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Flooded St. Croix River forces marinas to delay start of boating season

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The high waters of the St. Croix River mean the spring boating season will likely be delayed, perhaps by up to a month, as marinas have been forced to hold off on launching the vessels in their care.

Some marinas in Stillwater, Afton and Hudson, Wis., have had to build temporary berms to protect their offices, while others have had no choice but to let the river run through their property. It’s not fun, marina managers said, but it’s not unexpected at any of the longtime businesses that the river sometimes takes control of the calendar.

“It’s a flood,” said Ken Wolf of Wolf Marine in Stillwater, adding that his third-generation marina has been through the routine before.

The marinas along the Lower St. Croix have had to contend with rising waters this month as the river reached 89.26 feet this week, more than 2 feet above flood stage. The National Weather Service forecast says river levels should fall for several days into next week but could still be a foot above flood stage Wednesday.

At Sunnyside Marina just south of Stillwater, boat lift operators should be launching some 40 boats a day this week. But with the river about 15 feet higher than normal, marina staff have had to build a temporary berm to ensure the marina’s office stays dry, general manager Rick Chapman said.

“We can’t lift boats because the lift is 3 feet underwater,” he said.

The marina typically tries to have all of its boats launched by Memorial Day, but that’s unlikely this year. Even if the marina can start launching around May 8, it would take five weeks of putting eight boats in the river a day to take care of everyone.

For now, Chapman monitors the flood and keeps Sunnyside’s members informed of the marina’s plans. “We look at this a million times a day,” he joked, holding up the National Weather Service website on his phone.

Even with the delays, Chapman said he considers the marina lucky because it sits on high ground and none of the boats stored on land for the winter is in danger of floating away.

The summer boating season has also been pushed back at Afton Marina and Yacht Club Inc., where service manager Kris Symanietz praised her staff for its hard work to keep boats safe. The marina’s lower elevation meant most of their boats had to be put into the river to prevent the flood from lifting them off of their winter storage spots and possibly carrying them away. Symanietz said marina staff put in 12-hour days through snowy and cold conditions to get some 160 boats into slips and tied up before the flood hit.

Once the water recedes a bit more, the service crews will start “summerizing” the boats, which generally means cleaning the engine and changing oil and filters. In a more typical year, the marina would have started launching boats April 17.

“We would be in our second week of launch right now,” Symanietz said.

At the Stillwater Marina on the north end of downtown Stillwater, about half of the boats have been launched. Those remaining have been moved to higher ground or left in a large metal barn, which sits a few feet above the river’s peak so far this year. The West Marine store at the marina wasn’t as lucky: It shut down with about a foot of water in the store. The business isn’t expected to open for at least a week, said an employee at West Marine’s Minnetonka location.

In Hudson, manager Jeff Holmes at the St. Croix Marina said “a great volunteer crew” helped build a 4-foot berm around the building to keep it dry during the flood. Yacht club staff moved 50 to 75 boats to higher ground and launched the rest before the flood arrived, he added.

“Now it’s more of a wait and see,” Holmes said.



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Kristi Noem’s Trump loyalty rewarded with top Homeland Security job

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Now, SoDak’s capital, Pierre, is approximately 1,100 miles from the Mexican border and some 589 miles from America’s best border crossing — Minnesota’s Northwest Angle. But what Noem lacks in qualifications, she more than makes up for in unhesitating, unquestioning, uncritical capitulation to Trump’s every whim. And Homeland Security will be the agency tasked with those mass deportations Trump promised on the campaign trail.

The infuriating idea that random rich guys could move American troops around like pawns on a chessboard if they threw enough money at a politician prompted Congress to ban the use of private funds for interstate guard deployments. A law that didn’t need to exist before Noem came along.

Her attempt to cover up the fact that she rented out 48 National Guard troops for a billionaire’s pet project cost South Dakota $42,000 to settle a lawsuit with the watchdog group that blew the whistle. The funds covered the legal costs to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington after the South Dakota National Guard stonewalled their request for public records on the stunt deployment. Those records also showed that even after the billionaire chipped in, South Dakota taxpayers had to pay an additional $500,000 for the deployment.

For five years, Kristi Noem placed Donald Trump’s wishes above the needs of her own state. This is her reward.



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Trump picks South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to serve as homeland security secretary

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President-elect Donald Trump has chosen South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) to serve as his homeland security secretary, picking another loyalist for a crucial role after he campaigned heavily on fortifying the border.

The selection was confirmed by people familiar with the choice who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a decision not yet made public. Spokespeople for Trump’s transition team and Noem did not respond to requests for comment.

As homeland security secretary, Noem would lead a sprawling federal bureaucracy with a $60 billion budget and more than 230,000 employees.

The role is key to Trump’s domestic policy agenda, especially given his pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and impose a crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border. Noem is the latest high-profile choice related to border security that Trump has made since defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election a week ago.

As well as customs, border and immigration enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security oversees the response to natural and man-made disasters, anti-terrorism work and cybersecurity. It also houses the Secret Service, which has been under scrutiny for months after the attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally this summer.

Trump took steps Monday toward his campaign promises to close the border to migrants and deport undocumented immigrants on a massive scale with two senior appointments to the incoming White House.

Trump announced that Tom Homan, former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, would serve as “border czar,” in charge of border security as well as deportations. Former speechwriter and campaign adviser Stephen Miller — who helped develop policies during Trump’s first administration, including the ban on travel from Muslim-majority countries and the separation of families at the border — is expected to become a deputy chief of staff.

Noem, a farmer and rancher, has served as South Dakota governor since 2019. She previously served as the state’s at-large member of Congress and in the state legislature.



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Mankato mosque says it was targeted by arsonist

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Members of a Mankato mosque say they’re asking for the public’s help after what they call a “brazen” attempted arson on Sunday.

A man held a lighter to leaves and brush at the Islamic Center of Mankato as children studied inside, said Abdi Sabrie, a cofounder and board member of the mosque.

“It was very intentional. … He wasn’t in a hurry,” Sabrie said in a call on Tuesday.

The arson attempt was unsuccessful, causing no injuries or significant damage. Attendees inside the mosque awaiting a midday prayer chased the man away, Sabrie said.

He said the man left on an expensive-looking fat-tired bicycle. Surveillance video shared by the Islamic Center of Mankato shows a man wearing a red and black jacket.

Members of the Islamic Center, as well as the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), are asking the public to provide the police with information on the suspected arsonist.

“We are deeply troubled by this incident and call for a thorough investigation to bring the perpetrator to justice,” said Jaylani Hussein, CAIR-Minnesota spokesman in a statement Monday.

Hussein said the incident marks the 40th attack on a mosque in Minnesota over the past three years. Among these incidents is a series of attacks on Muslim houses of worship. In 2023, one attack led to a St. Paul mosque being heavily damaged by fire.



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