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Birkebeiner ski race changes course due to lack of snow
Crews are racing against the clock to make and move snow onto a modified 12 km lap trail rather than the traditional 55 km point-to-point trail
HAYWARD, Wis. — On a normal year, the snow-packed main street of Hayward, Wisc., is packed with thousands of people watching the finish of the American Birkebeiner cross-country ski races.
This year, on the Birkie’s 50th anniversary, there isn’t a flake of snow in Hayward. And at the starting line at Mt. Telemark, there isn’t a flake of natural snow either.
“Every single snowflake you see up here has been made,” said executive director Benn Popp. “We think of snowy northern Wisconsin — we’ve had 14 inches of snow this year.”
In one week, the Birkebeiner ski races begin, and Popp says it is a race against the clock until then.
“By mid-January, it was full-on, holy cow, there is really a good chance there is no natural snow,” he said of the event planning.
On the coldest days, the crews made snow and piled it as high as they could. And now they are spreading it, one truckload at a time, along the trail they will use for this year’s races. A process hampered by the most recent warm-up.
“So they really got compressed down to literally 9 or 10 days to move nearly 12 kilometers of snow out to ski trails,” Popp said.
Instead of a 55-kilometer point-to-point trail, the skiers will do laps around a 12-kilometer track. The races will be spread out over five days so skiers of different skill levels aren’t running into each other. That’s important because a big highlight will be World Cup skiers like Jessie Diggins taking part.
“I mean you are right next to the best athletes in the world, skiing on the same course at the same time – so it’s really kind of a dream come true for a lot of skiers,” Popp said.
Despite the shortened race length, Popp says they’re expecting 15,000 skiers and 25,000 spectators — with hopes they will support the local economy.
“The event is so much more than a ski race. It’s actually the coming together of this whole outdoor community, what does it mean to live an active outdoor lifestyle, so the show must go on,” Popp said.
The Birkie has been canceled twice in its history, because of rain-outs.
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“You’ll find your purpose,” Illona said. “No matter what, you’ll find your purpose.”
RED LAKE, Minn. — A Red Lake Anishinaabe family is making waves — literally and figuratively — through a story of bravery, heritage and the power of Girl Scouts.
For three generations of the Delaney family — grandmother Charlene, mother Erin and daughter Illona — each day is a lesson in courage and connection.
“We are three very intelligent women who are passionate,” said Charlene.
That passion came to life in a harrowing moment at Big Marine Lake in Scandia.
During a family outing, Charlene jumped into the water, only to realize she couldn’t swim back to the pontoon.
“I thought myself a fairly good swimmer,” Charlene said. “But the pontoon was getting further and further away. I didn’t think I was going to make it back.”
Erin quickly jumped into the water, determined to save her mother. But her panic put them both in danger.
“I remember yelling, ‘I’m drowning!’” Erin recalled. “Her face, I will never forget its color and how it looked and sounded like gurgling when the water was going across her face.”
It was Illona, then just 16 years old, who saved them both.
“I didn’t think — just do,” Illona said. “If you hesitate, you risk more of a chance they’re going to die.”
Illona dove into the water with precision, forming a chain to bring her mother and grandmother to safety. Her bravery earned her the Girl Scouts’ prestigious Bronze Cross, making her the first Indigenous recipient in the local council’s history.
“Thinking about it now, it wasn’t a miracle,” Erin said. “It was courage and determination.”
But Illona’s impact didn’t stop there. She created a lake safety program for tribal health, teaches youth swimming lessons at the YMCA, and is working on her Girl Scouts Gold Award to educate communities statewide about water safety.
“You’ll find your purpose,” Illona said. “No matter what, you’ll find your purpose.”
Once Illona achieves her Gold Award, she will join the ranks of her mother and grandmother, officially making her the third generation in Girl Scouting.
Her efforts have already inspired many. One young swimmer told her, “I want to be a lifeguard.”
“Water is life, and everything circles around water,” Illona said, reflecting on her heritage and mission.
