Star Tribune
First saltie of the season cruises under Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge
DULUTH — The first saltie of 2024 made its way beneath the Aerial Lift Bridge to the Port of Duluth-Superior just before noon Monday — the mark used every year to designate the start of a new shipping season.
The M/V Barbro G, under the flag of Portugal, was met by dozens of ship-watchers along the north pier in Canal Park, including a volunteer from the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center who waved an oversized red foam hand at the vessel as it easily cruised through swells in the canal. The 623-foot bulk carrier docked at the Ceres/Riverland Ag terminal at Rice’s Point to load 22,000 short tons of durum wheat that will go to Algeria.
“Despite our recent snowstorm, arrival of the season’s first full Seaway transit is a true sign of spring and a reminder of the economic impact these great ships help deliver to our region,” Deb DeLuca, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, said in a news release. “We’re excited to welcome Barbro G and share our Midwestern wheat cargo with the world via the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System.”
The Barbro spent the weekend offshore of Duluth before it eased in at 11:44 a.m. On Tuesday, the Duluth Seaway Port Authority and Visit Duluth will name the winner of the First Ship competition — the competitor who most closely guessed the time of arrival for the first saltie. About 8,000 people entered the contest in its 41st year.
The Barbro made the more-than-monthlong trip to Duluth from Egypt, according to officials at the maritime center who broadcast stats on vessels as they pass through the canal.
The interlake season has been active since the Poe Lock opened March 22. This is the second time in history that the first saltie arrived on April Fools’ Day. The Argosy was the port’s earliest-arriving vessel ever when it pulled in April 1, 1995, according to the Port Authority.
Star Tribune
Falcon Heights, St. Anthony renew police contract that ended following Philando Castile’s killing by police
Years after their contentious split, St. Anthony police officers will once again patrol the city of Falcon Heights.
St. Anthony had policed the neighboring suburb for more than 20 years until the two cities severed their agreement after Castile was killed during a 2016 traffic stop in Falcon Heights.
Ever since, Falcon Heights has been paying the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office to police the small city that surrounds the State Fairgrounds. But Sheriff Bob Fletcher has urged the city for years to find a more permanent arraignment. Sheriff’s deputies do not patrol any of the neighboring towns and suburbs around Falcon Heights, which makes the city difficult to staff with deputies often having to travel long distances to respond to emergencies, the Sheriff’s Office has said.
The city and the Sheriff’s Office first mutually agreed to part ways in 2021, but Falcon Heights couldn’t find another agency take over until now. The city of about 5,000 has long said that it would be impractical to try to create its own police force.
Falcon Heights Mayor Randy Gustafson said he is excited the city will once again have “a community-oriented policing model.”
“That’s something I’ve wanted to see returned and our community wanted to see returned,” he said. “And this gives us that chance.”
The contract will cost Falcon Heights roughly $1.8 million a year. St. Anthony officials estimate the department will need to add nine more officers and will ask for Falcon Heights’ financial help in upgrading its police facilities.
“We want to continue to be a welcoming, inclusive community,” Mayor Wendy Webstersaid. “And at the same time, we know we have a tremendous need for affordable housing.”
Webster and some on the council also said they were worried about project leaders not having immediate plans to build an outdoor playground, arguing that was a necessary amenity for children. And council members said the agreement must include plans to address the environmental condition on the site, which city leaders say has contamination issues.
“The thing I am most careful and concerned about is you are also buying a polluted piece of land. I want to make sure you are safe in your facilities,” Council Member Lona Doolan said, adding that “if it was any other property in our community, I wouldn’t have any hesitation or reservation.”
The council approved the rezoning request with several requirements, including that a playground be constructed within two years, and that the city receive plans for parking, staffing, and added landscaping, as well as environmental reports with proposals on addressing the pollution concerns.
Star Tribune
US confirms North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for training and possible Ukraine combat
WASHINGTON — The U.S. said Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, calling the move very serious and warning that those forces will be ”fair game” if they go into combat in Ukraine.
The deployment raises the potential for the North Koreans to join Russian forces in Ukraine and suggests expanded military ties between the two nations as Moscow seeks weapons and troops to gain ground in a grinding war that has stalemated after more than two years.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called it a ”next step” after the North has provided Russia with arms, and said Pyongyang could face consequences for aiding Russia directly. His comments were the first public U.S. confirmation of North Korea sending troops to Russia — a development South Korean officials disclosed but was denied by Pyongyang and Moscow.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. believes that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers traveled by ship to Vladivostok, Russia’s largest Pacific port, in early to mid-October.
”These soldiers then traveled onward to multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Kirby said. ”We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability.”
Kirby said they could go to western Russian and then engage in combat against Ukraine’s forces, but both he and Austin said the U.S. continues to assess the situation.
Exactly what the North Korean troops are doing in Russia was ”left to be seen,” Austin told reporters in Rome.
He added: ”If they’re co-belligerents, their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue, and it will have impacts not only in Europe, it will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific.”
