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Minnesota’s labor force grows in July, even as job data change is minimal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

Minnesota’s labor force increased by more than 3,900 people in July, the fifth month in a row of growth, the state said Thursday, even as changes in employment from June to July were minimal.The state lost 400 jobs from June to July on a seasonally adjusted basis, with the state’s private sector down 300 jobs, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development said in a news release. Minnesota’s unemployment rate ticked up one-tenth of a point to 3% from June to July; nationally, the unemployment rate declined one-tenth of a point to 3.5%.The gains highlighted in the state’s labor force bumped the participation rate up one-tenth of a point to 68.5% compared with 62.6% nationally. The participation rate measures the portion of the working-age population who are working or actively seeking work, and it is used to calculate the headline unemployment rate.“Ongoing growth in our state’s labor force is a positive sign as many Minnesota employers continue looking for the...

Remembering Kait Anderson: a mother's mission to promote safety and support

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- Tanya Musskopf is the mother of Kait Anderson. The goal is to promote fairness and safety for road workers, encouraging drivers to slow down and move over when passing work zones. Toy Drive and Bags Tournament that starts at 8 a.m. at Arnold City Park.Anderson was a pregnant woman working in an active but unprotected work zone. She and her unborn child were killed when a car sped through the area where she was working.Musskopf initiated a toy drive in honor of Anderson. She had a strong affinity for children and giving, and Musskopf wanted to continue this legacy. The toys collected are delivered to the St. Louis crisis nursery, aligning with Anderson's values.Musskopf started the "Kait's Love for Jax Foundation" in memory of Anderson. The foundation provides free grief counseling to parents who have lost a child. Grief support services include grief sacks for family members and pregnancy alert bracelets for expectant mothers.Musskopf emphasizes that doing goo...

Brace yourself for highs of 100°F and beyond

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

ST. LOUIS -- An Excessive Heat Warning will go into effect at noon tomorrow and last through 10 PM on Thursday (for now). Highs each day will be around 100°F with heat index values reaching around 110°F.Today will be one last decent day before the heat kicks in. Highs will be right where we should expect them for this time of year—in the upper 80s to near 90°F. It will be mostly clear, with overnight lows in the low 70s. On Sunday, temperatures will climb to around 100°F, and with dew points in the low 70s, it will feel like we are closer to 110°F. This trend will continue each day throughout the workweek. For now, there are no decent chances of rain.

Russell Wilson says Broncos want to be a “physical, running football team” in 2023. When will we know if they are?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

Sometimes a simple message hits home with surprising impact.It doesn’t even have to be new information, necessarily. Time and place and the deliverer can take something that’s obvious or old news and renew its sense of importance or urgency.Take Denver quarterback Russell Wilson this week.At the Broncos’ outdoor podium after a run-of-the-mill training camp practice, he delivered a mostly standard-for-him barrage of relentless positivity and sunshine about where he thinks his team is with a little less than a month before the season opener.And he also happened to slip in some insight that gets right to the crux of what head coach Sean Payton and the Broncos front office spent the entire offseason — and tens of millions of dollars — trying to build on the offensive side of the ball.“We’re feeling really confident in what we’re doing and the identity of what we want to be. Obviously being a physical, running football team, being a team that can also throw the ball around the field.”Fir...

Grading The Week: Broncos, Sean Payton officially living rent-free in New York Jets’ heads now

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

Whatever you think of Sean Payton’s preseason, or the way he keeps shrugging off placekicker in a town where PKs are provincial legends, the Grading The Week gang gives the Broncos coach credit for this much:The man’s figured out a way to live rent-free in New York City.As in, living inside the heads of every last Jets player.Garrett Wilson’s bucket hat — B-minus.Look, can Week 5 just get here already?Ever since Payton fired a shot across the continent at Jets offensive coordinator/former Broncos coach/Aaron Rodgers plus-1 Nathaniel Hackett, he’s managed to bury himself inside the Big Apple narrative like an orange and blue pizza rat.And just when you think we’ve moved on, Garrett Wilson happens.Remember when Payton put out his ground rules for player sideline conduct once you’ve been pulled from a preseason game? The four commandments: No taking your uniform off, no wearing sunglasses, no bucket hats, no in-game interviews.So during the J-E-T-S’ 27-0 win at Carolina last Satu...

