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Canada’s heated political conflict over carbon pricing will continue into 2024

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

OTTAWA — Canada’s price on pollution is supposed to help battle global warming, but as it nears its fifth anniversary, nothing in Canadian politics is hotter.Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has so successfully convinced Canadians the carbon price is to blame for inflation that he even earned begrudging respect for his “axe the tax” campaign from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.Of course, Trudeau doesn’t agree with Poilievre’s sentiment. But he has acknowledged the Tory leader’s message is working in an atmosphere where the cost of living is dominating the discussion around most dinner tables, as it has for months, if not years.Trudeau was even convinced to upend his signature climate policy in October, removing it from heating oil for three years following relentless pressure from his Atlantic caucus and a nosedive in polling support on the East Cost.There are some arguments for the move. Heating oil costs four times more than natural gas, so w...

Wolves, deer and elk all have Minnesota cattle producers on edge going into 2024

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

Several cattle producers and leaders at the Minnesota Cattle Industry Convention in Alexandria this month spoke about the increase in worrisome dealings with wild animals, including wolves, deer and the potential for a new introduction of elk.Gray wolves are just one of many topics of discussion among Minnesota cattle producers preparing for the year ahead in 2024. (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)Cattle producers in northern and central Minnesota are increasingly dealing with unwelcome interactions with wolves on their property bringing concerns of cattle losses.“Man, it’s awful. And it’s the same thing, some guys, you just get sick of it. You lose 10 calves, you lose your profitability,” said Jake Thompson, president of the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association, of the reports of wolves on cattle operations.The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources estimated the state’s wolf population at 2,691 from about 500 packs in 2022.“We have major issues in...

Skywatch: Bring in 2024 in a stellar way

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

I hope you had a great Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year. I hope you enjoyed the full moon this past week. At least for me it really adds to the holiday magic, especially if you can enjoy it in a forested countryside. I love seeing moonlight bathing the tops of evergreen trees.As we say goodbye to 2023 and usher in 2024, the moon is on the wane, making it easier to appreciate the bright winter stars and constellations, especially in and around the mighty constellation Orion rising in the early evening eastern sky. The brightest of the stars in the winter sky right now is actually the mighty planet Jupiter. With even a small telescope or a nice pair of binoculars, you can easily resolve the disk of the planet that’s so large over a thousand Earths could fit inside this giant ball of mainly hydrogen gas. You might even spot some of Jupiter’s cloud bands of methane, ammonia and other gases. You’ll surely see up to four of Jupiter’s largest moons, resembling ...

Here are 9 stellar Minnesota-based mysteries published in 2023

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

It’s been a stellar year for Minnesota mystery writers. So many good thrillers from good writers were published that it was impossible to get to all of them. Before we end the year, here’s a roundup of some Minnesota-based mysteries you have to put on your 2024 TBR list. (There’s also one set in Wisconsin.)“Death in the Wolf Moon”: by Jennifer LeClair (Fog Harbor Press, $18.99)(Courtesy of Fog Harbor Press)LeClair, who also writes the Windjammer series, brings back Chief Deputy Claude Renard, first introduced in “Death in the Blood Moon,” He grew up on the Ojibwe reservation on East Portage Bay and “the vast and ancient heart of Gichi-gami beats within him.” The Northern Arts Folk School is holding is annual coffin-making class. When one of the students is found dead in his unfinished coffin, Renard investigates and finds that the victim, relatively new to Grand Marais, has already made enemies. Why did the victim have a history ...

After 42 years, Gammelgården Museum’s ‘memory carer’ is stepping down — but not away

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

Only a few months before retiring as director of the Gammelgården Museum in Scandia, Lynne Blomstrand Moratzka accepted a momentous gift to the museum: a dala painting by Swedish folk-art painter Birgitta Hedengren.One of Moratzka’s responsibilities is to evaluate possible donations to the museum’s collection. She knew its value immediately. “It’s the most fabulous piece,” she said. “It will absolutely knock your socks off.”The story of how Hedengren’s painting, “The Queen of Sheba Comes to the Court of King Solomon,” ended up at Gammelgården is a saga that began in 1984.That’s when Hedengren came to Minnesota from Sweden with famed Swedish artist Bengt Engman to work on the dining-room frieze at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis.“While she was here, she stayed with her cousin for room and board and whatnot,” Moratzka said. “In gratitude, she gave her this painting when she left, and the family has had it ever since.”After Hedengren’s cousin died, her husband called Mora...

