HEALTH CARE

Scott Gottlieb

UnitedHealth Group, an Eden Prairie-based national health insurer, announced that Dr. Scott Gottlieb has joined its board of directors. Gottlieb, a practicing physician, is a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner and has held roles at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and on the Federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee.

ARCHITECTURE

NewStudio Architecture, St. Paul, announced the return of Sunny Reed to the position of director of interior design/senior associate.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Associated Banc-Corp announced that Mike Lebens will succeed Paul Schmidt as the Twin Cities market president, effective Jan. 1. Lebens currently is senior vice president and commercial banking market leader; Schmidt is executive vice president and head of commercial real estate and facilities. Associated Banc-Corp is the parent company of Associated Bank, based in Green Bay, Wis., and is the 14th largest bank in Minnesota by deposit market share.

FOOD

Hormel Foods Corp., an Austin, Minn.-based provider of grocery store prepared food brands, announced the appointment of Paul Kuehneman as interim chief financial officer and controller. Kuehneman previously was director of internal audit, vice president and chief financial officer for Jennie-O Turkey Store, a Hormel division, and most recently, vice president and controller of Hormel Foods. … KZ Provisioning, a Minneapolis-based provider of nutrition services for sports teams, announced the appointment of Bri Rosas as its first chief executive officer. The company was founded by Minnesota-based James Beard Award-winning chefs Gavin Kaysen and Andrew Zimmern. Rosas formerly was president and co-founder of Opus Sports Partners and also led the communications and broadcast departments for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.

HONORS

Hormel Foods Corp., Austin, Minn., announced that it was recognized by Vault as having one of the top 150 internship programs in the nation.

LAW

Maslon, Minneapolis, welcomed attorneys Dany Berbari and Ashley Patyk to the firm’s Litigation Group. Berbari previously served as a law clerk for the Honorable James B. Loken of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Patyk served as a law clerk for the Honorable Tracy M. Smith of the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

MANUFACTURING

Graco Inc., a Minneapolis-based maker of fluid handling equipment for industry, announced the appointment of Andrea (Andi) H. Simon to its board of directors effective Dec. 5. Simon serves as executive vice president and chief financial officer at MasterBrand Inc. … Apogee Enterprises, a Bloomington-based provider of architectural windows and related products for commercial construction, announced that Independent Chair Donald A. Nolan has been appointed chief executive officer, effective Oct. 31, succeeding Ty R. Silberhorn. Nolan also will become executive chair of the board; board member Patricia K. Wagner has been appointed the independent lead director.

PUBLISHING

Coffee House Press , a Minneapolis-based book publisher, announced the appointments of Mark Haber as director of acquisitions and marketing, and Kaija Straumanis as editorial director; both new positions. Haber has been director of marketing for Coffee House Press for the past two and a half years; Straumanis formerly was senior editor of Open Letter Books in Rochester, N.Y.

TECHNOLOGY

Clearfield, a Plymouth-based communication fiber management company, announced the elections of Rebecca Seidel and Kathleen Skarvan to its board of directors, effective Dec. 10. Seidel is senior vice president and president of Cardiac Ablation Solutions at Medtronic; Skarvan is a former senior vice president and president of Hutchinson Technology’s Disk Drive Division. … NetSPI, a Minneapolis-based data-security company for business, announced the appointment of Sridhar Jayanthi as its interim chief product and technology officer. Jayanthi previously was with McAfee, now Trellix, and FireEye, now Mandiant, and was the CEO and co-founder of PolyLogyx.

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CHICAGO — The moods are polar opposite for the two programs heading into the Battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe in Minnesota next weekend.

In Madison, Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell told reporters they “can smile” after the Badgers’ 27-10 win over No. 21 Illinois at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday night.

At Wrigley Field, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck was just trying to grin and bear it after a 38-35 loss to Northwestern on Saturday afternoon. Before and after he spoke to media members, U players wore straight faces as most walked, some limped and others wore ice packs out of the visitors’ clubhouse.

These vibes have flipped. In October, the Gophers were winning — albeit ugly — while it was just ugly for the Badgers. After a 37-0 loss to Iowa in mid-October, Fickell said “that’s as low as it can be. I apologize.”

But the Badgers (4-7, 2-6 Big Ten) have gotten off the mat and have won two of their last three games. They knocked off a ranked Washington two weeks ago and had a competitive first half in a 31-7 loss to No. 2 Indiana last week.

“They have been playing good the last coupe of weeks,” Illini coach Bret Bielema said postgame Saturday.

The Gophers (6-5, 4-4) edged a winless-in-Big Ten Michigan State team in overtime to start November, and after a bye, were blown out at No. 7 Oregon and then couldn’t slow down a previously .500 Northwestern team on Saturday.

With the Gophers’ discrepancy between a strong offensive game and an atrocious defensive performance, Fleck is trying to keep his team together before the regular-season finale at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Huntington Bank Stadium.

