Among the flowers and signs lining the sidewalk at Annunciation Catholic Church, there were also six golden retrievers cuddled with children and adults as they grieved, just days after a mass shooting devastated the community.

Kristen Winn watched in tears as her daughter Emily, a student at the Annunciation school, sat on the curb with her arm wrapped around Gideon, a 10-year-old English cream retriever, on Friday.

“I just really appreciate that they’re here,” Winn said of the dogs. “This really helps.”

South Minneapolis residents Megan Lennon and her daughter came to Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis to bring flowers and stayed to cuddle with Gideon the comfort dog on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (Alex V. Cipolle / MPR News)

Megan Lennon and her daughter, who live nearby, brought flowers to the site and sat with Gideon and another retriever, Mary, who traveled from Janesville, Wis.

“It’s overwhelming, walking up here,” Lennon said in tears. “I had no idea how big it was going to be, and just being overwhelmed with emotion and grief, being drawn to the dog was a really, really calming distraction in the moment.”

Annunciation was still reeling from a mass shooting on Wednesday that killed two children and wounded 18 others.

The retrievers are part of LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry, an outfit based out of Lutheran Church Charities near Chicago. The ministry has 130 dog teams stationed around the U.S. that travel to communities in crisis from the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, to the recent fires in California.

Gideon and his team are the only ones based in Minnesota, stationed at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Bloomington.

“What we’ve found over the years is that as the people pet the dogs, they start to talk and they start to relax,” said Pam Lienemann, one of Gideon’s handlers. “Then we know we have helped begin the healing process.”

Lienemann said Gideon visits about 18 Minnesota senior living communities, as well as Normandale Community College and Fairview hospitals.

“But when a crisis like this happens and we pull dogs, we clear his schedule, and we are 100% here for this community to help them,” she said.

When news of Wednesday’s shooting broke, Lutheran Church Charities deployed five additional dog teams to Minneapolis from the region. The dogs arrived on Wednesday night in time for the vigil at the Academy of Holy Angels.

“Once the invitation comes in, then our promise to folks is that we will have boots and paws on the ground within 24 hours,” Leinemann says. “This time, we topped ourselves. We had boots and paws on the ground within 12 hours.”

Lutheran Church Charities President Chris Singer, on site at Annunciation Church, said the dogs restore a sense of safety.

“One of the things I’ve watched time and time again is a child who sits down next to a dog, maybe has never said a word about what they’re feeling or what the fear is that they have,” Singer says. “But they begin spending time with the dog, and pretty soon they start sharing some of those feelings, and it’s a really great release for them.”

English cream retriever Hagar, from Appleton, Wis., snuggles with children outside the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. “They feel how soft she is and how loving, and she looks so soulfully in their eyes that they can tell her anything,” said Joann Schwan, one of Hagar’s handlers. (Alex V. Cipolle / MPR News)

Handlers Joann and Tim Schwan traveled with the retriever Hagar, 6, from her home base at Faith Lutheran Church in Appleton, Wisconsin. They say the comfort dogs receive 2,000 hours of training to stay calm with people who are grieving or in crisis.

“They feel how soft she is and how loving, and she looks so soulfully in their eyes that they can tell her anything,” Joann Schwan said. “They open up to her.”

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The Minnesota State Fair is a city unto itself during its annual 12-day run in Falcon Heights. Pioneer Press photojournalist John Autey spent a bit of time at this year’s Great Minnesota Get-Together putting a face to some of the statistics behind the State Fair. See more photos with more statistics at TwinCities.com.

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The Twins two all-stars played like, well, all-stars on Sunday. That was all they needed to dispatch one of the National League’s best teams on Sunday and with it, take a series victory.

Joe Ryan threw seven scoreless innings against a lineup that contains Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Luis Arraez, and Byron Buxton hit a home run, setting a new career high for a season, as the Twins routed the San Diego Padres 7-2 in the series finale at Target Field.

Ryan cruised through the Padres lineup, using a sinker-heavy approach to generate ground balls all day. His seven innings marked just the second time he has pitched that many inning post-all-star break. It was a big bounce back for the starter, who had given up a combined 11 runs in his past two starts.

“I think that was one of the better outings you’re going to see in Major League Baseball,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “That’s what very good pitchers in this league are able to do, digging pretty deep at about the 100-plus pitch mark and getting a very good hitter (Fernando Tatis Jr.) to end the seventh inning. He was strong.”

He had plenty of offensive support throughout the day, starting in the third inning when Buxton hit his 29th home run, eclipsing the career high he set in 2022.

