The St. Paul City Council voted 5-1 on Wednesday to award $2.95 million in tax increment financing to a private developer to demolish and redevelop three properties at the northeast corner of Grand and Victoria avenues, including the Victoria Crossing East Mall.

Developer Ari Parritz and Afton Park Development, who plan a mixture of 90 apartments over 12,800 square feet of retail space, had requested the tax incentive, a request that has drawn opposition from different corners of the city. The financing would be paid back by the developer over the life of the 26-year tax increment financing district using property tax increments that otherwise flow to the city’s general fund.

TIF districts are designed to help the city spur private sector investment in blighted areas, but the prospect of using the development incentive in one of St. Paul’s toniest restaurant and retail districts has drawn relatively heavy scrutiny. The city council received at least 32 pages of emailed comments, most of them critical of the proposal.

“This is not a blighted area, this project does not in any sense fulfill the definition of need for TIF funding,” wrote Rodden Turner, a resident of Laurel Avenue. “As my property taxes have become unmanageable, like so many St. Paul residents, we cannot afford to grant our money to wealthy developers who are and have been allowed to feed at the city trough, with the approval of city government. We cannot afford these policies any longer!! Please vote no.”

Similar sentiments were shared by multiple members of Insight, a fiscal watchdog group, who testified before the council during a public hearing on Wednesday alongside other city residents opposed to the TIF district.

City Council President Rebecca Noecker noted that while Grand Avenue remains a popular destination, a third-party review found the three buildings to be substandard, and the $44 million project likely would not occur but for TIF assistance.

“I do think that the blight test is met,” said Noecker, who pointed out that most of the recent major real estate development in the city has received some form of public assistance. “I think that there’s compelling evidence that this project would not happen but for … subsidy. … We have the option to not grow or we have the option to grow.”

“We haven’t seen a completely unsubsidized housing development in St. Paul in a long time,” she added later, in an interview. “Landmark Towers was completely market rate, and it still required TIF to move forward. A third party review found there was a (financial) gap, and the amount of the gap is what we’re allowing.”

Council Member Anika Bowie, who cast the sole dissenting vote, said she supported the project but saw no need for public financing. She said TIF-backed projects should include affordable housing. Council Member Cheniqua Johnson is on leave following the recent birth of her child.

The 845 Grand LLC project would replace three buildings, including the former home of Billy’s on Grand and the adjoining mall, as well as a small and vacant apartment building. The mixed-use development that would rise in its place would include 90 units of rental housing, 22 public parking stalls and 99 private parking stalls. It would span 12,800 square feet of commercial space on the first floor for two restaurants and a retailer.

Parritz, addressing the council, explained that the city would continue to collect the $200,000 in existing property taxes at Grand and Victoria, and the TIF district would be paid back through the tax increment generated above and beyond that amount based on the development’s increased property value.

“If this TIF plan is approved, nothing happens to that $200,000 that goes to pay for city services,” Parritz said.

The project, according to the TIF plan, would increase the site’s $6.5 million value by $20 million.

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While the developer would receive $2.95 million to put toward site improvements and construction preparation, as well as other qualifying public improvements, the overall TIF district would total $9.4 million. That includes $908,000 for administrative costs, $3 million toward off-site affordable housing, and $2.6 million in interest.

The city currently captures 7% of its annual tax capacity for TIF spending, or about $37 million this year in 58 TIF districts.

By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN

NEW YORK (AP) — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope got a rare look at the aftermath of two cosmic collisions — and helped scientists solve a decades-old mystery.

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Many years ago, scientists saw a dense, bright spot near a young star called Fomalhaut. They thought it could be a planet and continued to track it.

But in 2023, Hubble’s pictures revealed something strange. The bright spot had vanished — and a new one had appeared — a sign that it wasn’t a planet after all.

Scientists had stumbled on the dusty debris from two cosmic crashes. Massive space rocks slammed together to create clouds of dust that were thick enough to masquerade as planets. Over time, the remains spread out and eventually disappeared altogether.

Scientists think the space rocks involved in the collision were at least 37 miles wide. It’s rare to capture such clashes on camera, especially since theories suggest they only happen in the same vicinity about once every 100,000 years.

It’s “highly unexpected” that this area “has now exhibited two, unique, massive collisions inside 20 years,” said Joshua Lovell with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in an email. He had no role in the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Science.

The new observations could just be a lucky find. Or, they could mean that such smashups happen more often than scientists thought. It’ll take more data to know for sure.

Collisions of large space rocks are essential to how planets like ours form and what they’re made of. Studying them is “like taking a toddler picture of our solar system,” said astrophysicist Meredith MacGregor with Johns Hopkins University, who was not involved with the study.

Researchers plan to track the new dust cloud in the coming years to see how it changes and eventually disintegrates.

The star near the collision site is in our cosmic neighborhood, just 25 light years from Earth. A light year is nearly 6 trillion miles.

