The Bemidji Pioneer | Bemidji, Minnesota

Minnesota on track for above above-average tornado season

Cathy Wurzer and Gracie Stockton / MPR News — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 21:11:50 GMT

ST. PAUL — In the last few weeks, severe storms have spun up tornadoes across Minnesota, Iowa and North Dakota, with one twister near Enderlin claiming three lives last month.

In Minnesota alone, there have been 48 tornado reports so far this season, according to preliminary data from the Storm Prediction Center. That’s already more than the annual average of 43, and the most since 2022, when the state saw 60 tornadoes.

“It’s just weather system after weather system coming through the region, and those weather systems are interacting with a lot of instability, that kind of warm and humid air that helps generate the severe weather,” said Kenny Blumenfeld, senior climatologist with the Minnesota State Climate Office.

Will this active pattern continue?

Blumenfeld said he and other forecasters see no sign of a shutoff to this active pattern in the coming weeks.

“There is, of course, no guarantee that we're going to get the same pacing of tornadoes and heavy rainfall events,” he said. “But you know, a lot of times in the last few years we’ve had these active patterns, and then somewhere on the horizon, you can see everything just ending.”

Over the last several years, Minnesota has entered a drought stage at the end of the growing season, but that’s not apparent for 2025.

“It certainly could be just beyond the horizon, but we haven’t really seen any slam-dunk indication from the forecast models that the active pattern is about to end,” Blumenfeld said.

More tornadoes or better detection?

While climate change is bringing more frequent and intense severe weather to Minnesota, Blumenfeld said we shouldn’t be quick to assume we’re getting more tornadoes.

“On one hand, we know the tornadoes that we’ve had because they hit things. On the other hand, it’s easier to see them,” Blumenfeld said. “Our detection is better than ever, our spotting is better than ever, our verification and validation is better than ever. So sometimes now we’re able to count tornadoes that maybe wouldn't have been counted in the past.”

But one thing is pretty clear.

“However you slice it, we’re above average, and therefore likely to finish well above average for the season,” he said.

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This story was originally published on MPRNews.org.

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McIntosh, Fosston Public Libraries to host Prairie Public's Learning Express Trailer

Pioneer Staff Report — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 21:00:00 GMT

MCINTOSH — The McIntosh Public Library and the Fosston Public Library will each offer access to Prairie Public's Learning Express Trailer this month.

The trailer is packed with resource bins filled with kits, games and activities for youth and families during library open hours, a release said.

The trailer will visit the McIntosh Public Library, 115 Broadway NW., July 7-11 and will be at the Fosston Public Library, 403 Foss Ave. N., July 14-18.

These programs are part of free events for youth offered as part of the library's jungle-themed Summer Reading Program. Participants can read to win prizes as well as attend educational and entertaining programs at their local library or library LINK Site.

Those interested in participating are encouraged to stop by their local library or LINK Site in the Lake Agassiz library system to pick up a reading log as of June 1. Information about the program and event lists are available at larl.org/explore.

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Bemidji Speedway driver Lily Knute has family ties to the track

By Dennis Peterson / Special to the Pioneer — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 20:31:26 GMT

BEMIDJI — For Lily Knute, racing was something she knew would come about at some point in her life.

At 16 years old, Lily is the granddaughter of Bemidji Speedway Hall of Fame legend Dwight Knute. Dwight recently passed away but the Knute name will continue on the track in 2025 with Lily racing her very first race last Sunday.

Lily is racing in the very competitive Wissota Mod Four class. He goal is to "go fast."

Lily plans to attend Bemidji State and pursue an accounting degree. She has been active in shooting sports since the age of 10 and has placed in the top five in state competitions. She currently works at Perkins in Bemidji.

Lily and the other drivers can be seen each Sunday at the Bemidji Speedway. This week is First Responders/Veterans & Salute to Service Night. All police, EMS, fire and veterens receive $5 admission. Fans dressed in their best fourth of July regalia can enter the Red, White, and Blue USA Costume Contest.

Races start at 5 p.m. with all eight classes running.

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Bemidji outlasts Fergus Falls, takes both games on the road

Pioneer Staff Report — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 20:20:26 GMT

FERGUS FALLS – Fergus Falls’ four-run seventh inning to tie the game didn’t deter the Bemidji American Legion baseball team from picking up a doubleheader sweep.

Trailing 8-4 and down to its final three outs, Fergus Falls plated four runs via a bases-loaded walk, a fielder’s choice and a wild pitch.

It set the table for a bases-loaded, two-RBI single from Lawson Berg in the top of the eighth. Beg later scored on a sacrifice fly to give the Centaurs an 11-8 win.

Berg went 3 for 5 at the plate with a pair of doubles and three RBIs. Stonewall Gessner and Lundquist each went 2 for 5.

In the first game, Bemidji beat Fergus Falls 10-2 behind Peyton Neadeau’s complete game on the mound. He allowed two earned runs on ten hits with two walks and six strikeouts in seven innings.

At the plate, Fisher Ganske was 2 for 5 with an RBI and two runs scored. Lundquist went 3 for 4 with three RBIs, while Max Bahr went 1 for 3 with two RBIs.

Bemidji 10, Fergus Falls 2

BEM 250 012 0 – 10-10-0

FF 100 100 0 – 2-10-7

WP: Neadeau (7 IP, 10 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K)

LP: Ellison (5 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 K)

Bemidji 11, Fergus Falls 8 (F/8)

BEM 204 011 03 – 11-11-4

FF 010 021 40 – 8-10-2

WP: Gessner (3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 34 ER, 4 BB, 2 K)

LP: Fronning (0 IP, 0 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K)

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Beltrami County Emergency Management issues Thursday storm update

Pioneer Staff Report — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 19:33:52 GMT

BEMIDJI — As the two-week mark since the June 21 storm approaches, Beltrami County Emergency Management has issued its final regular update on the recovery efforts.

"After nearly two weeks, the Beltrami County Emergency Operations Center is ramping down their response to the destructive severe thunderstorm that struck Beltrami County on June 21, 2025," a Thursday afternoon release noted.

While the physical location is closing down, work continues behind the scenes and Emergency Management will continue to be in contact and coordination with state agencies, volunteer groups, city and county departments to handle recovery efforts.

Beltrami County Solid Waste has made adjustments to its hours with weather and staffing considerations, the release said.

The Blackduck Transfer Station will be closed on Saturday, and the Bemidji Transfer Station will be operating their normal hours. The Target debris site and Demolition Landfill will be closed on Saturday due to heavy rainfall in the forecast.

Both debris sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday, July 7, through Friday, July 11. On Saturday, July 12, the Demotion Landfill and Target site will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Sunday, July 13, the Target site will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Residents needing assistance should continue to utilize Community Resource Connections and the United Way of the Bemidji Area. CRC is available to those needing help and can be reached at (218) 333-0880 or www.crcinform.org.

The United Way is coordinating those who want to volunteer and can find information at unitedwaybemidji.org/disaster-recovery. Those needing in-person assistance can visit the Public Health Office during business hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) at 616 America Ave, NW or call (218) 333-8140.

Food, water and other supplies are available while supplies last, the release noted.

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Beltrami County Board hears updates on storm recovery process

Daltyn Lofstrom — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 18:17:14 GMT

BEMIDJI – Nearly all facets of the June 21 storm recovery process were addressed during a Beltrami County Board of Commissioners work session on Tuesday.

While a continual and laborious process, Tuesday’s work session aimed to provide an update on recovery efforts as well as inform the public of preparation ahead of the storm that allowed for an appropriate response.

This marked the commission’s first meeting since it extended a State of Emergency for the county at a June 23 special meeting.

“It became very evident that early that week (leading up to the storm), we were in for something that was going to be big that weekend, and it happened,” Beltrami County Emergency Management Director Chris Muller said. “We didn’t want it, but we were prepared and that is a good thing. As tragic as it is for our community, what’s celebrated is that we were prepared and nobody got hurt.”

Muller detailed communications sent out to the public prior to the storm, noting a peculiarity with the timing of the area’s risk issuance for bad weather by the National Weather Service.

“Being at an enhanced risk two days out is relatively rare,” Muller said. “That’s something that you normally see hours or a day before, not two days before.”

Vastly altering its landscape, the storm swept through the Bemidji area in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 21, producing wind speeds up to 120 miles per hour – equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane or EF2 tornado.

The recovery process would soon begin, but having exhausted the immediate area’s emergency response crews, it was clear that additional help would be needed.

“The devastation was something like we haven’t seen in very recent history,” Beltrami County Administrator Tom Barry said. “As the sun rose, it was clear that this catastrophic event would require additional resources. The county was just not resourced to take on this event on its own.”

Barry noted that representatives from the Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency were quick to respond as well as other agencies at the state and local levels.

“The city, county and state resources immediately began clearing debris,” Barry said. “It was very important for us to at least get most of the roads passable for additional emergency services that might be needed and that happened pretty quickly.”

A shelter’s serendipity

Structural damage to hundreds of homes necessitated the opening of a post-storm resource center at the old First National Bank building as well as an emergency shelter, setting up shop inside the Sanford Center in partnership with the American Red Cross and Salvation Army.

Such a development proved serendipitous.

“It’s ironic that the opening of the shelter in a catastrophic storm event was something that we had trained on simply two months ago,” Barry said, “so that was a very smooth operation for us and the team.”

Providing a safe haven for those displaced by the storm, Public Health Director Amy Bowles commended Sanford Center General Manager Bobby Anderson for his willingness to open the space for the most vulnerable.

“I couldn’t be more grateful for the support from Bobby,” Bowles said. “As soon as I called him and said I needed him at the Sanford Center, he said ‘I’ll meet you there.’”

The Sanford Center provided basic necessities including meals, water and overnight shelter for those requiring it.

“One of our biggest concerns on that first and going into the second day was the access to food,” Bowles added, “and being able to get enough food to the people in the building and our first responders needing a place for a hot meal.”

Bowles and Anderson teamed up once securing breakfast items to serve roughly 500 people. Due to the cancellation of the 2025 Loop the Lake Festival, the Sanford Center received donations of hot dogs, cookies and water to serve as its second meal.

Preliminary numbers show that the Sanford Center served a total of 4,838 residents from 3,253 households, giving out 1,050 meals, 164 people spending the night and 400 volunteer hours being put in.

‘A drawn-out process’

The clean-up process has been quite the task and continues to be. Public Works Director Bruce Hasbargen noted considerable workload in terms of solid waste management at the Beltrami County Demolition Landfill and a second site at Pine Products.

“We directed the commercial haulers there to begin with, but once we got our feet under us at the demolition landfill, we closed that down,” he said. “There’s a cost to having these sites open.”

According to Hasbargen, an estimated 2,500 vehicles came through the demolition landfill the Monday after the storm alone. While considerable progress has been made in terms of clean-up, Hasbargen reminded the board of the long road ahead.

“Overall, I’d like to say we’re past the peak rush of people bringing material in,” he said, “but it’s going to be a drawn-out process.”

Following other updates, commissioners thanked all staff for their work in the face of adversity as recovery continues.

“I always brag that Beltrami County has staff that are second to none,” District 4 Commissioner Tim Sumner said. “This past week has proven that you really stepped up when we needed you guys the most, and I appreciate everything that you’ve done.”

The full work session can be viewed on the county’s YouTube channel.

The commission’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 15.

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When Bemidji called for help, local and statewide firefighters answered

Jared Rubado — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 13:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — Erik Flowers has frequented Bemidji a time or two.

One of Brainerd’s paid on-call firefighters routinely finds himself in Beltrami County each spring for his day job. So when Flowers volunteered for a day-long firefighting shift in Bemidji in the wake of the severe storm on June 21, he was taken aback by the aftermath as he traveled up Highway 371.

“I was up in Bemidji this spring for a work conference; we go up every year. I’m familiar with the area,” Flowers said. “We got to Walker and the power was still out. I kind of thought, ‘This is a lot bigger than we imagined.’ ”

Flowers and the rest of the four-person crew didn’t know what was waiting for them 40 miles north of the halfway point between Bemidji and Brainerd.

“You get into Bemidji and you start seeing the damage from roofs being torn off on so many buildings and the amount of trees on the side of the road,” he continued. “You’re just in awe of how much damage there is.”

Flowers’ shock matched that of roughly 100 traveling firefighters who answered Bemidji’s call for help. At about 8 a.m. on June 21, six hours after Category 3 hurricane winds tore the First City on the Mississippi apart, Bemidji Fire Chief Justin Sherwood sought a lifeline in the form of mutual aid.

“We have 10 mutual aid partners around us — Solway, Blackduck, etc.,” he said. “If they have a structure fire, they can request resources from Bemidji. For this event, we opened up intrastate requests so we could receive aid from everywhere. We had 19 departments come to assist us, all the way down to Bloomington and Little Canada.”

In a matter of hours after the storm dissipated, before any power was reestablished or emergency resource centers were posted, firefighters from Bemidji, the surrounding area and Greater Minnesota got their hands dirty in the early phase of a relief effort that will take weeks, if not months or years, to complete.

From gas leaks to structure fires, from the sense of helplessness to faith restoration, the preparation from statewide departments readied firefighters for the unpreparable.

Acting fast

Sherwood went to bed on Friday, June 20, anticipating being woken up with calls.

“You just get that feeling sometimes,” he said. “When you have a major storm, there’s often a structure fire. At minimum, you’re getting alarms. You just know it’s coming.”

Around 2 a.m. on Saturday, as Sherwood began his trek inside Bemidji’s city limits, he quickly learned that it wasn’t an average storm.

All available firefighters in the existing crew of 57 were paged in. Sherwood also said the department’s communications were down.

“I was really proud of my staff, because they had already coordinated dispatch logs,” he said. “They had all of the calls written down on pieces of paper because the dispatchers were so inundated with calls. They were prioritizing those logs on paper, and Chad Hokuf was dispatching rigs over the radio.”

In the immediate eight hours following the storm, Bemidji firefighters responded to roughly 80 emergency calls. Each rig in the station was deployed to various areas of Bemidji, attending to gas leaks, dangerously fallen power lines and other time-sensitive fixes.

Sherwood was forced to delegate.

On his drive into Bemidji from his home in rural Beltrami County, he called in each city department lead for an emergency meeting at 3 a.m. Sherwood, the emergency city manager, passed off the immediate recovery duties at the fire department to Hokuf.

“It was at that point when we identified the streets that needed to be opened and the injuries and casualties we had,” Sherwood said. “We didn’t have any, thank God. But it was dark, and there wasn’t power, so we didn’t even know what we had to work with.

“When you look at it from an administrator’s point of view, like myself, I was thinking more long-term. I knew we couldn’t sustain this pace, and what if the ‘what ifs’ happen?”

At 8 a.m., one of them happened.

Bat signal

Due to a building explosion on the north side of Bemidji near Sanford, the fire department was suddenly strapped for bodies.

In times of desperation, local fire departments can reach out to their mutual aid partners for help. In extreme cases, like Bemidji’s, requests through the Minnesota Intrastate Mutual Aid Plan are formed.

Chiefs from around the state assess their departments to see if they can send a crew where it’s needed on short notice.

Sherwood also reached out to the Minnesota State Fire Chiefs Association for assistance. Hibbing Chief Erika Jankila; Cross Lake Chief Chip Lohmiller; Pequot Lakes Chief Mike Schwankl; Cross Lake Deputy Chief Jory Danielson; Plymouth Chief Rodger Coppa; Brooklyn Park Chief Tim Walsh; Bloomington Deputy Chief Jay Forster; Little Canada Chief Don Smiley; and Brooklyn Center Chief Todd Berg all provided aid to Bemidji in the days following the storm.

Due to the scale of the destruction, several department authority figures were needed.

“I knew our resources were going to be tapped,” Sherwood said. “We couldn’t sustain what we were doing. We pulled the pin in the mutual aid grenade, if you will, and called Blackduck, Solway and Cass Lake. But I also had to be mindful of what their communities had going on. This became a state event.”

Sherwood came away impressed with how quickly they responded to the call to service in northern Minnesota.

“I made one phone call to a supervisor at the state fire marshal’s office,” he said. “I told him what I needed, and he said, ‘I got you.’ He told me they had six fire departments signed up for three days each, and if I needed anything else, they’d get it for me. That was done within hours.

“It just blows my mind how fast it all came together. How did they get here that fast? How were they even able to pack that fast? It’s hard to understand, but it makes you so proud of what you do. We’re the state of community.”

While stations from around Minnesota boarded their trucks, a crew in Detroit Lakes was short on bodies.

Mike Hansen, the Detroit Lakes fire chief, didn’t have four people to send to Bemidji. He teamed up with Fergus Falls to provide aid.

“When I called their chief, Ryan Muckow, he said they had the manpower but they were down an engine,” Hansen said. “I told him that we had the engine but we didn’t have the manpower. He sent us two guys and we put them on our engine.”

Hansen is familiar with mutual aid and intrastate requests. He understands that rural towns in Greater Minnesota don’t have the infrastructure to survive the aftermath of the June 21 storm alone.

“I don’t even know if there was a reaction,” Hansen said. “All of us are trained. We know when to call for help, and we know when not to call for help. When one of the other chiefs calls for help, you don’t ask questions. You just do it because you know it’s needed, and you might need it, too, at some point.”

Gas leaks

With an influx of emergency calls rolling through the dispatchers — calls that were being documented on pen and paper, as the town was without power — Bemidji firefighters leaned on their mission statement.

“It’s to protect life, then property, then the environment,” Sherwood said. “Life safety is No. 1. That’s how we prioritize calls. In everything that was done, that was the priority. It wasn’t until the daylight came that we started shifting. … For us, a lot of the life safety things were gas leaks, lines down and collapses.”

In a standard June week, gas leak calls are few and far between. In the 10 days following the storm, Sherwood guessed that Bemidji received 50-60 calls about gas leaks.

“We work our way out from the hot zone through our monitoring systems,” Sherwood said. “You have to identify the type of gas — natural gas or propane gas — which have different kinds of gravities. Natural gas is lighter than air and will dissipate, whereas propane gas sinks low. We identify those things and act accordingly.”

Gas leaks can arise from virtually all areas in a community. In the restoration process, more leaks than the original source can be found.

“You think about the amount of wind we had, it moves and shakes things,” Sherwood said. “We had gas leaks on top of Lueken’s and Walmart. That’s where their appliances are. Trees had fallen on power lines, so we took care of those. Then we turn the gas back on and identify more leaks.”

New normal

Since pushing through the immediate recovery phase, Sherwood is turning his department’s attention toward regaining a semblance of regularity.

He is a believer in leading by example. He understands that while some community members will endure an ongoing struggle in the coming months, reestablishing structure in his department is paramount.

“It’s important to say that there are so many community members who weren’t thriving before the storm,” Sherwood said. “They were struggling, whether it be financially or otherwise. At the very least, we need to get people back to a place of familiarity. It’s going to take patience, grace, resiliency, love — a lot of outward stuff.

“From the fire department’s point of view, we’re of the mindset that, right now, we’re in the recovery stage. The recovery items that happen right now don’t involve us unless there’s an injury or something like that. We’re working on recognizing what our new normal is now. … We’re going to continue to support our service organizations here in Bemidji.”

Sherwood has also had time to reflect. In a time where it feels like Bemidji drew the short end of the weather stick, he understands how lucky Bemidjians got with the lack of casualties.

“I think a big part of that is because of the time the storm came,” Sherwood said. “People were at home in their beds or found shelter. The sirens went off and gave people enough of a heads-up to retreat somewhere safe. But when you wake up and see the damage the next morning, you expect multiple casualties, whether that’s injury or death.”

As for the visiting firefighters who volunteered their efforts in the days following the storm, Flowers leaned on the unspoken code among first responders.

“Most firefighters have that deep level of service and a commitment to helping others,” he said. “It’s not constrained to a boundary or a state, or any of that kind of thing. For me, I feel like I was born to serve others.

“Every time I try to branch out in my career that isn’t paid-on-call firefighting, it always leads back to serving others. I believe stuff like this goes so far beyond the boundaries of our own town in Brainerd.”

It isn’t lost on Sherwood that the town-shaping disaster could take an emotional toll on his crew. He called himself “passionate” in his leadership style, and the response of his counterparts in a time of need reaffirmed his enthusiasm for what he does.

“For them to leave their lives and families, to leave what they had damaged and lost from this storm, all to help other people, I couldn’t ask for anything more out of them,” Sherwood said. “We didn’t just see this with emergency staff; we saw it throughout the community. People came out and assisted their neighbors before they helped themselves. That’s why you can drive down these streets today.”

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Disaster Relief Grants available for local nonprofits

Pioneer Staff Report — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 20:00:31 GMT

BEMIDJI — The United Way of the Bemidji Area invites local nonprofits to apply for Disaster Relief Grants following the June 21 storm.

Nonprofits may apply for funding on behalf of their clients or their organizations, a release noted.

Individuals, for-profit businesses, and organizations that are not 501c3 charitable organizations are not eligible to apply.

Guidelines and the application materials are available online at unitedwaybemidji.org/grant-opportunities.

"The application and funding process are designed to have a quick turnaround time, so agencies can then respond to community and individual needs," the release said. "Grants will be awarded on an ongoing basis and agencies may apply more than once."

Questions can be directed to Gretchen Anderson at gretchen@unitedwaybemidji.org.

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Lueken's Village Foods provides roughly 1,200 meals in wake of storm recovery

Daltyn Lofstrom — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:19:49 GMT

BEMIDJI — In the face of its own adversity and the community’s as a whole, Lueken’s Village Foods recently gave back to the Bemidji area one meal at a time.

Setting up shop in the Lueken’s North parking lot on Friday, staff handed out roughly 1,200 free meals to passersby as well as free gallons of water to offer support to everyone affected by the June 21 storm.

With hot dogs and brats on the grill, Lueken’s President Craig Little and other employees fulfilled the role of a safety net for community members even when storm damage hit close to home.

“It took a village, it took a team (to reopen),” Little said. “Our main priority was just getting the stores open.”

Lueken’s North and South were without power for 36 and 22 hours respectively, and though difficult to calculate in terms of cost to the company, all perishable products had to be removed and restocked once power came back.

“We lost all of our refrigerated and frozen product in our stores, so we had to get all of that product out of our stores before we could reopen,” Little said. “Once we reopened, we had to get our vendor partners to replenish us so that we could give our customers the shopping experience they’ve come to expect with us.”

Throughout the reopening process, Little commended the work of Lueken’s employees.

“We had staff that left trees on their houses to get these stores open for the community,” he added. “Once we got our stores open, then we turned to helping our staff. Now, we’re just trying to feed the community and take things one day at a time.”

On top of Friday’s meals, Lueken’s accepted donations for the Bemidji Community Food Shelf — namely non-perishable goods and monetary donations.

Little hopes for continual community support as the storm recovery process progresses, particularly with the Fourth of July weekend quickly approaching.

“The Fourth of July, it’s like Christmas up here in Bemidji,” he left off. “We’re just focused on giving our guests what they need so they can try to celebrate a little bit in a time of need.”

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Bemidji-area power companies report full restoration following widespread outages

Pioneer Staff Report — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:31:11 GMT

BEMIDJI — Local power companies Beltrami Electric Cooperative and Otter Tail Power Company have reported that power has been restored to everyone who experienced an outage due to the June 21 storm.

According to a June 27 release from BEC, its outage map "reflected zero members without power early this morning — marking a significant milestone in what has been one of the most challenging and grueling restoration efforts in recent memory."

In seven days, the cooperative restored power to more than 19,000 members who lost service following the storm, the release noted. More than 90% of the co-op’s rural distribution system was affected.

"The storm caused widespread destruction, including an estimated 80 broken poles, along with damage to transformers and other essential equipment," the release said. "While all members have been restored, the cooperative faces weeks of follow-up repair work to fully address the lasting impact."

According to a June 27 Facebook post, Otter Tail Power Company has also restored power to its customers.

"From sunrise to sunset, our crews have braved challenging conditions head-on to restore power and support our communities this week," the post reads. "We've restored electrical system service to all communities."

BEC members can receive updates on outages and restoration efforts by visiting the outage map at beltramielectric.com. Members who need to report an outage can call 1-800-955-6083.

Otter Tail Power Company customers can receive updates on outages and restoration efforts by visiting the outage map at otpco.com. Customers who need to report an outage can call (800) 257-4044.

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Post-storm resource center open through July 2 in downtown Bemidji

Pioneer Staff Report — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 21:12:22 GMT

BEMIDJI — A post-storm resource center will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Wednesday, July 2, at the former First National Bank building, 429 Minnesota Ave. NW.

The resource center, previously located at the Sanford Center, has been relocated to better assist residents impacted by the June 21 storm.

The center offers the following resources:

Hot meals prepared by the Salvation Army. Lunch is served from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and dinner is served from 4 to 6 p.m. Cases of bottled water Individual snack items Pre-packaged hot meals Cleaning supplies

For those who lost food due to the storm or power outages, a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) food benefit replacement program is available.

To learn more, visit the second floor of Beltrami County Health and Human Services at 616 America Ave. NW or call (218) 333-8300. The deadline to apply is Tuesday, July 1.

The resource center is supported by Beltrami County Public Health, the United Way of the Bemidji Area, American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Community Resource Connections, the Bemidji Fire Department, as well as local and community donors.

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Concordia Language Villages weather the storm, power outage with only tree damage

Dennis Doeden — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 14:42:13 GMT

BEMIDJI — "Blitz und Donner, es gibt einen Sturm."

That’s German for "Lightning and thunder, there’s a windstorm." And it’s what campers at Waldsee, the German camp at Concordia Language Villages, were likely saying early Saturday morning as the Bemidji blowdown roared through. Maybe with a few English words tossed in.

All in all, Concordia’s sprawling campus northeast of Bemidji escaped serious damage. Hundreds of trees were toppled, but only one building, a small cabin for staff members, was hit by a tree. It was unoccupied at the time.

“Just that one little cabin with a tree on it,” said Martin Graefe, interim director of operations at the Language Villages. “It's nothing compared to what the whole town is experiencing.”

Concordia operates eight villages on its Turtle River Lake campus and a Japanese camp on Lake Andrusia east of Bemidji. Graefe said about 450 campers and 150 staff members were on site when the storm hit.

“We implemented our crisis response team pretty much right away early Saturday morning,” Graefe said. “I happened to also be the administrator on call. So the program leaders and directors and the deans of the programs can reach out to anybody if they need to.

"Throughout the night, as the storm developed, I got those calls and walked people through the response and made sure that everybody took shelter per our protocols.”

Two caretakers who live on site jumped into action right away, working to clear the campus roads of fallen trees. Camp sessions end on Saturday mornings, so many people were coming to pick up their children.

New sessions usually begin on Monday afternoons, but this week’s campers had to wait until Tuesday to get settled in. There was no power to the Turtle River site for 42 hours; from early Saturday morning until late afternoon on Sunday.

“And in the end, we decided on Sunday, since we didn't have power yet at that time, that we bring the new kids in until Tuesday,” Graefe said. “So we had to communicate to the parents as part of the crisis response.”

A heroic effort

During the power outages, campers and staff had to carry water from the lake in order to flush toilets. Many also bathed in the lake, but Graefe said that’s not unusual at CLV.

“Of course it was nice and hot outside, so going to the lake was not a problem,” he said. “Some kids like that anyway. In some of the programs, they routinely have a bathing party in the lake, even when we have showers active. They use environmentally friendly soap.”

By Saturday afternoon portable toilets were brought in from Bob’s Econo Pump, although some of those had to be retrieved from a field where they had been blown around from the wind.

“It was a super heroic effort on behalf of their team,” Graefe said.

It also was a great effort from Concordia’s staff, people like Nikola Schroeder, a 22-year-old college student from Watertown, S.D., who is working as a counselor and assistant business manager at Waldsee, the German village.