“This is the perfect time to keep coming together and even get closer together,” Fleck said from Wrigley Field. “In adversity, you either get way farther apart or way closer together. There is no in between. That is a decision and a choice.”

Quarterback Drake Lindsey, who threw for a career-high four touchdowns against Northwestern, echoed his coach’s message.

“This is a huge week coming up and we got to learn from this one and attack next week,” Lindsey said. “We just got to stay together because this is the biggest team game in the world. Once you divide, the team would go to crap, so you just got to stay together and lead through adversity.”

When things got ugly in Wisconsin earlier this season, Fickell told a reporter Saturday there was no finger pointing, and that was not something he could say last season.

The Gophers controlled last year’s Axe game from start to finish, winning 24-7 in Madison. Minnesota finished 7-5, while the Badgers went 5-7 and missed out on a bowl game for the first time in 22 years.

Bowling where?

The Gophers’ bowl destinations are believed to be down to three candidates. With a win over the Badgers, Minnesota might head to the Rate Bowl in Phoenix on Dec. 26 or the Pinstripe Bowl in New York on Dec. 28.

If the Gophers lose to the Badgers, they will finish 6-6 and 4-5 in Big Ten play. That might mean a fourth trip to Detroit, which is now known as the GameAbove Sports Bowl. It will be played at Ford Field on Dec. 26.

Minnesota has gone to Detroit’s bowl game three times, with wins in 2015, 2018 and 2023.

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What to know when the Vikings travel to play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon:

Vikings at Packers
When: Noon Sunday
Where: Lambeau Field
TV: FOX / KMSP-Channel 9
Radio: KFAN
Line: Packers -6
Over/Under: 41.5

Keys for the Vikings

— The topic of discussion this week was J.J. McCarthy’s mechanics. That’s also the key to the Vikings pulling off an upset at Lambeau Field. Though there should be ample opportunity for the Vikings to pound the rock against a shaky run defense, McCarthy is going to have to hit on some of his opportunities down the field. If his fundamentals from practice translate to accuracy in the game, the Vikings are at least going to give themselves a chance.

Keys for the Packers

— There’s a reason the Packers traded for Micah Parsons. They brought him in to singlehandedly destroy the confidence of opposing teams, and while the ultimate goal is having Parsons do that in the postseason, Green Bay will certainly take it against the Vikings. It’s on Parsons to make life miserable for McCarthy in and out of the pocket. If he can get him out of rhythm, McCarthy has shown he’ll turn the ball over.

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By JESSICA DAMIANO

We tend to think that fall is when the garden winds down, and spring is when the work begins. But there are several chores that, if completed now, will make your spring job much easier.

For starters, pulling up weeds by their roots in the fall will dramatically reduce their reappearance when the weather warms up again. I’m practically addicted to a long-handled tool called Grampa’s Weeder, which makes easy work of the task.

While you’re at it, thoroughly rake beds and borders where fungus, black spot or mildew diseases emerged this year. This will help prevent the pathogens from taking hold in the soil and infecting next year’s plants. Dispose of the leaves and debris in the trash.

Other disease-preventing measures include removing shriveled, “mummified” fruit from tree branches, and disinfecting tomato cages and plant stakes before storing (use a solution made of 1 part bleach and 9 parts water, or spray with a household disinfectant spray and allow to air dry.)

Clean, sharpen and oil tools now so they’ll be ready when you are. There’s little worse than heading out to plant your new seedlings only to find your spade has rusted over the winter.

Protect your trees and property

This Nov. 10, 2025, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows a coiled plastic trunk guard wrapped around a young peach tree to protect it from rabbit and mouse damage over winter. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

If you planted new fruit trees this year, install protective guards around them to prevent mouse and rabbit damage. I’m partial to coiled-plastic trunk wraps, but mesh, wire and higher-end metal tree surrounds are also highly effective.

For safety’s sake, examine tree branches now, and remove any that are split, dead or broken, lest they rip off during winter storms and threaten people and property.

Prepare for new beds

If you’re planning to start new beds next year, save yourself the back-breaking labor of digging up the lawn (or the money spent on renting a sod cutter) by smothering the grass over winter.

Define the future bed and cover the area with large pieces of cardboard or thick layers of newspaper, using landscape staples or rocks to hold it in place. Then, cover it with a few inches of mulch or compost.

The cardboard may be entirely decomposed by spring, but if not, just leave it in place and dig planting holes right through it.

Clear out the old beds

Clear out spent vegetable beds, then lightly turn the soil, incorporating compost, well-rotted manure and, if indicated by a low pH test result, lime. The amendments will work their way deeply into the soil by spring, enriching the root zone to give next year’s crops a natural, nutritional boost.

And for an early-spring gift to yourself, don’t forget to get flower bulbs (and garlic!) into the ground. The longer you wait, the bigger the risk of delayed blooms, but you can keep planting them as long as the soil is soft enough to dig.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.