The YMCA where Illona works received a grant to support swimming lessons for special needs and refugee families following recent drownings in those communities.
In a story of courage, connection and culture, this family’s journey serves as a powerful reminder: Even small ripples can create waves of impact.
According to the indictment, the 300 pints of promethazine with codeine that the men allegedly bought and sold, have an approximate street value of $750,000.
MINNEAPOLIS — Three Minnesota men are facing federal charges for allegedly hacking the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) practitioners and physicians’ system, known as RICS, and ordering at least 300 pints of promethazine with codeine.
The federal indictment charges Oscar Becerra-Ruiz, Jasper William Johnson, and Raujaun Keon Varner, all ages 19 to 23, with conspiracy to acquire and obtain controlled substances by fraud, 11 counts of wire fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft.
According to the indictment, from December 2022 to August 2023, the three men stole physicians’ information to set up customer accounts in the physicians’ names with several online pharmaceutical wholesalers. Then, prosecutors say, they placed dozens of orders of promethazine with codeine, had them shipped to fake physicians’ offices across Minnesota and Wisconsin, and sold them here and across the U.S.
According to the indictment, the 300 pints have an approximate street value of $750,000.
A spokesperson for the DEA confirmed that no patient information was compromised in the security breach.
According to court records, all three men were previously convicted of various misdemeanors. KARE 11 reached out to the lead defense attorney on the case who declined to comment at this time.
The company is predicting lower profits in early 2025 as it aims to attract customers with better value.
MINNEAPOLIS — General Mills is promising more deals and promotions across several of its brands in the months ahead, as the company works to boost sales and hold onto price-conscious (and inflation-wary) customers.
“It’s clear that — from the beginning of the year until now… we’ve seen more prolonged value-seeking behavior (from consumers) than we anticipated back in June,” said General Mills CEO, Jeff Harmening, in a call with investors on Wednesday.
The company is now lowering its profit outlook for the rest of the fiscal year, expecting operating profits to fall 2% to 4%, as it expands short-term price cuts and promotions on items like Totino’s Pizza Rolls, fruit snacks and refrigerated baked goods.
“They’ve always done promotions, so I think what this means is that they’re gonna do promotions a little bit more broadly, but they’re still not prepared to actually uh drop the top line prices,” said professor George John, who is the General Mills-Gerot Chair in Marketing at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management. “I may hold the General Mills Chair in marketing but I’ve never had any pressure from them to support them.”
John says he’s not sure the efforts announced by General Mills will be enough to combat a larger trend he’s seen play out for more than a decade.
“Our habits have changed,” John said. “That’s number one. Yes, this is a tactical move it’ll make some difference, but it’s not gonna solve the fundamental problem of the loss of prominence of breakfast cereal.”
Despite General Mills owning 45 different brands that cover everything from dog food to Dunkaroos, John says cereal is still central to the success or failure of the company and if you combine the general public’s changing views on taste and nutrition, with economic shifts like inflation and how we shop, he has deeper concerns.
George John: “I look at one thing in all these annual reports sales because everything else is subject to my competent brothers and sisters in accounting. Sales you can’t fiddle too much and sales have been just beating inflation, which means in real terms it’s stagnant. In organic volume, which means number of physical units shipped, it’s been going down. So that’s the basic picture. Which is not a pretty picture. “
Kent Erdahl: “Having said that, General Mills isn’t just a company behind the labels in the grocery store, it’s a major employer in our area. We’ve seen several of our big corporations cutting back recently (some announcing layoffs). Are you concerned about that?”
George: “Oh, terribly. I see this every semester. My students I teach are looking for internships and jobs. The anecdotal picture on jobs in our area is a lot grimmer than the the statistics show. I just see it in the faces of my students looking.
It’s tough and it’s toughest on people trying to enter the labor force. There are a bunch of different reasons for that, but when you slow down the growth, that’s what happens. You don’t need to hire, you’re mostly trying to do efficiency cuts and things like that. That’s not just General Mills. I’d say – generally speaking – our metro areas sort of, um, been caught in that rut.”