Nikola was in charge of 11 terrified girls ages 11-13. When the storm hit, her cabin had 30 young girls in the bathroom, according to her mother, Deb.

Nikola is majoring in Chinese at the University of Minnesota, but also speaks German plus some Korean and Japanese. Her family lived in Germany from 2009 to 2013, and she learned about Concordia Language Villages from a cousin who attended camp here.

“She just has a love for languages,” Deb Schroeder said.

When Nikola called her mother after the storm, Deb decided to contact Bemidji chapters of Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO). Deb is a PEO sister, as is Nikola.

"The first thing I thought is, ‘Who do you call?’" Deb said. "I called my PEO sisters. We always get things done."

Local PEO members did indeed connect with Nikola to offer assistance, but it wasn't necessary because CLV’s power came back on.

“It was so sweet that they offered to help her,” Deb wrote in an email to a Bemidji sister. “It was such a blessing that they reached out. It helped Nikola's heart and gave her courage. Nikola's quote is that ‘she loves being a PEO!’ She joined last year at 21. She so appreciated not feeling alone in such a scary situation.”

The Waldsee village is a German immersion program, so that is the only language that is spoken. But Graefe said that rule can be broken in situations like this.

“Whenever there's a crisis or emergency situation, we allow ourselves to resort to English to make sure that the instructions and the context is clearly understood by everybody,” he said.

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Gov. Walz declares Peacetime Emergency for Beltrami County following storm

Pioneer Staff Report — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 14:17:51 GMT

BEMIDJI — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has declared a Peacetime Emergency for Beltrami County after severe storms rocked the area and caused significant damage in the early morning hours of June 21.

The declaration was announced via an executive order signed on Friday, June 27.

"On Saturday, June 21, 2025, Beltrami County experienced a severe storm that included top wind speeds of approximately 120 miles per hour — the equivalent of a Category Three hurricane," the order reads. "The severe weather displaced approximately one hundred people, damaged many buildings, knocked out power for thousands of people, caused gas leaks, and downed hundreds of thousands of trees throughout Beltrami County."

On June 23, the Beltrami County Board of Commissioners declared a State of Emergency due to the storm damage.

"Conditions from the storm continue to endanger life and property in Beltrami County and local resources are inadequate to address the threat," the order continues. "On June 26, 2025, Beltrami County requested additional state resources to respond to the emergency."

The Department of Public Safety’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) continues to work with local governments and organizations to support the response to the conditions caused by the emergency.

In the executive order, Walz noted that HSEM will continue to support the coordination of onsite resources and assistance to affected local governments and determine the need for supplemental emergency assistance.

The order further explains that "all relevant state agencies will provide the assistance necessary to help local units of government respond to and recover from this emergency."

According to a release from Beltrami County, the declaration will allow the state resources that have already been deployed to remain in the county, as well as open access to additional state resources.

"Our Beltrami County Emergency Management Division, as part of the Beltrami County Sheriff's Office, submitted an urgent request for this declaration and continues to lead the response efforts on behalf of the county," the release noted.

According to Minnesota Statute 12.31, a Peacetime Emergency must not be continued for more than five days unless extended by resolution of the Executive Council up to 30 days.

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Weekly Fishing Report: Fish are biting as July gets underway

Dick Beardsley — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 13:10:00 GMT

As we head into the first week of July, fishing is holding up quite well throughout the Bemidji area. Look for walleyes along the deeper weed edges in 12-18 feet.

Jigs, plastics and ripping the jigs through the cabbage is producing walleyes on Lakes Bemidji, Plantagenet, Grace and Gull. Slip bobbers and leeches or crawlers are also producing some fish.

Bass fishing is excellent using plastics off the deep weed edges and you’ll find crappies and larger bluegill in those same areas.

Please remember to practice selective harvesting, by doing so we will continue to have great fishing for years to come. Have a safe, fun Fourth of July.

Bemidji area: Live-bait rigs with large minnows, slip bobbers and leeches or crawlers, and spinners with crawlers were producing some fish in 12 to 24 feet on Lake Bemidji, Lake Plantagenet and Lake Andrusia. Look for bass and a mixed bag of panfish along the weedlines on most lakes.

Bemidji area resource Dick Beardsley Guide Service can be contacted at (218) 556-7172.

Blackduck area: You’ll still find bluegills in the reeds or along the 8- to 12-foot cabbage, while crappies are being caught in the 10- to 12-foot cabbage on Gull Lake, South Twin Lake, Blackduck Lake, Gilstead Lake and Pimushe Lake. Walleye action has been slower this week with crawlers and leeches producing a few fish along the 8- to 12-foot weeds or bars in 16 to 18 feet on Island Lake, Gull and Round.

Blackduck area resource Timberline Sports and Tackle can be contacted at (218) 835-4636.

Upper Red Lake: Walleyes continue to be caught, but they are definitely starting to spread out or be found in smaller bunches. Most shorelines are still producing fish, although the north and east shores have been in 6 to 9 feet.

Crankbaits or spinners and crawlers are the ticket because you need to cover more water. There have been some deeper walleyes being taken on rigs and jigs with live bait on Center Bar in 12 to 14 feet.

Upper Red Lake area resource West Wind Resort can be contacted at (218) 647-8998.

Lake Winnibigoshish: Jigs or live-bait rigs tipped with crawlers are turning walleyes during the evening hours on the flats in 12 to 16 feet or 19 to 22 feet. There also have been a few more walleyes caught during low-light periods by trolling crankbaits on top of the bars in 14 to 18 feet. Perch action remains slow, with a few bigger fish being found off deep structure.

Lake Winnibigoshish area resource Lake Winnie Resort Association can be contacted via its website, lakewinnie.net.

Leech Lake: A slip bobber rig or spinner rig with crawlers and leeches are turning walleyes on the 7- to 12-foot rocks north of Pelican Island. You’ll also find walleyes in slightly deeper water off Diamond Point, Hogger’s Reef and Roger’s Point.

A spinner and crawler continue to produce walleyes along the 10- to 12-foot weed edges in Sucker Bay or the main-lake rocks in 16 to 18 feet. There have been muskies caught by anglers trolling over deep water and picking up suspended fish. Look for bass and panfish relating to the cabbage beds in most bays.

Leech Lake area resource Reed’s Sporting Goods can be contacted at (218) 547-1505.

Dick Beardsley is the owner and operator of Dick Beardsley Fishing Guide Service in Bemidji. He can be reached at

(218) 556-7172

and

dick@dickbeardsley.com.

For more information, visit

www.dickbeardsleyfishingguide.com.

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Bemidji Speedway racers find some sense of normalcy as Sunday races resume

Leo Pomerenke — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI - In the eyes of Randy Hayes, co-owner of Bemidji Speedway, only rain was going to stop them from having races on Sunday.

After what the community has gone through since the June 21 storm, they deserved it.

“There was no question about having this race this week,” Hayes said. “Nothing’s going to hold us back. People need to come out here and relax and do all that good stuff.”

From the pits to the packed grandstands, there was some sense of normalcy on Sunday at Bemidji Speedway, one of the first sports to come back to Bemidji after the June 21 storm. Mechanics and drivers were prepping their cars, focusing on the race ahead and nothing else.

It’s much needed. Many fans and drivers received damage to their properties or businesses last week, keeping them busy and offering them little time for themselves.

“It’s been a week,” driver Deryk Weleski said. “I (had) trees in my yard and all of them are gone.”

Jason LaValley, CEO of LaValley Industries, lost three buildings due to the storm. He was at the track on Sunday to help his daughter, CeJay, with her Wissota Midwest Modified.

“The roof on one of (the buildings) caved in on two brand new pickup trucks,” LaValley said.

“Probably a thousand trees came down on our 80-acre lot,” said Karen Puschinsky, who races with her husband Chad and son Brandon. “The work's going to be there for a long time.”

“It's going to take a long time to clean it up properly,” Bemidji Speedway Hall of Fame driver Greg Caspers said. “You never know what life's going to deal you.”

The week has been a turbulent one for many, especially for Devyn Weleski, who races a Wissota Modified. Weleski, who runs an insulation business, didn’t want to race after taking countless calls from people with their roofs gone because of the storm.

“It was overwhelming,” he said.

After some encouragement from his brother, Deryk, he relented.

“I told him, ‘Dude, you got to get out of the house. We got to do what we love,’” Deryk said.

So Devyn showed up at the track with his family, ready to race and to distract his mind a bit. It turns out, his brother was right.

“It's a breath of fresh air,” Devyn said. “It takes your mind off everything else.”

That was the theme in the pits on Sunday. The racetrack offered a well-needed distraction, a break from real-world problems, especially for the drivers.

“It's nice to get back to doing something for fun, not work,” Puschinsky said. “This gets you (away for) a couple hours and forget about it.”

“It’s better than cutting trees,” LaValley said. “This is just a good distraction for everybody.”

“It's good to be back,” said Jason Bush, whose son Cody races a Bemidji Mini Stock. “The track looks pretty good.”

Earlier in the week, there was a question whether or not the races would even be held on Sunday.

The quarter-mile dirt track received little damage due to the storm, but the racetrack was without power for most of the week. The power was restored on Thursday, giving the green light – or a green flag – to race on Sunday.

“We only had power for a couple days,” Hayes said. “But, yeah, we were ready to go. All our workers were good sports. They were like, ‘Let’s race.’ So we did.”

Hayes runs the racetrack with his sister Tonja Stranger. They both knew how important the races are to the community, and wanted to get everything ready once the green flag waved.

“Hopefully, it keeps their mind off a couple of things for three hours,” Hayes said of the fans.

Drivers have been extremely thankful for the track and for racing. In tough times like these, racing can offer a respite, an escape for people who otherwise wouldn’t have one.

“We're fortunate we have something to take our mind off of, you know?” Devyn said. “Not everybody has that.”

“It's just a break from the real world here,” Deryk added. “When I’m strapped in my car, every issue or problem that is going on in life is gone until I come back.”

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Centaurs shed stunning loss to split doubleheader with Perham

Leo Pomerenke — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 03:42:16 GMT

BEMIDJI – To borrow a quote from Yankee legend Yogi Berra, the seventh inning of game two between the Bemidji American Legion baseball team and the Perham Buzz felt “like deja vu all over again.”

Holding a three-run lead in the seventh inning, the Centaurs were hoping not to repeat what happened in game one.

Trailing 3-0 going into the bottom of the seventh inning and down to its last three outs in the first leg of the doubleheader, the Perham bats started to wake up. After getting their first run from a Lyam Schumacher double, the Buzz brought in two more runs, thanks to a single and a sacrifice fly to tie the ballgame at three.

Perham didn’t stop there. In extra innings, the Buzz drove in two more runs after a Bradyn Anderson double and a Bemidji fielding error.

The Centaurs’ bats couldn’t respond in the bottom half of the inning, shockingly losing 5-3.

“The situational hitting was bad,” head coach Otto Grimm said. “Some bad errors in the field and a few mental mistakes that just kind of caught up to us. Just wasn't our best effort.”

Fast forward to game two. Once again, Bemidji held a three-run edge, this time leading 6-3. Yet again, Perham found some clutch hits off of Bemidji pitching. Gavin Griffin beat a throw to first for an RBI bunt, making it 6-4 with runners on the corners and the go-ahead run at the plate.

Perham seemed to call for a double steal, but Griffin got caught in a rundown. A run scored, but the bases were empty with two outs, now in a 6-5 ballgame.

Gunner Ganske closed it out on the mound from there, forcing an infield popup two batters later to close out the win.

“Baseball's got a funny way of keeping you on your toes,” Grimm said of the last inning of game two. “I was confident, though, we had the right guys out there. Had confidence in the pitchers, the fielders. They never seemed to let the moment get too big. Of course, there's nerves, but a lot of confidence that they'd get the job done there.”

The Centaurs sensed they were in a similar position in game two, but they used lessons learned from a few hours earlier to close out the Buzz.

“I mean, after the second time around, we knew what to do,” Bemidji right fielder Max Bahr said. “We knew we needed to just stop, take a minute, just bear down and just get the outs, because that's what we needed to do.”

Bahr had the most impactful hit in game two with the bases loaded and no outs, with Perham holding on to a 3-2 lead. After Colten Vaughn scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, Bahr belted a line drive to left field, a clutch two-RBI double to give the Centaurs a 5-3 lead.

“I was thinking, ‘Don’t strike out,’” Bahr said. “Happy to finally be in the lead, though.”

After the bats went cold in game one, Grimm was glad the Centaurs made adjustments in game two.

“We just said it seems like a lot of guys are trying to do a little bit too much, maybe pressing a little bit, and I just told them to be a little more loose in the box and try to have fun,” Grimm said. “I think they made that adjustment, and it seemed to work out for them.”

Even though Jack Lundquist’s day on the mound didn’t end like he hoped, Bemidji wouldn’t have been leading in the first place if it weren’t for his contributions at the plate.

He brought in all three of Bemidji’s runs in game one, including a bases-clearing, two-run single in the fifth inning. He had a great day on the mound as well, pitching 6 1/3 innings, giving up three runs, only one of them earned, and one walk with seven strikeouts.

Although Ganske gave up the game-winning runs in extra innings in game one, he was given a second chance to close out game two. It was a chance he wouldn’t let get away from him, forcing Perham’s baserunning mistake and popup to pick up the save in the 6-5 win.

“I think we got better today,” Grimm said. “They're a good team, they're a good baseball town. They've always got talented players. You can't really get caught up too much in the wins and losses. The big takeaway today for me was that I think we got better and learned a lot about ourselves and our identity as a team.”

Perham 5, Bemidji 3 (F/8)

PER 000 000 32 – 5-8-3

BEM 100 020 00 – 3-4-4

WP: Schmidt (2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K)

LP: Ganske (1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K)

Bemidji 6, Perham 5

PER 200 100 2 – 5-9-2

BEM 100 140 X – 6-8-2

WP: Gessner (2.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K)

LP: Blume (2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 1 K)

S: Ganske (0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K)

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Sanford Health Column: What is an Advanced Practice Provider?

Brad Smith, Sanford Bemidji — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:50:00 GMT

Back in the early 1990s, in what I like to refer to as my first life, I was a paramedic in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

It was a challenging, exciting and often hair-raising job for a 20-year-old kid from a small-town in northern Minnesota. At that time, we worked 24-hour shifts.

Let me just say that a lot can happen in 24 hours. Each shift threw us into a wide range of unpredictable and dynamic situations, demanding quick thinking, adaptability and a steady hand.

That experience continues to influence how I approach health care to this day. It taught me the importance of staying calm under pressure, adapting to whatever comes next and relying on the strength of a dependable team.

One moment, you may be extracting a trauma patient from a vehicle after a collision. The next, a frantic mother is placing a struggling infant in your arms. Soon after, you’re offering a steady hand and calm reassurance to a confused, hurting elderly patient.

Providing health care in such a diverse and unpredictable environment demands adaptability, compassion and a willingness to do whatever it takes to ensure patients receive the care they need.

When someone sustains major trauma injuries, it sets off a large, coordinated response within the hospital. Care teams from multiple specialties and departments mobilize to be ready the moment that patient arrives in the ER.

I will never forget one shift early in my career, when we brought in a trauma patient into the trauma center. Among the many providers in the room, one person stood out to me. He wasn’t a physician or a nurse, but he played a significant role in the patient’s care.

I later came to learn that he was a PA, a Physician Assistant. That was my first introduction to what we now refer to as APPs, Advanced Practice Providers.

At Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota, nearly half of our clinical team is made up of APPs, working alongside our physician colleagues, and they are a vital part of our care delivery team.

Our APP staff includes nurse practitioners (NP), physician assistants (PA), certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNA), audiologists (AuD) and geneticists (CGC).

This group of talented individuals brings to the table a broad variety of educational backgrounds, clinical training and work and life experience, as the varying array of titles may suggest.

Many of these professionals have a prior career in another area of health care before settling into their spot as an APP. It is not unusual for patients to assume we are still in training. While further education could be an option, many already hold a master’s or doctoral degree.

On the flip side, we are also often mistaken for physicians, which we are not. We deeply value our partnership with physicians, whose training includes medical school, residency and often specialty training beyond our own six to ten years of training that APPs typically complete.

One of the unique strengths of APPs is our versatility. Many of us can work across multiple specialties or transition into new clinical areas as needs arise. We prescribe medications, diagnose and treat a broad range of acute and chronic conditions and provide both primary and specialty care.

In some cases, APPs are the only clinician serving in a rural ER, primary care clinic or specialty session. Some APPs function with a high degree of independence, while others work closely within a physician-led team.

If you have accessed health care anywhere across the U.S., you have most certainly received care from an APP.

Whether you visited a walk-in clinic, were hospitalized, had surgery, received a hearing aid or sleep apnea diagnosis, underwent genetic counseling or got a refill for your high blood pressure medication, it’s likely an APP helped you.

Just like paramedics must adapt to the unpredictability of every call, APPs must respond to the evolving needs of our patient populations and organization’s staffing needs.

At Sanford Health, we've relied on APPs to help maintain services through staffing transitions and to help launch new offerings across our region. Today, nearly 100 APPs serve patients throughout Sanford Health of Northern Minnesota, providing critical roles in the delivery of health care.

As our population grows and ages, the demand for providers will continue to increase. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. population is estimated to increase by 8.4% by 2036, but the 65+ age group is projected to increase by a staggering 34%.

At the same time, one in five physicians today is at or near retirement age. These trends point a clear need for both physicians and APPs to meet our increasing demand for care.

We are fortunate to have such a dedicated, skilled and compassionate group of APPs serving our communities and playing such an integral role in our health care system.

Every day, I am inspired by the knowledge, skill and work ethic our APPs and physicians bring to their work. As health care continues to evolve, one thing remains constant: the commitment, expertise and heart our clinicians bring to every patient interaction. It’s an honor to work beside them.

Brad Smith, PA-C, is a physician assistant in general surgery at Sanford Bemidji Main Clinic and an outgoing chair of Sanford Bemidji’s regional Advanced Practice Provider Council and an outgoing council member of Sanford Bemidji’s regional Physician Executive Council.]]>

House passes sweeping tax-cut and spending bill

Bo Erickson, Richard Cowan and David Morgan / Reuters — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 18:49:08 GMT

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's tax-cut package cleared its final hurdle in the U.S. Congress on Thursday, as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the massive bill and sent it to him to sign into law.

The 218-214 vote amounts to a significant victory for the Republican president that will fund his immigration crackdown, make his 2017 tax cuts permanent, and deliver new tax breaks that he promised during his 2024 campaign.

It also cuts health and food safety net programs and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives. It would add $3.4 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion debt, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Despite concerns over the 869-page bill's price tag and its hit to health care programs, Republicans largely lined up in support, with only two of the House's 220 Republicans voting against it. The bill has already cleared the Republican-controlled Senate by the narrowest possible margin.

Republicans said the legislation will lower taxes for Americans across the income spectrum and spur economic growth.

Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina described the bill as bringing "Historic tax relief for working families. Massive investment to secure our nation's borders. Capturing generational savings. Slashing waste, fraud and abuse in government programs so that they may run more efficiently."

Every Democrat in Congress voted against it, blasting the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would leave millions uninsured.

"The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires," House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an eight-hour, 46-minute speech that was the longest in the chamber's history.

Trump kept up the pressure throughout, cajoling and threatening lawmakers as he pressed them to send him the legislation by the July 4 Independence Day holiday.

"FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!" he wrote on social media.

MARATHON WEEKEND

Republicans raced to meet that deadline, working through last weekend and holding all-night debates in the House and the Senate. The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday in a 51-50 vote that saw Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote.

According to the CBO, the bill would lower tax revenues by $4.5 trillion over 10 years and cut spending by $1.1 trillion.

Those spending cuts largely come from Medicaid, the health program that covers 71 million low-income Americans. The bill would tighten enrollment standards, institute a work requirement, and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments — changes that would leave nearly 12 million people uninsured, according to the CBO. Republicans added $50 billion for rural health providers to address concerns that those cutbacks would force them out of business.

Nonpartisan analysts have found that the wealthiest Americans would see the biggest benefits from the bill, while lower-income people would effectively see their incomes drop as the safety-net cuts would outweigh their tax cuts.

The increased debt load created by the bill would also effectively transfer money from younger to older generations, analysts say. Ratings firm Moody's downgraded US debt in May, citing the mounting debt, and some foreign investors say the bill is making US Treasury bonds less attractive.

On the other side of the ledger, the bill staves off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of this year, when Trump's 2017 individual and business tax cuts were due to expire. Those cuts are now made permanent, while tax breaks for parents and businesses are expanded.

The bill also sets up new tax breaks for tipped income, overtime pay, seniors and auto loans, fulfilling Trump campaign promises.

The final version of the bill includes more substantial tax cuts and more aggressive health care cuts than an initial version that passed the House in May.

During deliberations in the Senate, Republicans also dropped a provision that would have banned state-level regulations on artificial intelligence, and a "retaliatory tax" on foreign investment that had spurred alarm on Wall Street.

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Red, White and Boom fireworks offer dazzling display over Lake Bemidji

Madelyn Haasken — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:27:28 GMT

BEMIDJI — The night sky over Lake Bemidji lit up in an explosion of color during the Red, White and Boom fireworks show on Wednesday, officially kicking off the Bemidji Jaycees 81st Annual Water Carnival.

As the sun set over the lake on Wednesday, Bemidjians gathered at the more popular firework-viewing locations along the south end of the shore, including Diamond Point Park, Library Park, Paul Bunyan Park and South Shore Park.

Earlier in the evening, Merriam’s Midway opened its gates for the weekend, with hundreds taking advantage of the warm, sunny weather by enjoying rides, games and traditional carnival food.

The Water Carnival continues through Sunday — here's a look at the lineup of events you don't want to miss.

Sanford Center parking lot

Merriam’s Midway will be open from 1 to 11 p.m. each day through Saturday. On Sunday, the Midway will have an earlier close at 7 p.m. Through Saturday, armbands will cost $20 from 1 to 5 p.m. and $25 from 6 to 11 p.m. On Sunday, armbands will cost $20 from 1 to 7 p.m.

Food vendors will be open daily from 1 to 10 p.m. through Sunday. Vendors will include Texas Best BBQ, Hawg Heaven, and Dirty Dough.

The Bemidji Chorale will host Bingo daily from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. from Thursday through Sunday.

Veterans picnic

A Veterans Picnic will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday at the Bemidji Eagles Club. VFW Post 1260 will hold a flag ceremony at 1:30 p.m. with musical entertainment provided by Mike Naylor.

A free-will donation will be accepted with proceeds going to the Bemidji Veterans Home. Also at the Eagles Club, Elvis tribute artist Sean Wallin will perform from 3 to 5 p.m.

Kid events

The Kiddie Parade will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday with registration starting at 10 a.m. The parade will start at the Rotary Pavilion and will travel around the Tourist Information Center and down to the south end of Paul Bunyan Park.

Attendees also have the opportunity to visit the Carnoch Farmstead Petting Zoo and participate in a bike giveaway at the Rotary Pavilion.

Double Your Fun Color Run

The Double Your Fun Color Run is set for Saturday with the Bemidji Junior Jaycees organizing the event. The run starts at 10 a.m. at the Paul Bunyan Park parking lot and goes along the south shore of Lake Bemidji, loops back at the Nymore Boat Access and ends at the starting point.

Interested participants can register online at bemidjijaycees.com as there will be no on-site registration. Online registration will close at 8 a.m. on Saturday.

There will be several color stations along the way to blast attendees with tons of colorful fun. Check-in for the event starts at 9:30 a.m. in the Rotary Pavilion at Paul Bunyan Park.

Movie matinee

The Jaycees are partnering with the city of Bemidji Parks and Recreation Department to host a family movie matinee featuring the movie "Matilda" at the Chief Theater 3 p.m. on Saturday. The movie is free to watch.

Loft Event Center

Due to storm damage, all live music events typically held at the Entertainment Tent have been moved to different locations. Here’s a look at the schedule of live music happening at the Loft Event Center in downtown Bemidji:

7 to 10 p.m., Thursday: Corey Medina & Brothers 6 to 10 p.m., Friday: Prairie Smoke 6 to 10 p.m., Saturday: Indecent Proposal

These events are for attendees ages 18 and older, and the admission cost is $10 per person.

Cornhole tournament

A Beer-N-Bags cornhole tournament will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Garden Grill & Pub. The cost to participate is $20 per novice team, $30 per social team and $40 per competitive team.

Each team is guaranteed three matches and cash prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers at each level. To register, contact Travis at (218) 759-8810 or email bcsupplies2035@gmail.com.

Grand Parade

The Grand Parade will be held at 1 p.m. on Sunday. According to an updated release from the Jaycees, the traditional parade route has sustained significant damage from the storm, leading organizers to change the route.

"The City of Bemidji worked with us on a solution for a new route," the release said. "They have graciously offered to remove the debris in the Beltrami County Administration Building parking lot, as well as along a new parade route, to ensure we could still have a Grand Parade."

The new route starts at the intersection of Eighth Street and Beltrami Avenue, travels south on Beltrami Avenue, turns west on Fourth Street for one block, and then heads north along Minnesota Avenue to end on Eighth Street.

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Medicaid cuts loom for hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners in ‘big, beautiful bill’

Peyton Haug — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 23:50:47 GMT

BISMARCK — Under the “big, beautiful bill” being championed by President Donald Trump and a Republican-dominated Congress, hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners are slated to lose access to health care coverage over the next decade as part of a greater effort to cut taxes and reduce federal spending.

Medicaid administrators and providers, from state health departments to clinics, are scrambling to determine the exact number of people who will be impacted by the sweeping changes.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates between 12 million and 17 million Americans will lose health insurance over the next decade under the legislation as it stands. The Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, is a nonpartisan group that works to inform Congress and its actions.

Program recipients are expected to experience increased copays, paperwork and work requirements, while program administrators would see fewer federal dollars funneled into states to be used by hospitals and clinics.

The major switch-ups

Beginning January 2027, “able-bodied” Medicaid recipients between the ages of 19 and 64 who have no dependents would be required to work 80 hours monthly if the bill passes into law.

Those with incomes between 100% and 138% of the federal poverty level would be asked to foot copays costing up to 5% of household earnings beginning January 2028, according to the CBO.

Medicaid recipients would also have to reapply for the program semiannually, twice as often as what’s currently required.

The bill further prohibits Medicaid coverage that reduces premium costs for migrants who are lawfully present in the U.S., which extends to trafficking survivors, refugees and those seeking asylum. The rule would not apply to green card holders.

On the state and local levels, Republican and Democratic leaders are drawing their approval of the changes to Medicaid along party lines.

Republicans generally say the cuts will eliminate fraud within the system and preserve its services. Meanwhile, Democrats decry the cuts, claiming they will lead to more debt and negatively impact low-income Americans, especially the elderly and those with disabilities.

North Dakota

Of the approximately 105,000 North Dakotans on Medicaid, an estimated 18%, or 18,900, wouldn’t be enrolled by 2034 because of the changes, according to an analysis by the state Legislative Council.

The state would lose approximately $1.42 billion, or 12%, of its federal Medicaid dollars over the next decade, the analysis further found — a loss largely due to the mandatory work requirement.

That money is designed to cover medical costs for low-income adults, pregnant women, children and people with disabilities.

North Dakota’s Department of Health and Human Services told Forum News Service it cannot “speculate the potential impacts” of the legislation, but said it’s “closely monitoring” the situation.

The state’s Hospital Association shared a similar sentiment.

Tim Blasl, the organization’s director, pointed to the CBO’s estimate and said the number sounds slightly inflated, but added that “it’s too early to tell," and “any cuts to coverage are concerning.”

