A 20-year-old college student from Wright County was crowned the 72nd Princess Kay of the Milky Way during a coronation ceremony Wednesday night, the eve of the 2025 Minnesota State Fair.

Malorie Thorson, a 20-year-old college student from Waverly, representing Wright County, was crowned the 72nd Princess Kay of the Milky Way on Aug. 20, 2025 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. (Matt Addington / Midwest Dairy)

Malorie Thorson of Waverly, the daughter of Andrew and Colette Thorson, was crowned the 72nd Princess Kay of the Milky Way. She attends South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota.

As the next Princess Kay of the Milky Way, Thorson will serve as the official goodwill ambassador for nearly 1,800 Minnesota dairy farm families. This includes helping connect consumers to dairy farm families through media interviews, classroom visits and public speaking events.

10 county dairy princesses from across Minnesota competed for the title at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Princess Kay candidates are judged based on their knowledge of the dairy industry, communication skills, personality and enthusiasm.

Alexis Hoefs of New Prague, representing Le Sueur County, and April Klaphake of Sauk Centre, representing Stearns County, were selected as runners-up.

Hoefs, Natalie Clemenson of Zumbrota, representing Goodhue County, and Nicole Hauschildt of Zumbro Falls, representing Wabasha County, were named scholarship winners.

Lauren Steffl of Sleepy Eye, representing Brown County, was named Miss Congeniality.

Butter sculptures

Thorson’s first duty as Princess Kay will be to to sit in a rotating cooler in the Dairy Building and have her likeness carved in a 90-pound block of butter the first two days of the State Fair, which begins Thursday.

Minnesota artist and butter sculptor Gerry Kulzer will carve Princess Kay and the 2025 finalists.

The other finalists are scheduled to have their likenesses sculpted as follows:

Saturday, Aug. 23: Alexis Hoefs, New Prague, representing Le Sueur County
Sunday, Aug. 24: Lauren Steffl, Sleepy Eye, representing Brown County
Monday, Aug. 25: Paige Frenchick, Manannah, representing Meeker County
Tuesday, Aug. 26: Monica Evers, Kellogg, representing Wabasha County
Wednesday, Aug. 27: Natalie Clemenson, Zumbrota, representing Goodhue County
Thursday, Aug. 28: Heidi Montag, Sauk Rapids, representing Benton County
Friday, Aug. 29: Nicole Hauschildt, Zumbro Falls, representing Wabasha County
Saturday, Aug. 30: April Klaphake, Sauk Centre, representing Stearns County
Sunday, Aug. 31: Haylie Wielenberg, Long Prairie, representing Todd County

Princess Kay and the finalists will make appearances during the State Fair near the butter sculpture booth in the Dairy Building. Princess Kay’s Facebook page and Instagram will provide updates and photos of each completed butter sculpture.

The State Fair concludes on Labor Day, Sept. 1.

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That the Twins were in a position to possibly win Wednesday night’s game is a testament to Bailey Ober and the team’s bullpen, which bent but did not break over the first nine innings of the game.

Finally, 10 innings in, the fact that the Twins were unable to get a hit at the right moment caught up to them. Shea Langeliers hit a two-run home run off reliever Génesis Cabrera in the 10th inning on Wednesday night, helping lift the Athletics to a 4-2 win over the Twins at Target Field.

The Twins certainly had chances all night, all the way into the 10th inning when they were unable to score their automatic runner, Austin Martin, who ended the game on third.

They had a prime chance in the third when they got consecutive hits from James Outman and Ryan Fitzgerald to begin the frame, putting both in scoring position with no outs. Neither scored. Outman was thrown out at the plate on the contact play and, immediately after, Trevor Larnach bounced into an inning-ending double play.

An inning later, the Twins could not bring home Luke Keaschall, who stole third with just one out. In the fifth, the inning the Twins scored a pair of runs on RBI knocks from Larnach and Brooks Lee. Lee was easily thrown out trying to take third after a pitch got past Langeliers, the A’s catcher.

In the eighth, Lee and Luke Keaschall began the inning with back-to-back singles but did not advance and in the ninth, the Twins left Fitzgerald on third.

But their pitching held strong for most of the night, limiting the Athletics.

Ober left well before the game was decided, but turned in another strong outing, another step forward as he leaves a tough middle-of-the-summer behind. Though his velocity was down — he averaged 89.3 miles per hour on his four-seam fastball — Ober still got 18 swing and misses on the night and was reasonably effective in his 5 2/3-inning start.

Ober, for the most part, cruised through the Athletics lineup, the only point of pain being when Tyler Soderstrom stepped in the batter’s box. Soderstrom extended his hitting streak to 18 games in the second inning, doubling to lead off the inning. He came around to score on a sacrifice fly. He later tagged Ober for a solo homer in the fourth inning. Ober was removed in the sixth inning before getting a chance to face him again.

