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Michael E. Mann: There was global warming in prehistoric times. But nothing in millions of years compares with what we see today.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

“The climate is always changing!” So goes a popular refrain from climate deniers who continue to claim that there’s nothing special about this particular moment. There is no climate crisis, they say, because the Earth has survived dramatic warming before.Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy recently exemplified misconceptions about our planet’s climate past. When he asserted that “carbon dioxide as a percentage of the atmosphere is still at a relative low through human history,” he didn’t just make a false statement (carbon dioxide concentrations are the highest they’ve been in at least 4 million years). He also showed fundamentally wrong thinking around the climate crisis.What threatens us today isn’t the particular concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or the precise temperature of the planet, alarming as those two metrics are. Instead, it’s the unprecedented rate at which we are increasing carbon p...

Skywatch: October skies are loaded this year

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

There’s much going on this month for stargazers, including a solar eclipse. October is also a month of transition, with summer, autumn, and even winter constellations available through the night, along with three bright planets. On top of that, nights are getting longer, a stargazer’s dream.(Mike Lynch)Summer constellations are still putting on a show in the early evening western sky. Look for the bright stars Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp, Altair in Aquilla in the Eagle, and Deneb in Cygnus. The stars, Vega, Altair, and Deneb, make the Summer Triangle, an asterism that serves as a great tool to help you find your way around that part of the heavens.Another summer constellation holdout is Sagittarius the Archer, in the low southwest sky. According to Greek and Roman mythology, Sagittarius is supposed to be a centaur — half man, half horse — shooting an arrow. Good luck seeing that! Sagittarius much more resembles a teapot that’s very easy to see. If you’re star...

HealthPartners’ new Woodbury specialty center will bring care options, officials say

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

An architectural rendering of a $50.5 million new specialty center in Woodbury that HealthPartners broke ground on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023. The 55,000-square foot, two-story facility will be located on City Place Boulevard and is expected to be complete by winter 2024. The new facility will provide additional medical and surgical specialty care to the community. (Courtesy of HealthPartners)A new health center that recently broke ground in Woodbury will create 100 new jobs while adding to the health services available in the community, according to HealthPartners and city officials.The new HealthPartners specialty center, which was celebrated at a Sept. 19 groundbreaking, will focus on medical and surgical care as well as specialty needs, such as neurology, not available at other HealthPartners facilities in the immediate area. It joins the system’s other local facilities including HealthPartners Clinic Woodbury, TRIA Orthopedic Center and Melrose Center.“It’s an opportun...

Working Strategies: Business books for fall reading

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

Amy LindgrenIf you missed out on your end-of-summer reading, I have good news: Fall is here and there are more reading lists awaiting you. Today I’m providing a look at four books that touch on some aspect of improving business life. Each employs a different approach, coming from a different perspective than usual.“The Human Side of Innovation,” by Mauro Porcini, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2023. “Innovation is an act of love – or at least, it should be. Always.” Those are the opening words of this book which positions itself between two worlds – the historic version of innovation driven by “selfish” economic interests, and the version that places humanity first. From Porcini’s perspective, the transition away from the traditional innovation model is not optional but inevitable.In describing human-centered innovation, Porcini turns from MBA-touted processes, data and tools and toward the “visionaries and dreamers” who work from the desire to generate real value for other...

Literary calendar for week of Oct. 1

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

Curtis Chin (Courtesy of the author)CURTIS CHIN: Co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City and creator of social justice documentaries discusses his memoir “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant,” and talks about growing up Asian-American and queer as the son of Chinese restaurant owners in the Black and white city of Detroit. Free. Presented in conjunction with Twin Cities Japanese American Citizens League. 5 p.m. Friday, Oct, 6. Strive Publishing, 901 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Public Functionary Cafe, 1500 Jackson St. N.E., Mpls.; Sunday, Oct. 8, Minnesota History Center. 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul. Information about Chin at curtisfromdetroit.com.CAMILLE DUNGY: Reads from “Soil: The Story of a  Black Mother’s Garden,” about the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colo. When she and her family moved there in 2013, the communi...

