Star Tribune
Two Minnesota kids write their way to national recognition for cursive skills
Caden Baune, a fourth-grader from the southwest Minnesota town of Lamberton, is already a three-sport athlete at age 9. But it’s his skill on the printed page that’s won him national recognition.
Caden is this year’s Zaner-Bloser grand national champion among fourth graders in handwriting. The Red Rock Elementary student was selected as the fourth grader with the cleanest cursive handwriting in his school.
Cursive, for the record, is a style of penmanship where letters are connected in a flowing style, as opposed to block printing. It’s still taught in many schools, though not as widely as it once was.
He proceeded to win the Central Region and ultimately the Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest.
“It really proved that if you work hard, you can improve wherever you want to,” Baune said.
Believe it or not, Caden was not the only Minnesota student to win the award from Zaner-Bloser, an Ohio-based company that markets curriculum for elementary schools. In the fifth-grade category, 10-year-old Zita Miller of St. Anne’s Academy in White Bear Lake took the top prize.
Zita said she writes everything in cursive. But the stakes of the competition still felt high enough that she was a little nervous when it came time to put pen to paper. When she found out she won, she said, several emotions hit at once.
“I felt very nervous, excited and happy at the same time,” Zita said.
In her free time, Zita said, she likes to unleash her creative mind by writing stories and mysteries in a journal she keeps.
Caden said he practiced his cursive at home sparingly in the lead-up to the competition. Most of his training happened in the classroom. Even then, Caden said, he typically writes most assignments in regular print handwriting. But he signs all of his worksheets and homework in cursive.
Jodi Smith, Caden’s fourth-grade teacher, said her class learns the cursive alphabet, and each student learns to write their own name in cursive.
“Part of the goal is to help the students develop a signature,” Smith said
The Zaner-Bloser competition requires students to write “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” in cursive — a sentence that uses every letter in the English language and is regularly administered in handwriting and style tests. Caden said he got two tries, then asked to choose the one he liked best as his official submission.
“When I found out that I (won), I was very happy,” Caden said. “My mom and dad were very proud.”
His mother, Brittni Baune, said Caden’s tenacity carries him in his endeavors — whether that means competing in basketball, soccer or baseball, or with his twin sister, Keeley at home.
“If there is anything that has an award, Caden works very, very hard at it,” Brittni Baune said.
He’s not the only renowned writer to come out of Red Rock Elementary. Eight years before Caden was named a national champion, a student named Ella Erickson won the same award in the same category.
Erickson said she was exposed to “great handwriting” through her great-grandmother, who used to write her thank-you notes and birthday cards. Erickson’s mother encouraged her to write back.
Like Caden, Erickson is also a three-sport athlete. She plays varsity volleyball, basketball and softball at Red Rock Central High. Erickson said she loves to compete, and feels proud of the honor — but added that good handwriting also means she is usually the designated writer for group projects and presentations in class.
“It’s probably not the same as it used to be but I do still take pride in having nice handwriting,” Erickson said.
The Star Tribune put Caden’s writing ability to the test against two reporters and an editor during a Friday visit to the newsroom.
The four contestants ranged in age from 9 to 51; each were tasked with writing four sentences. It had been so long since some of the journalists had written in cursive that at least one of them found they had no recollection of how to pull of the unique uppercase F and G that cursive dictates.
A staff photographer who judged the competition said Caden was easily the best penman.
Star Tribune
4 months in jail for road rage attack in Lakeville that left victim permanently disabled
Henderson added that his health has steadily deteriorated since the attack, noting, “I now have issues with my speech, and my need for oxygen has become almost permanent. … My back hurts more than it ever has, often leaving me bed-ridden. … I struggle to walk even short distances due to the pain.”
Also speaking at sentencing was Sharon Henderson, who said of her husband, “The funny, joyful man I once knew is now a shadow of himself — sad and depressed, acutely aware that he has lost the best years of his life. … The laughter and light that once filled our lives have been replaced by sorrow, a daily reminder of what we once had.”
According to the criminal complaint:
The day after the attack, Henderson told police an SUV was closely following him after he had exited Interstate 35 at 210th Street W. After the two parked, the other driver confronted Henderson, yelled obscenities, accused him of cutting him off and threatened to beat him.
Beckett then ordered Henderson to go behind the Walmart, saying he wanted to be somewhere without surveillance cameras.
Henderson was with his mother-in-law and told her to go inside the store to get help.
Star Tribune
For the first time in years, Metro Transit could lower fares for most buses and trains
“Some of the proposed changes are really trying to address the post-COVID ridership trends and help encourage riders back on the system,” Linnell said.
In addition, eligibility for the Transit Assistance Program (TAP) for low-income passengers would be expanded from one year to two, meaning passengers won’t have to sign up every year. Launched in 2017, TAP features $1 rides for the nearly 4,800 people currently enrolled in the program.
Metro Transit may decrease peak fares during rush hour, the first fare change since 2017. (Janet Moore/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
If the proposal is adopted, annual fare revenue would drop $4.1 million. but ridership is projected to increase by about 926,000rides.
“We anticipate that we’ll still increase our revenue but it won’t increase quite as fast as anticipated,” said Dennis Dworshak, Metro Transit’s senior manager of revenue operations.
However, one member of the Met Council asked why fares weren’t being increased rather than decreased.
“It seems like we’re putting a lot of money into making a nice [transit] system, but it’s worth less and less and less to our customers, and that’s concerning to me,” said Wendy Wulff, who has served on the council since 2009 after being initially appointed by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty to represent the southern suburbs. (Members of the Met Council are appointed by the current governor.)
Star Tribune
Is it COVID or the flu? New tests can check for both.
Most of the new products are antigen tests, meaning they pick up on specific proteins in the viruses. Only one, made by Pfizer, is a molecular test, which is more sensitive because it searches for genetic material. That test is pricier, at around $40.
Many combination tests function just like regular at-home COVID tests: Typically you swab the inside of your nostril, dunk it in a solution and squeeze droplets of the mixture onto a test strip.
As with at-home COVID-only tests, the combination tests likely work best when you have symptoms. If you are vulnerable to COVID or the flu, you may want to test as soon as you feel ill, said Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Diego.
That’s because the antiviral medications that can reduce the risk of severe cases of COVID and the flu, like Paxlovid and Tamiflu, need to be taken early on.
It’s also crucial to test more than once with the combination tests, and at least 48 hours after the first try if the result is negative, said Nathaniel Hafer, an associate professor of molecular medicine at UMass Chan Medical School. The more you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus, the better your body gets at recognizing it, triggering symptoms as the immune system combats the infection. You can have a hacking cough and full-body fatigue for days before enough virus has built up in your nose to turn a test positive.
If your first test is negative, but your symptoms worsen within 48 hours, there’s an increased chance that you’re sick with COVID or the flu, Smith said.