Four St. Paul City Council members say goodbye. Here’s what makes them proud.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

It was 2011, and Amy Brendmoen — then a marketing director for the Children’s Home Society & Family Services in St. Paul — had her sights set on joining the St. Paul City Council. Her well-organized campaign unseated two-term council member Lee Helgen by less than a percentage point — 50.18% to 49.2% — a total of 36 votes.Even more bruising battles and unexpected challenges lay ahead, including a pandemic, racially tinged riots following the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, tough debate over rent control, a $15 minimum wage and more than one election fight.The council would also help the city navigate construction of the Green Line light rail, CHS Field, Allianz Field, Highland Bridge and the North End Community Center, among other key projects that unfolded during her tenure.After 12 years in the trenches of City Hall politics, including six years as council president, Brendmoen chose not to run for re-election this year, opening the ...

St. Paul’s 2023 homicides: ‘Every one of these murders matters,’ police chief says as numbers slowly decline

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

Homicides in St. Paul in 2023 declined from recent years, but are still higher than five years ago.St. Paul’s homicide rate began increasing in 2019 and peaked in 2022 with 40 homicides. There were 32 homicides this year as of Saturday afternoon. St. Paul averaged 17 homicides a year between 2010 and 2018.“I’ll never be happy until the numbers are zero,” Police Chief Axel Henry said recently. “They’re still up, as far as above the numbers over the last 15 years. … We’re looking to push those numbers back down.”Other types of gun violence also declined year-over-year in St. Paul — there were at least 72 fewer people wounded in shootings and 800 fewer reports of shots fired without injuries. St. Paul has been using a “safety net approach,” especially since the city started the Office of Neighborhood Safety in 2022, to get to the root causes of preventing gun violence, Henry said.Of the 32 people killed, police said four...

Farewell to 2023: a recap of Missouri's top news stories

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- As the year 2023 comes to a close, it's time to think about the important news stories that changed Missouri's story. These stories are about a lot of different things, from lawsuits to the weather to the complexities of regular life. Let's look at the most interesting stories that kept people watching.Teacher's shooting incident sparks dispute:Abby Zwerner, a first-grade teacher, faced a tragic shooting incident, sparking a dispute over whether she was terminated or resigned from Newport News Public Schools. Financial and legal challenges ensued, intensifying with a $40 million lawsuit against the school board, placing Zwerner under pressure.Former 'basketball wives' star's sentencing:Brittish Cierrah Williams, a former 'Basketball Wives' cast member, received a four-year prison sentence for her involvement in various schemes, including tax fraud and pandemic-related scams. Williams pleaded guilty to 15 felonies, acknowledging the gravity of her actions and facing both...

Ask Amy: In-laws’ unkindness leaves family divided

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

Dear Amy: My in-laws told me in a rather unkind way that they did not like me.It’s been a year since this happened, and I see that my husband is sad, that he misses his family, and that he is just so disappointed.Truthfully, his folks never liked me, and I could tell, and so a part of me was relieved by this revelation because it meant that I could stop all the phone calls to chat, sending the birthday gifts and cards (I did this because their son did not).Now I notice that my husband is blue. I think he wants an apology message from his folks. His mom occasionally texts him very passive-aggressive messages like, “I know you probably don’t care but …” or, “I think these messages are not making it to my grandchildren because your wife is deleting them…” (I am absolutely not deleting anything or preventing any contact between them).I do not know how to help.I do not want him to carry a grudge on my behalf.I also want my kids to have grandparents.I do not know what to say to my h...

Bridge: Dec. 31, 2023

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:51 GMT

“A perfectionist walks into a bar. Apparently, the bar wasn’t set high enough.” — graffiti.Nobody ever suggested that bridge is easy to master. Part of its charm is that perfection is unachievable. Nobody ever played a perfect session, and nobody ever will. Nobody will even come close.When today’s deal arose in a team-of-four match, South played at four spades at both tables. Both Norths opened one club and jumped to 2NT next, quite reasonably upgrading the hand because of the maximum high-card strength plus a promising five-card suit. Both Wests led the jack of diamonds.At one table, declarer played dummy’s queen and captured East’s king. He drew trumps and let the jack of clubs ride. East took the king and returned a diamond to West’s ten, and West then shifted to a heart. When declarer put up dummy’s king in desperation, he lost three heart tricks for down two.At the other table, the play started the same way — jack of d...