Teens and young adult fans waited in line Saturday for a free meet and greet with “Love Island USA’s” TJ Palma at the Maplewood Mall.

“Love Island USA” is a reality dating show that follows a group of singles — called ‘islanders’ — at a luxury villa in Fiji. Over the summer, contestants pair up, compete in challenges and face recouplings, where they can choose new partners or stay with the same one. Those left single risk being dumped from the island, while the couples who survive move closer to winning both love and the grand prize of $100,000.

Palma, 23, is a social media personality and former college baseball player who lives in Tampa, Florida. He joined the show as a bombshell, a new contestant who enters the villa mid-season to stir up drama and test existing couples. He was eliminated a couple of weeks later after receiving the fewest votes from his fellow islanders.

Maplewood Mall manager George Roethemeyer said they bring in celebrities for meet-and-greets regularly, and Palma was invited because of the show’s popularity. Roethemeyer said he hopes attendees get to experience the mall when they come for a meet-and-greet.

“That’s why we do these events for free, so people can come in and see the mall, see what the mall has to offer and see that Maplewood Mall is a thriving mall and very much part of the community,” Roethemeyer said.

Fans greeted Palma with excitement, praising the show and his time on it while taking selfies, as he happily signed autographs.

Allison Hahm, 24, and Christly Sumihi, 23, fans who attended the event, said they got hooked on the show because of this season’s drama and learned about Palma’s meet-and-greet through a social media post. Hahm said she was surprised Palma held his meet-and-greet in Maplewood, while Sumihi said it was nice to see a cast member visit Minnesota.

“I think it’s really cool. It’s really interesting to have somebody from Love Island come to Minnesota. I was just happy to come and see him,” Sumihi said.

Hahm said she enjoyed watching the new twists this season, though she felt Palma’s on-screen personality didn’t fully match the humor he shares on social media. Sumihi said she liked the unfolding drama.

“It kinda felt like he was the balance to the chaos,” Hahm said. “Especially when he was still with Iris [Palma’s love interest and Season 7 cast member], they were just so calm and collected compared to the explosion of drama everywhere else in the villa.”

“It was most like the good part of the love story you want to see. The romance and the ‘falling-in-love’ part of reality TV,” Sumihi said.

Hahm said events like the meet-and-greet let fans experience a more realistic side of celebrities. She said that humanizing figures like Palma felt strange but not shocking.

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“It is reality TV, but it’s a screen and it kind of brings people back to the awareness that you’re meeting a person, just like you who’s been on these shows,” Hahm said.

Sumihi said fans often judge reality TV stars by what they see on screen, and events like this let people see different sides of them. “It’s just a TV show, things are edited. They’re a real person. So it’s about staying grounded,” she said.

Viewers can watch Love Island USA on Peacock and can watch the Season 7 reunion at 8 p.m. Aug. 25.

Gloria Ngwa is a summer 2025 reporting intern sponsored by the St. Paul Jaycees Foundation, in conjunction with ThreeSixty Journalism and the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists. Ngwa is a sophomore studying journalism at Northwestern University, where she writes for her school’s HerCampus chapter.

Eastbound Interstate 94 between Interstate 35W and Minnesota Highway 280 in Minneapolis reopened Saturday while westbound lanes remain closed until 5 am. Monday. The closure is caused by a project restoring pavement markings, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Motorists are asked to use the posted detour route of I-35W, Minnesota Highway 36, I-35E and I-94.

By 5 a.m. on Monday, all lanes and ramps along this stretch of I-94 will reopen to traffic for the Minnesota State Fair through Labor Day (Sept. 1), except for the ramp from Huron Boulevard to eastbound I-94, which will reopen on Wednesday, Aug. 20.

Work will resume after Labor Day to finish most of the construction by the end of September. Motorists can expect periodic lane closures in spring 2026 when crews apply a deck sealant to the restored bridges.

When construction is completed, five bridges along I-94 will have a smoother and safer riding surface, MnDOT says.

A listing of current and upcoming traffic impacts can be found at dot.state.mn.us/metro/projects/i94minneapolis/.

MnDOT officials note that all construction activities and traffic impacts are weather-dependent and may change.

