By JEFFREY COLLINS, BRUCE SCHREINER and SARAH BRUMFIELD

West Virginia communities and officials were honoring two members of the state’s National Guard who were shot in Washington, D.C., this week, lauding their dedication to serving their country.

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U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died, and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains hospitalized after Wednesday afternoon’s shooting West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Friday that Wolfe remains in “very critical condition.”

Both were described as selfless and dedicated, and had been deployed to Washington as part of a initiative to bolster public safety in the nation’s capital.

The governor issued a proclamation requesting that all West Virginians observe a statewide moment of silence or prayer on Friday afternoon to honor Wolfe and Beckstrom. Morrisey ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in recognition of Beckstrom’s death.

“These two West Virginia heroes were serving our country and protecting our nation’s capital when they were maliciously attacked,” Morrisey said. “Their courage and commitment to duty represent the very best of our state.”

At a Thanksgiving night vigil at a wall honoring veterans in Webster Springs, West Virginia, a few dozen bundled up people gathered not long after the news came out of Beckstrom’s death.

She graduated with honors from Webster County High School in June 2023 and joined the National Guard about four weeks later. Beckstrom served with distinction as a military police officer with the 863rd Military Police Company, the West Virginia National Guard said in a statement.

“She exemplified leadership, dedication, and professionalism,” the statement said, adding that Beckstrom “volunteered to serve as part of Operation D.C. Safe and Beautiful, helping to ensure the safety and security of our nation’s capital.”

President Donald Trump called Beckstrom an “incredible person, outstanding in every single way.”

One friend and classmate remembered her surprise at how someone remembered as a “girly girl” ended up wearing camouflage and training with a gun. But they said it was all part of her big heart and desire to help others. Beckstrom had been in Washington, D.C., with her unit since the beginning of August.

Her former boyfriend, Adam Carr, told The New York Times she wasn’t initially excited about her deployment but grew to enjoy helping people and getting the chance to see memorials and museums.

“As long as she was with people who cared about her, she was having a good time,” Carr told the newspaper.

After high school, Beckstrom ended up in Summersville, where she was a community engagement specialist with a clinic that provides services for teens and young adults with mental illnesses, substance abuse problems or developmental disabilities, Summersville Mayor Robert Shafter said in a statement on Facebook.

Summersville planned a candlelight vigil for her Saturday, Shafter said.

The Berkeley County Sheriff Rob Blair said in a social media post that Sgt. Jason Wolfe and his wife, Melody, wanted the public to know how much they appreciate their prayers for their son, Andy, and asked people to continue to pray for them.

Wolfe, who serves with the 167th Force Support Squadron, has worked as a lineman with Frontier Communications since early 2023, the company said Friday.

“He is a valuable member of our team, working hard to bring high-speed fiber internet to homes and businesses so everyone can stay connected to essential services and fully participate in the digital economy,” the company said in a statement. “We’re grateful for Andrew’s dedication — to our nation, to West Virginia and to the communities he helps keep connected.”

Berkeley County schools confirmed that Wolfe graduated from Musselman High School in 2019. Principal Alicia Riggleman said during his time at the school, Wolfe was an engaged and high-achieving student “who embodied the Applemen spirit, contributing positively to our school community both academically and athletically.”

Eleven people interested in filling the seat that was left vacant last month following the resignation of Forest Lake Area School Board member Luke Hagglund will be interviewed next week by the six remaining members of the school board.

The applicants include Glen Berg, Andi Courneya, Scot Doboszenski, Princesa Hansen, Paul Pease, Jeff Peterson, Kenneth Rutford, Tom Schulzetenberg, Jim Smith and Daniel Tuott.

Another candidate who will be interviewed is Laura Ndirangu, who was a candidate during the 2024 school board election. The school board voted to include an additional finalist from the pool of people who ran for school board last year but did not win a seat; Ndirangu received nearly 11.8% of the vote in 2024, coming in fifth behind current board member Tessa Antonsen (12.2%).

The school board will interview each candidate at a special board meeting on Wednesday, starting at 5 p.m. Each interview is scheduled to last 20 minutes.

Following the interviews, the board will break into two sub-committees. Each committee will select up to two applicants for final consideration at Thursday’s board meeting.

Once a candidate is selected, there is a 30-day waiting period prior to final appointment to the school board made on Jan. 3. Orientation of the appointed school board member will be Dec. 5-Jan. 5; a ceremonial oath is planned for the Jan. 8 board meeting.

Hagglund resigned on Oct. 24, citing a move out of the district. The original plan for appointing Hagglund’s replacement – proposed by School Board Chairman Curt Rebelein – was controversial.

A board agenda item, published before the Oct. 23 meeting, stated that the board planned to immediately vote on a resolution appointing Doboszenski, one of the applicants for the position, to fill the remainder of Hagglund’s term; his term expires on Jan. 4, 2027.

Hagglund told the Pioneer Press that he planned to vote on Doboszenski’s appointment himself.

An attorney for Education Minnesota, however, sent a letter to Rebelein on Oct. 22 stating that the vote would be illegal because Hagglund’s resignation did not take effect until after the meeting.

The board decided against that plan and voted instead to hold a special meeting to determine a different process and timeline to fill the vacancy.

