting the projects.
“Perhaps you can explore whether any of these projects will be operational in the next 4 years, in large part because more than the federal government is involved, i.e. Minnesota & the Native American tribes,” the reader wrote.
Yes, we have every intention of doing so!
Another reader reacted to the planned resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray after it was clear he would be forced out so Trump could appoint Kash Patel to the position.
“Wray did his job and Trump thinks he is above the law,” the reader wrote. “(Trump’s) claims of weaponizing the FBI to get him are false, but he plans to do exactly that with his appointment,” the reader said.
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at [email protected].
SHELBY, Wisconsin — If she closes her eyes, Danelle Larson can still remember how the stretch of Mississippi River in front of her looked as recent as a decade ago: nothing but open, muddy water.
Today, it’s covered with impressively tall and thick beds of wild rice.
Larson, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and Alicia Carhart, Mississippi River vegetation specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, surveyed the plants by airboat in mid-September. Summer floods on the river delayed growth somewhat, but the tall green shoots still waved in the breeze in almost every direction off the shores of Goose Island County Park near La Crosse.
“It’s one of the most dramatic changes on the upper Mississippi,” Larson said. “It’s everywhere.”
In the past several years, wild rice has exploded on this part of the upper river, particularly on a section of it called Pool 4, near Alma, and Pool 8, near La Crosse. Historical records show it was common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but poor water quality and other problems caused widespread aquatic vegetation die-offs in the 1980s.
For some, the resurgence is a source of wonder. For others, it’s more of a nuisance, making it hard to maneuver boats through areas that were once easily passable.
But what’s driving the substantial increase in growth is still largely a mystery.
Mississippi River wild rice is tall, resilient and expanding fast
Wild rice is an annual plant, meaning it completes its entire life cycle in one growing season and then dies. The seeds germinate in spring, then sprout to lie flat on the water like ribbons during their floating-leaf stage. During the summer months, the plants emerge from the water, and new seeds ripen and drop into the river in early fall to start the process over again.
The place now known as Wisconsin has a rich history of wild rice harvesting dating back thousands of years with the Menominee, the original people of the area who were named “People of the Wild Rice.” Wild rice, or manoomin, is also closely associated with Ojibwe tribes who arrived in Wisconsin hundreds of years ago in search of “food that grows on water.”
Today, it’s still a central part of tribal diets and identity, but it’s facing serious threats from climate change, fluctuating water levels and human interference. This year, storms and heavy rains in June negatively impacted wild rice production across northern Wisconsin.
The rice growing on the upper Mississippi is different. It can reach about 12 feet tall, while plants in northern Wisconsin lakes are typically waist-high — far easier to shake into a boat to harvest, Larson said.
And it appears to be more resilient to water fluctuations. Carhart said everything she’s read about wild rice would indicate it’s extremely sensitive, but much of it survived the high water earlier this summer — and last year, when the river was in drought, it was more prevalent than she’d ever seen.
“That’s what’s maybe most confusing,” she said. “The rice just seems to be doing well regardless.”
This year, wild rice was identified at 30% of the DNR’s 450 regular sampling sites on the river near La Crosse, Carhart said.
Data from a wide-ranging 2022 report on the upper river’s ecological status and trends backs this up — prevalence of wild rice in pools 4 and 8 increased by “an order of magnitude” in the past decade, the report’s authors wrote, covering thousands of hectares.
The greatest changes have occurred in places where rice has moved into deeper waters, Carhart said. Previously, wild rice was most commonly found in the still, shallow backwater areas of the river. Now, it’s thriving just as much in the river’s main channel, where the water moves quicker and is disturbed more regularly by boats and wind.
The rice appears to be “marching downstream,” Larson said, appearing sporadically on the river down to Wisconsin’s border with Illinois. It has not yet been identified farther south on the Iowa-Illinois border.
Better water quality could be driving the increase
The 2022 report noted that aquatic vegetation in general is thriving on the upper Mississippi between Wisconsin and Minnesota, and water clarity has improved.
Such an improvement may be making it easier for wild rice to establish, but the fact that it’s surging in some places and not others means there’s probably more to the story, Carhart said.
Others think it may be linked to sediment building up in the backwaters, making them shallower and more amenable to the wild rice plant.
Larson said she hopes to do more research about the rice’s habitat preferences to learn more about why it’s increasing in some areas and not others.
She also wants to know more about what kinds of animals use the wild rice and for what purpose. It’s an important food source for ducks, for example, and marsh birds like to hide in the dead stalks as the weather turns colder.
