What do the Wabasha Street Caves, Cafe Latte and the Twin Cities German Immersion School have in common? They’re all featured in “Monopoly: St. Paul Edition.”

After suggestions from locals and a tour of the city by Mr. Monopoly himself, the St. Paul edition of the 90-year-old beloved board game was unveiled to a select crowd Thursday night in St. Paul.

“This edition has become more than just a game,” said Tim Barney, a representative for game-maker Top Trumps USA. “It’s a love letter to St. Paul — showcasing everything from your cherished parks and cultural treasures, to unique flavors, history and creativity that make your community so special.”

Also in attendance for the grand reveal was St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Mr. Monopoly, with the latter strutting the stage to “For The Love of Money” by The O’Jay’s.

Carter, whose go-to game piece is the running shoe, said, “I think the one thing St. Paul didn’t have is our own Monopoly game. But we got that all taken care of.”

Board game specs

Starting at “Go,” players will move through lower ticket items on the game board like Mears Park and the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory toward the St. Paul Winter Carnival.

Local businesses spotlighted on the board include Boca Chica, Can Can Wonderland, St. Paul Brewing, Hmongtown Marketplace and Anchor Paper Company. Blaze Credit Union, whose logo appears on the Monopoly money, also collects from the income tax and luxury tax spaces on the board.

Several properties came as no surprise including the Science Museum of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Capitol.

One potentially controversial property that made the board is the Minnesota State Fair. Clearly a point of pride for Minnesotans, the controversy could lie in the address, which is Falcon Heights, a suburb, not St. Paul.

The board of the St. Paul edition of Monopoly during a reveal party at CanCan Wonderland in St. Paul on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The largest ticket items on the board — traditionally reserved for Park Place and Boardwalk — have been upgraded to CHS Field, the home of the St. Paul Saints, and the most expensive property on the board is the Cathedral of St. Paul.

Where the original board had train stations, the St. Paul version boasts a variety of transportation methods including the Mississippi River, the Minnesota Transportation Museum, the Skyway Bridge and Union Depot.

In place of the standard “electric” and “water” utilities that are charged according to the roll of the dice, are hyperlocal utilities. All Energy Solar, a St. Paul energy company claims one space, and the other is the Highland Park Water Tower, a fixture of the St. Paul Regional Water Service and a suggestion given by a reader of the Pioneer Press’ Morning Report.

Hidden gems

Perhaps the best part of the game lies in the Community Chest and Chance cards which are full of surprises that St. Paulites will appreciate.

One Community Chest card awards a player for making the best hotdish at the potluck.

“Dancing with danger! Public enemy number one, John Dillinger, has been spotted dancing at the premier Wabasha Street Caves!” reads a Chance card that advances the player.

The board of the St. Paul edition of Monopoly during a reveal party at CanCan Wonderland in St. Paul on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“You just won the eyeball race by diving across the toilet paper finish line at the St. Paul Saints game. Collect $100,” reads another Community Chest card. One such card even references the historic Halloween blizzard of 1991.

Want to play?

The public is invited to join in on the celebration Friday at St. Paul Brewing, located at 688 E. Minnehaha Ave. The free event starts at 6 p.m.

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“We appreciate all those who suggested landmarks, organizations and businesses that make St. Paul unique and truly special,” Barney said in a news release.

Top Trumps USA — the Rhode-Island based game company behind this Hasbro-authorized edition — has also put out Detroit, Nashville, Tenn.; Tampa, Fla., and Portland, Ore., editions of Monopoly.

By the way, the company’s Top Trumps name does not refer to President Donald Trump, in case you were wondering; “Trumps” is the name of a card game that is well known in the United Kingdom — and a pack will be included in the board game as an (unrelated) bonus, Barney said.

“Monopoly: St. Paul Edition” can be purchased online or in St. Paul at Can Can Wonderland, Café Latte, Wabasha Street Caves, Hmongtown Marketplace and Union Depot, to name a few.

When the Twins’ front office traded away 10 players for a cache of prospects, management made it clear it’s looking beyond this season. Rocco Baldelli is not.

When he was asked if he would manage what is now a young team unlikely to make the playoffs, Baldelli quickly rejoined, “Well, we’re going to try to contend, first and foremost.”

“I wouldn’t say, ‘We’re not contending,’ ” Baldelli said before Thursday night’s game against first-place Detroit, the first of a four-game series at Target Field. “I would say we intend to win as many games as we possibly can, and if we can get ourselves in contention, that’s what we’ll be looking for — to aim towards.”

That was a longshot before the trade deadline, when team president Derek Falvey and general manager Jeremy Zoll traded away several of the players who were supposed to help the Twins win the American League Central Division, including star shortstop Carlos Correa, setup man Griffin Jax and hard-throwing closer Jhoan Duran.

On July 28, the Twins were six games under .500 and 6½ games out of a wild card spot with six teams ahead of them. Now Baldelli has a wildly different team, composed mostly of young players still trying to gain a foothold in the majors — some from the Twins organization, some trade partners’ systems, and some of whom are getting their first real taste of the majors.

That’s currently compounded by injuries to starters Pablo Lopez and Simeon Woods Richardson.

On Aug. 1, Baldelli called the team together before a series in Cleveland and told them the last two months won’t just be about evaluating prospects or getting them major league innings.

