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Skywatch: Bring in 2024 in a stellar way

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 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 Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 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 Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 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 Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 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 Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 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 Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 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 Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 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 Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 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...

No hubo ganador del premio mayor de Powerball en el sorteo de este sábado, el premio ahora se estima en US$ 810 millones810 millones

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 GMT

(CNN) — No hubo ningún ganador del premio mayor en el sorteo de Powerball de este sábado, según el sitio web de la lotería.El premio mayor ahora ha aumentado a un estimado de US$ 810 millones, según el sitio web de la lotería.El próximo sorteo está previsto para el 1 de enero.Powerball cuesta US$ 2 por jugada. Ganar el premio mayor significa que un boleto adivinó correctamente las cinco bolas blancas, más la “Powerball” roja.Los sorteos se realizan los lunes, miércoles y sábados a las 22:59 horas ET en Tallahassee, Florida. Los horarios límite para la venta de boletos varían, pero generalmente se establecen una o dos horas antes del horario del sorteo, según Powerball.Los sorteos se transmiten y pueden transmitirse en vivo en el sitio web de Powerball.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.Source

¿Por qué los Bloody Marys son solo para la mañana?

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 12:24:38 GMT

(CNN)–  El 1 de enero suele ser uno de los días más ocupados del año en el Hi-Lo Diner aquí.Los clientes, algunos todavía en estado de juerga por la noche anterior, llenan los puestos y piden del menú clásicos estadounidenses, incluido el alimento básico del brunch: el Hi-Lo Bloody, que viene con un “snit” (perseguido) de una Cerveza Miller High Life de 7 onzas.El Bloody Mary, un cóctel viscoso, relleno de vegetales y vodka, a menudo sirve como refugio para aquellos que esperan dominar los resonantes restos de los excesos de la víspera.“Se asocia con una propiedad restauradora”, dijo Brian Bartels, restaurador, barman desde hace mucho tiempo y autor de “The Bloody Mary: The Lore and Legend of a Cocktail Classic”, en una entrevista con CNN.“Tengo amigos que a veces la llaman ‘sopa’ o ‘sopa de cóctel’”, dijo. “¿En qué pensamos cuando pensamos en sopa? Por lo general, eso significa que estamos enfermos y necesitamos toma...