The Twins (62-74) added another run in the fourth inning and Buxton’s leadoff double in the fifth sparked a four-run inning in which they pulled away from San Diego (76-61). The game was also Buxton’s 103 of the season, which surpasses the number of games he played last season and is now the second-most for him in his career. Buxton also matched Max Kepler for the most home runs in Target Field history with the blast.

“I could care less about my career-high,” Buxton said of his 29 home runs. “In (26) more games, it’s different. I’ll be able to look back and reflect a little bit on what the season is and we can kind of go from there. But right now, I’ve still got more work to do.”

But while the center fielder didn’t seem to be too impressed with his new milestone, those around him that watch him every day sure were.

“It’s been a treat to just get to play with him my whole time here,” Ryan said. “He’s a special talent. We’ve always seen it but to put it together for this season is really special.”

Fitzgerald pitches in

Ryan Fitzgerald wasn’t quite expecting the ovation he got on Saturday night when he walked off the field, but he got one after retiring the side in the top of the ninth in order in the Twins’ 12-3 loss to the Padres.

In his first major league appearance on the mound, the infielder retired Arraez, Mason McCoy and Ryan O’Hearn in order, topping out at 68.8 miles per hour as he got a pop up to third and a couple fly outs to center.

“In the moment, it’s fun. Obviously it sucks having to come in when you’re losing like that,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve got guys that care here so you don’t want to be too happy about it but … the last position I need in pro ball is catcher now, so hopefully that doesn’t happen. It was interesting, for sure.”

Briefly

The MLB Ballpark app, which fans use to access tickets, went down across the country on Sunday morning but seemed to resolve before the Twins’ game started and the Twins announced a crowd of 26,956 fans. … Bailey Ober is set to start when the Twins take on the Chicago White Sox on Monday in a Labor Day matchup which will begin at 1:10 p.m. … Lynx teammates Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman — the Stud Budz — were on hand, throwing out the first pitch on Sunday. Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen was also in attendance. … The Twins will add two September call-ups to the roster on Monday.

By JACK BROOK

Rudy Giuliani is recovering from a fractured vertebra and other injuries following a car crash in New Hampshire in which he was a passenger, a spokesperson for the former New York City mayor said Sunday.

Giuliani was being driven in a rented Ford Bronco by his spokesperson Ted Goodman when their vehicle was struck from behind by a Honda HR-V driven by a 19-year-old woman late Saturday evening, New Hampshire State Police said in a statement.

Troopers witnessed the crash, which caused both vehicles to hit the highway median and left them “heavily damaged,” state police said. Goodman and the 19-year-old suffered “non-life-threatening injuries” and were taken to hospitals for treatment, the agency added.

State police said they are investigating the crash and no charges have been filed.

Giuliani, 81, was taken to a nearby trauma center and was being treated for a fractured thoracic vertebra, multiple lacerations and contusions, as well as injuries to his left arm and lower leg, according to a statement posted on X by Michael Ragusa, Giuliani’s head of security.

Giuliani “sustained injuries but is in good spirits and recovering tremendously,” Ragusa said, adding: “This was not a targeted attack.”

Prior to the accident, Giuliani had been “flagged down by a woman who was the victim of a domestic violence incident” and contacted police assistance on her behalf, Ragusa said. After police arrived, Giuliani continued on his way and his vehicle was hit shortly after pulling onto the highway in a crash that was “entirely unrelated” to the domestic violence incident, Ragusa told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.

State police said troopers were investigating a domestic violence report on the southbound Interstate 93 highway shortly before 10 p.m. and observed the crash, which occurred on the northbound lanes. Troopers and fire personnel quickly crossed to provide help.

New Hampshire State Police declined to comment on whether Giuliani had contacted the agency regarding the account of a domestic violence incident.

Goodman did not respond to requests for comment and Giuliani’s team did not provide additional details about the circumstances surrounding the crash.

“Thank you to all the people that have reached out since learning the news about my Father,” Andrew Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani’s son, wrote in post on X. “Your prayers mean the world.”

The crash follows some rocky years for the onetime Republican presidential candidate, who was dubbed “America’s mayor” in light of his leadership in New York after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Giuliani later became President Donald Trump’s personal attorney for a time and a vocal proponent of Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden. Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits claiming fraud, and numerous recounts, reviews and audits of the election results turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error.

Two former Georgia elections workers later won a $148 million defamation judgment against Giuliani. As they sought to collect the judgment, the former federal prosecutor was found in contempt of court and faced a trial this winter over the ownership of some of his assets. He ultimately struck a deal that let him keep his homes and various belongings, including prized World Series rings, in exchange for unspecified compensation and a promise to stop speaking ill of the ex-election workers. ____

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz in New York City contributed to this report.

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