“If people don't have coverage, they don’t get their preventative care and regular wellness checks. Then, you have hospitals and physicians that aren’t getting paid for the services,” he said.

In a Wednesday, July 2, press conference, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said increasing Medicaid requirements will make the system “more sustainable” and stronger for the people who need it most.

He also pointed to $50 billion in subsidies for rural hospitals in the bill, saying the changes to Medicaid will only benefit the state.

The $50 billion allocation is intended to increase services provided in rural clinics and hospitals. It would be disbursed over the next five years as part of the “Rural Transformation Program,” according to the bill.

Minnesota

Approximately 1 in 5, or 1.3 million, Minnesotans depend on Medicaid services. Under the bill, 253,000 could lose coverage over the next decade, and the state would miss out on up to $500 million in federal dollars for the program annually, according to the state’s Department of Human Services.

The department did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

“Our organization, or any of our rural partners, are on small margins,” Madison Health Care Services CEO Erik Bjerke said in a message shared by the Minnesota Hospital Association. “Any cuts to Medicaid will be detrimental in any of our areas, from the clinic to our hospital, and especially on our long-term care side.”

In a Tuesday press release, Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said, “What Republicans did here is simple: they voted to kick 16 million people off health insurance while giving massive tax breaks to billionaires and corporations, and managed to still raise the debt by a staggering $5 trillion.”

South Dakota

Fewer individuals in South Dakota would be impacted by changes to Medicaid compared to North Dakota and Minnesota, but an analysis from the nonpartisan health policy group KFF determined that around 13,000 of the approximately 115,000 South Dakotans who use Medicaid would lose coverage by 2034.

Overall, the state would lose between $780 million and $1 billion, or an average 11%, of its federal funding for the program over the next decade.

South Dakota’s Health Department said it’s “unable to comment at this time” about the impacts on the state’s Medicaid recipients.

In his statement celebrating the Senate’s passage of the bill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., did not acknowledge changes to Medicaid or impacts to health care. He emphasized economic impacts to the state and said the bill “puts even more money in the pockets of South Dakota families” through changes to tax policy.

South Dakota Democratic Party Chair Shane Merrill said the bill “targets our most valuable citizens, robbing them of their health insurance, taking food off the table, increasing energy bills, and killing good-paying jobs.”

What’s next?

Both chambers of Congress passed the bill by a one-vote margin. In May, the House of Representatives voted 215-214 to approve it. After undergoing changes in the Senate, the bill advanced in that chamber on a 51-50 vote Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance as the tie-breaking vote.

The House took up the altered version of the bill Wednesday. If it receives approval there, it will head to Trump’s desk. The president has made his eagerness to sign the bill into law clear.

Lawmakers have a goal of passing the bill by July 4.

Editor's note: This story was updated Thursday morning, July 3, to correctly attribute information regarding Medicaid dollars in Minnesota.]]>

From the Archives: July 2 in the Pioneer

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:40:00 GMT

July 2, 2015 – According to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s 2014 Uniform Crime Report, Beltrami County saw a decrease in most violent crime categories, but aggravated assault increased by 61%, accounting for 1% of the state’s recorded incidents. Statewide, there were 6,607 aggravated assaults.

25 years ago

July 2, 2000 – During the next ten days, hundreds of Minnesota volunteers will be watching loons as part of the Department of Natural Resources’ Loon Monitoring program. The project looks for changes in the population and possible health risks in area lakes. Loon areas are recorded on maps and sent to the DNR.

50 years ago

July 2, 1975 – Robert Herbst, head of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said during a meeting in Bemidji that there will be no mining of copper or nickel deposits in northern Minnesota until a three-year environmental study is complete. The study is funded by a $3 million state and federal grant.

100 years ago

July 2, 1925 – A Bemidji couple who obtained a license from and were married by County Judge L.K. Hassell were the first people to be married in Grand Forks county under the new state law which went into effect. The law provides that when a license to marry is granted in North Dakota an extra dollar must be charged.

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Bemidji Public Library book sale rescheduled to July 14-17

Sarah Suchoski — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 23:54:04 GMT

BEMIDJI — The Bemidji Public Library’s annual book sale, originally set for June 23-26, has been rescheduled to July 14-17, at the Evangelical Free Church, 115 Carr Lake Rd. SW.

After a successful fundraiser last year, the library, in partnership with Friends of the Library, has estimated that about another 15,000 books will be available for purchase at the sale this year.

“It’s really a book sale for all,” said Sandi Marshall, secretary of the library board. “We get a lot of people who come in for a variety of reasons. There are a lot of children’s books, homeschoolers come in, teachers, parents, and kids pick out their own books.”

Here’s a look at the schedule for the week:

On Monday, July 14, the book sale will be open to Friends of Bemidji Public Library from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. If you are interested in becoming a member, there will be sign-ups at the event and it will cost $5 per person. On June 15 and 16, the book sale will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. On July 17, the book sale will have Bag Day, which is $2 per bag of books. Bags will be provided at the event.

After the event, if there are any books left, nonprofit organizations and the jail will have the opportunity to take leftover books before they are brought to the landfill or destroyed.

All the money raised at the event will be put back into the library, whether that is improvements within the library or programs held there. In the past, the library has used the funds for a puppet station and book browsing stations for the children’s area, book repair machine, and bringing authors in to talk about their books.

Credit cards will not be accepted at the sale, cash or checks only.

For more information about future library events, contact the Bemidji Public Library at (218) 751-3963.

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New Minnesota law lifts hot tub regulations for short-term rentals

Mary Murphy — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:44:06 GMT

ST. PAUL — Hot tubs are now fair game for Minnesota’s short-term rental properties, thanks to a new law that declassifies them as “public pools” and ensures uniform regulations across the state.

Effective July 1 and passed during the June 9 special session in the state’s Health bill, the “free the hot tub” law declassifies hot tubs offered at short-term rentals as “public pools,” effectively allowing hosts across the state to more easily offer hot tubs as an amenity for guests.

Second-term Rep. Isaac Schultz, R-Elmdale Township, authored the bill after he heard from one of his constituents who hosts short-term rentals that she was at risk for not only shutting down her hot tub, but her rental facility in its entirety over the regulations. After the bill became law on July 1, Schultz said the same host reported four new bookings in four hours.

Hot tubs as ‘public pools’

Previously, hot tubs at short-term rentals were classified as “public pools” by the Minnesota Department of Health. Hosts were expected to meet requirements such as daily chemical testing, proper signage, fencing, entrapment protection, operator training and recordkeeping. If hosts didn’t meet the requirements and didn’t obtain proper licensing, they could receive a cease-and-desist order.

In 2021, the Minnesota Department of Health cracked down on regulations of public pools, including hot tubs for short-term rentals, with concerns over sanitation — such as rashes and bacterial outbreaks — as well as safety hazards like drain entrapment. Minnesota’s entrapment regulations date back to 2008, following the death of a 6-year-old Minnesota girl who was severely injured by the suction of a pool drain and later died from those injuries.

New requirements

Now these short-term rentals can have hot tubs as long as the water temperature in the spa pool does not exceed 106 degrees Fahrenheit and the resort or property owner tests the water before check-in for the concentration of chlorine or bromine, pH and alkalinity to ensure it meets the requirements for disinfection residual, according to the bill language.

The new law also states that hot tubs must have a notice conspicuously posted for guests to see that states: “This spa is exempt from state and local anti-entrapment and sanitary requirements that prevent disease transmission waterborne diseases such as Legionnaires’ disease, Pseudomonas folliculitis (hot tub rash), and chemical burns and is not subject to inspection.”

Evening the playing field

Before the “free the hot tub” law was passed, Schultz said enforcement across the state wasn’t uniform. Some counties, such as Cass, would actively enforce the requirements, while others, like Crow Wing, were lax about it, leading to inconsistent compliance, often based on whether that county has a point person from the Department of Health to enforce the licensing, he said.

“You had these counties across the state where they had told their short-term rental operators that they could use the hot tub, but then the people in the neighboring county weren’t able to,” Schultz said, explaining that on some lakes like Gull Lake, rules were not uniform. “You’re literally talking about the same lake, and you could have ... owners and operators of short-term rentals getting two different rules.”

Schultz said the bill is not only about allowing guests to enjoy amenities, but also about helping small business owners across the state to compete in the tourism industry.

“Every corner of the state will see this, and it should be about helping make Minnesota just the most attractive state to vacation and to enjoy the outdoors at all times of the year, which is important,” he said.

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Lawsuit challenges new Minnesota law requiring jails to continue inmates’ medications

Mary Murphy — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:15:49 GMT

ST. PAUL — Minnesota sheriffs, counties and health care providers filed suit on June 26 against the Minnesota Department of Corrections, asking for a temporary injunction over a new law that requires jails to continue administering medications taken before incarceration.

The law — which took effect Tuesday, July 1 and passed in the state’s judiciary and public safety omnibus bill May 19 — mandates jails continue inmates’ prescribed medications from before incarceration, with a few exceptions. State sheriffs and medical professionals argue in their complaint that the mandate will be difficult to implement and infringe on medical professionals’ duties.

Under the new statute, exceptions to continuing the same medication can occur in four situations: when the person is under a Jarvis order; a licensed health care professional finds the medication medically inappropriate after consulting the original prescriber; the original prescriber approves a switch to an equally effective alternative; or the inmate provides written notice declining the medication.

Even with these exceptions, the plaintiffs argue in their complaint that the new law will “prove to be problematic, if not impossible,” to implement. Plaintiffs said that at most jails, the medication verification process involves having nursing professionals attempt to verify the prescription through pharmacies, providers or other resources.

“Despite reasonable, timely, and good faith efforts of those nursing professionals, the lack of response and availability of information from these outside sources can make it difficult or impossible to verify outside prescriptions, especially for inmates who are not local residents,” the complaint said. “Moreover, detainees are often poor historians and may not recall the name of the provider or clinic who prescribed the medication.”

The complaint also argues that the new law could cause medical professionals to violate the Minnesota Medical Practice Act and the Minnesota Nurse Practice Act or place Minnesota sheriffs at peril of action against their peace officer license, exposing them to risks of criminal liability.

“Ultimately, the provisions of the new Amendment do not allow medical providers caring for inmates to exercise their professional judgment regarding the appropriate medication for that patient at the time of incarceration, even when all evidence establishes a different course of treatment is medically necessary,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit was filed in Ramsey County District Court. Plaintiffs include Advanced Correctional Healthcare, USA Medical & Psychological Staffing, Freedom Behavioral Health, Crow Wing County Sheriff Eric Klang, Becker County, Becker County Sheriff Todd Glander, Freeborn County Sheriff Ryan Shea, Pennington County Sheriff Seth Vettleson, St. Louis County and Todd County.

Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview, co-chair of the Public Safety Committee in the House, and Rep. Jess Hanson, DFL-Burnsville, author of the legislation, released a joint statement Wednesday in response to the suit.

“We are surprised and disappointed to learn of this lawsuit in the eleventh hour before this lifesaving law was to be implemented statewide,” The statement said. “This law ensures that people who are incarcerated in county jails receive the medications they need and rely upon to stay alive and healthy. No one who goes to jail should have to worry if they are going to become permanently disabled or die without access to the medication their doctor prescribed them while they await their day in court or for their sentence to be served.”

A court filing from the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on June 30 said Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell has agreed not to enforce the new law until Aug. 1, and asked the judge for a remote hearing before that date.

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Child influencer protections, motorcycle lane splits and more: New laws taking effect July 1 in Minnesota

Mary Murphy — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:35:07 GMT

ST. PAUL — Tuesday marks a wide range of new laws going into effect in Minnesota, from allowing motorcycles to filter and lane split in traffic to ensuring minors are compensated for online content involving them.

Lane splitting and filtering

Motorcyclists will now be able to move between vehicles in traffic jams or slow-moving traffic under new lane filtering and splitting laws.

Lane splitting — maneuvering between lanes of moving traffic — and lane filtering — maneuvering between lanes of unmoving traffic — are now allowed when two or more lanes of traffic are traveling in the same direction.

A motorcycle can now legally lane split by passing another moving vehicle at no more than 25 miles per hour and no more than 15 miles per hour over the speed of traffic. Motorcyclists can legally lane filter by moving through stopped traffic at no more than 15 miles per hour over the speed of traffic in the relevant traffic lanes.

Lane splitting and lane filtering will not be permitted in drive-throughs, roundabout exits, school zones, work zones with single-lane travel and on-ramps to a freeway or expressway, as those areas are exempt under the new law.

Minors and content creation

New laws aimed at protecting child influencers will take effect Tuesday. The changes include requiring content creators who earn money from videos involving minors to set aside earnings for the minors in trust accounts.

The law applies to creators who feature minors in at least 30% of the content from the creator. Minors can also request that content about themselves be deleted after the age of 13.

Free water at large venues

Entertainment venues hosting 100 or more ticketed attendees must provide free water and allow sealed or empty bottles inside the venue. Venues will not be required to allow water in an exhibit, gallery or presentation space where beverages are prohibited as long as water is available outside the space.

Anti-Fraud measures

Though several anti-fraud measures failed to pass in the 2025 session, including establishing a state-wide Office of Inspector General, a few passed, including: allowing state agencies to withhold funds for up to 60 days from suspected fraudulent claimants, enhanced whistleblower protections and allowing government entities to disclose data relating to suspected or confirmed fraud, except where a provision of law specifically prohibits it.

Boating permits

Permits will now be required for people under 21 operating a boat, with the mandate expanding by age over time. By July 1, 2026, the permit requirement will expand to residents 26 and younger. In 2027, it will include anyone 31 or younger, and by 2028, all boaters 41 and younger will need a permit.

State symbols

Minnesota will adopt two new state symbols: the giant beaver as its state fossil and Ursa Minor as its state constellation.

Education

�� districts can now begin the school year on or after Labor Day for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years. Previously, schools were only allowed to start after Labor Day. The bill this session faced some pushback from the hospitality industry, which said the change could affect resort owners in the state who profit from the holiday weekend.

In an effort to address teacher shortages, the short-call emergency substitute teacher pilot program is now permanent. An emergency short-call substitute license can replace the same teacher or vacancy for up to 10 consecutive days.

Homeowners association mediator

A new common interest community ombudsperson position will be created within the Department of Commerce to assist unit owners, tenants and associations in understanding their rights and assisting in disputes between unit owners and homeowners associations. The Commerce budget set aside $350,000 a year for the new role.

The position comes after a bill to rein in HOAs across the state passed the Senate but stalled in the House. Original pitches from lawmakers included limiting fees imposed by HOAs and new foreclosure guardrails.

State budget

The full state budget for fiscal years 2026-27, coming in at $67 billion, takes effect this month. With an impending $6 billion budget deficit, lawmakers made steep cuts from the previous $72 billion state budget: $5 billion from the last biennium and $2 billion in net cuts. The highest cuts came in for human services, at $300 million.

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Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman, husband remembered for humility, humanity

Catharine Richert, Peter Cox and Clay Masters / MPR News — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 19:30:00 GMT

Hundreds of mourners, including former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, came to the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis on Saturday to remember former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, following a day when thousands of people paid their respects at a Capitol tribute.

The Hortmans were eulogized as warm, caring people who were the same whether they were at the Capitol or at their home in Brooklyn Park, talking dogs, baking, kids and politics.

“Melissa Hortman will be remembered as the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history. I know that millions of Minnesotans will get to live better lives because she and Mark chose public service,” said Gov. Tim Walz.

“More kids in pre-K, fewer in poverty. More schools with the tools and teachers they need, fewer with hungry students. More trees in the ground and clean energy coursing through the grid, fewer roads and bridges at risk of failure. More people in safe and secure housing, fewer worrying about how to manage caring for their loved ones,” he added. “That’s the legacy Mark and Melissa will leave behind for all Minnesotans.”

Walz described politicians as “just a bunch of human beings trying to do the best they can. Melissa understood that better than anybody I knew. She saw the humanity in every single person she worked with, and she kept things focused on the people she served.”

Longtime family friend Robin Ann Williams remembered the Hortmans as easygoing people — “the easiest friendships you could have” — who downplayed the trappings of political power.

She recalled asking Mark about the couple’s last White House visit in December, a holiday reception for state legislators. “Mark honed in on the important stuff and told us that the Christmas cookies at the White House were excellent,” she said.

Their kitchen, remodeled over the past couple of years, was the gathering place for the Hortmans and all who came to visit. Williams drew a laugh from the church when she said Melissa Hortman agonized over what shade of beige to paint it and whether it would clash with the beige in the mud room.

They couldn’t have been further apart in music, she said, noting Mark was a Led Zepplin guy and Melissa loved ABBA, but they made it work.

To the Hortmans’ children, Sophie and Colin, Williams said: “I know you've heard it countless times since June 14, but your parents adored you and we're proud of you. You've always carried yourselves well, and your dignity and grace over the last two weeks has been tremendous. The apples did not fall far from the trees.”

Williams recalled district door-knocking with Melissa during her first run for the Legislature. She would tell prospective voters where she disagreed with them, but those conversations were always civil and ended genially.

“We are buried in sorrow right now,” she told mourners. “But I do believe that we will experience joy again, and Mark and Melissa would not want it any other way.”

‘Ground zero’ for healing

The eulogies followed a mass where the Rev. Daniel Griffith, pastor of the Basilica of St. Mary, told mourners the Hortmans “lived lives with purpose and meaning, lives lived in service of others, in community with those they loved, their family and their friends.”

In his homily, Griffith said Minnesota had been “ground zero” for racial injustice in 2020 with the police killing of George Floyd a few miles from the church, “and now we are the ground zero place for political violence and extremism. Both of these must be decried in the strongest possible terms as they are, respectively, a threat to human dignity and indeed our democracy.”

Despite the violence, he said Minnesota “can be a ground zero place for restoration and justice and healing, but we must work together and there is much more work to be done.”

Melissa Hortman, he added, kept in her purse a worn copy of St. Francis of Assisi's Prayer for Peace that implores God to “make me an instrument of your peace.” Her mother had discovered it, he added. “I think that's a wonderful thing … all of us are called to be instruments of peace.”

The Hortmans’ caskets arrived just after 7 a.m., carried into the church by seven uniformed conservation officers for Melissa and seven state troopers for Mark.

After the ceremony, funeral attendees hugged and wiped away tears as the Hortmans’ caskets were carried down the stairs and placed in two white hearses.

Walz presented an American flag and a Minnesota flag to Colin and Sophie Hortman. The flags flew atop the Capitol on June 14, the day their parents were killed.

The basilica bells tolled, dulling the noise of passing traffic. A State Patrol helicopter flew overhead before the Hortmans’ remains were driven away to a nearby mortuary. The family plans to hold a private burial at a later date.

‘A public servant’

The service came two weeks after Melissa, 55, and Mark, 58, were shot and killed in their home by a man authorities say posed as a police officer and who is accused of targeting multiple lawmakers he disagreed with. The man faces state and federal murder charges in the Hortman slaying and for wounding DFL state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

The funeral follows a day of remembrance for the Hortmans. In addition to Walz and Biden, thousands filed past the casket throughout the afternoon after waiting in a line that snaked around the Capitol much of the day.

Biden made a brief visit to the Minnesota Capitol on Friday, where the Hortmans had lain in state along with their dog Gilbert, a golden retriever who died from the shooting at the family home.

Many of those lawmakers who served with Melissa Hortman served as greeters for the public, offering hugs and stories of the late leader or a shoulder to cry on.

A sprawling memorial continued to grow outside the entrance to the House chamber. It has Post-it notes addressed to the Hortmans, flowers, campaign memorabilia, photos of the couple and dog treats.

Some in the line outside the Capitol had met the Hortmans through their work and personal lives. Others waited for hours to pay respects to people they had never met.

Dick Ottman was among them.

“This lady has done an awful lot for the state of Minnesota; she’s demonstrated something that is very good in public service. She’s demonstrated to be a public servant. She isn't in it, and wasn't in it for just glory or for money,” Ottman said. “She wanted to make the world a better place. Those kind of people deserve our respect.”

Brianna Haloran came from St. Cloud with her three kids, who each held a red rose. Haloran said Hortman’s legacy of championing policies like free school lunch and paid family and medical leave has had an impact on her family.

She said she wanted her kids “to recognize that there’s always someone behind the scenes working for Minnesotans, and we want to honor that today.”

Former state Rep. Jennifer Schultz, a Democrat from Duluth, waited in line to pay her respects with a bouquet of flowers in hand. She said she fears the shooting could put a damper on public service for would-be candidates.

“A lot of people don’t want to run, not just because of threats, but just because of the chaos and the polarization and really the disrespect of working in government because so, so, so many people have put forward this negative view of government,” Schultz said. “But people need to realize that government is people. It is us, all of us.”

MPR News producer Ellie Roth contributed to this story.

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This story was originally published on MPRNews.org.

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Bill requiring opiate antagonists on public campuses passes

Chloe Farnsworth — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 02:05:06 GMT

ST. PAUL / PIPESTONE — During the spring of 2023, Will Rops, of Pipestone, was visiting the Minnesota Capitol for a student government event as a member of Minnesota State University Moorhead’s student senate.

“I just kinda decided to stop into my legislator’s office because I had gotten this idea for a bill,” Rops said. “They really liked it and they were shocked that we weren’t already doing it.”

Rops talked to Sen. Bill Weber (R-Luverne) about requiring public post-secondary institutions to maintain a supply of opiate antagonists, such as naloxone, on system campuses.

Rops, who will attend grad school this fall at South Dakota State University for school counseling, had the idea after losing his brother in 2022 to a fentanyl overdose.

“That was really, really hard for us,” he said. “That’s why I felt so much joy for it (when it passed) and why I had so much motivation to do it, because if it weren’t for him, this bill would not exist. No question. There wouldn’t be a bill.”

When Rops first introduced the idea to Weber, it was too late to be implemented into the 2023 legislative session.

“When we started again this year, I reintroduced the bill and it was heard in both the higher education committee as well as the HHS (Health and Human Services) committee,” Weber said. “Then, it was ultimately put into the higher ed omnibus bill at that point. We had one hearing on it last time and then I had two hearings on it this year and it got included.”

Rops testified at one of those hearings in February.

“It was a little bit nerve-wracking,” he said. “It was exactly how you picture it with the fancy leather chairs and the table… but it went really well. It’s something that I’m very passionate about because of the death of my brother and how it impacted my family and my community. ... I felt pretty bold for lack of a better word.”

The bill passed during the special session in June as part of the higher education omnibus bill, which also addresses funding for institutions.

“I give a lot of credit to the testimony of the young man (Rops) who had brought the issue to me,” Weber said. “(He) actually testified once in person and once via Zoom in both committee meetings and gave obviously a very impactful testimony having witnessed what his family went through with the death of his brother… It was an emotional testimony and a very touching testimony that he gave. He really did the heavy lift on it as far as that was concerned.”

Rops said not having opiate antagonists on Minnesota college campuses was a massive oversight. According to him, Minnesota already has Narcan, a brand name for naloxone, required in K-12 schools.

“An elementary school is required to have Narcan doses on-site,” he said. “But they didn’t have any requirements for colleges/universities. It was just a massive oversight and I felt relief (when it passed) because there were people overdosing in dorms.”

Rops said there was proof of students overdosing on Minnesota State College campuses. “I felt relief for the fact that they would have Narcan on-site to help them,” he said.

He also wants people to know how accessible Narcan is.

“It can save a life and it’s easy for you to carry,” he said. “You could put it in your purse, you could put it in a backpack, you can put it in your car and just have it because you never know.”

Rops said there are no drawbacks to using Narcan.

“We got to stop this stigma that Narcan can be abused in some way,” he said. “That’s not true at all and there’s people that think that, but it’s just not true. As much access to it as we can have as possible is what we need. Everybody should carry it.”

According to Weber, by this fall, public post-secondary institutions should be including those opiate antagonists emergency doses in residential units on campus.

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Northwest Minnesota Foundation offering Training and Education Fund grants

Pioneer Staff Report — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 22:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — The Northwest Minnesota Foundation is seeking funding proposals from nonprofits serving Northwest Minnesota to support building organizational capacity through training and education activities.

The NWMF Training and Education Fund was established in 2004 to provide financial support to nonprofit organizations and leaders, with preference given to efforts that build leadership knowledge, skills and capacity, a release said.

Eligible expenses may include staff and board training; travel and conferences; consultant hiring; strategic planning; leadership training; organizational or systems audits; or other efforts that help make nonprofits more efficient and viable for the long term.

"Grants cannot fund political activities, religious propagation, discriminatory practices, past operating debts or similar activities," the release said. "This fund will not consider membership or subscription dues, computer license fees, financial audits, building construction or capital campaigns."

The typical grant award is $2,500. However, grants up to $5,000 will be reviewed and considered.

The grant is available to 501(c)3 nonprofits that serve NWMF's region, including Red Lake Nation, White Earth Nation and the 12 counties of Beltrami, Clearwater, Hubbard, Kittson, Lake of the Woods, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake Falls and Roseau. Priority points will be given to organizations located within the NWMF region.

The deadline to apply for these grants is Tuesday, July 15.

To learn more about this round of funding and apply, visit the Grants page on the NWMF website, nwmf.org.

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Students in the news, June 28

Pioneer Staff Report — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 14:20:00 GMT

EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. — The following students were named to the president's list at Northland Community and Technical College in East Grand Forks, Minn., for earning a 3.5 to 3.74 GPA while enrolled in 12 credits during the spring 2025 semester.

Erskine: Kylee DeFrang.

Fosston: Ariana Dickinson.

Local students named to president's list at Northland Community and Technical College

EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. — The following students were named to the president's list at Northland Community and Technical College in East Grand Forks, Minn., for earning a 3.75 to 4.0 GPA while enrolled in 12 credits during the spring 2025 semester.

Bemidji: Alera Eck, Mishayla Klemetson and Veronica Koch.

Fosston: Skye Balstad, Teagan Duppong and Reese Wedin.

McIntosh: Alyssa Anderson and Kaleb Roussy.

Local students named to dean's list at Bemidji State

BEMIDJI — The following local students have been named to the dean's list at Bemidji State University for earning a GPA of 3.5 or higher while enrolled in 12 credits during the spring 2025 semester.

Akeley: Mason Cronk and Logan Watts.

Bagley: Makaela LaFerriere and Jenika Moen.

Bemidji: Gina Aalgaard, Faith Adedeji, Jackson Bahr, Olivia Bakke, Helen Bartlett, Gracia Berg, Ethan Biehn, Sidney Bignall, Justice Bohlman, Quentin Burrow, Raeley Carney, Lucas Caron, Kristen Cox, Austin Crocker, Delayna Dauner, Christina Dominguez, Miles Dunbar, Brennan Elting, Mary Erickson, Kendra Fortin, Grady Fossum, Garrett Frazer, Sunny Freemyer, Courtney Frenzel, Teri Girtz, Macey Gish, Tammeka Green, Joshua Grosvold, Athena Hamann, Ani Harmsen, Angeline Harris, Jesse Hasson, Alec Holbeck, Nicholas Hoover, Ciarra Howard, Emma Huelsnitz, Lucia Jackson, Mitchell Johnson, Dane Jorgensen, Brandon Jourdain, Brady Kacon, Zoe Kennedy, Ella Klovstad, Jack Kniefel, Cash Knutson, Katie Kruger, Rachel LaFriniere, Steven Laite, Gino Laituri, Crista Lampert, Jack Larson, Sheila LaRue, Chloe Luce, Krasper Magnussen, Jessica Martell, Edwin Mayo, Nathiel McDonald, Jake McLean, Isaac McNallan, Cody Mickle, Kaleb Miller, Jerryka Morin, Haley Mostad, Abby Myhrer, Erin Myhrer, Brenton Nistler, Samantha Nolan, Adam O'Neill, Antton Oja, Bailee Olson, Noah Olson, RaeAnn Osborne, Esteban Paulino Dinzey, Brynn Peterson, Camryn Pomplun, Jonathon Quandt, Samara Raynbird, Brittyn Reiserson, Noah Reimer, Hannah Reiplinger, Mille Roesaeg, Camron Rohe, Elizabeth Ross, Lahnah Rossbach, Dora Schrader, Emily Skime, Stephen Smith, Marissa Snell, Kendra Sparby, Chace Spoden, Elisabeth Strande, Ivan Tavarez, Brett Tharaldson, Zoe Thomas, Sophia, Todora, Autumn Tompkins, Eli Tuomala, Lauren Tysver, Jere Vaisanen, Lyddia Vigen, Morgan Webb, Emily Wessel, Madison White, Griffin Wilson, Justin Wilson, Hunter Wolden, Joshua Wright and Madison Zieba.