After him, Kody Funderburk, Cole Sands, Justin Topa and Brooks Kriske before the Athletics finally got to Cabrera in the 10th.

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A Duluth man allegedly claimed that he woke up and found his mother dead inside their home, only to later admit to the shooting while sitting alone in a police interview room.

Nathan Douglas Davin, 46, was charged Tuesday with the intentional second-degree murder of Mae Dean Davin, 74, at their East Hillside residence on Saturday night.

The victim was apparently asleep in a recliner when she was shot once in the face at close range inside the house she owned at 1511 N. Ninth Ave. E, according to court filings.

While an alleged motive has not been publicly identified, Nathan Davin was reportedly displaying erratic behavior, and investigators said they found the words “go to hell” spray-painted on a surface inside the house, along with “several other satanic symbols and phrases.”

According to court documents:

Nathan Davin knocked on a next-door neighbor’s door around 10:50 p.m., stating something about a fatality. A person who was housesitting at the time called 911, noting Davin appeared intoxicated and was only wearing boxer shorts.

Before officers arrived, he also made phone contact with the neighbor, telling him: “My mom’s dead. She blew her head off.”

Police met Davin at the front porch of his home and inquired about some apparent blood on his hands. He replied, “I found my mom f—ing dead,” indicating he had just woken up and discovered her in the living room.

Officers looked inside and found Mae Dean Davin in the chair with a “devastating gunshot wound.” A spent shell casing was found on the floor, and a bullet was located near the exit wound. No gun was located nearby.

During a search of the home, investigators found two pistols in Nathan Davin’s upstairs bedroom, as well as several other guns in an unlocked safe.

A Glock 9 mm was found on a nightstand with apparent blood on it, and nearby officers found a box of ammunition that matched the rounds in the pistol, as well as the spent shell casing and bullet from the main floor.

After Davin was placed in the back of a patrol car, he was heard making several spontaneous utterances, including “wake up to bulls—” and “there went my life.”

The suspect was taken to the Public Safety Building, where his bloodied boxers and other physical evidence were collected. He declined to speak with investigators and requested a lawyer, but a recording from the interview room captured him stating: “God damn it, I killed my mother.”

Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Kirstyn Oye told the court Mae Dean Davin “was positioned in her recliner in a way that indicated she was sleeping” when she was shot. St. Louis County District Judge Eric Hylden granted the prosecutor’s request to set unconditional bail at $750,000 and deny supervised release.

Nathan Davin was charged with fifth-degree domestic assault in 2005, but that count was dropped as he pleaded guilty to interference with a 911 call. His criminal history otherwise appears limited to several impaired driving cases and a handful of other nonviolent offenses.

Hylden approved the defendant’s application for a public defender and scheduled his next court appearance for Sept. 15. The case has been assigned to Chief Judge Leslie Beiers.

The case is the third homicide reported in Duluth this year. In the past five years, more than half of the city’s homicides have involved domestic violence.

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By MAURICIO SAVARESE and GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s federal police said that messages found on the telephone of embattled former President Jair Bolsonaro show that at one point he wanted to flee to Argentina and request political asylum, according to documents seen Wednesday by the Associated Press.

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Bolsonaro is currently waiting for a Supreme Court ruling next month about an alleged coup attempt and he might face another case as police formally accused him and one of his sons of obstruction of justice in connection with his pending trial.

The AP had access to the police investigation and reviewed the documents, which were sent to Brazil’s Supreme Court. The Argentine government did not respond a request for comment from the AP.

Silas Malafaia, an evangelical pastor who is a staunch ally of Bolsonaro’s, was also targeted by police. He had his passport seized by investigators but was not formally accused of obstruction of justice.

Brazilian federal police investigators said in a 170-page report that Bolsonaro had a draft of a request for political asylum from Argentine President Javier Milei’s government dated Feb. 10, 2024. The former president saved the document two days after authorities searched his home and office as part of an investigation into an alleged coup plot.

In a 33-page letter addressed to Milei, Bolsonaro claimed he was being politically persecuted in Brazil.

“I, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, request political asylum from Your Excellency in the Republic of Argentina, under an urgent regime, as I find myself in a situation of political persecution in Brazil and fear for my life,” the Brazilian leader wrote.

On Feb. 12, Bolsonaro reportedly spent two nights at the Hungarian Embassy in Brasília, fueling speculation among critics that he may have been attempting to avoid arrest.

Brazilian federal police investigators also said in their report that Bolsonaro’s decision to ignore precautionary measures established for his house arrest and spread content to his allies “sought to directly hit Brazilian democratic institutions, notably the Supreme Court and even Brazil’s Congress.”

Sá Pessoa reported from Sao Paulo.