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Ahead of the Timberwolves season opener in Portland on Wednesday night, Pioneer Press Timberwolves beat reporter Jace Frederick joined the Dane Moore NBA Podcast to discuss lingering Wolves’ thoughts and predictions heading into the 2025-26 season.
Watch the entire episode below:
You can catch all of Moore’s Timberwolves podcasts throughout the season here.
Following reports of fliers with racist messages and language in St. Paul’s Merriam Park area, community leaders will host a public event Wednesday to hear updates from law enforcement and next steps for community members.
Organized by Hamline Midway Coalition, Bethlehem Lutheran In-The-Midway and Union Park District Council, the event will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Bethlehem Lutheran In-The-Midway church at 436 Roy St. N. in St. Paul.
“Bethlehem Round Tables are an opportunity for us to gather as community & neighbors around topics that bring us joy, break our hearts, and give us hope for the neighborhood,” Bethlehem Lutheran In-The-Midway posted on its Facebook page earlier this month. “In recent weeks, vile, hateful flyers have circulated through our neighborhoods — causing pain, fear, and frustration. This community conversation is a space to come together — not to amplify that hate, but to respond with facts, connection, and care.”
St. Paul police first responded to reports of the fliers in the Merriam Park area Oct. 2. Officers met with a resident who found fliers with “racially motivated biases” in the street of the 1600 block of Sherburne Avenue, according to police, at the time.
Officers also recovered laminated fliers with hate speech from the 400 block of Fry Street the same afternoon.
Police also responded to other areas to collect fliers including Cleveland Avenue between Roblyn Avenue and Carroll Avenue, Feronia Avenue between Prior Avenue and Lynhurst Avenue and the 2000 block of St. Anthony Avenue between Dewey Street and Prior Avenue.
Police were investigating the fliers at the time and that additional officers were canvassing the neighborhood. Residents at Wednesday’s meeting will learn more about what they should do if they find additional flyers, how to report them, and what laws apply.
Residents who find similar fliers are encouraged call 911 and report their location, according to the event organizers.
The event also will focus on next steps to bring community together.
“We’ll explore how neighbors, faith communities, district councils, and local partners can stand together — countering hate with connection, storytelling, and collective care,” according to the event description.
To register to attend the event in person or to receive an email with a Zoom link, go to tinyurl.com/58ewpw2t. Participants must register to in order to join by Zoom. Food will be provided for in-person attendees.
Residents who find additional fliers also are encouraged to file an online police report at stpaul.gov/departments/police/file-police-report.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Tuesday announced his plans to seek a third term in office in 2026.
Ellison, a former Democratic Congressman elected attorney general in 2018, said he would use another four years in office to continue protecting Minnesota consumers from “greedy corporations.”
The attorney general said he would also continue to oppose the agenda of President Donald Trump. Ellison has been involved in numerous lawsuits against the Republican administration, including action this year to challenge Trump’s executive order banning transgender youth from girls’ sports.
“I’m running for re-election to keep Minnesota a fair place, where rule of law prevails over power and privilege,” Ellison said in his campaign announcement. “Since Minnesota elected me seven years ago, we’ve won tough fights to help Minnesotans afford their lives. We don’t bow down to kings in America, not presidents, not billionaires, not giant corporations, because everyone deserves to afford their life.”
During his first seven years in office, Ellison has negotiated settlements with insulin manufacturers to lower the cost of the drug and brought a lawsuit against JUUL to obtain millions in funding to address youth e-cigarette addiction.
So far, Ellison is the only major Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate to announce his intention to run for attorney general.
Republican Ron Schutz, an attorney who sits on the board of Minnesota conservative think tank the Center of the American Experiment, launched his campaign for attorney general earlier this month.
Ellison is the second of statewide DFL leaders to announce plans to seek another consecutive term in office. Gov. Tim Walz announced he’d seek a third four-year term in September.
State Auditor Julie Blaha, who is serving her second term, doesn’t plan to run again in 2026. Secretary of State Steve Simon, also a DFLer, is serving his third four-year term and has not announced his 20206 plans.