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It’s usually tough being traded midseason, and even more tough when you’re a pitcher that has to face the old team only a week after the trade.

That was the situation Chris Paddack was in after the Twins sent him to Detroit on July 28, the first of nine trades that sent 10 players to parts east, west and south before the July 31 trade deadline.

Only seven days after the Twins sent Paddack and right-hander Randy Dobnak to Detroit for Class A catching prospect Enrique Jimenez, the in-jokes were still fresh.

“But you have to lock in,” Paddack said from Target Field’s visiting clubhouse on Friday. “They gave me a little taste of my own blood, you know. They put up four runs, and I only had one swing-and-miss, to Royce (Lewis), and it came in the fourth inning.”

The Twins touched Paddack for four runs on six hits in four innings of a 6-3 loss. In his other two starts for Detroit, Paddack — who is 1-1 with a 3.45 ERA since the trade — pitched into the sixth inning and allowed one run in each.

But Paddack has another shot against his former team in Sunday’s series finale.

“Definitely going into this outing with a little revenge in mind,” he said. “I know those guys were good friends and good teammates, but they’re trying to take food off my plate, and it comes down to who wants it more.”

Paddack, 29, had a strange three-plus seasons in Minnesota. Sidelined by a second ligament replacement surgery in his right arm, he made nine combined appearances in his first two seasons, and still signed a three-year, $12.5 million contract extension in 2023.

He made four relief appearances in 2023, the last two in the division series against Houston. So, landing with a first-place team, he said, was exciting.

“That’s why we play,” he said. “I feel very fortunate to be on the top end of the trade. I feel like it’s much easier to accept whenever you’re going to a contender versus maybe a team that’s rebuilding.”

In this equation, that would be the Twins, who on Saturday started three players (Austin Martin, Luke Keaschall and James Outman) with a combined 43 major leagues this season, and five who weren’t on the Opening Day roster (Martin, Keaschall, Outman, Brooks Lee and Kody Clemens).

“Obviously, it stinks with what happened over there: eleven guys going different directions, and ownership wanting to rebuild, or sell, whatever their plan is with the Twins,” Paddack said.

In the meantime, Paddack finds himself in a clubhouse that was loose and happy before Friday’s game.

“Everybody expects to win,” said Paddack, a free agent at season’s end. “So, you come to the field, you relax, you enjoy it, and be present. But it’s time to toe the rubber or get in the box, or make some plays defensively, the guys step up and expect to win ballgames.”

Roden sent to IL

Before Friday’s game, the Twins placed outfielder Alan Roden on the injury list with a sprained left thumb and recalled Outman from Class AAA St. Paul. He made his first start for the Twins in left field.

Roden, an outfield prospect in Toronto acquired in the deal that sent Louie Varland to the Blue Jays, was playing consistently before he reinjured the thumb while sliding head first into home plate in Friday’s 4-3, 11-inning loss to the Tigers.

“Roden has to see the doctor,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s going to see a hand specialist. I don’t know what day that is.”

Briefly

Pablo Lopez, who threw to live hitters Friday for the first time since injuring his right shoulder in June, said he felt good Saturday and expected to throw again in four to five days. With the Saints in town next week, it’s possible he takes his next step at CHS Field.

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WASHINGTON — Melania Trump took the unique step of crafting a letter that calls for peace in Ukraine, having her husband President Donald Trump hand-deliver it to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their Friday meeting in Alaska.

The letter did not specifically name Ukraine, which Putin’s forces invaded in 2022, but beseeched him to think of children and “an innocence which stands above geography, government, and ideology.” Nor did the American first lady discuss the fighting other than to say to Putin that he could “singlehandedly restore” the “melodic laughter” of children who have been caught in the conflict.

“In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone — you serve humanity itself,” she wrote on White House stationery.

A copy of the letter was first obtained by Fox News Digital and later posted on social media by supporters of the U.S. president, including Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The first lady said that Putin could help these children with the stroke of a pen.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in Russia taking Ukrainian children out of their country so that they can be raised as Russian. The Associated Press documented the grabbing of Ukrainian children in 2022, after which the International Criminal Court said it had issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

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