“I told our guys, ‘I don’t care who you are, you’re playing for something important,’ ” Baldelli said. “That was part of the first message when I stood in front of the team the day after the trade deadline. I told them that and I meant it. That’s not BS. It’s a fact.”

That included, the manager stressed, veterans Joe Ryan, Byron Buxton, Ryan Jeffers and Bailey Ober. And if Lopez weren’t hurt, “I probably would have told him the exact same thing if he was there.”

If anything is clear after the past 20 or so days — on top of the trade deals, the team on Wednesday officially ended its bid to sell — it’s that the future remains unclear.

Everyone is playing for something. Winning remains the goal.

“We have different players, and we’re gonna have to win games differently,” Baldelli said.

Briefly

With Lopez (shoulder) and Woods Richardson (stomach ailment) still on the injured list, the Twins are on pace for another bullpen game on Friday night, likely with Jose Urena taking the first few innings. … Catcher Christian Vazquez, on the IL with an infection in his left shoulder that sent him to the hospital, was at Target Field early Thursday, but Baldelli didn’t have an update on his status.

By SARA CLINE and BARBARA ORTUTAY

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana sued the online gaming platform Roblox on Thursday, alleging the wildly popular site has perpetuated an environment where sexual predators “thrive, unite, hunt and victimize kids.”

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The lawsuit, filed in state court by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, alleges that Roblox has failed to implement effective safety measures to protect child users from adult predators.

“Due to Roblox’s lack of safety protocols, it endangers the safety of the children of Louisiana,” Murrill said in a news release. “Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety.”

The company has faced lawsuits and backlash for not doing enough to protect kids on its gaming services. Last month, a lawsuit was filed in Iowa after a 13-year-old girl was allegedly introduced to an adult predator on the platform, then kidnapped and trafficked across multiple states and raped.

In Louisiana, Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said his office has had multiple cases involving Roblox. In one, police allege a man used voice-altering technology to pose as a girl on the platform. Ard said there have yet to be any arrests made related to the gaming site.

Ultimately, Murrill said she believes Roblox should be shut down.

An email seeking comment was sent to the company Thursday.

The free online gaming platform has more than 111 million monthly users. Its website describes Roblox as “the ultimate virtual universe that lets you create, share experiences with friends, and be anything you can imagine.”

Roblox doesn’t allow users to share videos or images in chats and tries to block any personal information, such as phone numbers. However, as with other gaming platforms and social media sites with similar policies, people find ways around such safeguards.

Roblox, which according to its website has “a zero-tolerance policy for the exploitation of minors,” doesn’t allow children under 13 to chat with other users outside of games unless they have explicit parental permission. Because the platform does not encrypt private chat conversations, the company can monitor and moderate them.

However, Murrill said there is no age minimum or substantial age verification process once a user signs up. As a result, young children, teens and adults posing as children can sign up, she said.

The company says on its website that age verification “is a new feature that is currently in testing on Roblox.” Last month, it launched a feature that requires teenagers aged 13 to 17 to send a video selfie to verify their ages if they want to chat freely with people they know, called “trusted connections.”

Amid mounting criticism in recent months, the company has implemented additional measures that it says will keep their young users safe.

In August, Roblox told AP that it was rolling out an artificial intelligence system to help detect early signs of possible child endangerment, such as sexually exploitive language. Roblox said the system led it to submit 1,200 reports of potential attempts at child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the first half of 2025.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A woman who spit on the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital during a videotaped interview pleaded guilty on Thursday to assault charges.

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Emily Gabriella Sommer, 32, of Washington, D.C., is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 10 for assaulting then-acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin Jr. and two law-enforcement officers who arrested her several days after she spit on Martin. Sommer pleaded guilty to three counts of assaulting public officials, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office.

A trial for Sommer had been scheduled to start next Monday. Instead, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb accepted Sommer’s guilty plea and will sentence her.

On May 8, a Newsmax reporter was interviewing Martin on a sidewalk outside his office when Sommer approached him.

“Are you Ed Martin? You are Ed Martin,” Sommer said before lunging at him and spitting on his left shoulder, according to prosecutors.

As she walked away, Sommer swore at Martin and called him “a disgusting man.”

“My name is Emily Gabriella Sommer, and you are served,” she said.

Sommer later took credit for the spitting incident in a message replying to a social media post by Martin.

The encounter occurred on the same day that President Donald Trump pulled Martin’s nomination to remain U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate after a turbulent stint in the nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s office. A key Republican senator said he could not support Martin for the job due to his support for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Martin roiled the office with a series of unorthodox moves, such as firing and demoting subordinates who worked on politically sensitive cases. Trump replaced Martin with former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 2.

When U.S. Marshals Service deputies went to arrest Sommer at her apartment on May 22, she spit in a deputy’s face and kicked him, prosecutors said.

“How is that spit? Taste good? I was just getting over a cold sore. I hope I gave you herpes,” Sommer told the deputy, according to prosecutors.

Sommer also kicked a second deputy during her arrest and told another deputy, “I would put a bullet in you if I had it. I would put a bullet in every one of you right now,” prosecutors said.

During her initial court appearance in May, Sommer repeatedly disrupted the hearing with outbursts. Deputies picked her up and carried her out of the courtroom after one of her interruptions prompted a magistrate to suspend the hearing. Sommer later apologized to the magistrate for her courtroom conduct.