Cass Lake: Jerome Johnson, Heather Lueth, Natasha Lueth, Natasha Morris, Raven Snyder, Connie White and Jenni Wind.

Clearbrook: Nathan Weems.

Fosston: Kiera Faldet and Kimberly Gilbertson.

Gonvick: Haley McCoy.

Lake George: Kayli Bessler.

Laporte: Claire Derby, Axel Lillquist, Grace Anna Schafbuch and Joseph Templeton-Smith.

Leonard: Leo Tronnes.

Northome: Adison Catt and Alivia Szydel.

Puposky: Carson Binkley.

Red Lake: Alexys May and Kayln Sargent.

Redby: Dustin Harris.

Tenstrike: Hannah Mastin and Gavin Waller.

Walker: Rogue Bialke, Eli Pfeiffer and Logan Wales.

Local students named to president's honor roll at Bemidji State

BEMIDJI — The following local students have been named to the president's honor roll at Bemidji State University for earning a GPA of 4.0 while enrolled in 12 credits during the spring 2025 semester.

Akeley: Kadie Burns.

Bagley: Matthew Congrave, Gabrielle Jesness, Evan Lafond and McKenna Melbo.

Becida: Preston Copiskey.

Bemidji: Lauren Amberg, Abigail Arel, Hailey Armstrong, Jacob Baumgarten, Mansi Bell, Shane Benshoof, Hans Berg, Nicholas Billings, Caden Bolte, Elizabeth Bolte, Sarah Borgen, Kirsten Brown, Riley Buck, Benjamin Corradi, Chantz DeJean, Tamay Delavar, Carter Eckblad, Jeffrey Eide, Eva Filippova, Elise Fladeboe, Ridge Flatness, Anna Frenzel, Wkenodan Getgadekwen, Camille Grey, Kayla Henrickson, Naytch Herrmann, Kiera Hoefer, Amanda Johnson Barton, Shantel Kelly, John Kirk, Chloe Kirkpatrick, Josie Klinke, Madeline Kniefel, Caleb Knott, Chloe Knott, Kyle LaLuzerne, Grace Lanctot, Steeve Lessomo Eloundou, Eva Levesque, Allie Lish, Juel Luettinger, Robert Mangiamele, Savannah Martin, Mara McDonald, Samantha Melberg, April Miller, Gaven Moser, Andrew Nelson, Cayden Odegard, Aiden Olsen, Bradley Olsen, Hazel Olson, Naomi Olson, Isa Parekh, Elana Peterson, Madison Peterson, Elizabeth Quandt, Noah Quinn, Amira Raukar, Taz Richie, Sierra Riley, Livia Ritchie, Andrew Rizea, Trevor Rohder, Makayla Rzab, Patrik Satosaari, Daniel Scherling, Trevor Sledge, Ellie Solheim, Thor Solien, Jazmine St Claire, Heidi Strompf, Maryn Swanson, Cyrus Thomopoulos, Nghi Tran, Cian Verbridge, Bridget Westrum, Logan Westrum, Kelsey Wolf, Markus Wood, Ella Yoder and Julia Zielinkska.

Bena: Abbie Capesius.

Blackduck: Ellee George, Leah Luukkonen, Sierra Sundvall.

Cass Lake: Josiah Bloom, Taysha Curry, Ean DuBois, Ryan Gaskins and Eowyn Post.

Clearbrook: Hunter Allen.

Fosston: Joe Offerdahl and Kyla Pederson.

Hines: Maureen Stroeing.

Laporte: Justin Clyde, Ava Kissel, Hannah Pfeiffer and Emily Wade.

Leonard: Skylar Ballard.

Puposky: Chelsey Gilbertson and Benjamin Johnson.

Red Lake: Terin Cobenais.

Shevlin: Allison LaVine and Gabriel LaVine.

Solway: Hailey Bliss and Reiken Downs.

Walker: Malorie Knox and Desirae Phillips.

Wilton: Jonah Weideman.

Northwest Technical College announces spring dean's list

BEMIDJI — The following area students have been named to the dean's list at Northwest Technical College for earning a GPA of 3.5 or higher while enrolled in 12 credits during the spring 2025 semester.

Bagley: Maci Binder, Ashley Bushie, Logan Dahl, Cullyn Dowell, Danielle Johnson, Max Johnson, Adrienne LaFerriere and Hadyn Schipper.

Bemidji: Erica Anderson, Becky Bahr, Anika Binder, Caleb Caster, Heather Chesley, Braden Christianson, Aaron Dinh, Dylan Doffing, Riley Donaghue, Robert Eckwright, Madison Faucher, Magnus Fjerstad, Leif Glassmann, Eric Gray, Ileisha Guinn, Eve Hansen, Megan Heveron, Samuel Hudson, Siri Johnson, Taylin Kramer, Breann Lucio, Hayden Mack, Matthew McClary, Evette Mesarina, Vincent Moran, Nicole Nelson, Kenneth Ness, Emma Neubeck, Kaine Norton, Kayla Ollila, Joshua Olorunyemi, Brendan Peterson, Christine Phillips, Madison Sugar, Emily Trigueros, Patricia Anne Valenzuela, Noreen Varney, Paul Villafana, David Ward, Riley Warne, Everett Weideman, Diana Wells and Shelby Wiebolt.

Blackduck: Racquel Bilinski, Jay Kramer, Jaret Swedberg and Nicholas Swedberg.

Cass Lake: Jessica Connor, Hope Liesener, Amy Pederson, Steven Schaaf, Terra Warner and Summer Woodfield-Ruther.

Clearbrook: Alexis Rogstad.

Fosston: Caden Barstad, Mara Larson, Brecken Levin, Kyra Quam, Tucker Quam and Kaden Sanford.

Gonvick: Kailey Klema.

Hines: Chloe Landis.

Laporte: Joshua Johnson and Hunter Wright.

Northome: Corey Kuhlman.

Puposky: Alexia Reynolds.

Red Lake: Veronica Koos.

Shevlin: Chase Fleahman, Taylor Grimsley, Martin Ngigi and Samantha Pereira.

Squaw Lake: Karl Kallio.

Walker: Jamie Engen.

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Duluth man charged with fatally stabbing wife over the weekend

Tom Olsen — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 18:49:38 GMT

DULUTH — A man has been charged with fatally stabbing his wife at their Duluth apartment Saturday night.

Corddarro Andrew Cope, 37, is accused of the intentional second-degree murder of Anissa Cope, 49.

Court filings show a neighbor called 911 around 7:30 p.m. when she heard a woman screaming for help and apparently being “thrown around” in another unit at 601 N. 27th Ave. W. A man could also be heard telling the woman to shut up.

The caller provided Anissa Cope’s name and indicated her husband was leaving the scene in the victim’s truck, according to the criminal complaint.

Officers arrived on the scene minutes later and found a bloody sandal on an interior staircase leading to an open door at Apartment C. The complaint says Anissa Cope was found inside with “multiple large stab wounds to her arms, abdomen and neck.”

First responders attempted to revive the victim, but she was pronounced dead just after 8 p.m.

The reporting party described the suspect as having a shaved head, no shirt and wearing basketball shorts. She told officers he ran out of the building to a black truck and provided the direction of travel.

Police alerted neighboring agencies and the truck was spotted a short time later by a Carlton County Sheriff’s Office deputy, according to the complaint. Deputies and state troopers then executed a stop in Pine County.

Corddarro Cope matched the description provided by the caller and had blood on his hands, abdomen and feet, authorities said. In a search of the truck, officers located a second bloody sandal matching the one found on the staircase.

A search warrant was also obtained for the Copes’ apartment. There, police said they found a bloody chef's knife submerged in a bowl of water in the kitchen sink. Corddarro Cope’s wedding ring was also found on the sink, the complaint says.

Cope does not have any criminal convictions in Minnesota, but pleaded guilty to two separate battery cases in Douglas County in 2019. More serious felony charges of recklessly endangering safety and strangulation were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

He also has a handful of misdemeanor convictions in Missouri from several years ago, including passing a bad check and several driving-related offenses.

Cope was scheduled to make an initial appearance in State District Court on Tuesday. St. Louis County prosecutor Jacqueline Primeau requested $1 million bail, citing the severity of the charges, his battery convictions and his flight risk. She said it remains unclear where he was driving to when arrested, but he has ties to several other states.

The case is the second homicide in Duluth this month, following the shooting death of Cody Telega in the Central Hillside neighborhood less than two weeks earlier. Overall, it was the fourth reported homicide in St. Louis County in June, with apparent murder-suicides occurring in Hermantown and Chisholm.

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Grand Meadow chiropractor accused of sexual contact with a client

John Molseed — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 18:22:08 GMT

GRAND MEADOW, Minn. — A Minnesota chiropractor faces a charge of criminal sexual conduct for allegedly committing a sex act on a client.

According to court documents, 42-year-old Dillon Carter Denisen, of Grand Meadow, is accused of performing oral sex on a client on Wednesday, June 25. He faces one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct within a prohibited occupational relationship.

A man reported to detectives with the Mower County Sheriff’s Office that he had gone to Denisen for an adjustment, Monday, June 23, and claimed that Denisen undressed him partially and massaged his hips with a numbing cold cream. The man told investigators that he returned for an adjustment on Wednesday. Denisen again pulled down the man’s pants to apply numbing cream and later performed oral sex on the man, the man alleged.

Denisen told investigators that pulling the client’s pants down is not a normal part of treatment, court documents show. A LinkedIn account under Denisen’s name lists him as the owner of Meadow Area Chiropractic, LLC.

Court records show Denisen was released on bond. His initial appearance is scheduled for Thursday, July 10.

Grand Meadow is in southern Minnesota, roughly 25 miles south of Rochester.

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Judge postpones hearing for Vance Boelter over living condition concerns

Mary Murphy — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 21:36:43 GMT

ST. PAUL — U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko granted a request from Vance Boelter’s defense for his preliminary and detention hearing on Friday, June 27, to be moved to July 3, over concerns for his living conditions.

Boelter, suspect in the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses, is currently being held in Sherburne County Jail. He made his second court appearance on Friday, in a green anti-suicide smock, during which he told the judge he hadn’t slept in “12 to 14 days.”

Boelter’s lawyer, federal defender Manny Atwal, said Friday it’s “difficult to communicate with him in person because he is sleep deprived,” and that Boelter has been in “that contraption,” referring to his suicide smock, since his arrest on June 15.

Atwal said that at the Sherburne County jail, he’s being held in a cell with his lights on 24/7, a mat with no pillow for sleeping, and an inmate next to him who has smeared feces on the cell.

Boelter briefly took the microphone in court and said he appreciates the request since he hasn’t slept, and said, “I've never been suicidal and I'm not suicidal now.”

Assistant U.S. attorney Harry Jacobs did not object to the request from Boelter’s defense and said that “the government has serious concerns about Mr. Boelter and a potential suicide.”

Sherburne County Sheriff Joel Brott on Friday afternoon rebuked Boelter’s description of the jail conditions. He called the complaints “offensive and disgusting” on the day that hundreds gathered at the Minnesota Capitol to pay their respects to Rep. Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their dog Gilbert.

“Claims made in court that deplorable jail conditions have prevented the alleged assassin from getting any sleep, and therefore require a continuance in the criminal case against him, are absurd,” Brott said in a news release. “Security cameras capturing the activity of the alleged assassin in his cell on ‘suicide precaution’ show he was resting peacefully with his eyes closed for seven straight hours, appearing to be asleep, from approximately 10:40 p.m. Thursday until 5:45 a.m. Friday.”

Brott described Boelter’s cell as “spotless clean,” and said that Boelter has a mattress with a pillow, and is offered a phone and shower daily. The sheriff said Boelter has not missed any meals at the jail.

“He is not in a hotel. He’s in jail, where a person belongs when they commit the heinous crimes he is accused of committing,” Brott said. “... He’s being treated like every other inmate in the same circumstance. It’s too late now to complain about the conditions in which he has put himself.”

Boelter faces both state and federal charges for the murder of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well as the shootings of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who are in recovery. Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thomson said on June 16 that the federal charges will be prosecuted first. If convicted, the federal charges carry a maximum punishment of life in prison or the death penalty.

The FBI special agent on Boelter's case, Terry Getsch, has already released his affidavit in support of the federal charges, which detail evidence against Boelter, such as recovered lists of other Minnesota politicians, weapons and an alleged confession letter.

Boelter’s preliminary and detention hearing will now be on Thursday, July 3, at 2:30 p.m. at the U.S. Courthouse in St. Paul.

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‘Completely blindsided’: Wife of Minnesota lawmaker shooting suspect releases statement

Mary Murphy — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 20:31:28 GMT

ST. PAUL — Jenny Boelter, the wife of Vance Boelter — suspect in the shootings of two Minnesota Lawmakers and their spouses — released a statement Thursday saying the violence was a "betrayal" of her family's beliefs.

“We are absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided,” Jenny Boelter said in the statement. “This violence does not at all align with our beliefs as a family. It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith. We are appalled and horrified by what occurred and our hearts are incredibly heavy for the victims of this unfathomable tragedy.”

Jenny Boelter said Thursday, June 26 that her family has been cooperating with law enforcement and investigations. She said she was first contacted by law enforcement on the morning of June 14 and drove to a gas station to meet agents.

A federal complaint filed against Vance Boelter after his arrest said that Jenny Boelter consented to a search of her car the morning of June 14, in which officers reportedly recovered two handguns, approximately $10,000 in cash and passports for Mrs. Boelter and her children, according to the complaint.

A separate federal complaint filed pre-arrest by FBI special agent Terry Getsch said the Boelters were “preppers.”

“Boelter and his wife had been ‘preppers,’ or people who prepare for major or catastrophic incidents,” Getsch wrote in the complaint. “At some point, Boelter had given his wife a “bailout plan” – i.e., a plan of where to go in case of exigent circumstances.”

Vance Boelter faces state and federal charges in the murder of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, as well as the shootings of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. Boelter remains in custody ahead of his second hearing at the U.S. courthouse in St. Paul on Friday.

Jenny Boelter thanked law enforcement in the statement, offered condolences to the Hortman and Hoffman families and asked for privacy for herself and her children.

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Bemidji trap shooters snipe their way to nationals under first-year head coach

Leo Pomerenke — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 11:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI - With gunshots echoing in the surrounding woods, members of the Bemidji High �� trap team are still practicing, even after the season concluded last week.

Bemidji won the class 9A conference 2 title this season, earning them a spot in the state tournament at Prior Lake last week, placing 29th out of 40 teams.

Now their squad of top five shooters – Roman Vold, 17; Kadyn Nipp, 17; Clayton Johnson, 14; Caleb Hall, 18; and Joza Paulson, 18 – are practicing for an even bigger event: the USA High �� Clay Target League National Championship, held in Mason, Michigan, on July 11-12.

The five shooters are the best out of the 86 participants, ranging from grades 6-12, who took part in the BHS trap team this season. No one is more excited and proud of Jacks than first-time head coach Cory Wilson.

“It takes a lot,” he said of his shooters making nationals, “especially when we shoot here in all kinds of weather. … When we start shooting in mid-March, there's usually snow on the ground, wind, temperatures in the 30s. … But these kids, they really shoot well.”

One of them is Vold, who was the only member of the team to qualify individually at the state tournament, finishing 21st. Vold will now travel to nationals, where he shot 99 out of 100 in team shooting last year.

He’s hoping for a repeat performance for his team this year.

“(Shooting 99) feels good, but when you're out there and you keep running them, then the leg starts to shake a little bit sometimes when I'm getting set to shoot,” Vold said.

That feeling of nervousness is common in trap shooting. It’s how you manage it that makes the difference.

Mental edge

Wilson said that maintaining focus is what turns a good shooter into a great one.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. One missed clay can wreak havoc on a shooter’s mental space, causing them to miss more targets and go into a spiral. That’s why moral support from coaches and teammates is so vital for the BHS trap team.

“We really try to focus on a lot of positivity out here,” Wilson said. “Maybe your personal best is 10 (out of 25), that's a huge achievement. … We really try to recognize that and really keep the positivity and the accomplishments going.”

Most shooters have their ways of focusing. Nipp tries to have an empty mind while out on the shooting range, while Vold puts in his earbuds and listens to music.

“I listen to a lot of Three Days Grace and stuff like that,” Vold said. “It helps me forget (the misses).”

Not only is it required for shooters to maintain a mental focus, but visual focus as well. Most shooters wear glasses with side blinders to help see only what’s in front of them.

Focus is even more important in bad weather and windy days, which is, of course, common in Bemidji. Nipp said maintaining a positive mindset can make or break a shooter's day in bad weather.

“Sometimes I'll shoot my best on windy days,” he said. “It's all about your focus, and if you let the wind get to you, you might miss a couple more because of it. But if you don't let the wind get to you, you'll shoot the same.”

New at the helm

This year is Wilson’s fourth year as a coach for BHS trap shooting, but it’s his first as the head coach.

“I absolutely love it,” Wilson said. “Working with the kids is an absolute blast. Seeing them get that first hit, even just hitting their first clay pigeon or their first five straight. It’s great when you can watch that kid bring it all together and start busting clays.”

Wilson loves to see the competitiveness that trap shooting can bring out of kids.

“Some of them get very serious,” he added. “When they get on the line, they're very competitive. … They want to bust every one of those clays.”

Wilson has 16 assistant coaches to help Lumberjack shooters grow throughout the season. While that may seem like a lot, it allows about one coach per five kids, so shooters can learn how to improve on a more personal level.

Wilson also wanted to maintain a positive culture, which is very important in a mental sport like trap shooting.

“The cool thing about this sport for me as a coach is we've got kids from sixth grade to seniors, boys to girls, all different kinds of clique groups in the high school represented out here,” Wilson said. “They all support each other. Any given day, any kid could be your best shooter out here.”

Of course, not everything has been perfect in his first season. Handling nervousness with kids, especially at invites, can be challenging for him and his assistant coaches.

“I haven't figured that one quite out yet,” Wilson admitted. “(At invites,) they'll shoot 50 rounds, take a break and then shoot 50 rounds a little later. Sometimes those kids will shoot really good in the first round, and then they maybe don't carry that focus in quite as good into the second round. I've got to find a way to make sure that they stay focused on that second 50.”

There’s always room to grow, for the team and for the coaches. But this year, Wilson is very proud of his shooters representing Bemidji on a national level, setting an example for future Lumberjacks one shot at a time.

“The great thing about this sport is that you can do this the rest of your life,” he said. “I know the (Bemidji Trap and Skeet) Club’s got a gentleman that comes out in his wheelchair and shoots traps. You can do it a long way into your life and have fun doing it.”

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Former UND coach Mike Stromberg brings swimming camp to Bemidji pool

Jared Rubado — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:40:31 GMT

BEMIDJI – For the better part of 50 years, former North Dakota swimming head coach Mike Stromberg has spent his summers inside local swimming pools in the upper Midwest.

The Stromberg name makes it easy for word of mouth to advertise his offseason programs.

The Havre, Montana, native took the UND collegiate swimming programs to new heights, turning postseason inexperience into a Division-II juggernaut. Stromberg won a combined 34 North Central Conference titles. He led the formerly-named Sioux to a pair of women’s national runner-up finishes and was among the nation's top six teams in each of his final 17 seasons. He also notched a men’s third-place finish nationally in 2011 and had 13 top-10 campaigns.

Stromberg boosted North Dakota’s numbers from seven to 57 before stepping down in 2001. Now, in his retirement years, he’s working his magic in Bemidji.

From June 8-11, Stromberg hosted the latest iteration of his camp for 55 swimmers. While most were from Bemidji and other prominent swimming areas in northern Minnesota, other campers traveled from neighboring states, as well as Colorado Springs.

Stromberg’s camps come with an emphasis on inclusion.

“Earlier on, the camps were a lot of swimming and not much teaching,” he said. “I’ve had to learn how to teach and how to get kids engaged. When I started, I would tell the kids to do stuff, and only some of them got better. Now, I want to make sure everybody here gets better.”

Stromberg hosted his first camp in 1978 in Minot, North Dakota. However, it wasn’t until after his time at UND concluded that his camps took off.

Over the last 20-plus years, Stromberg has brought in accomplished swimming figures to assist him at his camps. His connections range from Olympic-level swimmers and former national champions to revered coaches.

For kids like BHS rising senior Daniel Scherling, who is coming off of his first Class AA state berth, sharing the pool with accomplished peers and coaches sets the bar high.

“These coaches have been doing this for a long time,” Scherling said. “Just to have multiple eyes watching you who have a lot of experience in swimming, to have them watch you and know what you’re doing wrong – and know how to fix it – it’s just a great feeling.

“You want to listen to everything they say because they have so much experience. If they tell you to try something, you do it because it’s going to make you a better swimmer.”

Keeping it local

Stromberg’s relationships with the BHS swimmers extend beyond his half-week camp.

In 2021, Stromberg sold his club swimming team in Colorado and retired in Bemidji, where his wife was raised. In 2022, he began volunteer coaching the Lumberjacks.

His partnership with BHS has come with advanced technology. During practice, each swimmer wears a waterproof headset. Stromberg is in their ears while they’re in the pool.

The headsets are also used in his camps.

“We don’t tell them what to do; we just give them ideas,” Stromberg said. “The three key words are explore, experience and evaluate. What worked for you and what didn’t work for you?

“Everybody’s different, and everyone has a different body to swim with. If I try to teach the whole pool to do the same thing in the same way, only 40-50% of the kids can do it, while the other 60% flounder.”

Scherling has taken a head-first approach to Stromberg’s three-word motto.

“Everyone has their own swimming style,” Scherling said. “When you’re in season, you’re around the same people every day. You kind of get used to it. When you come here and see a bunch of new swimmers, a lot of them are better and faster than me, so I get to watch how they do starts, stroke work and everything. I get to watch these coaches give them tips, and I can take them for myself.”

More importantly for the local attendees, Stromberg’s camp offers them something they haven’t had: availability.

Stromberg’s summer sessions are the first of their kind in Bemidji. While the Bemidji Area Super Swimmers have an affluent club organization, high school swimmers have had to travel beyond northern Minnesota for summer training.

“It’s a lot cheaper for us and our families to do camps in Bemidji than anywhere else,” Scherling said. “There’s a lot of Bemidji people here, too, and that’s good for all of us. Camps like this give us experience that we otherwise wouldn’t get because it’s so much more convenient.”

Both the BHS boys and girls programs have seen a participation spike in recent years. Local camps not only give area athletes more exposure to outside coaching; they also provide structure to a budding sport.

“Getting camps like this in Bemidji is huge,” Scherling said. “We need to increase the popularity of swimming here. I think we can show people how cool swimming is. It’s not the most popular sport. It’s not football, hockey, basketball – sports like that. It’s a smaller sport, and that’s OK, but we can always use more numbers on the swim team. Camps like this help with that.”

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Best of the Jacks: The Pioneer’s top 2024-25 moments from each Bemidji High �� team

Jared Rubado — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 18:52:32 GMT

The 24 Bemidji High �� athletics programs have come and gone for the 2024-25 season.

The latest iteration of Lumberjacks reached new heights, won section championships and represented northern Minnesota on the state’s biggest stages.

Each year, the Pioneer recaps its favorite moments for each Bemidji High �� team. From big wins to the heart-gripping experiences that extend beyond the box score, here are our favorites from 2024-25.

Girls tennis: First section title since ‘21

Faber: It was hard to choose just one moment for a Bemidji team that entered the state tournament with a 26-0 record. The most obvious standout, though, came in the Section 8AA Tournament finals.

The Lumberjacks defeated Brainerd 5-2, sweeping all four singles competitions and winning at No. 3 doubles to secure the section crown. It was the program’s first section championship since 2021, which was the last time any BHS team won a section title.

Cross country: An unlikely injury, welcomed return

Rubado: The Bemidji Invitational is the only chance local athletes get to compete on their home turf. Caleb Knott nearly missed out.

After running in a season-opening race, Knott was held out of competitions for nearly the entirety of his junior season due to a hamstring injury he suffered while playing tag with middle-school runners. Despite his uncommon absence, Knott returned to the lineup just in time to run at Greenwood Golf Course on Oct. 14. He took third place with a time of 17:20.5, then qualified for state one week later.

Football: Degelder scores twice to recapture Babe’s Bell

Faber: Bemidji carried a slight 14-10 lead into the second half of its matchup with Brainerd on Oct. 11.

Running back Dawson Degelder decided to double the Jacks’ advantage with some flair.

BHS was driving near midfield when Degelder crashed through the Warriors’ defense and stormed 45 yards to the house.

On the Lumberjacks’ next offensive possession, Degelder once again forced his way through the teeth of Brainerd’s defense. This time, he flexed his speed, storming 91 yards to the endzone for his second touchdown. Bemidji hung on for a 28-22 victory over its rivals to reclaim Babe’s Bell.

Boys soccer: From Europe with love

Rubado: An anticipated season with a large senior class was on the brink of falling short yet again in the Section 8-3A Tournament. Then Sam Byrne delivered.

Byrne, an exchange student from the Netherlands, joined the BHS boys soccer team for his lone semester at the school. He spent all season learning the differences between European and American soccer, all while garnering more minutes and a larger role for the Jacks.

In the 8-3A title game against Buffalo, those minutes paid off. He scored the lone goal in the 70th minute, 4,000 miles away from home, to send BHS back to the state tournament for the first time since the end of the 8A three-peat in 2018.

Girls soccer: Substitute penalty kick

Rubado: Sometimes, the best moments are born in unassuming games.

On the surface, there’s not much that’s special about an 11-2 girls soccer win between Bemidji and Pelican Rapids. The Lumberjacks, a Section 8-3A team, outmatched the Vikings, a Section 8A team, in a contest that proved to be more of a formality than anything else. However, one Bemidji senior got her moment on Senior Day.

In the 49th minute, Emma Stay took a penalty kick for BHS. She scored her first varsity goal and gave the Jacks a 5-1 lead.

Girls swimming and diving: Olson gets over the hump

Rubado: For the first time since 2021, the Bemidji girls swimming and diving team was represented at state.

Kennedy Olson followed in the footsteps of Mady Schmidt, the last BHS state qualifier from 2021. Olson took fourth place at sections with a score of 343.5, nabbing the final bid from 8AA. Olson took 16th at state one week later with a score of 338.35.

Volleyball: Anderson eclipses 3,000 assists

Faber: BHS senior Margie Anderson entered the 2024 volleyball season with the most assists in program history. She topped the previous record, held by Alexa Greendahl, in the 2023 Section 8-4A Tournament.

On Oct. 26, Anderson managed to set another benchmark for the program. She eclipsed 3,000 career assists in the Lumberjacks’ Section 8-4A Tournament contest against Moorhead. Though the Jacks suffered a loss to the Spuds, she managed to tally 21 assists to finish with a career total of 3,003.

Boys basketball: Riewer’s heroics against the Sabres

Faber: Austin Riewer and Jaxon Boschee often carried the offensive load for the Lumberjacks throughout the season.

