Star Tribune
Have millennials finally caught up economically with earlier generations?
Millennials, born from 1981 to 1996, are doing better than expected these days. The trick now, though, is for them to take advantage of their improved economic prospects to create a financial margin of safety against bad times and sufficient savings to fund calculated risks when opportunities emerge.
Millennials have been called the “unluckiest generation” and the “lost generation.” They entered the labor market during a series of tough economic moments, including the bursting of the housing market bubble, the 2008-09 recession and a long period of stagnant wages. They were burdened by unprecedented levels of student loans. Homeownership seemed out of reach for many.
Millennials were widely predicted to be the first generation to be worse off than their parents.
What a difference a few years can make.
A recent report by three scholars at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College notes that “virtually all the earlier shortfall between millennials and earlier cohorts in labor market activity, marriage, and homeownership has disappeared.”
A similar story unfolds with wealth. Millennials ages 28 to 31 in 2019 were substantially behind the wealth accumulation of previous cohorts. The Center for Retirement Research study — ”Is the Retirement Picture for Millennials Looking Better?” — highlights that three years later, when this group was 31 to 41 years old, millennials had pulled far ahead of earlier cohorts, mostly thanks to the combination of homeownership and retirement savings plans.
Specifically, homeownership amounted to 63% of the gain in median net worth. The strong stock market also helped since some 60% of millennials own equities (mainly in retirement accounts), a much larger share than the 48% of Gen Xers and 37% of late boomers at the same age.
The Minneapolis school board on Tuesday night appointed Lucie Skjefte, chair of the district’s American Indian Parent Advisory Committee, to fill the vacant District 3 board seat in the city’s center.
Her selection ultimately came down to chance.
Skjefte emerged from earlier ranked-choice voting in a tie with Fatimah Hussein, and the two then deadlocked, 4 to 4, in a live board vote before a coin was flipped in Skjefte’s favor.
They were among four finalists to succeed Faheema Feerayarre, who resigned in September, too late for the seat to be placed on the November ballot.
The move throws two new members into the mix as the school board works to erase an anticipated budget deficit and dig into a “transformation process” that could include closing and merging schools.
Greta Callahan, a former president of the teachers chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, won election last week to the District 6 seat.
During an appearance before board members last Thursday, Skjefte, who is a Red Lake tribal member, spoke of her work as an Indigenous graphics designer and as director of operations for the Mni Sota Fund, a community development group that seeks to empower Native people.
She said she’d aim to “reach out and create spaces for every voice, especially for those from historically marginalized communities.”
Star Tribune
What to know about Forest Lake’s Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to serve as defense secretary
In picking Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense, President-elect Donald Trump has selected a military veteran and popular conservative media personality with a large following of his own.
Hegseth, 44, has developed a close rapport with Trump, who also reportedly considered him for a post in his first administration. Hegseth has lobbied Trump to release service members accused of war crimes.
Here are a few things to know about Hegseth.
He’s a Fox News personality and author
Co-host of Fox News Channel’s ”Fox & Friends Weekend,” Hegseth has been a contributor to the network for a decade. He developed a friendship with Trump through the president-elect’s regular appearances on the show. In a statement, a Fox News spokesperson complimented Hegseth’s military knowledge, saying his ”insights and analysis especially about the military resonated deeply with our viewers.”
He’s also written a number of books, several for the network’s publishing imprint, including ”The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.” In announcing Hegseth’s nomination, Trump complimented that book, noting its ”nine weeks on the New York Times best-sellers list, including two weeks at NUMBER ONE.”
Hegseth has served in the military, although he lacks senior military or national security experience.
Election offices in more than half of Minnesota’s counties have been targeted with emailed bomb threats since Nov. 8, the office of the Secretary of State said Tuesday.
The threats come as election workers are still in the process of verifying the results of the 2024 election.
In a statement, Secretary of State Steve Simon said his office is coordinating with local, state and federal partners to “ensure that our election officials can complete this important work and that those responsible for these threats are held accountable.”
“Threats of violence against election workers, aimed at disrupting our democracy, are absolutely unacceptable,” he said.
Turnout was high in Minnesota in 2024, but it was lower compared to the 2020 presidential election.
Unofficial 2024 results show about 76% of registered voters cast a ballot, down from the record-breaking 79.96% turnout in 2020, the office of the Secretary of State said last week.
The unofficial results, however, are higher than the 74.72% turnout recorded in 2016.