Wild rice is just one way the river is changing
Not everyone is thrilled with the rice’s expansion — particularly those who’ve watched the water they used for recreation turn into a giant rice bed. Lake Onalaska, a large reservoir of the river, is one such place.
In the 1980s, there were a few stands of wild rice on the lake, said Marc Schultz, chairman of the Lake Onalaska Protection and Rehabilitation District. It started expanding about a decade ago, “almost with a vengeance,” he described.
The rapid change even triggered now-dispelled rumors that people were intentionally planting wild rice in the lake.
The problem is that Lake Onalaska is a major draw in the region for fishing and boating. Despite having established “boat channels,” the rice just keeps growing, Schultz said, making it difficult for boaters to get from one side of the lake to the other — or even from their dock to the boat channel itself. And while the lake district can pay to clear it, that’s costly.
Schultz said he’s long viewed wild rice as a valuable resource. But he sympathizes with people who have seen changes to the river accelerate in recent years because of climate change and land use changes.
“They look at rice and say, ‘That’s just another one of those things that’s changing everything,’” he said. “You can understand why people have a lot of concerns.”
This summer’s flood cut back some wild rice growth on Lake Onalaska, but Carhart said she met with the group last year to hear out their worries.
She asked them to consider what the lake might look like if it was all gone — the water would be more turbid, for example, and fish that like clearer water could be driven away.
Larson recalled what the river used to look like when she was a kid: muddy and not safe to swim in.
“Now, it’s pretty crystal clear,” she said. “The plants seem to love it too.”
This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri Support our independent reporting network with a donation.
It’s as predictable as snowfall in Duluth. Every November and December, college basketball fans gather in person, in chat rooms or on social media to gripe about their favorite team’s non-conference schedule.
In most locales, the complaints feature some variation of, Why are we paying full price to watch our team play so many nobodies? In Minnesota, that’s generally directed at the University of Minnesota men’s and women’s teams. But with St. Thomas joining the Gophers in Division I, additional questions arise unique to this market.
That includes:
Why can’t the Gopher men get “blue blood” teams to come play at Williams Arena, like the women did last year with UConn?
Why do the St. Thomas men and women still play Division III teams?
And, most provocatively: Are the Gophers and Tommies ever going to play each other?
For the latter, expect it to happen on the women’s side long before the men get around to it. (More on that later.)
MinnPost spoke to coaches at all four programs to learn why their schedules are the way they are, and how much NCAA-driven mathematical formulas and analytics factor into their scheduling. Short answer: A lot more than people realize.
“Everything is numbers-based now,” said Minnesota men’s coach Ben Johnson. “I get it. Fans aren’t supposed to know all this stuff. But we never make decisions on a whim. So much goes into it.”
Each program approaches things slightly differently, so we’ll deal with them separately.
(Disclosure: The author is a student journalism adviser at St. Thomas.)
University of Minnesota men
For the Gophers, it’s all about the NET — the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings, which the NCAA adopted in 2018-19 to replace Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) for choosing and seeding the NCAA Tournament. It’s a complicated formula that considers results, strength of schedule, margin of victories and several other factors in ranking all 364 teams in Division I.
For coaches like Johnson in Power Five conferences, the goal is crafting a schedule that produces a high enough NET ranking to secure an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. It takes the right mix of quality opponents (i.e. likely NCAA Tournament teams) and winnable games (vs. mid-majors or teams with a NET ranking or 300 of higher). Add nine to 11 more wins in conference play, Johnson says, and your team should be in good shape.
Head coaches generally delegate a staffer to contact potential opponents; assistant athletic director Ryan Livingston handles it for the Gophers. But Johnson says it takes a ton of research to identify the right teams, especially with the transfer portal leaving so many rosters in flux well into the summer. Schedules used to be locked in by springtime; now they often take until August or September.
“I don’t think the outside world always sees what goes into scheduling,” Johnson said.
All teams want lots of home games to maximize revenue and limit missed class time. Optimally, Power Five teams seek home-and-home deals — we play one year at your place, the next year at ours, or vice versa. Failing that, Power Fives offer to pay opponents to come to play them at home, arrangements known as “buy games.” Per industry sources, payouts range from $30,000 to $100,000 depending on timing and resources. The U paid $478,000 for buy games in 2022-23, according to its most recent NCAA Financial Report.
For mid-majors like Bethune-Cookman, which played at Williams Arena earlier this month, buy games help pay the bills. But not every team can be bought, or agree to travel to Minnesota in December.