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By Suhauna Hussain, Los Angeles Times
The union representing Starbucks workers on Monday filed a complaint with the International Olympic Committee, opposing the popular chain’s role as the “official coffee partner” of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The union, Starbucks Workers United, contends in the complaint that Starbucks’ treatment of U.S. workers looking to unionize and bargain a contract — as well as allegations of forced labor abroad — conflict with the Olympic Games’ code of ethics.
The 22-page complaint notes findings by federal labor regulators in recent years that the company had unlawfully retaliated against employees, failed to bargain with the union, and took other actions in an “aggressive, unrelenting campaign of intimidation and interference” to discourage workers from exercising their right to organize.
It also cites legal actions filed in April by Brazilian workers and watchdog groups, alleging the company’s supply chain relies on human trafficking and “slavery-like” labor in Brazil, the world’s largest coffee grower — allegations the company has denied.
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Starbucks, which denies accusations made in the complaint, announced its Olympics partnership last month. As part of the deal, it plans to build “a specially-designed” coffeehouse in the Olympic and Paralympic villages, and will serve coffee across competition venues, volunteer hubs and other locations.
Michelle Eisen, a spokesperson for the union and a former Starbucks employee, said the company in negotiations had been “fighting [its] own baristas” and “stonewalling” a union contract.
“Starbucks’ long pattern of disrespecting workers’ rights stands in stark contrast to the Olympic spirit, which celebrates human dignity, fairness, solidarity, and teamwork,” Eisen said. “Until Starbucks starts playing fair … they have no place at the Olympic Games.”
Starbucks maintains, however, that the union is to blame for stalled contract talks by walking away from negotiations in the winter.
Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson said in response to a request for comment Monday that “allegations by Workers United have all previously been debunked and are without merit.”
Anderson said the company denies allegations of forced labor in Brazil and is committed to ethical sourcing. The company has said that the coffee farms it works with are thoroughly vetted.
“Our commitment to bargaining with Workers United and reaching agreements has not changed,” Anderson said. “We are proud to bring connection, culture, community and incredible coffee to the world stage at the LA28 Games.”
The union’s Monday complaint also alleges that Starbucks, by lobbying for the Olympics deal, created a possible conflict of interest, because a prominent former member of Starbucks’ board, Mellody Hobson, also serves on the board of LA28, the organizing committee for the Summer Games.
Anderson said that Hobson left the Starbucks board in March, and that the Olympics deal was finalized after her departure.
Hobson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Complaints alleging ethics violations submitted to the International Olympic Committee are analyzed by the committee’s chief ethics and compliance officer, who, according to the group’s procedures, would then either submit the complaint to an independent ethics commission to make a recommendation or inform the person or group that made the complaint that no breach of ethics had been found.
Games in years past, with billions of dollars in revenue at stake, have at times been beset by corruption and scandal. The IOC set up its independent Ethics Commission in 1999 after IOC members were accused of accepting bribes — in the form of cash, gifts, travel expenses and even college tuition for members’ children — to advance Salt Lake City’s bid to host the 2002 Winter Games.
The accusations lodged by the union come amid a period of strained contract talks.
A nationwide movement to unionize the coffee chain began in 2021, when the first store in the chain won its union election. After several years of heightened union-management tension, hope grew that Starbucks and unionized baristas would be able to hammer out a deal in early 2024, when Starbucks pledged to publicly to work with the union. But talks broke down in December, and the union has said in recent months that it’s gearing up for a potential strike.
The complaint marks the latest point of tension between Southern California workers and their employers in the lead-up to the L.A. Olympics.
L.A. labor groups launched over the summer a campaign for what they are calling a “New Deal” to get the city and the LA28 Olympics organizing committee to invest in the community by building more housing, being more transparent about venue agreements and adopting protections for immigrant workers — as well as foreign visitors and fans — from federal raids.
And in a recent battle over raising wages for hotel and airport workers in the city, business groups launched a petition drive to block the city’s efforts to raise tourism workers hourly wages to $30 in time for the 2028 Olympics. But in early September the business groups fell short of securing the minimum number of valid signatures needed to qualify their initiative for the ballot.
©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.