On Jan. 21, the duo combined for 46 in Bemidji’s dramatic 67-65 win over Sartell. And it was Riewer’s heroics that clinched the win for BHS in the game’s waning minutes.

With less than a minute left, Riewer nailed a 3-point basket to tie the game at 65-65. He gobbled up a contested rebound in the Sabres’ ensuing offensive possession, and after a timeout, he converted a layup at the rim to give the Jacks a 67-65 lead.

Sartell failed to respond, and BHS escaped with a nail-biting win.

Girls basketball: First winning season since 2019-20

Faber: Bemidji’s postseason run came to a close in the Section 8-4A quarterfinals.

With a final record of 17-11, though, the Lumberjacks managed to finish with their first winning season (including postseason results) since 2019-20.

Seniors Matjea Malterud and Margie Anderson will be missed next season. However, many of the Jacks’ most productive players will be back for another go-around next year.

Liv Thompson, Karley LaZella, Anysia Pink and Clara Bieber will all be back for another go-around next season. Freshman Clara Sherwood will be another exciting player to keep an eye on, impressing on multiple occasions with her 3-point shooting ability off the bench.

Dance team: The marathon stretch

Rubado: Unfortunately for the Blue Angels, a home competition wasn’t in the cards for the 2024-25 season. However, they did compete in three meets in three days and posted impressive results.

On Jan. 9 in Alexandria, Bemidji took first in jazz and second in high kick. One day later in Monticello, the Blue Angels took home the same results in an eight-team competition. The marathon weekend ended in Anoka with Bemidji finishing in fourth place in both high kick and jazz.

Gymnastics: Signing off from the Gym Bin

Rubado: The DeWitt name has become synonymous with BHS gymnastics. On Feb. 7, she competed in her final home meet at the Gym Bin.

DeWitt helped guide the Lumberjacks to a 134.15-126.95 dual win, as she did so many times before. She finished with the top all-around score, along with taking first on vault, floor and bars. Three weeks later, she competed at state for the second time, ending a brilliant high school gymnastics career in Bemidji.

Boys hockey: Fanfare at the BCA

Rubado: It had been nearly a decade since Bemidji High �� hockey fans packed the Bemidji Community Arena in a shoulder-to-shoulder capacity for the Section 8AA playoffs.

After earning the No. 2 seed and dispatching seventh-seeded Buffalo in short order, the Jacks hosted No. 6 Roseau for a chance to play for a section title. The Rams, who have been the proverbial thorn in the side of so many 8AA teams, felt the resurgence of BHS boys hockey in a four-goal third period. Joey Fankhanel, Benji O’Leary, Cal Mattfield and Conor Stodgell all scored in the third to claim a 5-1 win, granting Bemidji its first 8AA title berth since 2016.

Girls hockey: Welcoming the toughest competition

Rubado: While the BHS girls hockey team had plenty of wins, one of its losses showcased the program’s collective growth.

On Dec. 14, the Lumberjacks welcomed a state power to the BCA. Seventh-ranked Benilde-St. Margaret’s took home a 3-1 win over BHS to the Twin Cities. The result was arbitrary.

For a Bemidji girls hockey program that had spent the better part of the last decade as a bottom-feeder in Section 8AA, getting a team like BSM to play in Bemidji is a sign of where the program is headed. But it’s not enough to get the games, you have to prove you can compete.

While Bemidji ended on the wrong side of a tightly-contested game, a competitive loss against one of the state’s top teams gives motivation for metro-area schools to travel north to play the Jacks. You don’t get games against schools like that unless you earn them, and you don’t keep getting them if you prove you can’t hang. The Jacks did both.

Nordic skiing: Walters signs off

Rubado: A week ago, I probably would’ve had a different Nordic skiing entry that mentioned the efforts of Levi Renn and Kaedon Pollock finishing 11th at the state meet. But it feels disingenuous not to pay homage to the end of an incredible local coaching career.

For 22 years, Mark Walters has been the face of BHS Nordic. He led dozens of student-athletes to state and helped fortify a program that’s become a mainstay near the top of Section 8. He’s leaving the program in good hands, as BHS announced on Monday that assistant coach Nina Lubarski is taking over. And while Walters will still be around in a voluntary role, his time away from the program is earned after positively impacting hundreds of students.

Boys swimming and diving: Daniel Scherling clinches state berth at Section 8AA meet

Faber: The margins at section swimming and diving meets are often thin. Daniel Scherling proved just that on March 1.

He bested Elk River’s Brody Vetsch by just fourth-tenths of a second in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Section 8AA meet in Brainerd, claiming second place. Scherling’s tight finish clinched the final spot for state in the event. For the first time since 2021, the Lumberjacks sent an individual to state.

Girls wrestling: 12-year-old champ

Rubado: Easily one of my favorite stories of the year came from the BHS girls wrestling team.

Seventh-grader Keeari Goodfellow was 12 years old when she wrestled for a Blue Ox Invitational championship on Dec. 21 at the BHS Gymnasium. She pinned Nashwauk-Keewatin/Greenway sophomore Willow Horack in 3:32 to move to 5-0 on the day and 15-0 on the season. It was her first full season of wrestling, and she made the most of her opportunity to wrestle in a varsity role.

Boys wrestling: Section title goes the distance

Faber: Bemidji and Willmar are quite accustomed to meeting in the Section 8-3A championship. The Cardinals entered the 2025 Section 8-3A Tournament championship with four straight title wins over the Jacks.

Naturally, this year’s championship bout came down to the wire.

Willmar had a 29-20 lead over BHS with just two matches left. But Ben Desrosier picked up a win by fall in 1:57, and Nehemiah Schwinghammer secured a 7-2 win by decision, ending the dual with a 29-29 tie. The Lumberjacks, though, had a 7-6 advantage in match victories and claimed the section championship in a win by criteria. It was Bemidji’s first section team championship since 2020.

Baseball: Ganske, Lundquist shove against eventual Section 8-4A champs

Faber: Strong pitching was one of the Lumberjacks’ greatest strengths all season long. One of the best examples came in a regular-season doubleheader against Moorhead, the eventual Section 8-4A Tournament champions, on May 6.

Bemidji swept the Spuds in a pair of pitching duels, winning by scores of 2-0 and 2-1.

Jack Lundquist got the start in game one. He pitched all seven innings, giving up just one hit and zero runs. Lundquist issued two walks and tallied nine strikeouts.

The second game saw another seven-inning pitching performance from a Lumberjack. Gunner Ganske allowed four hits and zero earned runs in his start, tallying 10 strikeouts and two walks.

Boys golf: New kids on the block

Rubado: I’ve never covered a team like the BHS boys golfers.

Sure, some teams are naturally younger. It’s not uncommon for Class A schools to showcase a varsity roster where half of the players are freshmen or younger. But at the Class 3A level? That’s unique. To have that and be successful in Class 3A? It’s almost unheard of.

Players like Beckett Grand, who went to state, and Jackson Fogelson, who had an accomplished pre-prep career, steal a lot of the headlines, as did senior Weston Setitz. But in talking with depth players like Axel Burlingame and Graham Fish, I got to take a peek under the hood of what makes the budding group of standout golfers tick and what the future holds when they gain more experience.

Girls golf: Schulke shines at home invite

Rubado: Without one of its top players for the entirety of the 2025 season, the BHS girls golf team needed somebody to step up.

Junior Taylor Schulke answered the call at the Bemidji Invitational on April 25. She was the only Lumberjack to break 90 in an early-season meet, finishing with an 88 at the Bemidji Town and Country Club. She finished in a tie for 10th place and was one of three BHS girls golfers to finish inside the top 20.

Softball: LaZella’s walk-off bomb

Rubado: Off the bat, it looked as if Karley LaZella would be standing at second base with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. But the ball just kept carrying.

The BHS softball team led 6-4 in the top of the seventh on April 24 at home, but Sauk Rapids-Rice plated two runs to tie the game off of LaZella in the pitcher’s circle. LaZella was down 0-2 in the count before she crushed a line drive that nearly scraped the top of the fence in centerfield. LaZella’s blast led to a 7-6 win for Bemidji over the Storm to notch the first Section 8-4A win this season.

Boys tennis: McNallan, doubles competitors push Jacks past TRF

Faber: Senior Jack McNallan has been a star for the Lumberjacks for years now.

In a tight 4-3 win over Thief River Falls on April 16, McNallan’s two-set victory at No. 1 doubles alongside Josh Arel proved pivotal. It was a great afternoon overall for Bemidji’s double competitors.

Max Louvar and Peter Mathews came away with a two-set win at No. 2 doubles, while Chase Fairchild and Ethan Frank cruised to a pair of 6-0 wins at No. 3. Dom Ardnt notched the Jacks’ only singles win of the afternoon, collecting a two-set victory at No. 2.

Track and field: Throwers shine at home

Faber: Under the tutelage of new throws coach Paul Olson, a bevy of BHS throwers notched new personal bests throughout the season.

The Bemidji Invitational on May 21 showcased plenty of that growth. Tanner Whipple took first in the shot put with a personal record of 50-0.75. Samantha Cox tallied a PR of her own in the discus (99-3) for first place.

Kolton Meyer notched a personal record in the shot put as well (47-2) to secure second place. He also recorded a PR in the discus (141-2) en route to a second-place finish. Gabriel Zwack, Kohen Donat and McKenzie Ghinter all finished with new PRs at the invitational.

Boys volleyball: No place like home

Rubado: For nearly the entirety of the regular season, it seemed as if the BHS boys volleyball team was the victim of some bad scheduling luck.

The Lumberjacks only got one Twin Cities-area team to make the trip up north. Section 8’s top-seeded Rogers swept the Jacks in the regular season, planting some doubt in the notion that BHS would get to host a postseason match. However, when Bemidji was given the No. 3 seed, a second chance to play at home was on the table.

On May 29, it was the Lumberjacks’ turn to pick up a broom. They swept Coon Rapids in straight sets in their final home match, advancing to the second round in the Section 8 Tournament.

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Bemidji State opts out of NCAA House settlement; keeping options open

Jared Rubado — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:11:30 GMT

BEMIDJI – After months of deliberation, Bemidji State has decided to opt out of the NCAA House settlement.

While schools in bigger conferences – Big Ten, SEC – are required to opt in, smaller and multi-divisional schools like Bemidji State had, and still have, their House settlement fate in their hands.

In February, schools began declaring their House settlement status. The deadline for schools to opt in was pushed back multiple times over several months, culminating in a hard deadline on June 30. As of Tuesday, July 1, opt-in schools can begin paying student-athletes Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) payments directly, while also being able to offer more athletic scholarships.

“We’re opting out for a lot of reasons,” BSU director of athletics Britt Lauritsen told the Pioneer on Tuesday.

“Being a multi-divisional institution and being a multi-conference school, we don’t really know how the House settlement is going to impact schools like us. We have a little bit of time, and I like to frame the next 12 months or so as a viewing period for how this actually looks for the schools that can’t opt out.”

For Bemidji State, one of the biggest roadblocks to opting in was roster limits. Initially, the House settlement capped each Division I sport with specific roster limits, with men’s and women’s hockey set at 26. BSU women’s hockey had 27 players, while men’s hockey had 28 to start their respective 2024-25 seasons.

The House settlement was approved by Judge Claudia Wilken on June 6 with an amendment to grandfather in previous roster limits, emphasizing opt-in schools working toward the new roster limits within five years.

“We know there’s nuance to that now, but for our programs sitting at 27, 28 student-athletes, that helps us,” Lauritsen said. “It gives us depth. Women’s hockey is a great example.”

If the 26-player limit was imposed before the 2024-25 season, BSU women’s hockey would’ve been in a tricky spot.

The Beavers had a 26-player roster, but injuries to goaltenders Eva Filippova and Josie Bothun required head coach Amber Fryklund to add freshman goaltender Lauren Mooney just weeks before the season started.

If roster limits were imposed at 26 players for men’s and women’s hockey, Fryklund would’ve had to cut a player off her team or dress only one healthy goaltender.

“When you have injuries that mount on top of each other, that stuff matters,” Lauritsen said. “If you don’t think there’s a big difference between 26 and 28 players, think about those two other players being goalies. What would we have done?”

There are also financial implications – known and unknown – that Bemidji State was wary of had it opted in. BSU is also under the implication that it can opt in next summer after a year of evaluation.

“As I understand it right now, we’d have the opportunity to explore opting in before an academic year begins,” Lauritsen said. “It’s an area that feels really grey, but that’s my understanding. There’s also the fiscal piece to it, the financial responsibility we have. Opting in, for us, looks different than it does for Minnesota because we’re not in a space to be revenue sharing like they will.”

The House settlement, a landmark deal, will also dish out $2.8 billion for damages to former athletes over the next 10 years. Eligible former student-athletes must have competed any time from 2016 through now for opt-in schools.

The House settlement, which stems from Grant House, a former Arizona State swimmer who sued the defendants (the NCAA and the five largest athletic conferences), ends three separate federal antitrust lawsuits, all of which claimed the NCAA was illegally limiting the earning power of college athletes.

Since 2021, college athletes have been able to profit from NIL deals with third parties. It’s often money that comes from a school’s NIL collective, set up by boosters and other organized groups in conjunction with the respective school.

“When you think about NIL and collectives, everybody wants one on their campus,” Lauritsen said. “There are places to explore there. Where can we expand and what’s the interest in expanding in those areas? It’s still a work in progress in some ways.”

Now, those payments will come from the schools themselves that opt in. Opt-in schools can pay up to $20.5 million to their student-athletes this academic year.

For a non-opt-in school like BSU, Lauritsen still sees beneficial changes from the settlement.

“There’s NIL Go, which is the database for all name, image, likeness deals that all Division-I athletes have to use,” Lauritsen said. “We were required to use that, and I think that’s great. We are going to reap some benefits from the House settlement in terms of structure, even as an opt-out school.”

Because the House settlement largely impacts Division I programs, Bemidji State men’s and women’s hockey is the lone variable right now. Lauritsen expects that to change.

“I foresee in the next 12, 18, 24 months – whatever that looks like – as D-I athletics gets its feet under it as a whole, D-II is going to start looking at different things, too,” Lauritsen said. “We need to figure out what it looks like for our whole department, top to bottom.

“Is D-II going to make some changes? Is there anything coming down the pike that we should have on our radar? We’re being aggressive about observing, is the best way to put it.”

Lauritsen also said there’s a chance aspects from the House settlement, such as roster limits, become mandated throughout collegiate athletics in the future, regardless of opting in or out.

“The NCAA, especially in the last five years, as lawsuits have mounted up, has done a pretty broad-ranging deep dive into the rule books,” Lauritsen said. “For now, we are kind of playing with two different rulebooks. Division I is notorious for adding things to its rulebook, then negating it shortly after if they don’t like it.

“If you think about it, D-I has been playing with multiple rulebooks for a long time. The Power Four has been playing by its own rulebook forever. There’s always going to be a piece of that. It feels like they play by their own rules, because they are.

‘It’s a fault in the system of letting that association grow into the behemoth it’s become. This is just one more thing, one more set of rules. You figure it out, ask a lot of questions and move on.”

One area of focus for opt-out schools is bridging the gap between the benefits of being an opt-in school. Currently, Bemidji State can only offer 18 scholarships for each of its hockey teams. If BSU had opted in, it could’ve offered each player a full scholarship.

While opt-out hockey schools are capped at 18 scholarships this season, schools can make up some of the difference in the form of Alston Awards, also known as Alston money.

In 2014, Shawne Alston, a former West Virginia football running back, filed a lawsuit against the NCAA to challenge the NCAA on its rules involving educational-related benefits.

Judge Wilken ruled in 2019 that the NCAA’s rules violated antitrust law under the Sherman Act. ��s began distributing Alston money in August 2020. Student-athletes can make up to $5,980 per year based on educational thresholds if they attend a school that gives out the awards.

“At the end of the day, you have to figure out what attracts athletes to your institution,” Lauritsen said. “For me, I’m looking at it like this: if you’re a school that can afford to give out 19 scholarships, that’s great. But if that’s your only purpose to opt in, you can probably do that with the 18 scholarships and Alston money.”

For now, Lauritsen and the Beavers are staying put with their operation strategy. She noted that Beaver hockey is “unique” and heavily reliant on its alumni, donors and fan base.

“We need to hold up our end of that relationship and represent them well, and make good use of their dollars and cents,” Lauritsen said. “Beaver hockey is special. The student-athletes we bring in are well-suited to the program. They fit the mold. I think knowing who we are, and I talk with Tom (Serratore) and Amber about this all the time, we have to focus on who we are and do that as well as we can, and expand it. We’re not going to opt in to be flashy.

“We know what we’re working with, we know what the next academic year will bring and how we’re going to recruit with that. We approached it like every other year, and there’s something to be said about having that kind of stability. We know what we needed; we went out and got it.”

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Bowen and Thomas relish in communal support at BSU’s 48th Gordy Skaar gathering

Jared Rubado — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 17:03:04 GMT

BEMIDJI – Football players and swimmers don’t often cross paths at Bemidji State, at least not anymore.

That hasn’t stopped Randy Bowen and Dave Thomas from reuniting at the Bemidji Town and Country Club each of the last 15 years for the Gordy Skaar Memorial Golf Tournament.

Bowen played football for four seasons before graduating from BSU in 1973. Thomas, a swimmer, graduated in 1980 before Bemidji State ended its men’s program in 1991.

Almost every year since 2008, the two of them – with Len Rothlisberger, Mark O’Neil and Tom Enger – have competed together in the five-person scramble golf tournament aimed at supporting scholarships for Beaver student-athletes through the BSU Athletics Fund and an endowment created in the name of the late Gordy Skaar.

“My wife and I want to be supportive because our experiences were so good at Bemidji State,” Thomas said. “We want to make sure other student-athletes have those similar experiences because they shape and guide you throughout your whole life.”

Skaar, a longtime Bemidji State Athletics supporter, founded the Skaar-Pabst Golf Tournament in 1977 to raise funds for BSU athletic scholarships. Now, the Gordy Skaar Memorial Golf Tournament has raised around $1 million in support of Beaver Athletics.

On June 19, Bemidji State hosted the 48th edition of the fundraising tournament. Once again, Bowen and Thomas shared a cart.

“We got swimmers and football players,” Bowen quipped. “How many groups can say that?”

Their relationship extends far beyond the confines of the yearly golf outing. Both Bowen and Thomas serve on the Alumni B-Club, which connects past and present athletes, coaches and programs while also overseeing the Athletic Hall of Fame selection process.

“The connections we made and the relationships we’ve built have lasted 50 years,” Thomas said. “I just went fishing with 13 of my swim team members last weekend. It continues, and I think, personally, it’s important for athletes to have the same experience I had in their own way. It’s about their future.”

‘It’s a special place’

Bowen wasn’t the first in his family to attend Bemidji State. His brother, Garry, made his way to BSU from Albany, Illinois, three years before Bowen enrolled as a freshman.

“I thought about going somewhere else because he went here,” Bowen said. “I wanted to do my own thing. As it turned out, my dad thought it was a better idea to come here because he was here. A little less travel for the parents didn’t hurt.”

The Bowen traveling caravan made its way to dozens of Beaver games across the Midwest.

“My parents were recognized for the seven years my brother and I played football here,” Bowen said. “The university gave them a plaque for traveling 50,000 miles to watch us play. They never missed a game my senior year, and they came from Illinois. It becomes a family thing when you go here. It’s a special place.”

Thomas’ connection to Bemidji started earlier in life. Growing up, his parents owned a property on Leech Lake, which cleared his path to BSU.

Now, he spends his later years in life in the First City on the Mississippi.

“We’d come to Bemidji to go shopping, and I just fell in love with northern Minnesota,” Thomas said. “I loved it so much that when my wife and I were teaching in Prior Lake for 30 years, we decided to move back home to Bemidji four years ago.”

Together, Bowen and Thomas share a common goal: doing their part to better the next generation of athletes rolling through campus. It comes in the forms of donations, B-Club service, fundraising golf outings and even small spring soirées.

Bowen and Thomas have seen the world of collegiate athletics evolve as they age. The two of them understand the university must adapt and make the occasional hard decision, even those that aren't always unanimously agreed upon. But despite their rare differences, their support doesn’t shake.

“We’re going to support Bemidji State because it’s Bemidji State,” Bowen said. “It’s going to be here longer than any of us.

“Because I took so much from Bemidji as far as education, career path and great experiences, giving back is important. Our daughter went to school here. I’ve had nieces, my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law all go here. We found our way up here, and it stayed with us.”

While Bowen and Thomas wear their green-and-white passion for their alma mater on their sleeves, they are much more modest about their golf games.

“It’s definitely not me,” Bowen quipped sheepishly when asked who’s the best golfer in the group. “I’m just the organizer.”

Thomas responded: “He’s being too humble.”

Bowen went on to solo birdie the group’s second hole.

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3 Beavers named to CSC All-District Team

Pioneer Staff Report — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 22:20:28 GMT

BEMIDJI — Bemidji State track and field found three student-athletes’ names on the 2025 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team. Seniors Mikenna Pattrin and Olivia Olson, along with junior Maggie McCarthy, each earned the honors.

This year’s honor marks the second of her career for Olson, while Pattrin and McCarthy are first-time honorees. Olson previously received the honor during her sophomore season in 2022-23. She has been named to both the winter and spring NSIC All-Academic Teams of Excellence for each of the past three years. This season, Olson excelled in pole vault, setting an outdoor personal best at the CSB/SJU Optimistic Meet on March 28 with a height of 3.27 meters.

Pattrin also marked PRs throughout this season, finishing her career with a hammer-throw best of 46.90 meters and shot put best of 13.25 meters at the NSIC Championships in May. Academically, Pattrin has been named to the NSIC Winter and Spring All-Academic Teams of Excellence six times, along with earning the NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award this year.

McCarthy etched her name into the BSU track and field and cross country record book this season with top-10 finishes in the 6k, 5k and 4k for, plus the indoor mile, 3k, 4x1600, distance medley and more. She was also named to the NSIC All-Academic Teams of Excellence for spring and winter during her sophomore and junior seasons.

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BSU announces 10th annual Alumni/Friends/Family Weekend

Pioneer Staff Report — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 03:28:02 GMT

BEMIDJI - The 10th annual Bemidji State University Baseball Alumni/Friends/Family Weekend will be held Sept. 5-6, BSU announced over the weekend.

The festivities will kick off Sunday, Sept. 5, at the BSU baseball field for an alumni game, which starts at 7 p.m. The event will continue on Monday, Sept. 6, with a four-person scramble golf tournament held at Castle Highlands.

“The Beavers welcome alumni, friends and family for a fun-filled weekend at the ballpark and on the golf course to celebrate BSU Baseball,” a release said.

Registration and more information will come at a later date.

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Women United Impact Breakfast set for July 10

Pioneer Staff Report — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 15:30:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — The United Way of Bemidji Area will hold its quarterly Women United Impact Breakfast at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 10, at Bemidji State University's Beaux Arts Ballroom.

The doors will open at 8 a.m., with breakfast to follow. This quarter's panel will feature a presentation by Ashlea McMartin and Becky Secore of Sanford Behavioral Health, who will speak on "Boundaries and Life Balance at Home and in the Workplace," a release said.

"McMartin and Secore bring years of experience in leadership roles and have spent their lives supporting individuals and families through mental health services, with a focus on practical strategies for wellness and resilience," the release added.

Attendees will also receive updates on United We Grow: A Mentoring Program for Women, part of Women United’s continued focus on leadership, growth and community connection.

Women United is a group of community-minded individuals dedicated to creating opportunities and providing support through United Way’s focus areas: Financial Stability, Healthy Community and Youth Opportunity.

Tickets cost $20 for nonmembers. Women United members will receive free admission but are encouraged to pre-register online.

To register or purchase tickets, visit unitedwaybemidji.org/women-united.

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Boreas Skate's skateboard contest rescheduled to July 12

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 19:38:48 GMT

BEMIDJI — Boreas Skate's skateboard contest originally scheduled for Saturday, June 21, will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 12, at the Bemidji Skate Park, 1330 23rd St. NW.

During the contest, participants will have the chance to win prizes.

Entry is free and the contest is open to all ages. The event is sponsored by Northern Event Rentals, Smug Apparel and THIS Skateshop.

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Bagley Public Library to host Headwaters Science Center

Pioneer Staff Report — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 16:00:00 GMT

BAGLEY — The Bagley Public Library is teaming up with the Headwaters Science Center to present "Animal Menagerie" from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, July 9, at 79 Spencer Ave. SW.

At the event, youth will learn all about animal habitats, adaptations, defenses and interesting facts, a release said.

This educational program is part of several free events for youth offered as part of Lake Agassiz Regional Library's jungle-themed Summer Reading Program.

Information about the program and summer events is available at larl.org/explore.

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Blackduck Senior Center membership meeting set for July 8

Pioneer Staff Report — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:32:05 GMT

BLACKDUCK — The Blackduck Senior Center will host its quarterly membership meeting at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 8, at the center, 24 First St. SE.

"This is your opportunity to have input and to be updated on all aspects of the Senior Center," a release said.

Attendees are also invited to enjoy cake, coffee and ice cream while celebrating July, August and September birthdays.

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Bemidji Jaycees' 81st Annual Water Carnival kicks off with Merriam’s Midway

Sarah Suchoski — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:20:41 GMT

BEMIDJI — Laughter and screams filled the air as families and friends gathered at the Sanford Center for Merriam's Midway Wednesday evening as the Bemidji Jaycees' 81st Annual Water Carnival kicked off.

The midway will open at 1 p.m. each day through Sunday and be open until 11 p.m. each night through Saturday, closing at 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Through Saturday, armbands will cost $20 from 1 to 5 p.m. and $25 from 6 to 11 p.m. On Sunday, armbands will cost $20 from 1 to 7 p.m.

Bingo will also open daily at 1 p.m. through Sunday, and food vendors will be available starting at 1 p.m.

Here’s a look at the remaining Water Carnival events:

Veteran's Picnic

Returning for the second year, the picnic will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, at the Bemidji Eagles Club. VFW Post 1260 will hold a flag ceremony at 1:30 p.m. with musical entertainment provided by Mike Naylor.

A free-will donation will be accepted with proceeds going to the Bemidji Veterans Home.

Also at the Eagles club, Elvis tribute artist Sean Wallin will perform from 3 to 5 p.m.

Kid events

The Kiddie Parade will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, with registration starting at 10 a.m. It will start at the Rotary Pavilion and will travel around the Tourist Information Center and down the south end of Paul Bunyan Park.

For those interested in participating in the parade, pre-registration is available on the Jaycees website. Attendees can also download the form and bring it with them on the day of the event.

Attendees also have the opportunity to visit the Carnoch Farmstead Petting Zoo and participate in a bike giveaway at the Rotary Pavilion.

Double Your Fun Color Run

The Color Run is also on Saturday, with the Bemidji Junior Jaycees organizing the event.

The fun run starts at 10 a.m. at the Paul Bunyan Park parking lot and goes along the south shore of Lake Bemidji, loops back at the Nymore Boat Access and ends at the starting point.

Interested participants can register online at bemidjijaycees.com as there will be no on-site registration. Online registration will close at 8 a.m. on July 5.

There will be several color stations along the way to blast attendees with tons of colorful fun. Check-in for the event starts at 9:30 a.m. in the Rotary Pavilion at Paul Bunyan Park.

Movie matinee

Loft Event Center

7 to 10 p.m., Thursday: Corey Medina & Brothers 6 to 10 p.m., Friday: Prairie Smoke 6 to 10 p.m., Saturday: Indecent Proposal

These events are for attendees ages 18 and older, and the admission cost is $10 per person.

Cornhole tournament

A Beer-N-Bags cornhole tournament will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 5, at the Garden Grill & Pub. The cost to participate is $20 per novice team, $30 per social team and $40 per competitive team.

