Racquel Vaske has been named general manager of St. Paul Regional Water Services following the departure of Patrick Shea, who relocated this year to Florida. The Board of Water Commissioners of St. Paul Regional Water Services has named Racquel Vaske as the organization’s next general manager. (Courtesy of St. Paul Regional Water Services) Vaske, a 10-year employee and the utility’s first female general manager, will oversee an organization with 300 workers and serving 450,000 customers in 14 cities, with operational revenues of $129 million. The water utility’s public board of commissioners a ..read more

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump lost a bid Thursday to pause a string of lawsuits accusing him of inciting the U.S. Capitol attack, while the former president fights his 2020 election interference criminal case in Washington. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington denied defense lawyers’ request to put the civil cases seeking to hold Trump responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on hold while the criminal case accusing him of conspiring to overturn his election defeat to President Joe Biden plays out. It’s the latest legal setback for the presumpt ..read more

CLOQUET, Minn. — Eight Cloquet police officers were honored for their conduct during a Jan. 8 shooting at the Super 8 hotel that left three people dead, including the shooter. “In January of this year, tragedy struck our community, which resulted in the loss of two innocent victims,” Police Chief Derek Randall said at the ceremony during the City Council meeting on Tuesday, April 16. “Our hearts are still with those families to this day.” The sudden act of violence resulted in the deaths of Super 8 hotel clerk Shellby Marie Trettel, 22, of Cloquet, and Patrick Jeffrey Roers ..read more

Minnesota Department of Health and Department of Agriculture officials are warning consumers not to eat Infinite Herbs brand organic basil in 2.5-ounce clamshell-style containers purchased at Trader Joe’s due to a multistate salmonella outbreak announced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention This Infinite Herbs brand organic basil in 2.5-ounce clamshell-style containers sold at Trader Joe’s has been recalled after a salmonella outbreak.(Courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Health officials report that four Minnesotans bet ..read more

By JESSE BEDAYN, SUSAN HAIGH, TRÂN NGUYỄN and BECKY BOHRER (Associated Press/Report for America) DENVER (AP) — Artificial intelligence is helping decide which Americans get the job interview, the apartment, even medical care, but the first major proposals to reign in bias in AI decision making are facing headwinds from every direction. Lawmakers working on these bills, in states including Colorado, Connecticut and Texas, are coming together Thursday to argue the case for their proposals as civil rights-oriented groups and the industry play tug-of-war with core components of the legislation. Or ..read more

Minnesota gained an estimated 11,000 jobs in March, on a seasonally adjusted basis, with the private sector posting roughly 8,000 jobs, according to data released Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. The unemployment rate remained steady at 2.7%. DEED also said Minnesota’s labor force increased by an estimated 3,000 people over the month, bumping the labor force participation rate up one-tenth of a percentage point to 68%. This rate measures the total number of people working full-time or actively seeking work, and is used to calculate the headline unemp ..read more

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Carnival Cruise Line has released another round of updates on what travelers can expect when its new private destination Grand Bahama Celebration Key opens. Debuting in summer 2025, the port of call will be welcoming ships from Florida ports Port Canaveral, PortMiami, Tampa and Jacksonville as well as six other U.S. ports. The 369-acre site less than 20 miles east of Freeport will be the first dedicated to Carnival Cruise Line, although Carnival ships have used sister line destinations Princess Cays and Half Moon Cay for years. The largest port construction project in the l ..read more

Do you like the Great Outdoors? For the kickoff of the annual National Park Week, which for 2024 will be held April 20-28, the park service is offering free admission to its parks and monuments on Saturday, April 20. This can save you $50 or even more, but here’s what you need to know, from someone who’s taken advantage of it in the past. Show up at dawn. Seriously. I know, I know. Don’t hurt me. But then you get there before the thundering hordes arrive. As you might guess, free passes are a huge draw. You don’t need to sign up or register. Just show up and go. Tourists stop to gaze at the sp ..read more

Danielle Dorsey | Los Angeles Times (TNS) LOS ANGELES — With a rainbow knitted kippah affixed to the crown of his head, Michael Twitty is paced and intentional as he moves through the test kitchen at the L.A. Times. He’s here to make one of his classic Passover dishes, matzoh ball gumbo, which combines two recipes from his food memoir “Koshersoul.” The crimson stew adds buoyant, scallion-studded matzoh balls to a heartening okra gumbo, joining two staple dishes from Jewish and Black Southern cuisines. Chicken broth and diced tomatoes lend the finished gumbo their umami, with a Creole spice ble ..read more

With superhero movies losing pop culture steam, the next big thing emerging on the horizon is video game flicks. Over the past few years, films and TV shows based on interactive entertainment have steadily gained traction, with the likes of “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “The Last of Us.” Hollywood’s relationship with the younger art form has evolved from being less of a vehicle to make a quick buck and more into an inviting conversation on how to translate the experience of playing a video game into viewing it. Some projects do it with special effects (“Sonic”) while ..read more