Ramsey County will provide $450,000 to local food shelves and to buy infant formula as the federal shutdown continues, county officials announced Tuesday.

The one-time funding includes $380,000 to local food shelves for county residents and $70,000 will be reserved to purchase infant formula if there are significant disruptions to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, according to county officials.

“The federal shutdown continues to have the greatest impact on our most vulnerable residents,” said Ramsey County Board of Commissioners Chair Rafael Ortega in a statement. “The recent court decision directing the federal government to continue SNAP benefits is a positive step, though its full impact remains to be seen. Families and children cannot wait — we remain focused on ensuring they have access to food and essential resources right now.”

The city of St. Paul launched a food drive this week to assist SNAP recipients. For more information go to stpaul.gov/news/city-saint-paul-food-drive-2025

Food shelves

Meanwhile, the county’s funding will go to 11 food shelves serving county residents, which were selected from an existing list of contracted providers based on location and number of residents served.

Funds will need to be used by the food shelves by the end of the year.

The 11 food shelves are: Keystone Community Services; Neighborhood House; Open Cupboard; Sanneh Foundation; Merrick Community Services; White Bear Area Food Shelf; Corner Shelf; Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES); Hallie Q. Brown Community Center; Interfaith Action of Greater Saint Paul-Department of Indian Work; and Vineyard Community Services (VCS).

35,000 Ramsey County households impacted

There are approximately 35,500 households, or 68,500 individuals, in the county that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Approximately 3,500 county households, or 9,800 individuals, receive food assistance through the federally-funded Minnesota Family Investment Program. Both programs stopped food assistance Nov. 1 due to a lack of funding during the government shutdown.

Last month, some states also warned they only had enough money to operate their food assistance programs until mid-November due to lack of funding during the shutdown. The county plans to allocate the $70,000 reserved for infant formula if the federal shutdown results in a significant disruption to WIC benefits.

WIC recently received $450 million in funding from the Trump administration, a senior administration official told the Associated Press on Monday. More than 17,900 Ramsey County residents currently receive WIC benefits, which provides nutrition education, health referrals and food benefits for pregnant women, mothers, children and infants.

SNAP and MFIP provide approximately $14 million per month in benefits for county residents and recipients receive an average of $170 per month for food through SNAP.

To learn more about current impacts on federal and state funding and to be directed to Ramsey County’s Food Resources page, go to tinyurl.com/2m4jamty.

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Derek Shelton was introduced as the Twins manager on Tuesday and it was a strange one for, as the team likes to say, Twins Territory.

The tenor of Shelton’s introductory news conference was less about how he would make the team a winner and more about whether a team that traded 10 of its best players at the July 31 deadline can be a winner.

New Twins manager Derek Shelton at a news conference at Target Field on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (John Shipley / Pioneer Press)

The burning questions weren’t aimed at deciphering whether Shelton is the right guys so much as getting the new manager — and team president Derek Falvey — to shed some light on whether the Twins are rebuilding, whether veteran starters Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan might be traded, and whether the payroll might rise significantly.

All that was on the table, Shelton said, when he spoke with ownership point man Joe Pohlad during the interview process, though he declined to share the answers on Tuesday.

“I think we’ll get into that more as we go through,” Shelton said. “I think that’s something that, as we talked about (it), there was clarity, but it’s also going to be a group that’s going to grow and learn.

“We’ll probably get into that more as we continue to go, but I would say when we had the initial conversation, the answer was a lot clearer than the one I just gave you there.”

In the end, Shelton said, “I got the answers that made me really want this job.”

There is a lot to like about Shelton, an experienced hitting coach (Cleveland, Tampa Bay) and manager (Pittsburgh) with ties to the Twins, where he was bench coach to Paul Molitor and Rocco Baldelli in 2018 and 2019. Easy going, Shelton, 55, is known for having a sense of humor, and even spent last summer learning the media side of the business as part of a radio show on SIRIUS XM.

He also acknowledged he wasn’t nearly ready as he believed he was when he was hired to help nurture a winner from scratch in Pittsburgh. He got the Pirates 10 games from .500 in 2023 and 2024, before being fired after a 12-26 start last season. But Shelton said Tuesday he’s “a different guy” than the one who had that job.

“When I left here, I thought I was really prepared to manage, because I’d been given a lot of responsibility (by Baldelli),” he said. “But you’re never ready until you sit in the chair. You’re never ready until different things come your way. So, I think those experiences are what help build you moving forward.”

One might conclude his next challenge is just as daunting, but Falvey will disagree.

“He took over a team (in Pittsburgh) that, in my opinion, had a lot less talent on the roster than what we have right now that he’s walking into,” he said. “I don’t think that’s controversial.”

What certain is that, right now, Shelton has a team that includes all-stars in Byron Buxton, Lopez and Ryan but will live and die on the play of a core of young players that includes position players Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, Luke Keaschall, Matt Wallner and Austin Martin, and starters Simeon Woods Richardson, Zebby Matthews and David Festa.

In his end-of-season meeting with beat reporters, Falvey said he hadn’t yet learned exactly what management wanted to do with its payroll, and he didn’t have any real clarity on that on Tuesday. He did, however, say his current goal this offseason “is not to take away anything from this team.”

But, he acknowledged, “We’re going to have to evaluate every opportunity that comes our way. There’s going to be a lot of calls on players on our team because we think we have some talented players. I have little doubt that will be part of our process.”

“At the same time,” he added, “my personal goal is to find ways to augment and add around it. There’s a core of starting pitching here that is solid. I believe that and ultimately we have to do it. There’s areas we do need to rebuild in the bullpen. But that’s an area you’ve seen in the past before — young players who just got their feet wet at the big league level find a way to turn it up and become really good stabilizers in your bullpen. We’re going to need some of that. We’re probably going to need some external additions.”

Winter Meetings are Dec. 8-10 in Orlando, Fla.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A UPS plane crashed on takeoff from the airport in Louisville, Kentucky, igniting a huge fire on ground, officials said Tuesday.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane crashed at about 5:15 p.m. It was taking off for Honolulu.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Police are responding to reports of a plane crash near Louisville International Airport in Kentucky on Tuesday.

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Injuries have been reported, the Louisville Metro Police Department said in a social media post.

Photos on social media showed a large plume of black smoke rising into the sky.

The location of the reported crash was at the intersection of Fern Valley Road and Grade Lane, which is at the southern edge of the airport.

Louisville’s police department said on X that there was a fire and debris, and it asked people to stay away. A shelter-in-place order was issued within 5 miles of the airport, police said.

Television station video showed a large trail of flames and a plume of smoke leading from a parking lot as fire trucks tried to douse the fire.

A man was in critical condition after hotel staff pulled him from a pool in St. Paul, according to police.

Officers responded to the Quality Inn on University and Prior avenues just after 4 p.m. Monday to assist St. Paul Fire Department medics. Staff had pulled the man from the hotel’s pool and began CPR, and medics took him to the hospital.

Police spoke with people at the hotel. “Preliminary information indicates that this was an accidental, but tragic, drowning,” said Alyssa Arcand, a police spokeswoman.

As of Tuesday morning, the man was in critical condition.

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