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Skywatch: The great late June star show

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

The Summer Solstice, the first day of astronomical summer, is on June 21 this year. It’s the longest day of the year but unfortunately for us stargazers, it’s also the shortest night of the year, which means staying up late to begin your celestial adventures. The good news is that the nights get longer after the solstice, and stargazing can start earlier and earlier. Get an afternoon nap so you can enjoy the show!The very bright planet Venus continues its stint as the “evening star” this month, and it’s by far the brightest star-like object in the night sky. You can’t miss it beaming away in the west, popping out long before the end of evening twilight.(Mike Lynch)Since Venus is entirely shrouded by a very dense atmosphere, there isn’t much to see with a telescope. However, since it’s an inferior planet with its orbit around the sun within the Earth’s orbit, it goes through phases like our moon. At the start of the month, Venus i...

Ray LaHood: High-speed rail can curb America’s summer travel woes

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

The summer travel season that gets underway this weekend promises to be one of the most challenging ever. As transportation patterns return to pre-pandemic levels, millions of Americans will face the familiar miles-long traffic jams and labyrinthine airport security lines.Following last summer’s chaos in the skies, with nearly 45,000 flights canceled and over 400,000 delayed, transportation experts are urging calm as travelers prepare for a summer of frustration and frayed nerves.While patience is certainly a virtue, resignation to a dysfunctional transportation system is not. As the world’s wealthiest nation, we can do so much better. If we had a nationwide high-speed rail network, holiday travel would be enjoyable. Instead of driving or flying, you could hop on a high-speed train, zoom across your region with great ease, comfort and peace of mind, and arrive right on time. Not to mention that it would cost less than flying.America’s holiday travel quagmire is a r...

F.D. Flam: The spike in child mortality won’t go away on its own

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

For Americans under 20, an epidemic much deadlier than Covid-19 has raged over the last three years. Deaths among those aged 1 to 19 surged 20% — driven by an increase in car crashes, suicide, homicide and drug overdoses.The combined toll of behavior-related deaths on children and teens hit home after a March report by the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. Earlier this month, a Wall Street Journal story fleshed out that data with stories — a mother finding her teenage son dead from fentanyl poisoning, an honor student taking a bike ride with friends and being fatally gunned down.How much of this is a result of the pandemic — or the government’s disruptive reaction to it? Teen suicides and drug overdoses had been on the rise over the last decade, but that rise accelerated during the pandemic. Deaths on the road had been decreasing, and since 2020 they rose more sharply than any other time on record. And gun deaths overall —...

One-third of St. Paul now exempt from rent control as exceptions pile up

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

When renters move out of a St. Paul apartment, landlords now have the right to hike rents on the empty rental unit by 8% plus inflation, well over the 3% rent cap imposed last year by the city’s new rent control ordinance.That amendment to the ordinance, crafted by the St. Paul City Council last fall and intended to encourage property improvements between occupancies, took effect in January.In other words, once an apartment goes empty, St. Paul landlords have a clear path to increase rents by nearly 15% this year, given the U.S. inflation rate. From Jan. 1 through the end of April, landlords have submitted 362 requests — or 90 per month — asking to do just that. And most of these “just cause” rent requests have been approved by the city.“The 15% (rent increase request) now comes up very frequently in ‘just cause’ vacancies,” said Angie Wiese, director of the St. Paul Department of Safety and Inspections. “That’s far a...

Conor Sen: Walmart is now fighting inflation in a big way

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

Americans’ buying power has been squeezed since the start of 2022 as companies steadily raised prices to restore their profit margins — deflated by higher costs for freight and labor — to pre-pandemic levels. Now Walmart Inc. appears to be saying enough is enough.Consumer goods companies have been willing to hike prices on core products even if it meant selling fewer units, as long as the end result is more profit. But those price increases have been costing Walmart, too. That’s because Walmart earns higher margins on discretionary spending — categories like apparel and home goods — so for the company, household budgets being gobbled up by the basics is bad for business.Walmart is determined to push back against this trend. The chief of Walmart’s U.S. operations explained the strategy on the company’s recent earnings call, saying that “working with those suppliers that are on the prepared foods and consumable categories to get co...

