Star Tribune
Mosquitos are getting an early start, but numbers may be down this year
Get that insect repellant ready. Blood-sucking mosquitoes are already out searching for a meal.
A lack of snowmelt and scant precipitation combined with unseasonable warmth has the first batch of the buzzing insects taking flight, bringing on the swatting and slapping season about a month early in a year when everything weather-related seems to be way ahead of schedule.
“We have had reports of adult mosquitos flying around and that is not surprising,” said Alex Carlson, a spokesman with the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District, the agency tasked with keeping the population suppressed. “They come out of hibernation when the weather warms up.”
Their early emergence doesn’t mean there will be a bumper crop of the pests this year. Early indications suggest far fewer mosquitos this season, a big change from last year when a spring surge pushed numbers well above the 10-year average in the metro for the first half of the summer.
“Earlier, but not as abundant,” Carlson said. Of course, the prediction is weather dependent, and a soggy April “could have them thriving everywhere.”
The agency uses a scale it has devised to determine when to begin treating about 200,000 acres of wetlands, ponds and marshes in the metro area. Each spring, the scale uses a formula that assigns one point for every degree the high temperature at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport rises above 40. A high temperature of 56 degrees, for example, would result in 16 points for the day.
When the total reaches 200, the district begins dropping pellets containing a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, or Bti, into the water. The pellets have a texture resembling Grape-Nuts cereal. Larvae ingest the pellets, killing them on the spot, the MMCD says.
The pellets are not harmful to humans or other animals, Carlson told the Star Tribune last year.
By the end of the week, Carlson said the scale would be at about 114, and at the current pace would reach the “magic number” by the first week of April.
That has the MMCD working to get seasonal staff hired, trained and out into the field about two weeks earlier than in most years, Carlson said.
To aid its fight against mosquitos, the MMCD two years ago used a drone to drop pellets in hard-to-reach places. This year the agency is adding two more drones and will use them in Anoka, Hennepin and Carver counties, Carlson said.
The MMCD found its first mosquito larva on Feb. 26 in Burnsville, something that didn’t happen last year until April, Carlson said.
Anoka County in the north metro is expected to have the most mosquitoes this year due to its numerous swamps and insect-producing habitat. Lower concentrations can be expected elsewhere across the seven-county area, the MMCD said.
Minnesota has 52 species of mosquitoes, with snowmelt variety the first to come out, and they will be coming, Carlson said.
“Now is the time to start taking preparations, dump standing water and get the bug spray ready,” he added.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
Star Tribune
Biden calls out Musk over a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked in the US illegally
NEW YORK — President Joe Biden slammed Elon Musk for hypocrisy on immigration after a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked illegally in the United States. The South Africa-born Musk denies the allegation.
”That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker here. No, I’m serious. He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. And he’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?” Biden said while campaigning on Saturday in Pittsburgh at a union hall.
The Washington Post reported that Musk worked illegally in the country while on a student visa. The newspaper, citing company documents, former business associates and court documents, said Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California in 1995 for a graduate program at Stanford University “but never enrolled in courses, working instead on his startup. ”
Musk wrote on X in reply to a video post of Biden’s comments: ”I was in fact allowed to work in the US.” Musk added, ”The Biden puppet is lying.”
Investors in Musk’s company, Zip2, were concerned about the possibility of their founder being deported, according to the report, and gave him a deadline for obtaining a work visa. The newspaper also cited a 2005 email from Musk to his Tesla co-founders acknowledging that he did not have authorization to be in the U.S. when he started Zip2.
According to the account, that email was submitted as evidence in a now-closed California defamation lawsuit and said that Musk had apllied to Stanford so he could stay in the country legally.
Musk is today the world’s richest man. He has committed more than $70 million to help Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other GOP candidates win on Nov. 5, and is one of the party’s biggest donors this campaign season. He has been headlining events in the White House race’s final stretch, often echoing Trump’s dark rhetoric against immigration.
Trump has pledged to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.
The only debate between DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and GOP challenger Royce White started Sunday on the street outside WCCO Radio.
As White approached the building, he loudly called some two dozen flag-waving and cheering Klobuchar supporters a “whole lot of commies.” The 33-year-old provocateur and podcaster also told them to thank Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney — who endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — because there was “no chance in hell” that Harris would defeat Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
Klobuchar, 64, had arrived moments earlier, smiling and wishing “good morning” to her supporters. Once inside, the two took questions for an hour from moderator Blois Olson. Their tone was generally polite with White often interrupting a Klobuchar response with, “rebuttal,” indicated he wanted to respond.
The senator repeatedly raised White’s claims on X, formerly Twitter, that “The bad guys won in World War II” and that there were “no good guys in that war.” She called that stance offensive to veterans.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar arrives at WCCO Radio for a debate with Royce White in Minneapolis on Sunday, Oct. 27. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii)
Klobuchar, who is seeking a fourth six-year term, portrayed herself as a pragmatist. She opened by saying that we live in “incredibly divisive times politically” but that she has listened and worked with Republicans to bring down shipping costs, drug prices for seniors and to help veterans and push for more housing and child care.
“Courage in this next few years is not going to be standing by yourself yelling at people,” she said, her opening allusion to White’s rhetoric, which she said is often vulgar.
White, a former NBA player, is a political novice, but a close ally of Steve Bannon, the jailed former chief strategist for Trump and right wing media executive. Last summer, White won the state GOP endorsement to run against Klobuchar.
“Our country’s coming undone at the seams. I think we can change that,” White said in his opening statement. He said he threatens the status quo, decried the “permanent political class” and referred to the two major parties as the “uniparty.”
