Star Tribune
Coal ash spill in northern Minnesota was five times larger than first thought
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Minnesota Power now estimates that some 5.5 million gallons of water, siphoned off the top of a disposal site for coal ash, spilled through a cracked pipe outside its coal plant.
When the Duluth-based utility first reported the spill earlier this week, it had estimated that 1 million gallons of the tainted water had bubbled up from an underground pipe. The pipe sends the liquid back into the Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset, Minn., for re-use.
A “significant portion” of the water saturated the ground around the spill, the company now says. At least some of the water reached Blackwater Creek, flowing on to Blackwater Lake, a dammed section of the Mississippi River, according to Minnesota Power and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
“The updated spill volume does not change the spill mitigation and response activities underway at the site and has been reported to regulators,” the utility’s statement read.
It is not clear how concentrated the pollution in the spilled water is. It was sucked up from on top of a pond where the plant had previously deposited fly ash, or fine particles that are carried by flue gases, between 1980 and 2015.
“The MPCA remains focused on evaluating concentrations and extent of potential pollutants released and the impacts to soils, Blackwater Creek and Lake, aquatic life and wild rice beds,” the agency wrote.
Testing is underway for what contaminants might have spread from the spill, and MPCA said Friday that it had hired its own contractor for sampling and monitoring at the site.
Both MPCA and the utility said that sulfate, a mineral salt, has been found in levels above state limits in place to protect wild rice, but below levels of concern for drinking water. In addition to the sulfate, tests of the creek have also found higher levels of boron, an element that occurs in coal ash but that is not necessarily harmful to people who consume it.
Initial testing has not found mercury, arsenic and selenium, all common components in coal ash, from the area of the creek where contamination is highest, according to Minnesota Power’s statement.
MPCA and the Minnesota Department of Health have been evaluating downstream drinking water users, but almost all use wells. The next downstream community to draw its drinking water directly from the Mississippi River is St. Cloud, according to an MDH statement.
Cleanup crews on the site had already installed booms in the water and an earthen berm. Now, Minnesota Power said it plans to excavate tainted soil as part of its mitigation efforts. The area has been surveyed for cultural resources in consultation with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, which has reservation lands to the west of the spill site.
Star Tribune
Target slows store theft but at cost to shopping experience
“It is super inconvenient, and it also kind of destroys the shopping experience,” said Kate D. Gallagher, 30, of St. Paul, adding shopping at her nearby Midway Target can be a hassle with so many items under lock and key. “It feels like Target is treating its clients like criminals, and we’re not. We’re just customers.”
According to the National Retail Federation’s 2023 retail security survey, the average shrink rate for fiscal year 2022 was 1.6%, representing $112.1 billion in losses, an increase from the year prior but in line with 2020 and 2019. Shrink is made up of three main elements, per the survey: external theft, including organized retail crime; employee theft; and process, control failures, errors and other known and unknown problems.
To cut those losses, Target recently lowered its product value threshold for shoplifting intervention from $100 to $50. Many store employees avoid confronting thieves when there could be potential safety risks or large disturbances, but asset protection workers have specific training and protocol to help them make stops.
Fiddelke said smaller shrink was “one of the tailwinds” to Target’s recent profits, which shot up more than 40% in the past few months as compared to the same time last year.
Mueller lamented in an online review of his local Target how it “converted half the store into a museum of deodorant, toothpaste, laundry detergent, shampoos and vitamins.”
He — like Gallagher, who enjoys being able to freely compare products, look at ingredients and smell or feel items — will also venture to the suburbs for necessities. But not all shoppers will go out of their way after they are inconvenienced, said Brand Elverston, a risk mitigation consultant who used to work as an asset protection director at Walmart.
Star Tribune
As Gov. Walz campaigns across the country, how much time is he spending governing Minnesota?
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been campaigning almost nonstop since Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris selected him to be her running mate, leaving little time for him to spend at home governing.
The daily schedule published by the governor’s office has become repetitive since Walz was elevated to the presidential ticket on Aug. 6: “Governor Tim Walz has no public events scheduled,” the schedule has stated every day but two. On Aug. 12 and Aug. 26, Walz interviewed candidates for judicial vacancies.
Walz was back in Minnesota on Sunday for a brief visit to the State Fair. He told reporters he’s leaned on his team to help manage his schedule and balance his governor duties while on the campaign trail.
“We appointed three great judges last week in Ramsey County,” Walz said at the fair. He added that his team updates him throughout the day, and he goes over memos and speaks with commissioners every night.
The governor’s chief of staff, Chris Schmitter, and communications director, Teddy Tschann, have also joined the Harris-Walz campaign. Schmitter continues to work limited hours with the state, “ensuring the Governor always has the latest information from our office and cabinet,” said Claire Lancaster, the governor’s spokeswoman.
Lancaster said in a statement that “our office is still running as it always has — core functions haven’t changed.”
“The Governor is still meeting with staff, interviewing judges, and making decisions,” Lancaster said. “Our Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Carlbom has taken over day-to-day management of the office and Anne O’Connor continues to lead the cabinet.”
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Walz’s second-in-command, would become governor if he is elected to the White House in November. She said in an interview last week that she’s in frequent contact with Walz while he’s on the campaign trail. Even when he isn’t in Minnesota, Flanagan said Walz is making major decisions and steering the state.
Star Tribune
Weezer goes ‘Blue’ in latest Gen-X package tour to pack a Minnesota sports venue
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With all that going on, it wasn’t surprising the group seemed a little distracted and not fully strapped in upon takeoff on opening night. The crowd stood rather stone-faced in the opening song “II. Anonymous.” Frontman Rivers Cuomo — a notoriously unanimated bandleader — seemed especially wooden and distracted even as fans sang along with delight to “Dope Nose” and “Pork and Beans” early in the set.
What little talking Cuomo did between songs was also filled with less-than-stellar interstellar comments.
“We are 30 light-years out from ‘The Blue Album,’ ” he said near the start. “We are happy to be going back. Thank you for coming on this dangerous and important mission.”
Weezer saved its full “Blue Album” performance until the end, which worked out way better than the spacey banter. In the interim, it loosely worked its way backwards chronologically from 2000s-era hits such as ”Island in the Sun” and “Beverly Hills” to “Getchoo,” “Pink Triangle” and two more songs off what is actually the band’s best and weirdest album, 1996′s “Pinkerton.”
By the time Cuomo and Co. got to “My Name Is Jonas” to kick off the “Blue Album” segment, they were locked into orbit.
Of course, the band has been playing “Blue” tunes like “Buddy Holly” and “Say It Ain’t So” at all of its concerts since 1994, so no surprise those songs soared. But the guys also showed bursting energy in lesser-played album cuts like “The World Has Turned Against Me” and the lengthy, space-jammy closing song “Only in Dreams.” There was no encore after that — and nothing odd about that, either. Mission accomplished.