Each team is guaranteed three matches and cash prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers.

To register, contact Travis at (218) 759-8810 or email bcsupplies2035@gmail.com.

Grand Parade

The Grand Parade will be held at 1 p.m. on Sunday, following a new route due to storm damage. It will start at the intersection of Eighth Street and Beltrami Avenue, travel south on Beltrami Avenue, turn west on Fourth Street for one block, and then head north along Minnesota Avenue to end on Eighth Street.

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Bemidji Area Church Musicians Summer Recital Series continues July 9

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 17:00:00 GMT

BEMIDJI — The 38th season of the Bemidji Area Church Musicians Summer Recital Series continues at noon on Wednesday, July 9, at First Baptist Church, 1555 Paul Bunyan Drive NW.

The recital will feature Wade Martin on vocals and guitar, his wife Amanda Willis-Martin on piano and their son, Mathison, on piano. They will present a number of selections in a variety of styles, a release said.

A luncheon will follow the recital with a price to be announced.

The event is free and open to the public. Free-will offerings will be accepted at the door for the BACM's scholarship programs.

For more information, call Barbara Fisher at (218) 556-0098 or Carol L. Johnson at (218) 751-0415.

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Brainerd family builds a place where nostalgia never grows old

Theresa Bourke — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 19:08:44 GMT

BRAINERD, Minn. — Siblings Al Rademacher and Lois Moon never planned on owning an amusement park.

But now it’s their full-time job.

When Rademacher heard Paul Bunyan Land was for sale in 2003, he spoke with then-owner Don McFarland about purchasing a train on the property and a building for his dad’s pioneer village.

What he came away with was an entire amusement park.

“When I walked out of there that day, it was like I pretty much bought the whole thing,” Rademacher said.

And then he roped his sister in with him.

“It happened so quick, honestly,” Moon said.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, the siblings were co-owners of Paul Bunyan Land, a well-known amusement park then located in Baxter, where Kohl’s department store now stands. They didn’t quite know what they were getting into, but they did it anyway.

“I always quote my dad saying we were never told that we can’t do something,” Moon said. “Our first question is always, ‘How are we going to do it?’”

When McFarland decided to sell Paul Bunyan Land, all the various pieces were set to go in different directions, including the iconic Paul Bunyan statue and his trusty blue ox, Babe.

“Part of it was saving it for the area,” Moon said. “Literally, Paul was going somewhere, Babe was going somewhere, the rides were getting split up. And that was very close to happening.”

The 26-foot-tall animatronic Paul Bunyan has welcomed generations to the Brainerd lakes area. It’s a summer tradition, watching those mouths fall open with shock and squeals of delight — or occasionally dismay — when the low voice of that giant lumberjack greets kids by name.

He said my name, and I was never scared. I was just stunned, how he knew it.

Instead of seeing Paul and his various amusement park amenities split up and shipped out all over the place, Rademacher and Moon moved everything to their family’s property east of Brainerd on County Road 18, merging it with This Old Farm. Thus began Chapter 2 in the park’s history. Paul and the amusement side of the business date back to 1950, but for the past 20 years, visitors have been able to glimpse items much, much older.

This Old Farm Pioneer Village

A separate venture started by their father, Dick Rademacher, This Old Farm is an assortment of old buildings, combined with Dick’s penchant for collecting. Today, it’s known as the Pioneer Village at Paul Bunyan Land and boasts 40 old-fashioned buildings housing Dick’s vast amount of collectibles. Locales include a post office, school house, newspaper office, saloon, sawmill and a church where family weddings have taken place. Paul’s Petting Barn attracts the animal-lovers, with goats, ducks, chickens and other animals to feed and pet.

There’s even a few standout buildings, including the depot from 1994 Disney movie “Iron Will,” along with the oldest homestead in Brainerd, that used to stand where the Brainerd Family YMCA now sits.

The original barn and farmhouse sit on the property, too, and future plans include revamping the barn into a space to host dances or other events.

More buildings are added to the Pioneer Village every year to accommodate the growing collection of items.

A walk through the village will transport visitors through time and space, as they see what it might have been like to sit in a doctor’s office, drink at the saloon, deposit their money or attend class in a one-room schoolhouse as their ancestors did centuries ago.

Rad’s Groceries — Lunches — Confectionary still stands in the original building and with the original sign as when Ralph and Minnie Rademacher ran it as a business in the 1930s near where The Harbor on Crescent Bay sits today off South Long Lake. After learning the building was going to be torn down, Rademacher and Moon arranged for it to be moved to their Pioneer Village, not wanting to part with a precious piece of their grandparents. The building doubled as the family house for a long time, and they recall stories of their dad as a young entrepreneur, biking around the nearby lake to collect and swell worms.

“It would have meant nothing to anybody else,” Moon said of the building. “But to us it meant a lot.”

Old-fashioned porcelain dolls, train sets, ships, buggies and so many, many more antique collectibles draw the eye in the various buildings. Historic Brainerd artifacts line the shelves, too, including paraphernalia from the old Paramount Theatre.

“Sometimes it’s not the age of something, but it’s the uniqueness,” Moon said.

A shed stands full of classic cars, including the Model A bought decades ago by Dick Rademacher and his father, Ralph. There’s a golf cart that belonged to Muriel Humphrey, wife of Minnesota Sen. and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. And in the same automotive vein, old gas pumps line one of the buildings, advertising gas prices at mere pennies per gallon.

A lot has changed since the times that are preserved in the Pioneer Village, and so much about Paul Bunyan Land itself is different, too.

But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed. The park’s namesake remains the focal point.

The man, the myth, the legend

After serving as the main attraction at the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949, the giant Paul Bunyan was purchased by two Brainerd businessmen and moved to the original location of Paul Bunyan Land — at the intersection of highways 371 and 210 in Baxter. He began attracting visitors to the amusement park in 1950 and still takes that job seriously today, nearly 75 years later.

With a voice as big as Paul’s comes equally big responsibility.

No one knows that better than Hans and Virgil, the current voices of Paul.

“Voicing a character such as Paul and being able to entertain the public is quite the honor,” Virgil said during a phone interview.

Opting only to be referred to by their first names, the duo trade off giving the giant lumberjack that iconic booming voice. Those who listen closely will hear a slight Canadian accent, eh? That’s done on purpose to pay homage to Paul’s Franco-American ancestry.

“Paul Bunyan was an amalgamism of two Canadian lumberjacks,” Hans explained. “And I believe that tales of Paul Bunyan started in the French-Canadian logging camps.”

Today the legend has grown to one of giant proportions — pun intended — making Paul Bunyan the Mickey Mouse of the North, a summertime Santa, watching closely to see if kids are naughty or nice. It’s another big job that comes with the voice.

“I love entertaining the public and being a teacher to children, reminding them that obedient children are rewarded,” Hans said. “And that’s why Santa Claus rewards nice children with Christmas presents, or Babe the Blue Ox gets a sugar lump when he’s nice.” Perhaps most importantly, Hans likes to remind kids that “mother knows best.”

“All mothers like that one,” he said.

When Paul isn’t welcoming kids to the park or reminding them to be on their best behavior, he’s likely doing one of his all-time favorite things — singing.

“Paul is not only the world’s largest talking animated man, he loves to sing as well,” Hans said. “I have sung many children’s songs, including his favorite, ‘Pop Goes the Weasel.’”

And if a child ever calls Paul “creepy,” which happens from time to time, he’ll have a little fun by singing the theme song from “The Addams Family.”

Hans began talking and singing as Paul nine years ago and boasts over 4,000 hours of experience.

He recalls running into Paul himself as a youngster, after his family moved up to the lakes area from the Twin Cities in 1981.

“He said my name, and I was never scared. I was just stunned, how he knew it,” Hans said.

He went back to visit Paul on several occasions and was even present in Baxter on closing day in 2003, standing next to Don McFarland when the first chapter of Paul Bunyan Land closed.

Then in 2015, Hans traipsed over to Paul Bunyan Land with his dad, hoping to find work mowing the grass at the amusement park.

But in a twist of fate, there was only one job open — the voice of Paul.

“I rubbed my chin and said, ‘Hmm, maybe I could do that,’” Hans said. “And Lois looked at me, and her jaw dropped. She pointed and said, ‘Perfect.’”

It wasn’t planned, but it was clearly meant to be, with Hans now serving as the longest voice of Paul at the current amusement park location.

Virgil vaguely remembers Paul at the first amusement park location, being about 3 or 4 years old when everything was in Baxter.

“I was just a little shy, but I remember I pretty much warmed up to him pretty quickly and everything,” Virgil said. “... It was one of the things that helped me get acquainted with Paul Bunyan as a whole.”

He started working at Paul Bunyan Land as a ride operator in 2016. When he showed an interest in voicing Paul, he learned the job was already covered.

It just wasn’t meant to be — yet.

Partway through the 2018 season, though, a second voice for Paul was wanted.

“And the first guy that came to my mind was my buddy Virgil,” Hans said.

Hans trained Virgil in the art of voicing Paul. And it helped that the two already had similar-sounding voices.

Moon said she even struggles to tell the difference sometimes when listening to Paul.

Virgil officially started in 2019, taking the morning shift for Paul, while Hans fills in the afternoon.

Now, the two voices are best friends, able to bounce ideas off one another when needed.

And they never forget the other friend who made all of it possible.

Dick Rademacher died in April 2024, but his legacy lives on in the 160 acres of farmland he gave for Paul Bunyan Land and This Old Farm Pioneer Village.

“We must always remember that, thanks to Dick giving his family some land for Paul Bunyan Land to be built on, Paul and Babe could stay in the Brainerd area, where they remain to this day,” Hans said, reiterating the speech he gave at Dick’s funeral.

“Without Dick, there wouldn’t be a Paul Bunyan Land,” he added. “And we wouldn’t have a job voicing Paul.”

And so many people wouldn’t have the memories they do.

A family affair

It’s not only the visitors who come back to the park year after year with their families, though. It’s the employees, too.

Jackie Larson has done just about every job available at Paul Bunyan Land over the past nine years, from retail to rides to cook to park manager. Now she works on the marketing side of the business in the summer while she’s not teaching. Her dad brought her to the park as a kid after he, himself, had worked there in his teenage years. She eventually found the same enjoyment in that kind of employment.

“I love working for the Rademacher family,” Larson said. “They really do make this a full family operation with their employees and with their guests. … I just like getting to help make those memories, seeing the smiles on those kids’ faces.”

And perhaps Larson’s own daughter will follow in her mom and grandpa’s footsteps, finding a job at Paul Bunyan Land when she’s old enough.

Park Manager Wendy Kasper doesn’t have to wait to share the experience with the younger generations in her family. She and her two granddaughters came to the park together looking for work, and all three of them love it.

Kasper recalls working for the old park back when it was in Baxter, too, and now continues her family’s tradition at the Brainerd location.

“It’s amazing that it’s still up and running,” she said.

And that’s thanks to Rademacher and Moon and all the work they’ve put into the business over the past 21 years.

Paul Bunyan Land reopened in Brainerd Memorial Day weekend in 2004, not missing a single season when changing ownership. At that time, Moon and Rademacher both already had full-time jobs. Moon was a teacher’s aide, and Rademacher worked at Shannon’s Auto Body. Up until about six years ago, Rademacher still worked elsewhere in the winter, but now it’s hard to even do that with their commitment to Paul Bunyan Land. There are rides to rebuild and maintenance projects to keep up with.

“We are not the owners that spend six months down south,” Moon said. “... That’s when we do our maintenance. We are over here painting a building or building this or making that. We do it ourselves.”

It’s something they have to live and breathe in order to keep succeeding.

“It has to be your passion,” Moon said. “We just never stopped.”

And they don’t have plans to do so anytime soon.

They’ve updated the concessions area, added a 32-site campground in 2019, and, of course, there are the fall festivities. While the Paul Bunyan Land amusement park and Pioneer Village are open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day another big event takes place in October. Things turn dark the last three Fridays and Saturdays of the month, and Hidden Hollows emerges.

A haunted house and corn maze emerge on the property, scaring all the daring visitors since 1998. Planning for the holiday is a year-round task, as they look to up their game every year with new scary attractions.

“People come, and they have high expectations for us,” Moon said.

But those expectations don’t stop in the summer either. While it might be a different crowd looking for some good, family fun instead of a spine-chilling scare, the expectations are still there for a top-notch experience that keeps them coming back year after year.

“It’s the memories that they create that day,” Moon said. “If grandma and grandpa, mom and dad are with them, it’s a memory day.”

For Rademacher, it’s the place’s already well-known and long-established history that keeps it going today.

“Generations of people knowing what’s here, generations of people talking to Paul,” he said.

And generations of Paul talking back.

As Hans puts it: “With a big voice, comes big responsibility.”

For more photos, click on the gallery below.

Paul Bunyan Land

Paul Bunyan Land Co-owner Al Rademacher shows a golf cart that once belonged to Muriel Humphrey, wife of former Sen. and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, on Monday, July 8, 2024.

Al Rademacher, co-owner of Paul Bunyan Land, talks about his family's history with the business on Monday, July 8, 2024.

A family takes a break from the attractions at Paul Bunyan Land to pose for a photo on Monday, July 8, 2024.

A spooky figure walks along a path through “the swamp” Saturday, a section of Hidden Hollows at Paul Bunyan Land that leads to the haunted corn maze.

Paul Bunyan's footprints are still visible Wednesday, July 31, 2024, at the Kohl's parking lot in Baxter.

THERESA BOURKE may be reached at theresa.bourke@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5860. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DispatchTheresa.

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After 6 years, Two Harbors lighthouse beacon will again sweep across Lake Superior

Dan Kraker / MPR News — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 19:29:55 GMT

DULUTH — It won’t just be fireworks lighting up the night sky in Two Harbors this Fourth of July.

For the first time in six years, the iconic light from the North Shore city’s lighthouse beacon 25 miles northeast of Duluth will once again sweep across Lake Superior.

The lighthouse’s light went dark in November 2019 due to a hardware failure. With help from the U.S. Coast Guard, four volunteer lighthouse keepers with the Lake County Historical Society — which owns the lighthouse— installed a temporary beacon so the facility could continue to operate as a private aid to navigation on the lake.

But it’s a flashing light, “that detracts a little bit from that iconic beacon that you see sweeping across Agate Bay,” said Ellen Lynch, executive director of the historical society.

So the organization began fundraising to purchase a new light. It raised $50,000 and bought an LED beacon from a Finnish company that mimics the rotational sweeping pattern of the original lighthouse.

And now the Lake County Historical Society plans to light the new beacon on Friday, July 4, as part of a celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the organization, just before the Independence Day fireworks show.

“This has been a long journey for us — from fundraising to installation — and we’re incredibly proud of what our community has accomplished,” said Sam Gangi, president of the historical society board.

The Two Harbors lighthouse is the oldest continuously operating light on the North Shore of Lake Superior. It was built in 1893 (17 years before the more well-known Split Rock Lighthouse was completed) to guide ships into the iron ore docks that were built in Agate Bay a decade earlier.

The Historical Society took ownership of the structure in 1999. It operates a museum and bed-and-breakfast, and is also responsible to the U.S. Coast Guard for keeping it lit as a “private aid to navigation.” And now that light will look much like it did over a century ago.

“The new beacon will bring back that iconic sweep and signature of our original light and be as close as possible to the original,” Lynch said.

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This story was originally published on MPRNews.org.

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Big Bog State Recreation Area to host July programs

Pioneer Staff Report — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 19:09:50 GMT

WASKISH — Big Bog State Recreation Area is set to host several programs throughout the month of July.

10 to 11 a.m., Sunday, July 6: Nature Stories: Over and Under the Pond.

"Welcome to our enchanting nature story time, a magical experience crafted for curious minds of any age," a release said. "Immerse your little ones in the wonders of the natural world through a delightful blend of stories, crafts and other fun activities that will spark their imaginations and ignite a love for learning."

Throughout nature stories, children will learn about whirligig beetles, dragonflies, leeches and more. After the stories, there will be an opportunity to search for these animals in the Tamarac River.

Dress for the weather because a portion of this program will be outdoors. Adults must accompany their children.

Afterwards, attendees can spend time in the Visitor Center and play puppets or a fishing game, do a puzzle or color.

The group will meet in the Visitor Center.

1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Sunday, July 6: Zoom in on Bugs!

During this event, attendees will learn about insects, such as spiders, butterflies and bees, native to Minnesota.

"After that, participants will get hands-on experience constructing a bug hotel to help support insect life," the release said. "Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to learn more about the tiny critters that play a big role in our ecosystem!"

This event is geared towards ages 8 and older. The group will meet in the Visitor Center.

10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, July 12: Boglands Uncovered: Exploring Nature's Mysterious Wetlands.

"Step onto the Bog Boardwalk and immerse yourself in the serene beauty of one of nature's most captivating landscapes on this guided tour," the release said. "This unforgettable expedition offers a rare opportunity to venture into the heart of a pristine bog ecosystem, where secrets abound, and every step unveils a new wonder.

Throughout the tour, the naturalist will illuminate the hidden mysteries of the bog, sharing fascinating insights in to the unique flora and fauna that call this ecosystem home.

The boardwalk is wide and flat and is one mile long. So, expect to walk a total of two miles. The boardwalk is ADA accessible, and a wheelchair is available at the park office to borrow.

There is no shade, so be prepared for warm temperatures if it is sunny. Wear comfortable shoes and bring water.

The group will meet by the picnic shelter at the Northern Unit.

10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Saturday, July 12: I Can Fish!

"Experience the fun of casting into the water and the excitement of a tug on the line," the release said. "These hands-on programs teach all the basics, from fish identification to casting."

Attendees will receive hand-on instruction from skilled anglers. This program is designed for first-time anglers.

All vehicles entering the park need a valid Minnesota State Parks vehicle permit, which costs $7 for a day or $35 for a year.

All equipment will be provided. The cost to attend is $7 for adults, or free for children 12 or younger with a registered adult. Taxes not included.

Advance registration is required and is limited to 12 participants. To register, visit www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/ican/fish.html.

Fishing licenses are not required for this program.

2 to 3 p.m., Saturday, July 12: Feathered Friends: Birdwatching for Beginners.

"This delightful nature program is designed for those eager to explore the avian wonders that surround us every day," the release said. "Join our park naturalists as they introduce you to the basics of birdwatching, common bird identification and how to use binoculars."

After the presentation, attendees will go for walk to practice their skills and look for birds. Bring binoculars, as there will be a limited number available to borrow.

The program is geared towards children ages 6 and older. Dress for the weather because a portion of the program will be outdoors.

The group will meet in the Visitor Center.

11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Saturday, July 26: Smokey Bear's Fun Fest.

"Come on out to Big Bog to celebrate Smokey Bear! Follow a treasure map to learn about the history of Smokey Bear and fire towers," a release said.

Attendees will meet wildland firefighters and learn about how they protect forests, see fire trucks, climb the fire tower, meet Smokey Bear, and more.

Attendees can pick up their treasure map at the visitor center.

This event is for all ages and the group will meet at the Sourthern Unit by the Visitor Center.

A valid Minnesota State Park vehicle permit is required and is $7 for a day or $35 for a year.

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Northland Outdoors Forecast: A Hot and Humid 4th of July with Evening T-Storms

Charles Pekar — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 15:00:00 GMT

As we head to the 4th of July, we are tracking a hot and humid day. South winds will keep temperatures across much of the eastern Dakotas and Minnesota in the 90s for the afternoon, with dew points in the 70s for a hot and humid holiday.

While we are dry for most of the day, we are keeping an eye on the chance for evening thunderstorms that may interfere with evenings at the lake as well as firework plans. By 3-5 pm, we are keeping an eye on initial develop of t-storms along the front in North Dakota, with the area impacted by heavy rain increasing as the evening goes on. Greatest risks with this system moving through will be gusty winds as storms will quickly merge together, as well as heavy rain in eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota.

Saturday will still have showers clearing out for most of the region. The cold front gradually works its way throughout Minnesota, and by the end of the afternoon, a few of the thunderstorms may become stronger as they head into southeast Minnesota, with the main risk once again being gusty winds.

Humidity behind the cold front will be a little lower for Saturday, but still not completely comfortable yet. Highs will be a touch cooler as well, however most will remain in the upper 70s and low 80s for the middle of the holiday weekend.

Sunday will be the pick day of the 4th of July weekend across much of the Northland. A few stray showers may develop across the central part of the Dakotas, but the majority of the region will have a mix of sunshine and clouds.

With lower humidity, we will wrap up the weekend on a rather pleasant note. Highs do stay in the 70s and 80s for most of the region, with more clouds across the Dakotas, and a few cooler spots along the North Shore. Throughout the whole weekend, we do not deal with much of a breeze throughout the Northland.

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Bemidji Business Rebuild Program launched in wake of storm

Pioneer Staff Report — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:41:31 GMT

BEMIDJI — In response to the devastating storms that swept through the Bemidji region on June 21, local economic development partners have launched the Bemidji Business Rebuild Program.

The program is a rapid-response loan initiative designed to help small businesses recover, rebuild, and remain open.

Greater Bemidji, the Northwest Minnesota Foundation (NMF), the Headwaters Regional Development Commission (HRDC), the Bemidji Area Chamber of Commerce and the City of Bemidji collectively have created the initiative.

The program provides 0% interest loans up to $10,000 with no payments required in the first year, a release noted.

These funds are intended to cover urgent needs such as insurance payments, cleanup, inventory replacement, temporary relocation, and equipment costs not covered by insurance.

Businesses with greater financial needs may be eligible for larger funding amounts through related programs, the release said.

"This is about helping our local businesses bridge the gap between insurance claims and real recovery," Dave Hengel, Executive Director at Greater Bemidji, said in the release. "We want businesses to know: you're not alone — we're here to help you get back on your feet.

"I am especially grateful to our partners at the City, NWMF, HRDC and the Chamber for their rapid response in supporting our local businesses."

Businesses interested in applying should contact Greater Bemidji at (218) 444-5757, or by email at dhengel@greaterbemidji.com.

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Strawberry season is slower but just as sweet at Country Blossom Farm

Michael Johnson — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:45:00 GMT

ALEXANDRIA, Minn. — Opening day of strawberry picking came on June 20 for Country Blossom Farm in Alexandria.

Aside from some early-season frost and a June hailstorm, the plants have recovered well and are producing an abundance for u-pick customers. Troy Heald, who owns and operates the farm with his wife, Tracy, and son, Taylor, said that the damage that was incurred has passed, and more varieties are showing good yield.

“The good news is the berries that are left, that aren't frosted, they’ll get a little bigger then. So it hasn’t really affected our total crop that I can tell, yet. But until we’re done, we won’t know,” Heald said.

Berry ripening has been slow. Inconsistent weather patterns from cold to extreme heat have made picking less consistent. This means they could not remain open daily in the first week as they were quickly picked out. Wide rows and plenty of straw mean picking is comfortable and enjoyable on the farm.

Heald said future weather looks more consistent.

“It looks like next week’s all upper 70s, low 80s (degrees), which is perfect,” Heald said.

While the public can pick in the mornings, staff were picking from 4 acres of strawberries on Tuesday, June 24. They pick for those who would rather not pick their own. They also pick to fulfill their bakery needs at their kitchen and retail space on the farm.

The season typically lasts two to three weeks, but it’s highly dependent on weather. This is the eighth season of strawberry picking on the farm.

“We didn't intend on getting into them, but everyone kept asking,” Heald said. As other area berry farms closed up, they filled in. At their peak, they had 6 acres.

They hope to be picking until about the second week of July. Fourth of July is typically peak strawberry picking for them.

Heald said strawberries have helped the farm build diversity in times when other crops are hurt.

“So you've got to have all these things to really help the farm go,” Heald said. “Otherwise, if you just did apples it would be really hard.”

Apples are the main crop and attraction for Country Blossom Farm, but hail damaged close to 50% of their crop this year. While that could be devastating for some orchards, the fact that the damaged apples can be used in their farm cidery means little will be lost. The cider house will be busy.

Other crops grown and available for picking on the farm include honeyberries, aronia berries, raspberries, pumpkins and a variety of other produce.

Country Blossom Farm is located along Interstate 94 at 1951 Englund Rd SW Alexandria. Visit countryblossomfarm.com or call 320-334-1620 for more information on events throughout the year.

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Bemidji Chamber Ambassadors congratulate Something New Salon

Pioneer Staff Report — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:00:00 GMT

Bemidji Chamber Ambassadors recently congratulated Sheila Dopp on the opening of her new business, Something New Salon LLC.

Located at 1900 Division St. W No. 3, "Something New Salon is your new go-to spot for expert hair care and personal style," a release said.

Services include haircuts and hairstyles, highlights and balayage, waxing and more. Call or text (218) 766-3956 to book an appointment.

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Chamber Ambassadors congratulate Up North Canvas Company

Pioneer Staff Report — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 16:00:00 GMT

Bemidji Chamber Ambassadors congratulated Up North Canvas Company on its new location at 46841 County 45 in Laporte.

The business has doubled its space and expanded its services to better serve its customers, a release said.

Up North Canvas specializes in custom canvas repair and fabrication, from boat covers and upholstery to awnings, tarps and more.

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LaDuke: Be a patriot to the land

Winona LaDuke — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 16:00:00 GMT

Akiing, the land to which I belong. That’s how I feel about this land. It turns out that I am a patriot to a land, not a flag, and yet some of the basic principles that the U.S. was founded upon resonate with me. Those principles are about dignity, respect, having a voice, being fair. Those are all the constitutional principles of American Democracy. America didn’t discover representational democracy, they learned it from the Iroquois confederacy, which had put aside the weapons of war and made great peace. Iroquois territory spanned upstate New York, Pennsylvania, into Ontario and more. A territory as big as Germany. Lots of peace. That’s what I like.

The Anishinaabe made treaties with the Iroquois. One was called the One Dish, One Spoon Treaty: We have one dish, Mother Earth, and as such we should take care of her. One spoon shared between all the peoples, a ritual carried out in many cultures, making relatives. One Dish, One Spoon, we are related.

Other treaties of peace came about between the Anishinaabe and the Dakota spanning the area along the Red River. That agreement, known as the Sweet Corn Treaty, reaffirmed our right to coexist and live on these lands. We keep that agreement with the Dakota, and after many years of brutal warfare maintain peace and are told that there should be no animosity between us.

These days, there is no peace, there is conflict everywhere, and there is confusion and fear amongst many. The idea that conflicts should be solved by shooting the speaker of the House of Minnesota, is wrong. The suggestion that we should forget about the Rev. Martin Luther King, and remove his bust from the White House, diminishes all that the people of this land have aspired to.

Great nations make peace. Spending $45 million on a party for yourself, which looks a lot like a party thrown by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, isn’t a compliment to American people, especially with cuts to the Veterans Administration, Medicare and more.

There’s a set of ethics which guides many of us. As we see the Trump administration planning to sell off federally protected lands for logging, and legalizing polluters, it’s easy to say, “It’s legal now, so I am going to do it.” It reminds me a lot of a gang rape of a woman, or maybe the Whitestone Hill Massacre. Just because someone said you can do it, does not mean you should. There are soldiers who disobeyed orders to murder and rape, and there are, hopefully a few corporations which say, just because we can steal and pollute, we are not going to do that, because our children will drink this water, and because we are better people.

This is a time for restraint. In the teachings of Native people, like the Iroquois, this is a time to think seven generations ahead. “In each deliberation we must consider the seventh generation from now” is an essential cornerstone and covenant of the oldest democracy in North America, the Iroquois Confederacy. That covenant reminds us that when we make decisions today about water, about pollution, the sort of behavior we tolerate, the impacts will be felt seven generations from now. That is certainly true as we see the onset of crazy weather patterns, and freak storms: Those are a consequence of decisions made many years ago to add more carbon to the environment. We have a chance to change that.