The new board member will serve on the board for the 2026 calendar year.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has decided to boycott the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington next week because the U.S. denied visas to members of its delegation, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on Friday.

The agency quoted Iranian soccer federation spokesman Amir-Mahdi Alavi as saying that officials faced visa obstacles that go beyond sports considerations.

There was no immediate comment from the White House.

Alavi said the federation had reached out to FIFA and hoped it could help resolve the issue. Soccer’s ruling body didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

President Donald Trump’s administration announced in June a travel ban on citizens from 12 countries including Iran. The list also included Haiti, which last week qualified for the World Cup.

Exemptions, however, were promised for “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the secretary of state.”

It is unclear whether the exemptions also apply to the World Cup draw, which takes place on Dec. 5 at the Kennedy Center.

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The Iranian delegation would have been expected to be led by its soccer federation president Mehdi Taj, one of the most senior officials in Asian soccer and a member of two FIFA committees that have oversight of the World Cup.

He is one of the vice presidents of the Asian Football Confederation and a member of FIFA panels with responsibility for the ruling body’s competitions, plus men’s national team soccer in general.

A record 48 teams will participate in the June 11-July 19 World Cup co-hosted by the the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Every year, as the days get shorter and the grocery stores start stacking canned cranberries into small architectural marvels, I cling to one simple dream: mowing my lawn on my birthday.

My birthday falls in late November, this year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, a time when most people are busy pretending the snowblower looks like it should start just fine. There’s always that moment in the garage where you stare at it from a safe emotional distance, nodding reassuringly. “Yep. Looks healthy.” And yet you don’t dare pull the cord because deep down you know you’ll end up making sounds that resemble a small child weeping into a handkerchief.

But me? Every year, with unwavering conviction, when it’s time to blow out the candles, I don’t ask for world peace or a Vikings playoff run. (Both equally unrealistic.) I ask for the one thing no sane Minnesotan should be wishing for in late November: one more mow.

Does the grass need it? Absolutely not. By November my lawn is about as active as a teenager on Christmas break—motionless, unbothered, and vaguely resentful of any attempt to get it moving. The grass hasn’t needed attention since after Labor Day.

But that’s not important.

What is important is what it means.

When I can mow on my birthday, it means Old Man Winter is still loitering somewhere in northern Canada, probably stuck behind a jackknifed semi. If I can fire up the mower the week of Thanksgiving, maybe it means he’s having trouble clearing Customs. I can picture the agent leaning over the counter, saying “Sir, we need you to declare all forms of precipitation,” which slows things down considerably.

Whatever the holdup, he hasn’t found Minnesota yet. And that final roar of Mr. Briggs & Stratton feels like a tiny but meaningful victory. A personal protest against the inevitable. A whispered message to the cosmos: Not today.

It’s 90 minutes of pretending I don’t live in a state where windshield scrapers are considered “essential equipment,” like insulin pumps or pacemakers.

A birthday mow is my superstition — my own woolly-mammoth warding ritual. Some people knock on wood; I roll a mower over half-frozen turf and pretend November is just late September wearing a coat. It’s ridiculous, and I know it’s ridiculous, but it’s also extremely Minnesotan, which is basically ridiculousness mixed with determination and served in a crockpot.

And this year?

We almost made it.

Right up until Monday night, there was still a faint, foolish glimmer of hope. The lawn was dry. The mower was gassed. I had my gloves ready like a man preparing for a ceremonial event.

The snow did come, but not with the fury we’d been warned about — not the Snowmageddon they’d been breathlessly predicting. Instead, it drifted in quietly, politely, like it didn’t want to interrupt anyone’s Thanksgiving prep.

Overnight, the summer green of our lawns surrendered to a soft, powdery dusting. Not a storm, not a blizzard — just enough to remind us that Old Man Winter had finally found his way home.

This year there will be no wonderfully stubborn satisfaction of pushing a mower across crunchy, near-frozen grass. I’ll miss the neighbors peeking from behind fogged-up windows, holding steaming mugs of something seasonal and whispering, “Is he OK?” and, “Should we call someone?”

While they’re out scraping frost off their windshields and stringing Christmas lights I had hoped to trudge along like it’s mid-June, giving them a friendly wave: Yep, still mowing. Yep, still pretending winter’s not coming.

By now, mowing has nothing to do with lawn care. It’s about hope — thin, improbable, gloriously delusional Minnesotan hope. It’s about tricking yourself, however briefly, into believing the snow might hold off until December, maybe even January if we’re all very, very good this year.

But then the forecast rolled in — that smug little weather map with snowflakes hovering over Minnesota like they owned the place. Old Man Winter finally remembered his itinerary, gathered his storm clouds, and decided to arrive before my birthday. Like a relative who shows up before you’ve vacuumed.

So yes, my hopes and dreams are officially dashed for 2025. The mower goes back into hibernation, tucked away like a bear that doesn’t want to be disturbed until Mother’s Day. Saturday I won’t be mowing — I’ll be standing in the yard, staring at the sky, muttering, “We were this close.”

Still… there’s always next year.

And in Minnesota, hope springs eternal — usually sometime around June, right after we stop scraping ice off our grills.

Mark Glende, Rosemount, is an elementary school custodian. “I write about real-life stories with a slight twist of humor,” he says. “I’m not smart enough to make this stuff up.”

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