Two magical summer reads — one for grown-ups, one for kids, both by Minnesotans

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

Do you believe in magic? You will after you read these involving novels that include all the staples of other-worldly fiction but with a contemporary feel.“Ink Blood Sister Scribe” by Emma Torzs (William Morrow, $30)Unlike most books, which simply absorbed the drop of blood they were offered, the words drank. As soon as she’d touched her finger to the page it began greedily swallowing her blood, her finger stinging with slight suction as if a tiny mouth was latched on, and the ink grew brighter, blacker, fiercer on the linen page. — From “Ink Blood Sister Scribe”“Ink Blood Sister Scribe” by Emma Torzs. (Book cover courtesy of William Morrow. Author portrait by Maxwell Collyard)It doesn’t matter how many TBR books are lying on every surface of your house. You have to make room for this debut novel from a Minneapolis author. It has everything we want in summer reads — old houses, hidden staircases, messages (and corpses) sent...

Minnesota man uses acupuncture to find relief from tick-borne illness

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

ANGLE INLET, Minn. — In September 2021, I wrote about Paul Colson, a third-generation owner of Jake’s Northwest Angle Resort and lifelong Northwest Angle resident, who in June of that year began getting sick every time he ate red meat.The first incident occurred after eating some elk sausage.“It was a gastrointestinal sort of thing,” Colson, who’s now 53, said at the time. “It wasn’t severe or anything, but it was like nausea, diarrhea, and I didn’t really think a whole lot of it.”A couple of days later, Colson and his wife, Karen, grilled up some pork steak, and he got sick again, this time more intensely and with a rash. A beef steak several days later produced the same reaction, he recalls.Something definitely wasn’t right.Fatty meat seemed to produce the strongest reactions, Colson recalls, so he wondered if maybe he was having gallbladder trouble, since fatty foods are known to trigger flare-ups.Then he got even sicker after eating some canned elk that had absolutely no f...

Ask Amy: A heartbreaking diagnosis changes everything

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

Dear Amy: My dearest friend in the world was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at a relatively young age.We met when we were new moms, and while my family moved far away after only a few years, we have maintained an incredibly close and meaningful relationship through all the joys and sorrows of life for over 30 years now. She is my rock.The friend who knows the good, the bad, and the ugly. And vice versa.And now I can hear she has regressed a little every time I talk to her on the phone, and our distance is too far for me to see her regularly.How do I handle the inevitable changes? How do I let her know I love her when she doesn’t recognize my voice anymore? How do I maintain any kind of relationship long distance? I have no map for our last journey and it is breaking my heart.Any advice would mean so much to me.Thank you,— Left BehindDear Left Behind: My first suggestion is that you should visit your friend in person as soon as possible. Book your trip today. Bring photos ...

Horoscopes May 28, 2023: Gladys Knight, play to win

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Carey Mulligan, 38; Kylie Minogue, 55; Christa Miller, 59; Gladys Knight, 79.Kylie Minogue (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images) Happy Birthday: Sticking to what and who you know best will make your life easier. Refuse to let outside interference upset your emotional well-being. Value close relationships and do your part to ensure you maintain your reputation and position. Refuse to allow the changes happening around you to dictate how you respond. Your actions will determine how well you do this year. Play to win. Your numbers are 6, 17, 21, 27, 36, 38, 42.ARIES (March 21-April 19): Sign up for something that is challenging, invigorating or competitive. Pumping yourself up to meet demands will make you feel alive. Pay attention, and don’t underestimate someone who asks too many questions. Protect yourself and your ideas from interference and manipulation. 3 starsTAURUS (April 20-May 20): Plan to have fun with people who share your interests....

Bridge: May 28, 2023

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:01:51 GMT

Progress in bidding is evident. The rise of play-for-pay has let full-time pros devote themselves to devising better methods. What constitutes progress, however, is open to debate.In a team match, both Wests upgraded their hand and opened one diamond, and East bid one heart. At one table, South risked two clubs (on a broken five-card suit between two bidding opponents!). West doubled, and the rout was on.West led the ace and ten of hearts, and East won and shifted to his singleton diamond: jack, queen. West cashed the ace — East threw a spade — and gave East a diamond ruff, and East led another heart. South ruffed with the ten, and West overruffed with the jack and gave East a diamond ruff.East next took his ace of spades and led a fourth heart. South should have pitched his king of spades, but he ruffed with the queen, and West overruffed and gave East a spade ruff. Then a fifth heart from East promoted a trump trick for West’s nine. Down six.In the replay, believ...