“I’m humble enough to know we ain’t getting Duke to come here home and home,” Johnson said. “In the history of our program, we’ve never had teams like that. So you’ve got to think about, if you’re going to go home and home with a Power Five, who’s comparable to us that we could get realistically and also give us a chance to win, but at the same time we think is going to be a good (NET) numbers game?”
Take this season’s schedule. With three starters gone and 11 new players to break in, Johnson said he sought teams that resembled specific Big Ten opponents.
Yale isn’t Duke, but last year it made the NCAA Tournament and upset Auburn in the first round; Johnson said it runs an offensive system similar to Northwestern and Wisconsin. (The Gophs needed a late rally to beat the Bulldogs by three.) North Texas played intense, physical defense, like Michigan State, in upsetting the Gophs 54-51.
Wake Forest, highly rated in the Atlantic Coast Conference, brought athleticism. Wichita State, with five high-major transfers, plays up-tempo with a smaller lineup. (Minnesota lost to both in a tournament in Orlando.) And Fairleigh Dickinson comes in later this week with a 22-point scorer in Minneapolis product Terrence Brown, posing a defensive challenge for Johnson’s guards.
Non-conference games at Williams Arena tend to draw fewer fans than Big Ten games, and local clamoring for the Gophers to play St. Thomas to boost attendance continues. Johnson says he isn’t interested because there’s little benefit for his team, something he experienced firsthand earlier in his career.
As an assistant at Northern Iowa in December 2009, Johnson watched the mid-major Panthers beating Iowa convincingly at home. Though that was one of UNI’s best seasons — it won the Missouri Valley Conference and shocked top-ranked Kansas in the NCAA Tournament — Iowa still took heat in the state for losing. Eventually, Iowa stopped scheduling UNI and Drake, its other in-state mid-major.
“It’s my job to do right for this program,” Johnson said. “I can’t worry about any of the outside stuff. Does it make sense for Minnesota basketball, for my kids, to play a game like that, that all it is is a risk for us? Because I know what the narrative is going to be.
“If we lose, it’s going to be talked about forever, and everybody’s going to bring up that, forever. If we win — and again, this is not me being negative, but I know what it’s going to be — let’s nitpick the win. What did they win by? They won by 10? Oh my God, they only beat them by 10. They won by 15? Ah, they won by 15 or 20, but with 10 minutes to go it was a one-point game. You know what I mean? I don’t need my guys reading about that, dealing with that.
“So I get it. I totally understand it. From my lens, does it benefit our program in any way? I think it’s really hard to justify why that would benefit us, when I feel there’s so much to lose.”
University of Minnesota women
Second-year Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit crafts her team’s schedule much like Johnson, with NET and an at-large NCAA bid in mind. She researched how other Big Ten teams did it and tried to follow that pattern. It’s a strategy Plitzuweit learned from Brian Kelly, the former Notre Dame football coach now at Louisiana State, when both coached at Division II Grand Valley State in Michigan.
“You have to study teams that have done what you’re trying to do, and take a deep dive into how they’ve scheduled and try to emulate that to the best of your ability,” Plitzuweit said. “The analytics and metrics of it definitely play factors in how you want to schedule in your non-conference, absolutely.”
Golden Gophers center Sophie Hart and Saint Louis Billikens forward Peyton Kennedy grapple for a rebound on Saturday, April 6, 2024. Credit: Tim Vizer/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Last year Plitzuweit inherited much of her non-conference schedule from predecessor Lindsay Whalen, including that game with UConn, a homecoming for Hopkins product Paige Bueckers. This year, Plitzuweit asked associate head coach Jason Jeschke, who handles the schedule, to make some changes.
The Gophs added out-of-state tournaments in Tempe, Arizona, and New Orleans to get used to traveling and playing on consecutive days. At home, they tried to mix challenging opponents with likely wins. Though losing top scorer Mara Braun to a broken bone in her right foot, Minnesota started 10-0 before losing its Big Ten opener at Nebraska.
“We were intentional about playing (teams with) different styles,” Plitzuweit said. “That’s what you see in the Big Ten. In that aspect, it’s been really good. Now we can go back and show film to our team of a non-conference opponent and what they did, and then a conference opponent. That is beneficial for sure.”
Unlike Johnson, Plitzuweit said she’s open to scheduling a game with St. Thomas at some point. Plitzuweit said she knows Tommies Coach Ruth Sinn from her Summit League days at South Dakota, and last season tried to arrange a closed preseason scrimmage with St. Thomas.
“Is it something we would do in the future if they’re interested in doing it? Yeah. I think that could be a good possibility, I really do,” Plitzuweit said. “Year One, it just didn’t work. I don’t think we had conversations about it this year. But in the future, I do think that it makes sense.”