The American mirage is based on the idea of a western frontier, or greener pastures ahead. The time of frontiers is over, except perhaps for those billionaire space cowboys who want to head to other planets. The fact is that there’s not another frontier for us. There’s this land, akiing, this very land to which we belong, and it’s time to be a patriot to this land. To take care of her, our Mother Earth.

It’s time for all of us to reach deep into our souls, which have been nourished by water and foods from these lands, and seek to be our best selves. Sitting Bull, the great Lakota leader, would say, “Let us put our minds together to see what kind of future we can make for our children.”

That teaching is good now. As I look at my clean lake, the herons who fly above me, the fireflies which are said to be disappearing everywhere, I think of the teachings of my ancestors, and how those teachings kept our behavior as humans in check, and in accordance with the laws of Mother Earth. Those laws are how “America was great.” Let me be clear, I think that America was great when you could drink water from every stream and river, there were 50 million buffalo, and passenger pigeons blackened the skies, fish and maple sugar were in abundance and there was peace. That’s what I am here for, seeing the return of the buffalo, the biggest wasteful dam projects come down, like those on the Klamath River, and waters full of life.

As America celebrates its independence in troubling times, remember the dignity that our ancestors sought, and the very land to which we belong. I am a patriot to this land. Let us all care for our Mother Earth and make peace again.

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Here's hoping that the 'storm of a lifetime' lives up to its label

Jenny Schlecht — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 10:30:00 GMT

Of all the odd things that I saw on the morning of June 21, the one that will stick in my mind the longest is probably the free-standing panel twisted around a fence in our feedlot.

I stared at it several times that day, trying to figure out how it got where it was, halfway through the corral panel and somehow twisted both upward and downward, flapping in the breeze. It will be, forever in my mind, the symbol of the power and unpredictability of the weather. Looking at it, it was hard to believe that the evening before, we'd thought maybe the predicted storms would fizzle before it got to us.

On the evening of June 20, my husband and I were sorting heifers when my youngest daughter started sending me messages from the old decommissioned iPhone she can use in the house: "Are you coming in?" "Mom mom mom mom." "I'm scared."

I'd instructed her to leave the TV on in case there were any weather warnings, knowing that meteorologists had been calling for strong storms in the evening. She'd worked herself into a frenzy before my husband and I returned to the house. We told her the storms she was hearing about to our west likely would calm down before they got to us. After cleaning up, I started making a quick, extremely late supper of grilled cheese.

But before the sandwiches were even half done, our phones and TV went off, alerting us we were in a tornado warning. A quick look at where the spotted cloud was and where it was headed told us we might be in the path. We spent a little more than half an hour in the basement before reemerging. The power had gone out. But we thought the wind would start to taper off before too long.

Instead, it picked up, suddenly and severely. We could hear debris smacking against the siding and made the quick decision to go back downstairs. We all huddled into our spare bedroom for the night.

In the morning, my older daughter and I could no longer sleep and went outside to check things over. While we had known one barn had lost some tin and her basketball hoop had fallen over, what we found went far beyond what we could have imagined. Every building on the farm has some sort of damage, including our house, with a partially ruined roof and deep dents in the siding where debris flew. The two barns in the yard — filled right now with bottle calves and 4-H animals but very vital in calving season — both were missing much of their roofs, and rafters and tin were scattered throughout the yard. Our multipurpose working building — where we park machinery, work cows and store a variety of necessities — strangely had a garage door up that definitely had been down when we left it the evening before. The strong winds had blown through and damaged the opposite wall, leaving piles of insulation to clean up.

There were corrals demolished, panels twisted, trees uprooted or broken off. Everywhere we looked, we saw problems, many we could never explain. That panel in the feedlot, twisted and broken, was the hardest to explain. The National Weather Service, using our photos and those of a neighbor, ruled that a tornado had gone through our farm.

But everywhere we looked, we saw blessings. We were all safe, as were our neighbors, who also had severe damage. We learned quickly, not everyone was so lucky in the storms that had stretched from eastern Montana all the way to Minnesota. The storms were deadly for three people in Enderlin, North Dakota, and multiple families in the region lost their homes. Our house was very much still standing and livable. Our barns, while likely damaged beyond repair, were in no immediate danger of collapsing, and the animals inside were only concerned with how long it had taken us to feed them. My husband's sister and her husband rushed three hours to bring us supplies to patch our roof and help clean up trees and other debris, and their children helped raise our spirits, just by being themselves.

I saw a meteorologist call the storms that blew through multiple states in the region a "once in a lifetime" event. I sure hope he's right. We don't need to experience anything like that ever again.

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Support Within Reach: Making a difference in our community for sexual violence survivors

Malissa Kerr, Support Within Reach — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 11:50:00 GMT

Support Within Reach is a community resource agency that seeks to support survivors of sexual violence and exploitation. Our goal is not only to provide victim support and advocacy.

We have a 24-hour crisis line, medical accompaniment to sexual assault examinations, one-on-one peer support, law enforcement and prosecution advocacy.

We acknowledge and come alongside real people in need of respectful and honest support. We can provide connections with other agencies and professionals that provide supportive services as well.

But what of you, the individual within the community living, working or moving within the same community as those who have had their world forever changed by an uninvited sexual assault encounter?

Can you have an impact on their healing journey? The answer is — absolutely.

How does one come alongside another person to validate and acknowledge that while you wish they were not in this situation, you want to be there for them?

The first action is to believe. Assure them that it is not their fault. When someone chooses to disclose their experience of violence, believe them.

Often fear, coercion and isolation are experienced by the survivor, but these cannot stop us from reaching into the lives of others. Belief builds a bridge of trust.

Another way to support is to listen without trying to fix it. Listen to what they are saying they need. Do not make assumptions but actively listen. Do they need safety, a place to stay, food, clothes or maybe just a kind ear to hear?

Do not judge. Create a safe space for them to share their story. Support that gives dignity and respect can make all the difference.

Let them lead. It is up to the survivors how they want to navigate their healing journey. Sexual assault is about power and control. We can provide support for how, when and if they choose to report. Seeking medical or other assistance is important, but it needs to be their decision.

Be willing to be uncomfortable. It is not about you but about how they are feeling.

Educate yourself: understand consent and the need for it to be freely offered and respected. Become trauma informed. Recognizing that each person’s trauma influences their physical wellbeing, behaviors and emotions and will be uniquely their own.

This type of support changes the question from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”

Help survivors by encouraging self-care, placing value on who they are and what they might need to feel healthy. This can create a stronger sense of self and value. They deserve to move toward healing.

What does the average person, neighbor, coworker or friend do to support or understand how to support from the survivor’s perspective? Be present, attentive and engaged in a genuine and trusting way.

Kindness does not need an organization; it just needs one person to take small steps to another person to make a big difference.

Sometimes, seeing the humanity of others, we find ourselves.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, we have advocates available to help. Reach out to Support Within Reach at our 24/7 crisis hotlines: (800) 708-2727 in Beltrami, Clearwater, Hubbard and Cass, or (866) 747-5008 in Itasca and Aitkin Counties.

For more information about Support Within Reach, visit supportwithinreach.org.

Malissa Kerr is the Clearwater County advocate and sexually exploited youth coordinator for Support Within Reach.]]>

Finding Faith: The spirit in other people's joy

Devlyn Brooks — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 14:30:00 GMT

The other night I was leaving work, just as the evening sun was taking its turn downward. Another 12-hour day at the emergency shelter, a typical schedule these past 10 months as we’ve worked to turn things around.

I was pulling out of our parking lot and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of our emergency shelter guests gesticulating wildly out my driver’s side window. But not in a menacing way. Rather, you could see their broad smile as they waved their arms over their head to get my attention.

I braked and rolled down my window, and heard the guest shout, “I get citizenship! I get citizenship certificate today!”

Not entirely sure that I was understanding, but sensing the guest’s joy, I put the pickup in park and got out to talk with them.

The guest repeated their news; then things clicked. There was a large naturalization ceremony that took place in our city that day, and evidently our guest was one of 200 people who took their oath of citizenship.

He was thanking me for the support that our shelter had provided him in seeking his citizenship. And he simply wanted to share his immense joy with me!

Before long, we were enveloped in a memorable hug, right there in the parking lot.

What an announcement! How serendipitous for me to have been leaving at the same time our guest was walking to the bus stop on the corner. (Kidding, I know it was more than just coincidence!)

There, in that moment, my fatigue melted; my resolve strengthened; and my wonderment about the many miracles that take place under our shelter’s roof every single day grew yet again.

The work is often challenging, and there are long intervals between these spectacular moments of joy. But the episode reminded me of the gospel that takes place each and every day at our shelter. So many things our team does that others wouldn’t recognize as holy. But trust me, when helping a guest obtain citizenship, the Holy Spirit is involved there somewhere.

Friends, the work we do as Jesus followers doesn’t always look like it does on Sunday mornings. Sometimes the work is the real nitty gritty of making sure someone has a meal, or a new pair of socks, or a place to lay their head that night.

Sometimes the gospel looks like assisting someone in obtaining a government identification, or filling out a confusing application for services … or, yes, helping a person obtain their citizenship.

Take a look around you, friends. There is plenty of need in your community. Being the church sometimes means doing the unexpected, but in the end, we are called to do on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

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Operation Dry Water targets impaired boating during July 4 weekend

Brad Dokken — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 22:00:00 GMT

Enforcement agencies across the country, including the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, will participate in “Operation Dry Water” over the coming Fourth of July weekend.

The national campaign aims to increase knowledge about the dangers of boating under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Participating enforcement agencies will target intoxicated boaters and drivers July 4-6 as part of the effort. In Minnesota, the State Patrol, county sheriff’s offices and other state public safety agencies also will participate, the DNR said in a news release.

In recent years, as many as half of boating fatalities in Minnesota involved alcohol, the DNR said.

“Shared waterways mean shared responsibility, and it’s up to every boater to make sure they’re keeping themselves and other boaters safe,” the DNR said.

The goal is to reduce the number of accidents and deaths associated with alcohol and drug use on state waterways.

While educating boaters about the hazards associated with boating while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is a year-round effort, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department said wardens during Operation Dry Water weekend will focus on the water, informing boaters about safe boating practices and removing impaired operators from the water.

Game and Fish offers these tips for staying safe on the water, not only what promises to be a busy long holiday weekend but throughout the boating season:

Boat sober: Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in recreational boater deaths. Alcohol and drug use impair a boater’s judgment, balance, vision and reaction time. Wear your life jacket: 85% of drowning victims nationwide were not wearing a life jacket. Take the online boating safety education course: 71% of deaths nationwide occurred on boats where the operator had not received boating safety instruction.

More information about Operation Dry Water can be found online at www.operationdrywater.org.

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Beer: Guided by the pros, a lake trout lesson on the Fort Peck Reservoir

Rob Beer — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 12:01:00 GMT

FORT PECK, Mont. — There was a certain rhythm to Joe Bouroncle’s cadence.

“Start reeling! Go, go, go, go, go!”

Fishing for lake trout on the Lower Big Dry Arm of the Fort Peck Reservoir on the east fork is a blast, especially for some novice anglers who finally had their chance to land some big ones.

It was a trip planned for more than half a year and well worth the nearly eight-hour drive from Fargo. A 5 a.m. alarm ringing inside our camper on this June morning had my family anxious to meet Bouroncle, who operates Get The Net Outfitters in the Fort Peck area.

After boarding his 23-foot vessel, a ThunderJet Alexis OBOS called “Size Matters,” Bouroncle throttled up his 300-horsepower Suzuki. Our destination: colder waters.

On a cloudy, but so far pleasant day in the low 60s, we expected temperatures to warm throughout the day. After cruising comfortably in the enclosed shell, we were now about half-hour out from the marina. It was time to drop lines.

The reservoir is a huge body of water, divided into five distinct regions. While it’s about 137,000 surface acres smaller than Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota, it still is the fifth-largest reservoir in the U.S. Using a guide for the first time can certainly help.

“It’s such a steep learning curve,” Bouroncle said. ”Do you know how big this place is? We’re in the Dry Arm. It’s 40 miles long. The main is 140 miles long. Imagine you pull up here in your boat, you can’t tell me you’re not intimidated and have no clue where to start. So you hire a guide, cut that learning curve and get your technique down.”

My learning curve is so steep it’s almost vertical. Fishing only somewhat regularly for just the past three years, I’m out on the water with my wife, Heidi, and our youngest son, Carson, 17, a few times a month.

We’ll give it a go.

With our first lines in about 100 feet of water, we were vertical jigging near the bottom, trying to lure the lake trout, “lakers” as they say, up to our swimbaits. Watching the paddletail lure on the Garmin Livescope, Bouroncle offered his instructions.

Watch, reel, set the hook.

“Keep reeling … just like that,” Bouroncle said after mentioning he was a dual-citizen Peruvian who has been a fishing guide for about eight years and is a tournament angler specializing in lake trout, rainbow trout and king salmon.

“You gotta set the hook! There you go, good job!” he said as Carson landed another large laker.

As we hooked fish near the lower third of the water column, the trout would decompress their swim bladder on the way up.

“Just let him pull. See, he needs to get all the air out,” Bouroncle said as we watched a red shape expand on the Livescope.

Fort Peck Map

Fishing Fort Peck Guide services: A variety of guide services are available for Fort Peck Where to camp: Four campgrounds in the immediate area: Fort Peck Marina and RV Park, Downstream Campground, Fort Peck Campground and Westend Recreation Area (tent only). Best advice: Plan your trip early and prepare for various weather conditions. More information: Check out the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks website. Search Fort Peck Lake.

So far, the sizes have varied. Three-pounder here. Eleven-pounder there.

“I have seen one over 30, but that was years back and further west,” Bouroncle said, before adding he once weighed a 32-pound state record salmon as well.

By now in the rain at 8:30 a.m., Carson reeled in his third lake trout, a 13-pounder.

“It’s crazy, the weather changes in a second,” Heidi said.

We tossed some back, tossed a few in the livewell.

But these trout are not your typical fillet and fry. “So what happens if you try to pan fry this fish?” we asked the boat captain.

“I don’t know,” Bouroncle said. “Smoking them is the best way.”

Tonight’s dinner would have to wait. We don’t have a smoker.

With an experienced eye on the weather, Bouroncle stayed in touch with other guides. A strike of lightning off in the distance would end our day early. As a gift to our son, our morning success had us all fulfilled.

As a guide, Bouroncle has seen the gamut of experience levels on his boat.

“It’s all something different,” Bouroncle said, shortly before handing us bags of our fish he just cleaned on the stern of the boat. “I like the kids who have never done it. I appreciate facilitating the family event, an adventure when people travel to come here because it’s a big deal.”

A talkative host, Bouroncle recalled anglers from Knoke Seamless Siding & Gutters in Fargo that just basically took command on a recent trip on board his vessel.

“They’re absolute sticks with the Livescope. I don’t even go out on the back deck,” Bouroncle said, slumping into his seat and cracking a laugh. “I’m just an overpaid lifeguard for eight hours.”

In Montana, guides must be licensed and initially sponsored by a licensed outfitter, the state’s Department of Labor and Industry says. Bouroncle has about six guides that work for him, though as independent contractors, they can work for multiple outfitters.

One of them is Don Wilkins, whom we joined at 6 a.m. the next day to fish shallower water down the Lower Missouri Arm. The target that day — at least for me — was walleye, a fish I have yet to net.

A heavy overnight storm, however, had stirred the pot on the giant lake. Heading southwest now from Fort Peck Marina in Wilkins’ Larson 2020FX, we soon found a northern pike quivering on the surface. Five minutes later, we spotted another one.

Near a spot that produced a decent walleye catch two days earlier, they were having nothing to do with our jig and minnow presentations early that morning.

In eight hours, fishing three locations, the family caught about 10 pike. Several more escaped their initial hook. A Montana native, the personable Wilkins’ only regret was bouncing from our first location after a few hours.

“The weather affects everything out here,” Wilkins said.

As Bournocle said the day before, anglers — especially guides — must have a quarterback’s mentality and have a short memory. The memories of sharing their boat with anglers doesn’t go away.

That has to be my takeaway as I admired my wife’s and son’s success. I caught one fish, that lowly trout, all weekend.

“I like taking people and doing stuff they’ve never done,” Wilkins said. “That’s probably the biggest thing out here. There’s so many different kinds of fish in Fort Peck, we can find something they’ve never caught.”

FORT PECK FISHING

Fishing guide Joe Bouroncle's vessel, "Size Matters," awaits anglers on June 16, 2025 on the Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana.

Heidi Campbell-Beer holds one of the lake trout she caught on June 15, 2025 on the Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana.

Fishing guide Don Wilkins, left, helps Carson Beer with his technique on June 16, 2025 on the Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana.

Carson Beer holds a northern pike he caught on the boat of Don Wilkins on June 16, 2025 on the Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana.

Fishing guide Joe Bouroncle pilots his vessel on the Big Dry Arm of the Fort Peck Reservoir on June 15, 2025 in Montana.

Fishing guide Joe Bouroncle of Get The Net Outfitters poses on the stern of his vessel on June 15, 2025 on the Fort Peck Reservoir. Bouroncle is also a tournament angler.

Carson Beer poses with a lake trout he caught on June 15, 2025 on the Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana.

A Garmin Livescope on the stern of fishing guide Joe Bouroncle's boat on June 15, 2025 on the Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana.

Fishing guide Joe Bouroncle helps Carson Beer hold a lake trout on June 15, 2025 on the Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana.

Forum sports editor Rob Beer holds a lake trout on June 15, 2025 on the Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana.

If you go Guide services: A variety of guide services are available for Fort Peck Where to camp: Four campgrounds in the immediate area: Fort Peck Marina and RV Park, Downstream Campground, Fort Peck Campground and Westend Recreation Area (tent only). Best advice: Plan your trip early and prepare for various weather conditions. More information: Check out the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks website. Search Fort Peck Lake.]]>

Blane Klemek Outdoors: How do birds survive harsh windstorms?

Blane Klemek — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 14:00:00 GMT

I experienced my first major windstorm that leveled a vast swath of Minnesota’s northern forest in the summer of 1995.

At the time, I had just begun my summer internship at Itasca State Park as one of three park naturalists hired. The wind event was devastating to the park and where I lived just a dozen miles northeast near the Becida community.

Giant, ancient red pines and white pines everywhere were snapped like matchsticks or completely uprooted and knocked down by the storm.

The event was oft reported as a "100-year storm." I beg to differ after all these years later because since then we’ve experienced several so-called 100-year windstorms here in the Northland (by my count, 1999, 2002, 2012, 2016, and our recent storm, June 21, 2025).

Indeed, I think the meteorological record will show that severe weather patterns occur with greater frequency and intensity nowadays.

This recent event was swift and intense. Bemidji Regional Airport reported gusts at 106 mph. Some measures have the windstorm approaching 120 mph. To put this into perspective, the storm was the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane and an EF-2 tornado. Trees in its path didn’t have a chance.

The storm was also commonly referred to as a “derecho” windstorm. Until July 2, 2012, I had never heard the term derecho. That was the storm that struck La Salle Lake State Recreation and Scientific and Natural areas about ten miles northeast of Itasca State Park.

A derecho’s basic meaning is, “... a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds.”

And that it was; in 1995, 2012, and 2025. Trees on my property weren’t spared, but I consider myself lucky. My house was spared each time.

Suffice to say, inspecting the carnage was depressing. The stifling heat made immediate cleanup taxing, not to mention managing life with a generator for three days rotating between the water pump, fridge, freezer, and a little air conditioning.

Yet, as I surveyed my property and assessed damage, I also couldn’t help but think about wildlife, especially birds. How do they manage to survive such onslaughts?

Most birds and other wildlife do survive, but many of course don’t, particularly young nestlings that haven’t fledged. While examining downed trees strewn about on the ground, I found a couple of robin nests that had been knocked down to the forest floor.

If the nest had harbored nestlings, they didn’t survive.

But just how do birds survive the harshest wind events that Mother Nature unleashes? They do so in a multiple number of ways, and ways that many of us caught in similar circumstances would do, too.

If experiencing a windstorm, some birds will seek natural tree cavities or artificial nest boxes. Birds that spend most of their time on the ground or water, such as ground-nesting birds, shorebirds and wading birds, and waterfowl, will find protection within dense clumps of grass, cattails, and other vegetation.

Shrub-loving species such as gray catbirds and brown thrashers hide in the thick understory growth of shrubs and vegetation to protect themselves from high velocity wind and flying debris.

As well, natural windbreaks are utilized by birds such as dense stands of trees and shrubs and the leeward side of hills, hummocks, cliffs, and boulders; anything, really, that can block wind, birds and other animals will use. Birds will also use human-made structures such as inside or around buildings.

Perching birds that choose the security of trees will perch on branches closest to trunks on the sides most protected from the wind. Their specialized feet and toes help them to tightly grip and hold onto branches as they wait out storms while they also use the leeward side of the tree trunks to block strong wind.

It’s remarkable, but most birds employing this method of survival manage to survive. It’s the younger birds, those not fully developed or fledged that sometimes don’t make it.

As such, when the sun rose on 21 June, despite the severe wind damage everywhere and trees on the ground or haphazardly thrown about or broken halfway up their boles, songbirds throughout the woodlands, wetlands, fields, and forests were singing and vocalizing, nevertheless.

Their perseverance and zest for living was reason enough for me to roll up my sleeves and give thanks for another day, as we get out and enjoy the great outdoors.

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80 years after his death in World War II, remains of Minnesotan's father finally identified

Robin Huebner — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 13:25:00 GMT

FARGO — Relatives of a serviceman who died as a prisoner of war in World War II finally have the answer they’ve waited so long to receive.

Skeletal remains of U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. Irvin C. Ellingson have been identified through new DNA technology at a forensic lab in Hawaii, 80 years after his death.

Lon Enerson, one of Ellingson’s nephews, has led the family effort to bring his uncle’s remains home.

“We are overjoyed and relieved … It's a long-overdue answered prayer,” Enerson told The Forum, from his home in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Ellingson, who grew up in Dahlen, North Dakota, enlisted at age 22 and was 25 when he died, Enerson said.

He was serving as a radar observer on a bombing mission to Tokyo on April 14, 1945, when the plane was shot down.

Ellingson parachuted to safety but was captured by the Japanese army and held captive at a Japanese prison along with 61 other American service members.

The prison caught fire a little over a month later, on May 26, 1945, after high winds fueled fires that were started by an American B-29 bombing raid over Tokyo.

None of the American prisoners survived the fire, as they were blocked in by Japanese guards, Enerson said.

The remains of more than two dozen American service members were identified in the aftermath but those of 37 others were buried as “unknowns” at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines, where they sat untouched until 2022.

The remains are commingled, and the Department of Defense has a threshold for disinterment, for at least 60% of those veterans’ families to provide DNA samples in order to make matches.

Families pushed the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to disinter those unidentified remains and bring them to a forensic lab in Honolulu, where the newest DNA technology is being used to identify them.

Enerson said his uncle is the third serviceman from the Tokyo prison fire to be identified in this manner. The first identification came in September 2024 and the second in January of this year.

Ellingson’s parents and all of his siblings are deceased, so the next of kin is the oldest nephew or niece, who is Cheryl Severtson, of San Diego.

Enerson is fourth on that list.

Six groups of Ellingson’s relatives have visited the forensic lab in Hawaii since 2022, awaiting his identification, Enerson said.

Now that they have answers, some family members may return to the lab to sit privately with Ellingson’s remains, which will be placed on an army blanket, he said.

The family intends to bury Ellingson’s remains in the Middle Forest River Cemetery in rural Dahlen, alongside his parents and other siblings.

Enerson said when that day comes, he’s been told Ellingson will be buried with full military honors, at government expense.

“We just wish his immediate family could have known 80 years ago, but this is the next best time,” Enerson said.

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Did he or didn’t he? History wrestles with legend of Jesse James’ jump over Devil’s Gulch

Erik Kaufman — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 21:00:00 GMT

GARRETSON, S.D. — In 1876, legendary outlaw Jesse James and his brother Frank were on the run after committing a bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota. Chased by a posse, the two Missouri natives raced west, managing to stay ahead of their pursuers. Eventually, they crossed into what was then Dakota Territory.

What exactly happened next has long been open to speculation. But local myth holds that Jesse James, moving as fast as he could on horseback, managed to make a leap of roughly 18 feet over Devil’s Gulch in Garretson, South Dakota, leaving the justice-seeking posse behind and allowing him to escape capture.

Now, nearly 150 years later, the picturesque quartzite rock canyon, nestled in a nook in Garretson and boasting remarkable scenic beauty, still attracts visitors to take in the view and ponder whether the American legend actually managed to make it across the gap. An annual summer festival in town is even named after him.

For Wayne Fanebust, a Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based historian and author of several non-fiction books including Chasing Frank and Jesse James: The Bungled Northfield Bank Robbery and the Long Manhunt, the answer to the question of did Jesse James jump Devil’s Gulch is fairly clear.

“I’m saying it did not happen,” Fanebust told the Mitchell Republic in a recent interview. “I know, I’m a myth buster.”

The argument against

Fanebust calls Jesse James’ alleged leap of Devil’s Gulch one of his favorite topics. As a historian who has researched the Wild West age of 19th century United States and penned historical books on the Civil War and turn-of-the-century true crime incidents, he has vast experience in digging into topics where the facts have become hazy with the passage of time.

The Devil’s Gulch jump is one such case where the facts are hard to come by, but there are some aspects about what led up to the alleged jump that is known.

Jesse James and his brother, Frank, along with six other members of their gang, attempted a bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, on Sept. 7, 1876. It was a messy affair, with four men killed during the ensuing gun battle, including two members of the gang. It was a lot of blood spilled for a total take of about $25 in nickels.

Now on the run, the group split up a few days later but still managed to evade capture.

Trying to make their way back to their home state of Missouri, the brothers made stops near Luverne, Minnesota, on Sept. 17 of that year and entered what was then Dakota Territory about five miles north of Valley Springs, South Dakota, later that evening, a timeline that suggests the James brothers were never near Devil’s Gulch.

“It’s known they were 12 miles north of present-day Luverne in the evening. They were in Dakota Territory, (but) in all likelihood they traveled as fast and steadily as they could over that ground, and they would have missed it altogether,” Fanebust said.

The Devils Gulch gap today measures about 18 feet across and rises about 30 feet above the creek bed below. The lead up to the eastern edge of the gap is rugged and uneven, with dense trees obstructing any clear path where James could have spurred his horse on to a full gallop. Though it is assumed by many that a well-rested horse could clear such a gap, the short approach of the chasm calls into doubt just how much momentum could be carried into the jump.

The legend also tends to overlook the details of Frank James. He is not mentioned jumping the gulch along with his brother, leading Fanebust to wonder why Frank James didn’t get the same credit his more famous sibling did.

Fanebust, who researched the event in countless pages of newspapers, books and libraries, said the legend began in the 1920s, when an area newspaper gave an account of an unnamed individual who “showed us the place where Jesse James jumped the channel riding horseback.” A year or so later, more articles on the legend followed, and that summer, a W.W. Sanders invited a group of area newspaper men to the site for a tour where he repeated the claim.

The story eventually gained more and more fame, to the point that it’s still referred to in 2025.

Fanebust said the legend, though almost certainly untrue, could have grown out of a true story where Jesse James or both brothers did leap across a creek or similar landmark on horseback during their escape. Over the years, the story grew, the gap became wider and the plunge to the bottom of the canyon deeper, with resident fans of local lore eventually settling on the picturesque setting of Devil’s Gulch as the location where the myth took place.

There’s no solid evidence that it occurred, Fanebust said. But the spectacular mental image of a man on horseback making such a jump in a scenic area — something straight out of a western movie — makes for an enticing story.

