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‘Thursday Social Club’ helps Living Well residents and Dakota County students find community

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

Nearly every Thursday this year, the Black Box Theatre in Inver Grove Heights has been full of art supplies, board games and, on occasion, a banjo.Each Thursday throughout Inver Hills Community College’s spring semester, students and folks who are supported by Living Well Disability Services have gathered to play games, laugh, learn from each other and create community.Aptly named the Thursday Social Club, the events are hosted by the intercultural communications class and each week’s activities are led by a student. The 10-week project has included an art show, a Bob Ross-style painting class, games in the gym and poetry writing, to name a few.The intercultural communications class has been taught by Amy Zsohar since 2007 and first partnered with Living Well in 2018, but this is the inaugural semester for the social club.Zsohar said the class is designed to help students communicate and interact with people who come from different cultures and backgrounds across race, religion, soc...

Sunday Bulletin Board: He was just out for a little bike ride on a beautiful spring day …

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

Life (and death) as we know itTHE DEUCE of Eagan writes: “Subject: Beyond the Next Curve.“Adhering to my weekend ritual, I was on my usually enjoyable morning one-hour bicycle tour of Little Canada, of which I was a resident — each jaunt normally a different route. I was thinking what a beautiful spring day it was and daydreaming of a possible picnic with my wife in the afternoon. She had decided to go grocery shopping instead of biking together, as we normally would. I was wishing she had joined me in what I felt was the beginning of ‘the perfect day.’“About 15 minutes into the bike ride, I could hear the sound of a siren which seemed to be getting louder by the minute. Then, traveling toward me, I could see the red flashing lights of a Ramsey County Sheriff vehicle clearly on an emergency run. The squad turned onto another artery road about a block away from my location. I decided to follow; however, I lost sight of the flashing lights after a few blo...

St. Paul mayor, council member propose citywide requirement for safe gun storage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and City Council Member Rebecca Noecker announced Thursday they are jointly proposing an amendment to city ordinances that would require safe gun storage.The goal is to reduce the harm caused by unlawful discharge of unsecured firearms. The proposed ordinance amendment would require firearms to be safely stored and secured, with ammunition stored separately. It will come before the city council for its first of at least three readings on Wednesday.City ordinances surrounding weapons specify that violations of the chapter in city code may be punishable by criminal misdemeanor charges, weapons confiscation and revocation of all registrations, permits and licenses.Minnesota has no law that requires unattended firearms to be stored in a certain way or locked with a locking device when not in use. However, it is against state law to leave a loaded firearm where a child under age 18 is likely to gain access to it.A statement from the St. Paul mayor’s off...

Possible storm damage reports from the National Weather Service, lingering showers continue Sunday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

ST. LOUIS - Keep an eye out for additional storm damage reports from the National Weather Service. We'll probably start getting more after daylight. We have lingering showers Sunday morning. These showers will continue, mainly north of I-70, as the morning progresses. St. Louis radar: See a map of current weather here Temperatures are expected to be much cooler Sunday, not making it out of the 40s. Winds will be gusting up to 35 miles per hour out of the west, and we're set for cloudy skies. Temp lows are down to the 30s and low 40s. It's going to be breezy and milder by Monday, with highs in the 60s. Tuesday temps will be back up to the 70s. 

Nuggets can only prepare for revamped Timberwolves so much ahead of Game 1: “They’re a new team.”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

When Game 1 tips off late Sunday night, in many ways, the Nuggets will be flying blind.But that lack of familiarity cuts both ways against a Timberwolves team that revamped at the trade deadline and got Karl-Anthony Towns back from injury ahead of the postseason.Towns wasn’t available for any of the four matchups against the Nuggets due to a significant calf strain. When Minnesota landed guards Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker on Feb. 8 in a blockbuster trade involving the Lakers and Jazz, its season series against Denver (2-2) was already finished.“No, not really,” reserve guard Bruce Brown said Saturday when asked whether much could be gleaned from the season series. “They’re a new team.”Furthermore, it was only late Friday night that the No. 1 vs. No. 8 matchup was secured. According to Brown, once the Nuggets knew it would be Minnesota or Oklahoma City earlier in the week, Denver prepared for both accordingly.But Saturday marked the Nuggets’ first practice with a definit...

