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St. Paul City Council to revisit citywide rezoning on Oct. 18

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

The St. Paul City Council will revisit a sweeping proposal to allow duplexes, and denser development, in every residential zoning district in the city on Oct. 18 following a “friendly amendment” introduced Wednesday by Council Member Rebecca Noecker.The amendment increases maximum height limits in newly-proposed H1 residential and RL large lot zoning districts from 33 feet to 35 feet.Noecker said she’d been contacted by developers of modular housing who said the higher limit would better accommodate three-story structures. The amendment was approved 5-2, with Council President Amy Brendmoen and Council Member Chris Tolbert opposed on the grounds that it would trigger a procedural delay in approval of the overall package, which had been scheduled to be voted upon Wednesday.Brendmoen said further changes are likely down the line. The proposal calls for allowing up to six units of housing on lots within an eighth of a mile of transit corridors and designated neighborh...

In surprising move, Twins activate Byron Buxton as injury replacement for Alex Kirilloff

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

Byron Buxton is back.The Twins added Buxton to the active roster ahead of Wednesday night’s win-or-go-home Game 4 of the American League Division Series as an injury replacement for Alex Kirilloff, who is dealing with a shoulder issue that sidelined him earlier in the year for more than a month.“He still shows up ready to give it everything he can possibly give every day,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said of Buxton. “And he’s put himself in a position where we can activate him, where I probably would have said that was very unlikely, if you asked me at some point in the recent past. It’s through his work. It’s through his hard work.”Buxton went on the injured list originally with a hamstring strain in early August but suffered a setback with his knee that forced the Twins to shut down his rehab assignment in early September. He has been trying to work his way back since then.Baldelli said Buxton has not run much but he has run enough for them to feel comfort...

Review: Bob Dylan jukebox musical ‘Girl from the North Country’ is a grim dud

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

Conor McPherson’s Bob Dylan jukebox musical “Girl from the North Country” opened its North American tour Tuesday night at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis with a thud.Still, it arrived with some pomp and circumstance. Gov. Tim Walz was on hand to introduce the show and proclaim it “Girl from the North Country Broadway Musical Week” in Minnesota. The musical takes place in Great Depression-era Duluth, where Dylan was born. And Dylan himself once owned the Orpheum, before the city of Minneapolis bought it in 1988.To be sure, there are aspects of the production worth admiring. Its often creative staging offers some visual delights, and the cast excels at singing songs familiar to Dylan fans around the world. Beyond that, however, it’s puzzling that the pandemic-interrupted Broadway run earned such rave reviews.Ben Biggers, Sharaé Moultrie, Jennifer Blood and John Schiappa in “Girl From The North Country,” the Tony Award-winning musical which runs thro...

Bret Stephens: The anti-Israel left needs to take a hard look at itself

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

On Saturday morning in southern Israel, Hamas murdered hundreds of people at a music festival and kidnapped others at gunpoint to serve as human shields in the Gaza Strip. On Sunday afternoon in New York City’s midtown Manhattan, a speaker at a rally of pro-Palestinian and left-wing groups celebrated that atrocity — one of thousands suffered by Israelis over the past few days, which we later learned included the killing of babies and toddlers.“As you might have seen, there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters,” a speaker said. “But I’m sure they’re doing very fine despite what The New York Post says.” He was met with cheers.I went to see the rally for myself: Would there be even perfunctory condemnation of Hamas’ methods? A brief nod of sympathy to Israel’s anguish? Some banal nod to the cause of peace and nonviolence? Not that I heard. What I saw was ...

Other voices: Biden wants to build a big, beautiful wall

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

It took nearly three years, but reality has finally intruded upon the Biden administration’s border fantasies. Thank two Republican governors for the long overdue wake-up call.Last week, the White House announced that it plans to suspend nearly two dozen laws and regulations to hasten construction of additional barriers on our southern border. This is a reversal of epic proportions.When President Joe Biden entered office in January 2021, one of his first actions was to rescind a Trump-era executive order that promoted the former president’s vision of a “big, beautiful wall” to slow illegal entries into the United States. Mr. Biden and most Democrats had vociferously opposed such efforts. “Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution,” he said.It turns out, however, that neither is advancing a de facto open borders policy that serves as a magnet and encourages immigrants to illegally enter the Unite...