Mathews: Perhaps Cal, Stanford should create the California Conference

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

Dear Cal and Stanford,Why are you running away from California?Yes, the collapse of the Pac-12 conference — with eight schools departing for conferences with better TV contracts — leaves you two without a home for your sports teams.But your desperate appeals to join the Atlantic Coast Conference are pathetic — and a crime against geography.  And when that doesn’t work out (Atlantic schools don’t want to share TV sports revenues with West Coast interlopers), what’s next?Playing in the Arab League?Instead, why not take a breath — and a good look at your home state? Do that, and you’ll see that your best athletic futures are right here in California.You two could bring together universities from across the Golden State to form a new college sports powerhouse.The California Conference.It’s feasible. Football is the revenue machine behind college sports, and California now has 11 universities that play in the highest division. Two of these schools—USC and UCLA—have gone to the Big Ten. B...

Brooks: To be happy, marriage matters much more than career

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

When I’m around young adults I like to ask them how they are thinking about the big commitments in their lives: what career to go into, where to live, whom to marry. Most of them have thought a lot about their career plans. But my impression is that many have not thought a lot about how marriage will fit into their lives.The common operating assumption seems to be that professional life is at the core of life and that marriage would be something nice to add on top sometime down the road. According to an analysis of recent survey data by University of Virginia professor Brad Wilcox, 75% of adults ages 18 to 40 said that making a good living was crucial to fulfillment in life while only 32% thought that marriage was crucial to fulfillment. In a Pew Research Center survey, 88% of parents said it was “extremely or very” important for their kids to be financially independent, while only 21% said it was “extremely or very” important for their kids to marry.It’s not that I meet many people...

Buying a lot to build a home can be a nightmare or a dream

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

Question: The multiple-offer bidding process in the Bay Area is exhausting. We give up. As first-time homebuyers, we have written over 10 offers. We have yet to receive a counteroffer.Yesterday, my in-laws suggested we buy land. My father-in-law’s golfing buddy inherited a Bay Area lot. The ancestral family home on the property has long since been torn down. My father-in-law’s friend agreed to sell us the lot. They sealed the deal with a handshake.My wife is excited. She says this is our opportunity to buy in the Bay Area. The lot is expensive. I’m worried. We have to build a house. It feels overwhelming. We were bidding on “turnkey” houses. Now, we are buying a piece of land on a handshake.We will visit the lot on Saturday. We will meet the seller. The local escrow office will consummate the sale if we want the lot. That also makes me uncomfortable.Buying a Bay Area house includes agents and presale seller disclosures. It should be the same way for a lot sale. In other words, what ...

Ask Amy: She reposted my email about a friend, and now it’s loose on the internet

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

Dear Amy: My friend “Tyler” and I decided to try a yoga class. As we were doing the first position, he passed gas. Very audibly!It was super-awkward, but then he said, “Excuse me! Sounds like I started things with a bang.”People chuckled and the class went on.I thought Tyler’s recovery from an ultra-embarrassing moment was great, so I mentioned it in an email to a mutual friend of ours, but I stupidly and accidentally sent it to the wrong person (a near-stranger I’d exchanged a couple of emails with a couple of years ago).The person who received the email posted a screenshot of it on social media with the message: “I got an email about a dude who farted!”Her posting was reposted many times by her impressive number of followers. The email had Tyler’s actual first and last name and some details about where we live.I was horrified and insisted that she delete her posting, and she did – but of course it is still “out there,” floating around on the internet.Should...

Four tornadoes confirmed in Mass. and RI as storm damage cleanup continues

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:46:24 GMT

Several communities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island were left with flooding and wind damage Friday after severe weather swept through the region, spawning multiple tornadoes and knocking out power to thousands of people. Officials at the National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings beginning early in the morning. As conditions improved around midday, cleanup efforts were getting underway. The NSW confirmed a total of 4 tornadoes in the region. EF-1s hit Weymouth and the area of North Attleboro and Mansfield. Stoughton was hit by an EF-0 tornado, while Scituate and Johnston, Rhode Island experienced winds topping 115 miles per hour during an EF-2 tornado.“Everything was just bent over,” said one man in Weymouth describing the scene as storms hit his area. “You could hear the branches breaking.” The NWS issued the region’s first tornado warning of the day around 8:30 a.m. for parts of Rhode Island. Me...