Star Tribune
Travel still tough as snow continues to fall, but the end is in sight
Winter’s late arrival in the Twin Cities and across much of Minnesota held its grip on the state for a third straight day Tuesday, leading some schools to close and making for white-knuckle driving for motorists who ventured out on icy and snow-covered roads.
By midday, traffic crept along on Twin Cities freeways still littered with a rash of crashes and spin-outs that started during the morning commute as rain with a little sleet tossed in turned to snow and the mishaps continued throughout the day.
“Winter weather is not leaving us yet,” said Anne Meyer, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. “It’s tricky for travel, messy right now, but it’s going to get better.”
Things may get a bit worse before the sun comes out on Wednesday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brennan Dittman. Winds were expected to pick up Tuesday afternoon and blow around the 1 to 3 inches of fluffy snow that has already fallen by noon, maintaining the prospect for a rough afternoon and evening commute as visibilities drop.
New Hope called a snow emergency going into effect at 2 a.m. Wednesday to give crews a chance to clear away several inches of snow that fell on back-to-back days. Other cities could follow its lead. But neither Minneapolis nor St. Paul had called a snow emergency as of noon Tuesday.
The State Patrol has several emergencies of its own to respond to. In the 24-hour period that ended at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, the State Patrol had responded to 158 crashes and 138 spinouts across the state. Another 15 semi-trailer trucks jackknifed, the patrol said.
At noon, troopers and tow trucks were on the scene of more than 20 incidents, including a trio of crashes and spin-outs on I-35W between the Minnesota River and I-494 in Bloomington, the Minnesota Department of Transportation traffic cameras showed.
Monday’s rain prevented MnDOT from pretreating the roads, allowing for the rapid onset of slick conditions as temperatures dipped, Meyer said.
“We saw everything out there, and what each version of precipitation does to the roads,” Meyer said.
Side streets and lesser-traveled roads were not faring much better than highways. Metro Transit said 40% of buses were running behind schedule at 11:45 a.m. The average delay was 7 minutes.
Operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport were hampered a bit, too. By noon, 156 flights leaving the Twin Cities had been delayed, but none canceled, according to the flight tracking website Flightaware.com.
Students in dozens of districts were told to stay home. Minneapolis called off all after-school activities and in-person and online adult education classes on Tuesday. In St. Paul, the district scrubbed after-school activities.
A winter weather advisory remained in effect for the Twin Cities and central Minnesota until Tuesday afternoon, while a storm warning continued in northern Minnesota where more than 6 inches of snow was expected.
The storm that has delivered almost as much snow to the metro in three days as had fallen all season was slowly wrapping up. A low pressure system lifting into Canada will allow skies to clear and bring peeks of sun Wednesday, Dittmann said.
But with that “it’s going to feel pretty cold,” he said. Temperatures will make it feel more like January as they fall through the 20s to a low of 11 degrees by Wednesday night.
In St. Cloud, another 2 to 6 inches of snow was expected Tuesday. Similar amounts were expected in Brainerd, Hibbing, Duluth and along the North Shore, the weather service said.
More rain and snow is possible the rest of the week, but high temperatures will moderate into the 40s Friday through Monday. Thermometers might surpass 50 degrees by the end of next week.
“We need the moisture, and hopefully it will kickstart the blooming and growing season,” Dittmann said.
Mohamed Omar is the new board chair of Hennepin Healthcare System, the organization that runs HCMC, making him Minnesota’s first Somali American hospital board leader.
The health care system board permanently appointed Omar to the position Wednesday at their regular meeting. He had served as interim chair since Babette Apland stepped down in September.
Omar has been on the volunteer board for three years, working on the finance, investment, audit and compliance committees. He is the chief administrative officer at the Washburn Center for Children and previously was chief financial officer at the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund.
In a statement, Omar said he was excited to lead a hospital board in the state with the largest Somali American population in the U.S. He said he shared the health system’s dedication to providing “equitable, high-quality care.”
“My commitment is to deepen our community engagement, build more authentic connections between patients and team members, and build a confident future together,” Omar’s statement said.
CEO Jennifer DeCubellis and Nneka Sederstrom, chief health equity officer, praised Omar’s selection to lead the board. They said more inclusive leadership with a commitment to ending health disparities are key to HCMC’s success.
Hennepin County Board Chair Irene Fernando, who is also on health system board, said she was excited to work with Omar. She said county leaders are dedicated to good stewardship of the “state’s last public safety-net hospital.”
“As the first Hennepin County Board Chair of color, I know how impactful it is for our communities to see themselves represented in public leadership,” Fernando said.
DULUTH – The Superior National Forest has lifted its forestwide campfire ban, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, effective Friday.
Recent rain and humidity have improved conditions across the national forest’s 3 million acres, forest officials said in a news release.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has also lifted fire restrictions in Cook, Koochiching, Lake and northern St. Louis counties.
Fire danger is still a concern this time of year, said Karen Harrison, DNR wildfire prevention specialist.
“As leaves fall and vegetation continues to dry out, it’s important for people to be cautious with anything that can cause a spark,” she said.
The national forest imposed its broad campfire ban nearly two weeks ago, after a third wildfire, named for Bogus Lake, was discovered on forest land. No significant fire activity has been reported in recent days for any of those three fires. A fourth fire inside the forest, the 8.5-acre Pfeiffer Lake Fire, started Oct. 17. It was contained within 24 hours, the Forest Service said.
Much of northeast Minnesota is still classified in the “severe drought” stage by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris was asked this week if she thought Donald Trump was a fascist, and she replied ‘’Yes, I do.’’ She subsequently called him the same thing herself, saying voters don’t want ‘’a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.’’
But what exactly is a fascist? And does the meaning of the word shift when viewed through a historical or political prism — especially so close to the end of a fraught presidential race?
An authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is often associated with the far right and characterized by a dictatorial leader who uses military forces to help suppress political and civil opposition.
History’s two most famous fascists were Nazi chief Adolf Hitler in Germany and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Known as Il Duce, or ”the duke,” Mussolini headed the National Fascist Party, which was symbolized by an eagle clutching a fasces — a bundle of rods with an axe among them.
At Mussolini’s urging, in October 1922, thousands of ”Blackshirts,” or ”squadristi,” made up an armed fascist militia that marched on Rome, vowing to seize power. Hitler’s Nazis similarly relied on a militia, known as the ”Brownshirts.” Both men eventually imposed single-party rule and encouraged violence in the streets. They used soldiers, but also fomented civilian unrest that pit loyalists against political opponents and larger swaths of everyday society.
Hitler and Mussolini censored the press and issued sophisticated propaganda. They played up racist fears and manipulated not just their active supporters but everyday citizens.
