Following an unsuccessful bargaining session on Friday, striking union members with SEIU Healthcare MN & IA at HealthPartners Stillwater Medical Group say they plan to vote again later this month on whether to hold a longer unfair labor practice strike.

The group’s current four-day strike is scheduled to conclude at 7 a.m. Saturday, with Urgent Care employees returning to work this weekend and the rest of the group returning to work on Monday.

Susan Ribanszky, a certified medical assistant in family medicine and SEIU Healthcare MN & IA bargaining team member, said Friday that she and other union members were frustrated with HealthPartners’ latest offer. Friday’s bargaining session was the eighth bargaining session between the two groups.

HealthPartners “asked for us to come back in to bargain this morning,” she said. “We came in hopeful to reach an agreement. They presented us with a proposal that did not move forward on even one item from what they had proposed the last time we met last week. The only move they made, in fact, was backwards: they put back on the table an employer proposal regarding PTO and holidays that they had previously agreed to drop.”

A HealthPartners statement said the organization values all of its colleagues, including those represented by SEIU.

“We will continue offering market-competitive wages and benefits, and we have a fair contract proposal on the table. We’re hopeful that we can resume negotiations as soon as the union is ready,” the statement said.

Ribanszky said the Stillwater union members are “united in demanding equal pay for equal work, to get the same wage increases other HealthPartners employees doing the same jobs at other clinics already receive.”

Workers were joined on the picket line this week by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

The union consists of more than 80 workers including licensed practical nurses, certified medical assistants and other service-unit healthcare positions in the family medicine, OB/GYN, pediatrics and specialties departments at the clinic.

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JACOB LAKE, Ariz. (AP) — Visitors and staff at two national parks in the U.S. West have been evacuated because of wildfires.

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Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, about 260 miles southwest of Denver, closed Thursday morning after lightning sparked blazes on both rims, the park said. The wildfire on the South Rim has burned 2.5 square miles , with no containment of the perimeter. The park is closed until further notice.

The conditions there have been ripe for wildfire with hot temperatures, low humidity, gusty winds and dry vegetation, the park said, adding that weather remained a concern Friday.

Firefighters saved the visitor center along the South Rim by removing dry vegetation and coating the building in a layer of protective material, fire officials said. Small aircrafts from Colorado’s Division of Fire Prevention and Control dropped retardant from the sky Friday while ground crews tried to contain the burn.

The Grand Canyon’s North Rim in Arizona also closed Thursday because of a wildfire on adjacent Bureau of Land Management land near Jacob Lake. The Coconino County Sheriff’s Office said it helped evacuate people from an area north of Jacob Lake and campers in the Kaibab National Forest nearby.

This photo provided by Melinda Rich shows smoke from a wildfire behind the Jacob Lake Inn in Jacob Lake, Ariz., on Thursday, July 10, 2025. (Melinda Rich via AP)

The fire began Wednesday evening after a thunderstorm moved through the area, fire officials said. It has burned about 1.5 square miles with zero containment.

About 500 visitors who planned to stay in the park overnight were evacuated Thursday night, Grand Canyon spokesperson Joelle Baird said. Employees and residents on the North Rim were told to shelter in place.

Authorities say a new acquaintance sleeping in a car in a family’s yard climbed into a 12-year-old girl’s bedroom window and tried to sexually assault her.

Thammathorn Laohalertdecha, of St. Paul, who turns 26 on Saturday, was charged Thursday in Ramsey County District Court with first-degree attempted criminal sexual conduct, second-degree criminal sexual contact and burglary, according to the criminal complaint.

Thammathorn Laohalertdecha (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

The criminal complaint gave the following details of the incident:

Police say shortly after midnight on Wednesday, they were called to a house in the 390th block of Blair Avenue in St. Paul on reports that a man had broken into a girl’s bedroom through her window and tried to sexually assault her while holding a hand over her mouth.

The girl screamed and punched him and called family members on her phone during the struggle.

A family member who was alerted to the attack by the girl’s muffled screams came into the bedroom and charged the man, who tried to crawl back out the window. Instead, family members captured him and dragged him outside of the house into the backyard. When one family member let go of the man, allegedly so another family member could strike him with a piece of wood, Laohalertdecha managed to run away and down the alley.

During the investigation, authorities learned that a family member had met Laohalertdecha earlier in the week through a mutual friend. He was helping the man get a car and some money. During that process he took a picture of the man’s identification from Thailand so he could help sell him a car. He told police that Laohalertdecha was homeless and he was letting him sleep in a car in their yard but that he didn’t have permission to come into the house, even to use the restroom.

At one point, Laohalertdecha allegedly asked to speak to the 12-year-old girl but was told that she was a child.

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Later in the day on July 9, Laohalertdecha reached out to the family member who let him sleep in the car and said he wanted to meet to discuss what had happened. Laohalertdecha said he was on the 300 block of Hatch Avenue.

The family member called police, who went to the location and arrested Laohalertdecha. He refused to speak to the police.

Laohalertdecha was charged with one count of first-degree attempted criminal sexual conduct with someone under 14, one count of second-degree criminal sexual contact with someone under 14 and one count of first-degree burglary with assault on a person. He is being held on $200,000 bail.

No attorney for Laohalertdecha is listed on the criminal complaint.

The St. Paul Police Department said officers were involved in a shooting Friday afternoon near Maryland avenue East and Clarence Street.

The shooting occurred just after 12:30 p.m., according to a post on X.

The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will be investigating.

The BCA said on X that it had personnel on scene and would release more information after a preliminary investigation occurred.

No officers were injured.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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