“Somehow it got built up into this legendary, impossible, leap across Devil’s Gulch,” Fanebust said. “It’s probably nothing that we will ever be able to prove or disprove.”

The case for 'maybe'

The ambiguous nature of the legend hasn’t stopped Garretson from embracing the story.

Residents still celebrate the notion that maybe, just maybe, James did make the jump with the annual Jesse James Days event, which was held this year on June 13-14. The two-day event features street dances, car shows and other entertainment that helps promote the Minnehaha County community of 1,175 people.

Carrie Moritz, who co-owns the Garretson Gazette newspaper along with her husband Garrick and also serves as president of the Garretson Commercial Club, which organizes Jesse James Days, said residents look at the legend with a bit of a wink and a nod. Folks know the story is unlikely to be true, at least as it’s told today, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t fun to talk about.

But there are a few facets of local lore that do add some credence to the tale.

“Maybe it’s just a tall tale that got told,” Moritz said. “But we do have documentation from local farmsteads that Jesse stayed at their place. Or that he stole a horse from their farmstead, or what have you. So there is known evidence that he and his brother were around here. But as for outrunning the posse and jumping the gulch? Who knows.”

There are other angles that could support the theory.

Moritz noted that over the course of 150 years the landscape of the gulch has changed. Erosion has likely widened the gap to its present width, meaning that if James did jump the gulch all those years ago, it was likely not as wide a jump as it appears today.

She also said the land where Devil’s Gulch rests, which is owned by the Wiese family and leased to the city for public use, was not always densely packed with trees. The trees that add so much to the beauty of the area were planted by the family sometime in the mid-20th century.

This means James’ jump may have been both much shorter and had a much smoother leadup to the jump than is there today.

“It looks like old-growth forest, but it’s not,” Moritz said.

As for where Frank was during Jesse’s legendary jump? Moritz said it has been posited that Jesse temporarily stashed his brother in a cave a ways up north on Split Rock Creek and then went on a ride to distract the posse from their underground hideout, which would explain Frank’s absence from the legend. That cave is now collapsed, Moritz said, but it was a popular spot for adventurous kids to explore in the 1950s.

Whether or not James successfully jumped Devil’s Gulch — or another anonymous span of creek somewhere miles away — Jesse and Frank James did eventually make their way back to Missouri without being cornered by the posse. Jesse James was eventually killed by Robert Ford in 1882, and Frank James surrendered to authorities shortly after. He lived a quieter life after his brother’s death, leaving the criminal world and working a variety of odd jobs. He died in 1915.

But their legacy as old West outlaws lives on, particularly in places like Garretson, where visitors come by the thousands for Jesse James Days in the summer. Moritz said the celebration is a fun time that promotes the community, offers a wide range of activities and entertainment and brings all-important dollars into the local economy.

“It does make a huge financial impact, and that’s part of the reason it’s put on by the Garretson Commercial Club,” Moritz said. “That’s how you get tourism money, and that’s always the goal — to get people to come to town, enjoy the atmosphere we’ve got around here and just realize that we’ve got a great little town here.”

Whether his infamous jump over Devil’s Gulch actually occurred continues to be debated. Fanebust said the uncertainty of exactly what happened is part of the appeal of the story, and the myth is not likely to die out.

The legend lives on

The story serves to spur interest among the public on the Wild West and its expansive mythology, and he said interest in the topic can lead to the study of other historical stories that are just as interesting but can also be proven to be true.

Believing the Devil’s Gulch legend may require a leap of faith, but Fanebust said the event will likely continue on long into the future. And there’s nothing wrong with that, he said.

“It is a legend with a long life, and it is an integral part of the story of the great escape by the James brothers,” Fanebust wrote in a summary of the events. “There is no point in trying to drive a stake through it, because it can’t be killed. Somewhere out there someone might find an answer, a rational explanation for an issue that seems to be pleading for closure. But then again, maybe not. Maybe, just maybe, the romance of history has a legitimate place in this outlaw narrative alongside plain, dull facts.”

More images from Devil's Gluch

Wayne Fanebust stands at the botton of Devil's Gulch where Jesse James allegedly successfully jumped across pictured on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Garretson.

Wayne Fanebust stands next to the gap over Devil's Gulch where Jesse James allegedly successfully jumped across pictured on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Garretson.

Wayne Fanebust speaks about the historic myth of Jesse James jumping over the Devils Gulch on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Sioux Falls.

Scenes from Devil's Gulch Park pictured on Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Garretson.

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50th annual Hangfires' Blackpowder Rendezvous set for June 13-15 in Bemidji

Pioneer Staff Report — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:36:39 GMT

BEMIDJI — Opportunities to time travel don’t come along every day, but the Hangfires' Blackpowder Club of Bemidji has been taking people back to the 1700s and early 1800s each summer for 50 years.

The weekend of June 13-15, the club is hosting their 50th Annual Rendezvous just south of Bemidji.

"Modern rendezvous were started decades ago by gun clubs holding black powder events," Frank Bera, president of the local club, said in a release.

Activities and competitions at the rendezvous are authentic to the pre-1840s time period.

At the weekend-long event, participants live on the site in self-constructed rudimentary shelters — A-frames, pole tents, wall tents with canvas tarps — and sleep on the ground or on a cot.

They prepare food in cooking pits or braziers with coals, dress in period clothing and participate in events and demonstrations.

Competitions are authentic to the time period: shooting contests, hawk knife, flu fl, primitive archery, kids’ games and women’s contests.

Craftspersons, artisans and traders set up marquees or lay down blankets and sell their wares. Three water spigots and ten pit toilets on the property provide "modern" conveniences.

Registration starts at 4 p.m. on Friday, June 13, and continues from 8 to 10 a.m. on Saturday.

The Rendezvous participation fee is $25. Registration is by campsite, rather than by individuals. Each campsite might have one or two people or an entire family.

Participants must be registered to compete and camp onsite, but day visitors are welcome to observe at no charge.

The rendezvous site is on Keith Johnson’s property south of Bemidji. Attendees should head toward 9179 Beltrami Line Road and then watch for signs, the release said.

For more information and to view the event brochure, visit the Hangfires Blackpowder Club Facebook page.

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Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig students attend Culture Camp

Pioneer Staff Report — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:53:00 GMT

Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig students recently participated in a variety of activities during Culture Camp at the school.

Culture Camp programming included: Ojibwe language class, archery, birchbark work, drum making, crafts, drumming, beading and traditional games.

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Shaynowishkung's life and legacy honored during statue's 10th anniversary ceremony

TJ Rhodes — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 18:36:21 GMT

BEMIDJI — Shaynowishkung, commonly known as Chief Bemidji, was a charismatic 19th-century Anishinaabe leader who bridged the gap between two colliding cultures — settlers and Native Americans.

Born sometime in the 1830s, Shaynowishkung was a leader by the time colonizers began traveling north. These colonizers nicknamed Shaynowishkung "Chief Bemidji" when they mistook the lake's name, Bemijigamaag, as his own. He passed away in 1904 as a beloved leader; the emerging Bemidji, a village at the time, recognized his effort and held a celebration to honor him.

Now, a Shaynowishkung statue, which overlooks Lake Bemidji within Library Park, serves as a constant reminder of his dedication to the land that he called home.

And on Saturday, his statue and legacy were honored during a 10th anniversary ceremony.

Mariah Ortiz, whose Ojibwe name is Niigaanikwe (woman who leads), is Shaynowishkung's seventh-generation granddaughter. She lived up to her namesake and led the ceremony with an Ojibwe prayer. Ortiz then discussed Shaynowishkung's legacy and explained the Seven Generations principle, an Anishinaabe philosophy that teaches people to think of their footprint seven generations into the future.

Shaynowishkung embodied this principle and aligned with the seven grandfathers' teachings, which preach the importance of humility, bravery, honesty, wisdom, truth, respect and love.

"I come from a strong line," Ortiz said. "I just want to talk about my grandfather: he was the peacemaker of the settlers. He always opened his arms, and he lived through a great era with the treaties and allotment. He always was respectful and he wanted peace between the settlers. He always was opening and welcoming to them."

The event was extra special to Ortiz as it served as her first public speaking appearance. But more importantly, her daughter, Rahmya, begins a new string of seven generations.

Ojibwe Nation singer Jeremy Clark played a drum song to conclude the ceremony at the park.

Following, the crowd of attendees split, with some taking a guided walk to see Shaynowishkung's historic home site near The Coffee District, east of the Mississippi River between Lake Bemidji and Lake Irving. The rest of the crowd stuck around, taking photos with the statue, chatting and enjoying the weather.

The attendees later reconvened at the Beltrami County History Center for a second presentation from the statue's sculptor, Gareth Curtiss.

Curtiss earned the honor of sculpting the statue in 2015 after entering a contest. He felt a deep connection to Shaynowishkung immediately.

"I've done over 60 statutes all over there; this is the first time there's been a 10th anniversary on any of them," Curtiss joked. "I was provided with a very old photo (of Shaynowishkung), that photo is still right on the wall in my living room; I don't have pictures of anybody else in there.

"I felt a special connection here, special connection to you. He is a remarkable man. I see him as a bridge between two different cultures and he had a lovely heart as a man of peace. I was drawn to that."

Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe elder, activist and former Cass Lake mayor Elaine Fleming also spoke during the presentation. She began by detailing how her connection with the historical society formed.

"Ten years ago, I got involved with this committee, and they wanted to raise the money to put up the statue of Shaynowishkung to honor him," Fleming said. "And so I thought that was pretty groovy. I'm so glad that I came in here; I'm grateful for a chance to share some of our history.

"Working with this committee has taught me something really important. It is about that interconnectedness and how important it is to be a peacemaker, that we need to respect each other and we need to know each other. To understand each other's culture and history takes work."

Fleming then detailed Shaynowishkung's life, legacy and the struggle that he led, with connection to the area's rich settler-Native American history.

"He fought for his land ... in his peaceful way," Fleming remarked. "We are doing awesome things, the Ojibwe people. People like Emily (Thabes) and Carolyn (Jacobs) and the committee, all these people make me so glad that we're traveling this road together. We have a long way to go and I'm glad to be here with you today, traveling."

The entire event was planned by the Beltrami County Historical Society and the Bemidji Statue Committee, in partnership with the Bemidji Parks and Recreation Department.

Emily Thabes, the BCHS Director, was pleased with how the program went.

"I think it was a learning opportunity for folks," Thabes said, "but also a way that we could all come together as a community to honor Shaynowishkung. I think the message that he raised, peace and bringing community together, is one that we should continue to try to work toward.

"We were really fortunate that Mariah was available to give a prayer and that Jeremy was available to sing ... It turned out to be a good day."

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Bipartisan PROTECT Act aims to combat drug trafficking in tribal communities

Pioneer Staff Report — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 16:47:57 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tina Smith and Steve Daines recently announced the bipartisan Protection for Reservation Occupants Against Trafficking and Evasive Communications Today – PROTECT – Act aimed at combating drug trafficking in tribal communities.

According to a release, drug traffickers exploit prosecutorial loopholes, including the fact that tribal courts do not have jurisdiction over non-Native American offenders who traffic illegal drugs onto tribal lands.

The PROTECT Act would address this problem by enabling tribal nations to exercise their inherent authority to prosecute non-Native offenders for drug crimes and gun crimes. The act also includes provisions for tribal courts to execute warrants for electronic communications to better combat drug traffickers and other criminals.

“For years, tribal leaders in Minnesota have raised the alarm that drug traffickers are exploiting complex legal jurisdiction on tribal land, making Native communities some of the most harmed by the opioid and fentanyl epidemics,” Smith said in the release. “I hear directly from tribal leaders about how their tribal law enforcement routinely arrests the same people for selling drugs, drop them off with the county police and have to arrest them again the next day. The tribe can’t do anything about it.

“The PROTECT Act would help tribes fight back against these drug traffickers. This proposal is bipartisan and common sense, and it respects and upholds tribes’ inherent sovereignty and right to protect their people.”

The release notes that American Indians and Alaska Natives are two and a half times more likely to become victims of violent crime and are more likely to die of an overdose than other demographics. In 2021, American Indian Minnesotans were 10 times more likely to die from a drug overdose than white Minnesotans.

Over 1,000 Minnesotans died from opioid overdoses in 2023 alone.

“Protecting our most vulnerable members is the fundamental goal of all governments," said Shane Drift, interim chairman of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa. "The PROTECT Act enhances tribal sovereignty and public safety and is an idea whose time has come."

Red Lake Tribal Chair Darrell Seki also thanked Sen. Smith for supporting the legislation.

“We thank Sen. Smith for her leadership in ensuring tribal governments have the authorities we need to keep our communities safe. This bill will hold predatory drug dealers accountable for the havoc they are wreaking on Red Lake families,” Seki said. “We look forward to working with Congress to enact this legislation.”

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Judge hears bid to again overturn 1986 Nancy Daugherty murder conviction

Tom Olsen — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 18:00:00 GMT

VIRGINIA, Minn. — Defense attorneys on Monday, June 30, asked a judge to once again overturn a Chisholm, Minnesota, man’s conviction for raping and murdering a woman nearly 40 years ago.

Michael Allan Carbo Jr., 57, was found guilty in January of the 1986 killing of Nancy Daugherty — the second time a jury has convicted him in the homicide case that had gone cold until a DNA breakthrough in 2020.

Carbo previously had a guilty verdict overturned by the Minnesota Supreme Court, which said he was denied a full defense because he was not allowed to argue that another man was responsible for the crime.

This time, his motion involves another potential suspect in the case, as well as the decades-long interval between the crime and the trial.

“Mr. Carbo’s ability to fairly defend himself in this case was irrevocably compromised by the 34-year delay between the offense and the prosecution,” attorneys J.D. Schmid and Bruce Williams argued. “That the prosecution acted diligently in their investigation and in bringing charges against Mr. Carbo does not negate the prejudice caused by the deaths of several potential witnesses and the faded memories of other witnesses, including Mr. Carbo.”

Carbo, who was 18 at the time of Daugherty’s death and lived about a mile away, was never a suspect until a genetic genealogy investigation led to his identification as the man who left semen at the crime scene.

The defense, however, noted the deaths of numerous investigators and witnesses, which they say impaired his ability to investigate the facts and identify alternative perpetrators. The passage of time also forced witnesses to rely heavily on previous statements rather than actual memories, they said.

But St. Louis County prosecutors Chris Florey and Jon Holets noted the state, too, was challenged by the passage of time and the loss of witnesses who could have provided favorable testimony. Noting Carbo was never a suspect until 2020, they said there was no deliberate delay in bringing him to trial, and he had no reason to face anxiety until his arrest.

“(Carbo) provided nothing more than speculation as to how their deaths impacted his ability to present his defense,” the prosecutors wrote in a brief. “To the contrary, defendant did not challenge the presence of his DNA at the scene of the crime; in fact, he conceded it.”

The other central issue relates to Daugherty’s then-estranged husband, Jim Daugherty. It has long been reported that he was in Germany with the Minnesota Air National Guard when she was killed.

But the defense attorneys say documents provided during the trial do not conclusively show that he was overseas during the crime, and both the state and federal governments were subsequently unable to provide records establishing that he was.

The attorneys say numerous people told investigators that Jim Daugherty was abusive toward his wife and that his truck may have been spotted near her home the day before she was killed.

They also noted at least two other people who could have been investigated, including a man who allegedly confessed to another person over drinks and a woman who played recreational sports with Daugherty and was reported to have an “obsession” with her.

The prosecutors called Jim Daugherty’s service records “admittedly confusing” but said they do not disprove that he was in Germany at the time. They added that there was no clear evidence that he was in Chisholm and noted how the defense also failed to seek out the records in a timely manner.

“For some reason,” Florey and Holets told the court, “defendant now appears to pivot to a strategy of methodically pointing his finger at any person that was alive in July 1986 that is mentioned in the voluminous police reports, who, based on rampant rumor and wild speculation could have committed (Daugherty’s) rape and murder, except for himself.”

Judge Robert Friday noted at Monday’s hearing that there is no statute of limitations on murder, but he suggested there may be a need for courts to review whether a defendant’s due process rights are violated by a lengthy delay in being brought to trial.

Carbo’s case is almost certainly not the last cold case that will be revived in Minnesota, the judge said. And as forensic technology advances, so does research on the impacts of memory over time.

“Not setting up a bright-line rule,” the judge said of the hypothetical case law, “but it would need to be very fact-dependent, according to the circumstances.”

As for the suggestion of another suspect, Friday said he was not particularly concerned about when the information was discovered. Instead, the judge said, he needs to consider whether he would have allowed the evidence to be admitted if it had been known before the trial.

“What would the court have done with it?” he asked.

Carbo’s first conviction was overturned because Friday did not allow the defense to contend that Daugherty’s friend and former lover, Brian Evenson, was the true perpetrator. The defense heavily questioned Evenson at the second trial, and additional evidence was admitted, but a unanimous 12-member jury still convicted Carbo.

He faces a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole after 17 years, under the law that was in effect for first-degree murder at the time.

Friday has three options: acquit Carbo and end the case, order a new trial, or deny his motion and proceed to sentencing. He has 90 days to issue a ruling, but suggested he intends to act sooner.

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Minnesota's oldest listed missing persons case: What happened to the three Klein brothers?

Jeremy Fugleberg — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:55:00 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — They were just boys when they vanished.

It was Saturday, Nov. 10, 1951, about 1:30 p.m. Three of the four Klein brothers — Kenneth Jr., age 8; David, age 6; and Daniel, age 4 — told their mother they were on their way from their North Minneapolis home to play in Fairview Park, just a few blocks away.

Hours passed. Their older brother, nine-year-old Gordon, went to retrieve them from the park at dinner time, and couldn't find them. He alerted his parents — Kenneth and Betty Klein — and the hunt was on.

For all they knew at the time, the youngsters had just left to play somewhere else, maybe down along the nearby Mississippi River, whose banks were coated with thin ice.

But the family would never again see the three boys. The mystery of the disappearance of the three Klein brothers would spark a relentless search, cause decades of false hopes and despair, and gain renewed attention that would place them on a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension database as the state's oldest listed missing persons case.

The search and false leads

It quickly became obvious the boys weren't just playing somewhere else.

The Klein family was soon joined by Boy Scouts, policemen, search dogs, civil defense patrolmen and others, as they combed the surrounding area, including empty lots, garages and vacant buildings, and went door to door asking about the children.

"Squads plodded through warehouses of the river industrial district. Hollow echoes answered their shouts," reported the Austin Daily Herald on Nov. 13, 1951. "Oily machinery instead of little boys' eyes reflected the flashlight beams."

Two sound trucks drove through the North Minneapolis neighborhoods, broadcasting descriptions of the boys. All three had been wearing blue jeans. Kenneth Jr. had on a red jacket and stocking cap. David had a brown coat and red and gray cap. Daniel had been wearing a red snowsuit and a brown plaid cap.

Police insisted they had no reason to suspect foul play. But it wasn't ruled out, either.

A Minneapolis Star newspaper photographer snapped an indelible photo of Kenneth and Betty Klein and their boy Gordon, standing next to Daniel's empty high chair as Kenneth Sr. takes a phone call about the search.

When two of the boys' caps were fished from the nearby icy Mississippi River, it was was dragged by authorities who feared the boys had fallen in and drowned, but they came up empty-handed. Police followed up on reports of sightings, but those also didn't pan out, and the search widened even as hope dimmed.

By the middle of the following week, the hunt had been all but called off.

"It just doesn't seem reasonable those youngsters could disappear in the midst of thousands of people," said Minneapolis Police Chief Tom Jones in the Daily Herald article. "It isn't in the books, either, that all three of them would tumble into the river together. But that's what it looks like now."

While police closed the case as a suspected drowning, the Klein family didn't give up. They posted a $500 reward in the newspaper for any information leading to the recovery of the boys as well as regular "information wanted" classified listings.

With nowhere else to turn for answers, they sought help anywhere they could find it, and chased down every tip. They even appealed to a supposedly psychic "talking" horse in Virginia named Lady Wonder.

"We'll try anything if it will help us find them," said Betty Klein in the Dec. 12, 1952 edition of the Duluth News Tribune.

Renewed attention

Decades later, Minneapolis author Jack El-Hai saw one of the Klein's regular pleas in the newspaper classifieds sections in November 1997 and contacted them.

His resulting research and interviews led to a 1998 Minnesota Monthly article titled "the Lost Brothers" and eventually his 2019 book about the case, "The Lost Brothers: A Family's Decades-Long Search." and well as a companion TPT podcast, "Long Lost." that is also available on YouTube.

El-Hai chronicled both the family's efforts to keep hope alive, and resurgent interest from law enforcement, including from Wright County Sheriff's Deputy Jessica Miller and Minneapolis Park Police Sgt. Jim Schultz. Both El-Hai and the investigators believe the boys were likely kidnapped.

Several theories rise to the top, according to El-Hai:

Playground worker: A Fairview Park playground worker, now deceased, was investigated for the murder of three boys in Chicago. 'Creepy' man: A woman who rented rooms near the Klein family's home recalled a "creepy" man in his 50s playing basketball with several boys about the time the Klein boys disappeared. Truck driver: Not long after the boys vanished, a truck driver (now deceased) who lived near the Kleins reportedly replaced his pickup truck bed and his basement floor.

If they're still alive, the vanished Klein brothers would be in their 70s and 80s.

If you have any information regarding the case of the missing Klein brothers, contact the Minneapolis Police Department at 612-692-8477.

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New Hulu docuseries to re-examine Jodi Huisentruit case

Jeremy Fugleberg — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:59:12 GMT

A new docuseries to stream on Hulu starting July 15 will re-examine the 1995 missing persons case of TV anchor Jodi Huisentruit. Friday marked 30 years since she vanished, and the case remains unsolved.

The impending three-part docuseries is called "Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit." The series will "follow a major break that reenergized the case," said ABC News in a June 27 press release, and will feature new information and never-before-seen material.

"Her Last Broadcast" was produced by Committee Films and ABC News Studios for Hulu.

Huisentruit, a Long Prairie, Minnesota, native was well known from her broadcast work in Minnesota but was working at KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa, when she didn't show up to work on June 27, 1995.

Evidence surrounding her car in the parking lot of her apartment building indicated signs of a struggle and a likely abduction.

Family, friends, colleagues and community members marked her disappearance on Friday, commemorated in news coverage.

“We’ll close this at some point, and justice will be served at that point,” Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley told WOI TV in Des Moines. “That's our goal as the police department.”

Huisentruit was declared legally dead in 2001.

The upcoming Hulu docuseries will feature over 20 new interviews with family, friends and colleagues, "rare" access to KIMT-TV where Huisentruit's desk remains untouched, and "exclusive, real-time access to the investigation and breaks in the case," ABC News said.

The "major break" referenced by ABC News in its press release reportedly took place after the airing of the ABC 20/20 special about Huisentruit in 2022 entitled "Gone at Dawn."

"The Investigation into her disapperance heated up after a 20/20 episode when a new tip led local police to share a long-hidden clue," said a sneak-peek of the new Hulu docuseries that aired on ABC's "GMA" show on June 27.

"'Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit' breathes news life into one of the country's most haunting unsolved mysteries," ABC News said.

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The Bemidji Pioneer | Bemidji, Minnesota

Minnesota on track for above above-average tornado season

McIntosh, Fosston Public Libraries to host Prairie Public's Learning Express Trailer

Bemidji Speedway driver Lily Knute has family ties to the track

Bemidji outlasts Fergus Falls, takes both games on the road

Beltrami County Emergency Management issues Thursday storm update

Beltrami County Board hears updates on storm recovery process

When Bemidji called for help, local and statewide firefighters answered

Disaster Relief Grants available for local nonprofits

Lueken's Village Foods provides roughly 1,200 meals in wake of storm recovery

Bemidji-area power companies report full restoration following widespread outages

Post-storm resource center open through July 2 in downtown Bemidji

Concordia Language Villages weather the storm, power outage with only tree damage

Gov. Walz declares Peacetime Emergency for Beltrami County following storm

Weekly Fishing Report: Fish are biting as July gets underway

Bemidji Speedway racers find some sense of normalcy as Sunday races resume

Centaurs shed stunning loss to split doubleheader with Perham

Sanford Health Column: What is an Advanced Practice Provider?

House passes sweeping tax-cut and spending bill

Red, White and Boom fireworks offer dazzling display over Lake Bemidji

Medicaid cuts loom for hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners in ‘big, beautiful bill’

From the Archives: July 2 in the Pioneer

Bemidji Public Library book sale rescheduled to July 14-17

New Minnesota law lifts hot tub regulations for short-term rentals

Lawsuit challenges new Minnesota law requiring jails to continue inmates’ medications

Child influencer protections, motorcycle lane splits and more: New laws taking effect July 1 in Minnesota

Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman, husband remembered for humility, humanity

Bill requiring opiate antagonists on public campuses passes

Northwest Minnesota Foundation offering Training and Education Fund grants

Students in the news, June 28

Duluth man charged with fatally stabbing wife over the weekend

Grand Meadow chiropractor accused of sexual contact with a client

Judge postpones hearing for Vance Boelter over living condition concerns

‘Completely blindsided’: Wife of Minnesota lawmaker shooting suspect releases statement

Bemidji trap shooters snipe their way to nationals under first-year head coach

Former UND coach Mike Stromberg brings swimming camp to Bemidji pool

Best of the Jacks: The Pioneer’s top 2024-25 moments from each Bemidji High �������� team

Bemidji State opts out of NCAA House settlement; keeping options open

Bowen and Thomas relish in communal support at BSU’s 48th Gordy Skaar gathering

3 Beavers named to CSC All-District Team

BSU announces 10th annual Alumni/Friends/Family Weekend

Women United Impact Breakfast set for July 10

Boreas Skate's skateboard contest rescheduled to July 12

Bagley Public Library to host Headwaters Science Center

Blackduck Senior Center membership meeting set for July 8

Bemidji Jaycees' 81st Annual Water Carnival kicks off with Merriam’s Midway

Bemidji Area Church Musicians Summer Recital Series continues July 9

Brainerd family builds a place where nostalgia never grows old

After 6 years, Two Harbors lighthouse beacon will again sweep across Lake Superior

Big Bog State Recreation Area to host July programs

Northland Outdoors Forecast: A Hot and Humid 4th of July with Evening T-Storms

Bemidji Business Rebuild Program launched in wake of storm

Strawberry season is slower but just as sweet at Country Blossom Farm

Bemidji Chamber Ambassadors congratulate Something New Salon

Chamber Ambassadors congratulate Up North Canvas Company

LaDuke: Be a patriot to the land

Here's hoping that the 'storm of a lifetime' lives up to its label

Support Within Reach: Making a difference in our community for sexual violence survivors

Finding Faith: The spirit in other people's joy

Operation Dry Water targets impaired boating during July 4 weekend

Beer: Guided by the pros, a lake trout lesson on the Fort Peck Reservoir

Blane Klemek Outdoors: How do birds survive harsh windstorms?

80 years after his death in World War II, remains of Minnesotan's father finally identified

Did he or didn’t he? History wrestles with legend of Jesse James’ jump over Devil’s Gulch

50th annual Hangfires' Blackpowder Rendezvous set for June 13-15 in Bemidji

Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig students attend Culture Camp

Shaynowishkung's life and legacy honored during statue's 10th anniversary ceremony

Bipartisan PROTECT Act aims to combat drug trafficking in tribal communities

Judge hears bid to again overturn 1986 Nancy Daugherty murder conviction

Minnesota's oldest listed missing persons case: What happened to the three Klein brothers?

New Hulu docuseries to re-examine Jodi Huisentruit case

Best of the Jacks: The Pioneer’s top 2024-25 moments from each Bemidji High �� team