St. Thomas men
Tommies Associate Head Coach Mike Maker dreams big. He sees a day where St. Thomas plays the nation’s premier Catholic schools — Notre Dame, Gonzaga, Boston College and Villanova — as well as regional Catholic opponents like DePaul, and even some Big Ten schools.
It’s not happening yet because, well, the Tommies are too competitive. Close games with nationally-ranked Creighton and Marquette the last two seasons made Maker’s scheduling job that much harder.
Tommies guard Drake Dobbs dribbling up the court during an NCAA men’s basketball semi-final between the University of St. Thomas-Minnesota Tommies and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits at the Denny Sanford PREMIERE Center in Sioux Falls on Monday, March 11, 2024. Credit: Russell Hons/Cal Sport Media/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
After Arizona State beat St. Thomas 81-66 earlier this season, a game where the Tommies trailed by three with eight minutes left, Sun Devils Coach Bobby Hurley said, “There are easier teams that you most likely could find to play than this one.” Power Fives seek mid-majors they can beat by 20 points or more to help their NET rankings. That’s no guarantee with the Tommies, who briefly cracked the NET Top 100 earlier this season, so Maker hears a lot of nos.
“You can only play someone that’s a willing dance partner,” said Maker, a former assistant at West Virginia, Creighton, Samford and Dartmouth and a head coach at Marist. “As we’ve gotten better, it’s become more and more challenging to find willing dance partners within our parameters, to get a competitive schedule and the right schedule for us.”
The Big Sky-Summit Challenge series guarantees St. Thomas two games every season, home and away. But Western Illinois’ departure from the Summit League meant Maker had to find two more non-conference games.
St. Thomas is in no position to “buy” opponents, either. None of its teams belongs to a conference with a lucrative television contract, and Tommie athletics is still being subsidized by the university as part of its five-year transition from Division III. The scarcity of non-conference Division I teams within bus distance of St. Paul doesn’t help, either.
So Maker filled out the home schedule with three Division III schools — Crown, North Central, and St. Norbert from Green Bay. Those one-sided victories make up one-third of the season win total for the 9-4 Tommies. Summit League schools in the Dakotas have the same issue, with even fewer options.
“The average amount of non-Division I home games for our league is over three games a year,” Maker said. “Maybe someday we won’t play them. But until the landscape changes, they’re a necessity right now to make sure we’re not on the road all the time.”
With the 5,000-capacity Lee and Penny Anderson Arena on campus set to open next fall, Maker is trying to land a marquee opponent for the first game. “Those are really challenging to get,” he said. “But we can all dream, and my job is to find the right dance partner that’s willing to do that.”
St. Thomas women
In one sense, scheduling has been a little easier for the Tommie women, who got Iowa State and Wisconsin to come to 1,800-capacity Schoenecker Arena on campus in previous seasons. But it took Coach Ruth Sinn signing off on a 2-for-1 arrangement, committing to two games at Ames and Madison, respectfully, in exchange for the one home game. That’s the only incentive the Tommies can offer.
“Those are the compromises we have to make to get some of these teams,” Sinn said.
Assistant coach Kyle Lurvey handles scheduling for St. Thomas. Though regional opponents Milwaukee and Drake agreed to come to St. Paul this season, the 7-4 Tommies still needed home games with Crown and Macalester to balance out November road trips to Northern Illinois, Iowa State, Oakland (Michigan) and Wichita State.
Iowa State Cyclones’ center Audi Crooks taking a shot around St. Thomas Tommies’ center Jo Langbehn during the first quarter in the NCAA women’s basketball at Hilton Coliseum on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Ames, Iowa. Credit: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect
“To get home games, we’ve got to have a willing participant,” Sinn said. “If we can offer anything, we can offer a home-and-home. Otherwise, getting someone to come here is not something we can do, or other teams will take us up on.”
Sinn believes playing the Gophers, even at Williams Arena, would dramatically boost women’s basketball statewide. She points to Iowa, where, unlike the men, all four Division I schools still play each other. Iowa kids who commit to Drake and UNI know they’ll play at Iowa and Iowa State in their careers, a big selling point for in-state recruiting.
“In doing so, they’re building a kind of camaraderie and excitement around women’s basketball at the state of Iowa,” Sinn said. “You go to some of those games, it’s sold out, and it’s exciting. That’s the difficulty with us. Being a metro school, we don’t have that rivalry, number one, and we don’t have that sense of, how are we growing women’s basketball in the state of Minnesota right now?”
Pat Borzi
Pat Borzi is a contributing writer to MinnPost. Follow him on Twitter @BorzMN.
