By MORGAN LEE, Associated Press

Federal workplace safety regulators fined three businesses Tuesday over their failure to protect six Colorado dairy workers who were killed by exposure to highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas after a manure pipe disconnected in an enclosed space.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced proposed fines totaling $246,609 against the dairy owner and two contractors working on a manure management system. The deaths of five men and a teenager on Aug. 20, 2025, shocked the rural communities in and around Keenesburg, 35 miles northeast of Denver.

Dairy owner Prospect Ranch LLC, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, faces the largest fine at $132,406 for serious violations, including failures in training, planning and protecting workers from “atmospheric hazards.”

Regulators also fined Colorado-based Fiske Inc. and another contractor hired to work on the system that released manure water and the hydrogen sulfide gas that led to the deaths, the government said Tuesday in a news release.

Fiske Inc.’s subsidiary High Plains Robotics services dairy equipment and employed some of those who died. Fiske faces $99,306 in penalties for failing to protect employees and provide hydrogen sulfide detection training.

“A Fiske employee and a Prospect Ranch employee attempted to stop the flow but were overcome by the gas,” OSHA said in the statement. “Subsequently, three more Fiske employees and one Prospect Ranch employee entered the pump room, which led to the loss of a total of six workers.”

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The Weld County coroner’s office determined from autopsies and toxicology tests that the people who died were exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas, but provided little indication of the circumstances of the deaths, describing only an industrial accident in a confined space at a dairy farm.

Contractor HD Builders was cited for failing to have a written hazard communication program and provide training on detecting hydrogen sulfide, with a proposed $14,897 penalty. Company employees were present but unharmed after the pipe disconnected.

The companies have 15 days to comply with proposed penalties, request an informal conference with safety regulators or challenge the findings before an occupation safety review commission.

The hazards of confined spaces on farms and dairies are a well-known and persistent cause of death in agriculture across the U.S. — often from exposure to odorless and colorless noxious gases, or due to asphyxiation in closed spaces where oxygen has been depleted.

First responders from a rural fire district in Weld County were dispatched around 6 p.m. on Aug. 20 to Prospect Ranch and took their own safety precautions as they entered a confined space.

All those who died in Colorado were Latino, ranging in age from 17 to 50. Four of them, including the teenage high school student, were from the same extended family.

Alejandro Espinoza Cruz, of Nunn, was found dead along with his 17-year-old son Oscar Espinoza Leos and a second son, 29-year-old Carlos Espinoza Prado.

The Espinozas are related by marriage to a 36-year-old from Greeley who died — Jorge Sanchez Pena, according to the Weld County coroner’s office.

The other two men — Ricardo Gomez Galvan, 40, and Noe Montañez Casañas, 32 — lived in Keenesburg.

The remains of Montañez Casañas, a veterinarian who was employed under a U.S. visa, were repatriated to the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, according to the Mexican consulate in Denver.

Lee reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Former Minnesota United head coach Eric Ramsay never gained any traction at West Bromwich Albion and was fired by the English club on Tuesday.

The Welshman took over the second-tier team on Jan. 16, but failed to win a single game while in charge. He managed four draws and suffered five defeats with a minus-13 goal differential. He was let go after a 1-1 tie with Charlton on Tuesday.

Ramsay took over West Brom after previous coach Ryan Mason struggled, and Ramsay couldn’t reverse the downward trend. WBA now sit only one point out of the relegation zone to the English third tier, and the side was bounced out of the FA Cup on his watch.

In 2024, Ramsay, then 32, became the youngest head coach in MLS and he led United to two straight Western Conference semifinal appearances. Under his stead, MNUFC set a record 58 points in 2025.

Ramsay’s teams in Minnesota were known for its low-block defensive formation, league-low possession percentage and set-piece success for a lot of its goal-scoring. Last season, MNUFC scored 56 goals in 34 games (1.6 per game), but at West Brom, his team scored five in nine (0.5 per game).

Ramsay had another year on his contract with MNUFC for 2026, and WBA paid an undisclosed amount of compensation to MNUFC to bring him back home to England.

Cameron Knowles, who was a Ramsay assistant the last two seasons, became the Loons’ new permanent head coach in January, and in the season opener, his team made two, one-goal comebacks to earn a 2-2 road draw with Austin FC on Saturday.

The Loons’ home opener is Saturday afternoon against FC Cincinnati at Allianz Field.

By AAMER MADHANI and EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department has expressed its displeasure about Ukraine’s recent attacks on the ⁠ Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea that have impacted U.S. oil interests in ⁠Kazakhstan, Kyiv’s chief envoy to Washington said on Tuesday.

Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna noted the U.S. concern on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

“This reach-out was not related to encouraging Ukraine from refraining to attack Russian military and energy infrastructure. It was related to the very fact that American economic interest was affected there,” Stefanishyna told reporters in Washington. “It did happen, and we have taken the note.”

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The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates a pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwest Kazakhstan to the Novorossiysk port. The pipeline handles much of the crude exports from three major Kazakh fields in which major U.S. energy companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have stakes.

The G7 group of leading industrialized nations issued a leaders’ statement on Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of the war reaffirming their “unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity and right to exist, and its freedom, sovereignty and independence.” The statement also praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to negotiate a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.

The U.N. General Assembly also passed a resolution on Tuesday voicing support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and calling for an immediate ceasefire and comprehensive peace, but the U.S. was one of 51 countries that abstained. The U.S. had tried unsuccessfully to eliminate the references to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. U.S. deputy ambassador Tammy Bruce said the Trump administration supports an immediate ceasefire but language on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would “distract” from peace negotiations with Russia.

During the U.S.-brokered talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained maximalist demands, insisting Kyiv pull its forces from four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured. Trump has argued it’s inevitable that Russia will win control of the Ukrainian territory and has pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal to save lives.

Zelenskyy said his country has withstood the onslaught by Russia’s bigger and better equipped army, which over the past year of fighting captured just 0.79% of Ukraine’s territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. Russia now holds nearly 20% of Ukraine.

Trump later on Tuesday will deliver the annual State of the Union address. Stefanishyna said she expects that Trump, who has made ending the war a priority, will touch on the conflict in the address, even though she did not expect major changes in his message.

“But at the same time, we want President Trump to hear us ahead of the speech that, you know, despite all the complexity and tragedy of what is happening in Ukraine, still Ukrainian people very much rely on his leadership,” she said.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — John Klein was speaking to a group of children at the MASH baseball facility in Savage, Minn., where he trains in the offseason, when director of player development Drew MacPhail started calling. By the time he got back to his phone, he estimated he had seven missed calls.

“I was like ‘OK, this could either be really good or really bad,’ ” Klein said.

It was the former.

MacPhail was phoning to let Klein know that the Twins were adding him to their 40-man roster ahead of the deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft. That decision came in response to a strong showing from the Minnesota native last season in a year split between Double-A Wichita and Triple-A St. Paul. Now he’s in major league camp, getting his chance to make an impression.

An offseason ago, the Brooklyn Park native and Osseo High School graduate had spent his winter revamping his training program and focusing on his nutrition. The result of his hard work was an added 20 to 25 pounds.

“The velocity came right with that,” he said.

A couple of years earlier, he said, he would be lucky to touch 90-92 miles per hour. But once he got into minor league spring training games last year, he was all of a sudden hitting 96, and the results followed.

“I kind of had a feeling last year could be something special,” he said.

Klein began last year at Double-A, where he generally pitched in shorter stints. In 24 games at Double-A Wichita, he posted a 3.12 earned-run average, striking out 95 batters in 80 2/3 innings.

In August, he was promoted to Triple-A, where he finished his season in St. Paul, just one step from the majors.

“Mentally, it’s a little easier knowing they see something in me that maybe I don’t see in myself,” Klein said. “(I’m taking it) day by day just trying to get better.”

Klein threw one scoreless inning in the Twins’ first spring training game against the University of Minnesota last Friday. For now, the Twins are building him up as a starter, manager Derek Shelton said, though they could dial him back later on and he could make a push for a bullpen spot.

While in camp, Klein is soaking up time in the clubhouse where he has gotten to chat with some of the players he idolized growing up, like Twins Hall of Famer Justin Morneau.

“The first day, it was pretty cool to walk in, see my name on a jersey in a locker full of Twins stuff,” Klein said. “Obviously my entire life I’ve wanted to be here, and now that I am, it’s pretty cool.”

Briefly

Joe Ryan (back) played catch Tuesday at 90 feet, a development Shelton described as “encouraging.” … Luke Keaschall was taking pregame reps in the outfield, and Shelton said they expect to get him in a game next week. … Reliever Julian Merryweather left the Twins’ game against the Tampa Bay Rays early with a left hamstring strain.  Merryweather, 34, is a non-roster invite in camp competing for a spot in the bullpen. … The Twins lost that game 12-1 to the Rays and lost a home game to the Baltimore Orioles 10-5 after falling behind by six runs in the first inning.

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