Star Tribune
Stinky plant at Gustavus blooms on the Fourth of July
ST. PETER, MINN. — The stench of rotting flesh mingled with Fourth of July smells like hotdogs on the grill and freshly mown grass on Independence Day in this college town.
The corpse flower burst into full bloom on the night of the Fourth, according to professors and staff at the Gustavus Adolphus College.
The flower, known as Gemini, follows a pattern in which the stinky plants at Gustavus keep opening up on American holidays, said Brian O’Brien, professor emeritus in chemistry at the college.
“They tend to do that, oddly enough,” O’Brien said.
The first corpse flower in Minnesota opened up at the college on Mother’s Day in 2007. Another opened up on Halloween night in 2013. Gemini’s genetic twin opened on Father’s Day this year.
And this year on the Fourth of July, Gemini’s flower spread upward and outward in vibrant hues of red and orange like a firework. “Like a burst in the sky,” O’Brien said.
The rare and endangered corpse doesn’t bloom on a schedule and only opens up for a few hours, often spending years or, at times, more than a decade gathering strength for its next appearance.
On Friday morning, the flower smelled like warm, rotting meat. Over the coming hours, the flower will start smelling like fecal matter, decaying fish and sauerkraut, O’Brien said.
Gemini is the third corpse flower bloom in Minnesota this year. The first was at the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory in May.
The biology department has set up a livestream for curious Minnesotans to watch the corpse plant, which will most likely start losing its luster by Friday afternoon before going back into dormancy.
Corpse flowers smell like rotting flesh to attract flies, beetles and other insects that can help spread pollen.
The flowers at Gustavus, like many corpse flowers across America, arrived as a batch of seeds from Indonesia in the 1990s as part of efforts to preserve the endangered species.
The flower that bloomed Thursday night is the genetic twin of the plant that bloomed at the college in June. The two plants used to be in one pot, even blooming together at one point, but their destinies have diverged over time.
“I think it’s a little bit worse than the other one,” O’Brien said of Thursday’s bloom, “in terms of smelling like rotting meat.”
A 7-year-old boy was left with life-threatening injuries after a driver reportedly hit him and then fled the scene in north Minneapolis on Saturday night.
The boy was skateboarding near the intersection of 33rd and Russell avenues N. near Cleveland Park when he was hit by a vehicle shortly before 8 p.m., police said.
Police responding to reports of a hit-and-run rendered medical aid until the boy could be transported to Hennepin County Medical Center. No further information about his condition was available Sunday afternoon.
Police are still trying to determine what happened at the scene, according to a statement sent to the media. A vehicle description was not included in the statement. No arrests have been made.
One man has been killed and a woman was left with life-threatening injuries after a Saturday night crash on Hwy. 12, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.
A motorcycle was travelling west on the highway around 7:45 p.m., just after the Carlson Parkway entrance, near Wayzata. The Harley Davidson struck a concrete curb and both riders, a man and a woman, were ejected from the vehicle, according to a State Patrol report.
The man, who was driving the motorcycle, was killed. The woman was transported to North Memorial Hospital with non life-threatening injuries. The incident report indicates that alcohol was involved in the crash. Neither person was wearing a helmet.
The collision closed the westbound section of the highway for several hours on Saturday.
Star Tribune
Walz says he’ll ‘own up’ when he misspeaks as the Democratic ticket steps up media interviews
WASHINGTON — Nearly a week after verbal stumbles in the only vice presidential debate, Democrat Tim Walz used his debut campaign appearance on a Sunday news show to try to fend off criticism of his stand on abortion rights and ‘’own up’’ to past misstatements.
The interview on ”Fox News Sunday” reflected a broader media blitz by presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate as the Democrats seek to garner public attention in the final 30 days of the campaign against Republicans Donald Trump and JD Vance.
Harris has taped an interview with CBS’ ”60 Minutes” that will air Monday night. She is booked Tuesday on Howard Stern’s satellite radio show, ABC’s ”The View” and ”The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert on CBS. Her interview on the podcast ”Call Her Daddy” is scheduled to be released later Sunday. Walz will be on Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC show on Monday.
Walz’s Fox appearance also touched on the turmoil in the Middle East, with anchor Shannon Bream pressing the Minnesota governor on whether Israel has a right to preemptively attack Iran’s nuclear and oil facilities in response to Tehran’s firing of missiles against Israel. It was a question that Walz did not fully answer during his debate this past week with Vance, an Ohio senator.
Walz said Sunday that “specific operations will be dealt with at the time.” He said Israel has a right to defend itself and that Harris worked with Israel this past week to repel the Iranian attack. President Joe Biden said last week he would not support an Israeli strike on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program.
Walz defended a law that he signed as governor to ensure abortion protections, saying it “puts this puts the decision with the woman and her health care providers.” He questioned the statement by Trump that he would not sign a national abortion ban into law.
On the economy, Walz said Harris’ proposals would make life more affordable for the middle class by helping with the construction of 3 million new homes and expanding tax credits for parents. He said tariffs floated by Trump could increase costs by an estimated $4,000 a year on a typical family.
Walz also faced questions in the interview about misstatements pertaining to his military service, drunken driving arrest, infertility treatment for his family and claims to have been in Hong Kong before the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China.
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