Francis Wilkinson: Supreme Court loses no matter how it rules on gun case

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

The conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court will have to choose between depravity and farce this term. It’s an awkward situation, with a high probability of disgrace either way, but they can’t say they didn’t ask for it.Veteran court analysts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern wrote that this term’s court docket is “an explosive brew of lawless fury aimed at the heart of modern American governance.” Fury certainly defines the case of United States v. Zackey Rahimi. The case is from the MAGA-dominated 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. In its ruling, the court said authorities had no right to deprive Zackey Rahimi of his firearms on the grounds that he was under a domestic violence restraining order after having violently assaulted his girlfriend.In 2019, Rahimi, of Arlington, Texas, threw his girlfriend to the ground before dragging her to his car, where he slammed her head against the dashboard.He late...

Alberta’s pension plan proposal has a BREXIT-like stink to it

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

Few things in this world are more tempting to a politician than $334 billion. And it seems that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is going for gold with Alberta’s plan to withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), which we’ll call ALBXIT. The plan is audacious, and, oddly enough, Smith’s messaging is disturbingly similar to BREXIT, Britain’s disastrous withdrawal from the European Union (EU).For the Brits, the biggest lie was the famous £350 million per week fabrication. Those who favoured leaving the EU claimed that the UK sent £350 million per week to the European Union. The ‘we was robbed’ logic falsely implied that all this money could be saved and redirected to the National Health Service (NHS) if the UK left the EU.ALBXIT’s logic is shockingly similar. According to the authors of the recently released report, “for decades … Alberta workers and businesses (have) contributed approximately $60 billion more into the CPP … than has been paid out to Albertans.”You have to give Smith ...

County straps in for the intensity of fall fire season

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

By Erika MathieuSunny South NewsDespite cooler temperatures, the most intense period of the fire season has just begun.Manager of Fire Services at Lethbridge County, Byron Fraser said the peak intensity of a region’s fire season depends greatly on the landscape, and although the temperatures have dropped off in recent weeks, autumn is the most active time for fires.Despite the hot, dry spring, Fraser said the anticipation of autumn can bring with it a feeling of uneasiness for departments in the region.“It concerns us, as (it’s) usually created a crazy year of fires, but truthfully we are just getting to our most serious and common time for wildland fires. All the crops are either off or fully cured, the grasses in the pastures, coulees, and landscape are at the longest they will get and fully cured,” he said, noting this differs from certain mountainous regions which often experience their major fire season earlier in the summer.“We are just getting into our (peak season) and depen...

Call volume intensifies for Nobleford Fire Department

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

By Erika MathieuSunny South NewsAccording to fire services across the region, call volumes have been trending up steadily in recent years, with no signs of abating.Fire Chief of the Nobleford Fire Department, Ryan Wagner confirmed that within the department, call volumes have increased, “every year for the last number of years,” adding the 2023 season is no exception.”Early summer conditions and high spring temperatures kicked off a busy season for crews, as the moisture provided by the winter snow cover evaporated earlier in the spring.“This spring started out with some dry and warm weather, creating precise fire conditions which turned into working large wildland fires for our crews. Typically the weather pattern can change with high winds and extreme heat conditions, which happens throughout the entire summer season, and can continue until the cooler temperatures arise,” he added.The increase in calls is a challenge in and of itself. Wagner said the department’s crews, “responded...

Volunteers lend a helping hand to northern neighbours during 2023 wildland fires

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:26:04 GMT

By Erika MathieuSunny South NewsBeginning in the spring of 2023, Albertans watched in horror as hundreds of thousands of hectares burnt across several districts in Alberta which resulted in the evacuation of nearly 30,000 people.Efforts to snuff out the 2023 Alberta wildfires required the assistance of seasonal and year-round firefighters from Alberta Wildfire and paid-on-call volunteers to control the fires. By early June, help from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and across Canada had been deployed to help extinguish the swath of growing fires across Alberta.Volunteers from Lethbridge County stepped up to help in the fire suppression efforts, including from the Coaldale, Picture Butte, Nobleford, and Coalhurst Fire departments.Ryan Wagner, Fire Chief of the Nobleford Fire Department, said the small department played a part in the effort.“We had three separate crews go up for 7-9 day rotations per shift for a total of three deployments up by Edson in Yellowhead County, on two...