A one-stop scary shop: Inver Grove Heights haunted house adds creepy escape rooms, mini-golf for year-round scares

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

Nicole Ross and her family used to decorate their home and yard so extensively for Halloween that limousines would line up to drive past it, she said. As their four children got bigger, so did the home haunting display.Now, Ross and her husband, Galen McKay, are part owners of Nowhere Haunted House in Inver Grove Heights along with Halloween enthusiasts Ian Knutson and Mike Reimer. Together, the four owners build sets, design costumes and — new this year — operate an eerie mini-golf course, arcade and unsettling escape rooms.The 13,000-square-foot indoor haunted house sits in an open warehouse-like space that used to be a Pawn America. The haunted house, which officially opened last fall, runs through Nov. 4 this year. To keep business coming in over the last year, Ross said they hosted seasonal haunts like “Cupid’s Revenge” and “Yule Scream,” which was centered around dark, but true, Christmas folklore.Their first season wasn’t as busy as they hoped, so this year to kee...

Real World Economics: Galbraith still has lessons for us

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

Edward LottermanThere are fads in thought as well as apparel. This week in 1967 was my first in basic training. Our platoon was given 20 minutes in a tiny PX to buy necessities. Besides Kiwi shoe polish, Brasso and Blitz clothes, we all bought pencil-thin ties to replace the 4-inch-wide ones issued. We might die in Vietnam, but we damned sure did not want the photo in our local newspaper to immortalize horribly bad taste.  All the while, fantasizing about co-eds in mini-skirts with hems six inches above the tops of white vinyl go-go boots would sustain our morale as we slogged through the cold rain of a Puget Sound winter.A newsmagazine from the PX described how Gardner Ackley, Lyndon Johnson’s head economic adviser, was being edged out because he had called for a tax increase to close deficits caused by the war. Higher taxes would slow the economy, but prevailing Keynesian economic theory prescribed that when unemployment was very low and prices were rising.A few months later, whil...

Delving into a four-way race for St. Paul’s Ward 3 city council seat

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

Macalester College student Troy Barksdale has centered his inaugural run for public office around his opposition to the city’s voter-approved rent-control ordinance, which in his view has failed to live up its objectives. That opinion is shared by Patty Hartmann, another candidate for the Ward 3 seat on the St. Paul City Council, who has worked as an attorney for 40 years.Based on professional experience alone, the candidates bookend a closely-watched four-way race in Ward 3, an open seat for the first time in 12 years. The ward spans Mac-Groveland, Highland Park and part of the West Seventh neighborhood.At a young age, fellow candidate Isaac Russell lived with his mother and siblings in shelter housing or stayed with relatives. He’s now a public policy director for the Center for Economic Inclusion, a downtown St. Paul-based think tank dedicated to economic growth and anti-poverty work for people of all races.Troy Barskdale, a candidate for the Ward 3 seat on the St. Pa...

Your Money: Looking ahead to the fourth quarter

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

Bruce Helmer and Peg WebbThe stock market continues to defy expectations. In 2022, Wall Street predicted that rising rates would cause another down year and likely lead to a recession. Instead, corporate earnings have proved to be resilient, the jobs market is robust, and core inflation, despite volatile gas and food prices, is generally subsiding to normal levels. Stocks have done much better than many imagined.So, how will 2024 unfold? We advise our clients to focus on what they can control. You cannot control the direction of the stock market. But by sticking to a well-constructed financial plan, you should be able to remove a lot of the stress from your decision-making. That’s the goal of today’s handy quarterly planning calendar.October is financial planning monthWhen the weather cools, it’s always a good time to focus on education — and learning how to secure your financial future. Mid-October is when the IRS typically announces changes to tax brackets, 401(k) plan contributio...

Sunday Bulletin Board: The Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John … and the Softball Lady!

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:19:39 GMT

Life as we know itTHE HAPPY MEDIUM writes: “Subject: That Which We Teach.“Once upon a time, I taught Vacation Bible School to children attending the little country church on the hill in rural Wisconsin. These children ranged from ages 6 to 12. If I recall, moms and dads dropped their children off at 9:00 in the morning and picked them up around 3:00 in the afternoon.“The emphasis this particular summer was the four gospels of the New Testament. Booklets were provided for each student to write answers to questions or take notes during the study. Each day we had good discussions about each gospel: what all four of them had in common and what were any differences.“We had brief breaks in the morning, with a noon lunch. Each child brought a lunch from home, which was a balanced meal, of course.“Following lunch, we played softball. Bases were established, and teams were formed. I joined in the games each day, sometimes as the everlasting pitcher. We all had a...