The first time Matt Walker welcomed players back to campus for the start of training camp as the University of Wisconsin-River Falls’ football coach, he did so on just a couple hours of sleep.

He was in the Lacrosse, Wis. area late into the night the evening prior.

Wisconsin-River Falls quarterback Kaleb Blaha carries the ball during a Div. III playoff NCAA college football game against Saint John’s, Dec. 6, 2025, in River Falls, Wis. (Carly Lynch/UWRF Athletics via AP)

Shortly after Walker was hired by the Falcons to lead the football program, he had a sit down with then River Falls mayor Don Richards.

“I’d never met him,” Walker said. “He sits down and says, ‘You’re playing for the Fish.’ I said, ‘What the hell are the Fish?’”

The River Falls Fighting Fish was the town baseball team. Richards looked into Walker’s past and noted he had a baseball background.

Not only did Walker join the team, but was tabbed to pitch in the state semifinals against the defending champs in his first summer on the squad. Walker threw 10 innings that night. As the game went to the 11th, he finally had to bail. It was nearly midnight, and he was two hours away from home on the eve of the football season.

“I had to do my job for the first time ever,” he said.

Walker hails from Indiana, but he could tell during his interview process there was something unique about this quaint little town located a half hour east of the Twin Cities. His true introduction to it came while playing for the Fish. He couldn’t believe how many fans gathered then at the high school field to support the local town ball team.

Walker threw the first no hitter in team history. After the game, he and his grade-school daughter walked into Johnnie’s — one of many local bars on Main Street — to find champagne waiting for him to celebrate his achievement.

That’s when he knew: “This town is special.”

“Never seen anything like it,” he said. “They never did that back in Indiana when I was playing.”

Cory Hart owns Swinging Bridge Brewing Company in downtown River Falls. He noted the city has “always” been a “supportive community.” He personally felt it during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing the patronage and promotion businesses received from community members.

It’s evident now for the local university. Drive by the Ace Hardware store and there’s a plywood sign informing you of when Falcons hockey is in action. In August, Swinging Bridge launched a pair of co-branded craft beers with the university, with proceeds benefiting UWRF athletics.

Swinging Bridge was one of a few establishments to stream the Falcons’ NCAA quarterfinal victory over Wheaton last Saturday, when temperatures were hovering in the negative-teens and watching the action indoors was an attractive option..

“I can only speak for us, but I’m guessing anybody who streamed the game last week probably got a good turnout,” Hart said.

After the game, Walker scrolled through photos he’d received of the various watch parties on top of those in the stands. River Falls features what the coach calls a “unique” gameday, with a parking lot tailgating operation that functions as a mini-Lambeau Field experience, with folks piling in four hours ahead of kickoff right outside the stadium.

“It’s always great to see the tailgaters getting rowdy and having a good time and them cheering us on,” senior defensive lineman Jack Olson said. “When we come out to play, they’re always loud, got their cowbells ringing and are making as much noise as they can for us.”

Bleachers have been filled each Saturday, with this Saturday’s semifinal against Johns Hopkins at noon serving as the final home date of the campaign.

“This community has surely come along on this ride with us,” Walker said.

He’s felt it. Walker walked into the River Falls High School gym for his daughter’s girls basketball game on Monday and was immediately showered with Falcons chants.

“I worry about my daughter being embarrassed,” he said with a smile. “But yeah, pretty cool. Pretty cool stuff.”

Falcons running back Trevor Asher said folks will come up to him while eating breakfast in town to offer congratulations and express their pride.

“You don’t have that everywhere,” he said, “and we’re lucky to have this town be so behind us.”

This one, and others. Falcons freshman linebacker Noah Nusbaum is from neighboring Roberts, Wis., and is surprised every week by texts from folks he had no idea were paying attention.

“Sometimes there’s more people that show up where it’s like, ‘I didn’t even know you cared.’ It’s really cool to get the support that you didn’t know you wanted or needed,” he said. “You’re just playing football with the guys and trying to win a national championship, but you don’t realize the impact it makes on the town and everyone. So, it’s really cool.”

A decade ago, when the Falcons had no recent success and outdated facilities, one of Walker’s recruiting pitches was simply the “charm of the town.” People care, never more so than now. Hart noted the growth the university’s athletics department has seen in recent years, with the women’s hockey program winning consecutive national titles and the football team now in the hunt for one of its own.

“I’ve definitely seen the community rally behind that,” he said.

Particularly last week.

“It was pretty cool, because (it wasn’t) people that aren’t necessarily alums that you see coming into all the games, it was just regular people, non-university affiliated people calling to see, ‘Are you guys going to have the game on? We want to come watch it.’ ” Hart said. “That’s kind of cool. You expect it from the people you always see, but when you start seeing the new people, it’s something special.”

River Falls is quickly becoming a Falcons football town, one that rivals what’s been built across the other, more established Division III communities across the state.

“Doing it over here is just different and new,” Asher said. “There’s a lot of excitement over here that we’re drawing from the town.”

Falcons running back Trevor Asher scores one of his three touchdowns during University of Wisconsin-River Falls’ 46-21 victory over Wheaton in a NCAA Division-III quarterfinal in River Falls, Wis. on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. (Courtesy of University of Wisconsin-River Falls)

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By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. business to three American investors — Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX — ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in the United States.

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The deal is expected to close on Jan. 22, according to an internal memo seen by The Associated Press. CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees in the memo that ByteDance and TikTok have signed binding agreements with the three investors.

Half of the new TikTok U.S. joint venture will be owned by a consortium of investors — among them Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX will each hold a 15% share. Another 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors and 19.9% will be retained by the China-based ByteDance, according to the memo.

The U.S. venture will have a new, seven-member majority-American board of directors, the memo said. It will also be subject to terms that “protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security.”

U.S. user data will be stored locally in a system run by Oracle.

TikTok’s algorithm — the secret sauce that powers its addictive video feed — will be retrained on U.S. user data to “ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” the memo said. The U.S. venture will also oversee content moderation and policies within the country.

The deal marks the end of years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States. After wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it did not find a new owner in the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go dark on the law’s January 2025 deadline. For a several hours, it did. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration tries to reach an agreement for the sale of the company.

Three more executive orders followed, as Trump, without a clear legal basis, continued to extend the deadline for a TikTok deal. The second was in April, when White House officials believed they were nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a new company with U.S. ownership that fell apart after China backed out following Trump’s tariff announcement. The third came in June, then another in September, which Trump said would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States in a way that meets national security concerns.

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.