Keeler: CU Buffs fans should thank Mel Tucker for Deion Sanders, Chris Fowler, ESPN and Ralphie running to relevance

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

BOULDER — You know what? Thanks, Mel Tucker. Seriously. Because of you, Ralphie’s getting ready to run live, on ESPN, before a full house at Folsom Field. In late April.See all those people wearing CU black and gold again? Couldn’t have happened without you.Without you taking the money and running, Buffs football doesn’t crash, then burn. There’s no Karl Dorrell, no mass transfers, no scraping rock bottom, no 1-11. And no Coach Prime.Without you grabbing the cash, CU isn’t bringing Chris Fowler home to call a game at 2400 Colorado Ave., for the first time in over a decade.Without you rolling in dough, Saturday’s party doesn’t happen. The Buffs aren’t the only college football program whose spring game is featured live on ESPN. A scrimmage at Folsom Field isn’t sold out weeks in advance.“And they paid to get in,” Fowler told me earlier this month, “and that’s something else that’s unusual for a spring game. When Alabama and Georgia are drawing those record crowds, they’re (gett...

How Nikola Jokic maintains healthy basketball obsession amid glare of MVP spotlight: “Nothing really rattles him”

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

Nikola Jokic waltzed through the drab visitor’s locker room in Houston in early April when he overheard something that piqued his interest.“He’s the most even-keeled superstar I’ve ever been around,” DeAndre Jordan mused to a reporter, prompting Jokic to lean in and inquire.Jordan, a heady 15-year veteran, wasn’t about to miss the layup.“No, not you,” Jordan said, swatting Jokic away like a gnat. “I’m talking about Bruce (Brown).”Content with Jordan’s wit, Jokic barely reacted before ambling on toward his locker room stall.On the eve of the most important postseason of his career to date, Jokic is more at ease than one might think after wading through the mud of a toxic MVP race, carrying a franchise for consecutive seasons, and fighting to protect his humility in the face of increasing celebrity.Even as the noise got louder, and the possibility Jokic could join a club currently occupied by only Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Larry Bird grew more pr...

Prostate cancer awareness is Jack Corrigan’s mission

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

KOA’s Jack Corrigan was doing interviews at McGregor Square near Coors Field before the Rockies’ home opener on April 6 when a man approached him.“This guy came up to me and said he’d heard me talking about prostate cancer awareness,” Corrigan recalled. “He said, ‘I went to my doctor because you keep driving home the need to get checked.’ Then he said, ‘Thanks, Jack. I finally went to my doctor and I found out that I have prostate cancer.’ ”Corrigan told the man about the various treatments that might stop cancer and not adversely affect the quality of his life. The man’s prognosis is good. According to the National Cancer Institute, an estimated 268,490 American males were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2022. An estimated 34,500 men died from the disease last year.Corrigan was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2016 and had a reoccurrence in 2020. He’s fortunate that he’s had two procedures that p...

After a lifetime in the game, Matt Schalk earns spot in Senior PGA Championship with daughter Hailey as caddy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

Club pro Matt Schalk uses his trusty 54-degree wedge as he stripes chip shots of varying distances into a gusty crosswind as his daughter, caddy and CU golf standout, Hailey, watches at the Colorado National Golf Club on Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Erie. Schalk, who qualified for next month’s Senior PGA Championship in Frisco, Texas, will travel with Hillary, who will work as his caddy. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)To achieve self-actualization on the links, first Matt Schalk had to fall short of his PGA Tour dream.Then, he had to step away from playing nearly altogether and live vicariously through his role as coach and caddy for his daughter, Hailey Schalk, a three-time state champion at Holy Family and current CU golfer.Once all that happened — once the mini-tours chewed him up and spit him out, once Hailey was off to college — the fairways opened up for him again. That roller-coaster journey in the sport set up Schalk, the 52-year-old director of golf at Colorado N...

Why Sean Payton is “extremely good” at developing late round draft picks and where Broncos might look for steals

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:36:41 GMT

By the end of April, hundreds of NFL draft picks and undrafted free agent signees will be packing their bags and gearing up for rookie minicamps.Jake Witt might well be the only one training for that moment in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.The Northern Michigan University offensive lineman is a walking representation of the idea that, if you can play, the NFL will find you. Heck, he’s only just started playing and the league still caught wind of the athletic, 6-foot-7 tackle prospect on the Lake Superior shoreline.Witt chose to play basketball at Michigan Tech out of high school, transferred to NMU after a year to pursue academics, walked onto the football team in the spring of 2020 and then spent the COVID-19 shutdown training for the new sport before beginning his college football career as a tight end in 2021.That alone was a big change for a kid who played 8-man football in high school and starred as a wide receiver.“I had never blocked anybody,” he told The Post recently.Now he...