By keeping an eye on it, scientists are “catching these violent explosions in real time,” said study author Paul Kalas with the University of California, Berkeley.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times

The Powerball jackpot has soared to an estimated $1.5 billion for Saturday night’s drawing, the fifth largest in game history and the seventh highest among all lottery jackpots in the United States.

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The jackpot has an estimated cash value of $686.5 million, according to a Powerball news release.

No ticket matched all six numbers drawn Wednesday: white balls 25, 33, 53, 62, 66 and red Powerball 17, according to the release. The Power Play multiplier was 4.

Six tickets matched all five white balls to win $1 million prizes, according to the release. The winning tickets were sold in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

Two tickets that were sold in Arizona and Massachusetts matched all five white balls, according to the release, and these players had added the Power Play option for $1 more so the $1 million prize rose to $2 million per ticket.

The drawing resulted in 72 tickets that won $50,000 prizes and 14 tickets that won $200,000 prizes.

The Powerball jackpot was last won in September by two tickets in Missouri and Texas that split a $1.787 billion prize.

Saturday’s drawing marks the second time in Powerball history that the game has resulted in consecutive jackpots exceeding $1 billion. The only other time was in 2023, when a $1.08 billion jackpot was won on July 19, followed by a $1.765 billion jackpot on Oct. 11. Both jackpots were won in California.

If someone wins Saturday’s jackpot, they can choose between an annuitized prize around $1.5 billion or a lump sum payment around $686.5 million, according to the release. If the person picks the annuity option, they will get one payment, followed by 29 annual payments that go up by 5% every year.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Twins ushered in a new era of ownership on Wednesday, revealing the identities of those who will join the Pohlad family in team ownership after a 14-month process that initially began with an exploration of a team sale.

A group of what the team calls “principal investors” includes Glick Family Investments, a New-York based family, Värde Partners co-founder and co-executive chair George G. Hicks, and other notable Minnesota business leaders. Wild owner Craig Leipold is joining as a limited partner after purchasing a smaller stake in the team.

“I don’t think we could have dreamed up a better group of people to join our family in the ownership of the Twins,” Tom Pohlad said. “They are just high-quality people.”

Tom Pohlad, the grandson of Carl Pohlad, who bought the franchise in 1984, has been running the sale on behalf of the family since last fall. As such, he has built relationships with all of the involved parties and on Wednesday, the Twins announced he would take over for his brother, Joe, as the team’s executive chair.

Pending MLB approval, Tom Pohlad also is expected to take over as the team’s Control Person in dealings with the league, a role his uncle Jim Pohlad currently holds. The new investors will sit on an advisory board alongside members of the Pohlad family, which remains in control of the team.

“I view that board as an opportunity, as a place to help push us as a family on how we get to where we want to go,” Tom Pohlad said. “I think it’ll be a healthy sense of accountability for us as owners, but I think they will be really good strategic thought partners for us. … They are advisers, but I think it’s in the best interest of the organization to lean on their creative thinking and look at this through a different lens.”

So, who are the new owners?

Pohlad described the Glick family as “smart investors” who are collaborative and patient. Glick Family Investments is run by Simon Glick, the son of Louis Glick, who built the family’s fortune in the diamond-trading industry.

“They’re long-term oriented,” Tom Pohlad said, noting that the New Yorkers have swapped their Yankees gear for Twins gear. “They understand that the real opportunity in this organization comes with winning more baseball games. … They’re not looking at it only from a financial lens.”

Hicks, a former Cargill Financial executive who began global investment firm Värde Partners, is a Minnesota native and self-described “lifelong Twins fan” who graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College before earning his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.

“Like many in the state, some of my favorite memories are of times spent watching and cheering for the Twins,” he said in a statement. “The leaders I represent share these values and recognize the importance of Twins baseball to our communities. This is the opportunity of a lifetime and one we view as a true privilege and responsibility.”

As for Leipold, Tom Pohlad said the two got to know each other throughout the sale process as he was trying to connect with other sports owners in the market.  Leipold bought the Nashville Predators in 1997 before selling and buying the Wild in 2008.

While Pohlad declined to get into what percentage of the team each partner bought, he said this deal will help the Twins achieve their “primary objective,” which he described as putting the organization onto better financial footing. In recent years, the Twins have accrued a considerable amount of debt — around $500 million — and have slashed payroll as a result.

“With these proceeds, we’re able to pay off a significant amount of debt and that will allow us to reinvest in this team when the time is right,” Tom Pohlad said.

Pohlad said he thought the team, which lost 92 games last season, was “within reach” of winning the American League Central this year, and Twins president Derek Falvey said this month he expects to make additions this offseason to build around a core of proven veterans such as Pablo López, Joe Ryan and Byron Buxton. But Pohlad added that he doesn’t think now is the right time to “put a significant investment into the team of 50 or 60 million dollars.”

“But I don’t think we’re far off from that,” he added. “I think the hard work in front of us is getting people to believe and fans to buy in, to believe that we are committed to a championship-caliber investment and team. I would tell you that Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

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