At this point, should we start feeling sorry for Katy Perry?

The 40-year-old mother of one saw her would-be comeback album “143” flop critically and commercially (much like her previous effort, 2020’s “Smile”), suffered from slow ticket sales in some markets for her first tour in seven years and got absolutely roasted for her tone-deaf Blue Origin space flight. (Even the Wendy’s Twitter account got in on the action, responding to a post celebrating her return to Earth with “can we send her back”)

After sitting through her garish spectacle of concert Tuesday night at Target Center, the answer to my question is that, no, we should not start feeling sorry for Katy Perry. To paraphrase Radiohead, she did it to herself, she did.

For starters, “technical difficulties” led to doors opening more than two hours late, leaving fans waiting outside or in stuffy skyways. (Word is the crew was late in arriving from a Monday night concert in Chicago.)

Once the show finally started, it wasn’t a mere concert, but a high-concept experience meant to mimic an immersive video game where Perry portrays a half human/half robot who battles an AI monster named Mainframe who stole all the world’s butterflies. Which, much like “143,” sounds as if it was conceived by AI.

She performed on a massive stage that includes a large, lighted infinity symbol stretching into the crowd to the back of the floor with fans inside the teardrop-shaped centers. Both Perry and her army of dancers wore so many different complicated, semi-futuristic outfits, she must have a dedicated semi truck just for the wardrobe. At various points, she flew above the crowd, rode a gigantic metal butterfly and engaged in a lightsaber battle.

Clearly, someone sunk a lot of cash into the production. Yet it all looked so cheap and chintzy, as if it was all constructed out of items from a combined Big Lots/Party City closeout sale. It was loud, too, with endless flashing lights and migraine-inducing graphics. And that aforementioned lightsaber battle? She was dueling with what appeared to be two large sections of HVAC tubing.

More than a whiff of desperation ran throughout the set list as well, with Perry opening by sneaking in new songs “Artificial” and “Teary Eyes” between older hits “Chained to the Rhythm” and “Dark Horse” in the same way folks try to hide heartworm medication in the dog’s Purina Pro Plan.

Many aspects of the show lifted ideas from other, more talented, acts like Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Pink. From Swift, for example, she partially adopted her Eras Tour style and played banks of songs from the same time frame. And it was a genuine surprise that she dropped five of her biggest hits in the first hour of the show: “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Hot n Cold,” “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” and “I Kissed a Girl.” (Hilariously enough, during “Hot n Cold” she strapped on a guitar and proceeded to play it for maybe 30 seconds tops.)

To her credit, it was quite cute when she pulled a fan and her mom onstage to sing “The One That Got Away.” Perry was also quite gracious when another fan in the crowd handed her an album to sign. But it was actually an album from Perry’s opening act Rebecca Black and it was Black’s autograph she was looking for.

Perry’s voice has held up remarkably well and the new songs aren’t quite as cringeworthy in concert, save for the still-dreadful “I’m His, He’s Mine.” Also, Perry did take full advantage of her gigantic stage and played on all parts of it, giving fans from all around the arena a decent view at some point. Unfortunately, it was a decent view of a Katy Perry concert.

DULUTH, Minn. — Mary Heilman and her husband recently received a $4,000 bill to fix their boiler.

As retirees living on a tight budget, Heilman said it’s hard enough to keep their propane tanks filled in the grueling Northland winters. So they were relieved when the Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency stepped in and covered the costs of the repair.

“Without energy assistance, there’s no way we could be in our home,” the Makinen resident said. “We own our house, we own our property, but we can’t even keep up with taxes and stuff.”

The Heilmans are among more than 100,000 Minnesota households that received help last winter with monthly heating bills and/or emergency services through the state’s Energy Assistance Program.

But federal funding for the initiative appears to be on the chopping block, state and local officials warned. Last month, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired the entire staff responsible for managing the program, and the Trump administration has proposed to eliminate its $4.1 billion budget.

“The average benefit for households this year has been just over $700, and those funds make a big difference in people’s lives,” Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Grace Arnold said Monday. “Without energy assistance, thousands of Minnesotans would face higher energy costs.

“And beyond that,” she said, “they would be at risk for having their utilities shut off in winter, receiving no help if their furnace breaks and they have no heat in the middle of winter, or being forced to choose between heating their homes and buying groceries or medicine.”

Residents of the 8th Congressional District spend an average of 13% of their household income on energy — the highest in the state, according to Department of Commerce data. Northeastern Minnesota also has the highest overall energy costs and the highest share of households receiving emergency benefits.

Annie Levenson-Falk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, said her advocacy organization tracked 91,000 households that had electric or gas service disconnected by regulated utilities for nonpayment in 2024 — a record number that does not even include customers of rural cooperatives and municipal utilities or those who can’t afford to refill propane tanks.

She added that nearly half of households receiving assistance have a person over 60; 4 in 10 have a person with a disability; and 17% have a child under age 6.

“This figure has been persistently high since the pandemic,” Levenson-Falk said, “compounded by the cost of housing and inflation throughout the family budget. Energy is unaffordable for too many Minnesotans.”

AEOA surveys residents receiving benefits, according to energy assistance coordinator Jean Pelletier, and has found that many are retired, on Social Security and/or have been left in dire financial situations as a result of circumstances such as the death of a spouse.

“We may be able to resolve these life-threatening situations when funding is available,” she said, “but if (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) funding is cut, there will not be options to help our community members in need, and there are likely people that will not be able to stay in their homes.”

The state initiative is entirely funded by the federal program, Arnold said, and Minnesota stands to lose about $125 million annually if funding is eliminated. She noted the program also helps keep costs down across the board, as unpaid bills result in costs being passed on to other customers.

Advocates of LIHEAP urged Congress to maintain the program, which has for decades received broad, bipartisan support and helps roughly 6.2 million people nationally offset the costs of both heating and air conditioning.

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While Sophie Jaques was welcomed with open arms when she came to Minnesota in the middle of last season, the Frost defender did find one immediate challenge in sharing a team with star forward Taylor Heise. They had to share a nickname.

In 2022, Heise had won the Patty Kazmaier Award while playing for the Minnesota Gophers. A year later, Jaques won the trophy, given annually to the top player in women’s college hockey, while winning the NCAA title for Ohio State.

Heise was already being playfully referred to as “Patty” by her teammates when Jaques entered the chat. Never mind the fact that Frost forward Kendall Coyne-Schofield had also won the Kazmaier, in 2016 when she played at Northeastern.

So, the Frost roster was suddenly crowded with Pattys. With the Frost winning games, and both Heise and Jaques making key contributions, their teammates say they can work out a nickname sharing agreement.

“I think they both can have it at that point,” Frost forward Michaela Cava said. “They’re both incredible hockey players, and they can share it. They can both be Patty, they’re so good and so fun to watch.”

The Frost are back in action Wednesday, looking to close out their five-game, first-round playoff series against Toronto at Xcel Energy Center. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m.

With two goals and two assists in the Frost’s first three playoff games, Jaques is showing off some of the skills that made her a star as a Buckeye, controlling the play from the blue line, playing smart defense, and unleashing a scary-hard shot from time to time.

While she comes across as soft-spoken off the ice, Heise said in the locker room, on the bench and on the ice, Jaques’ teammates see a strong player who is known above all for her confidence.

“Hers is unwavering, truly. Say she gets her pocket picked once, she’s going to get (the puck) back. She’s going to skate it all the way down the ice, and she’s going to deke around a defender,” Heise said. “She has what we call sometimes a magnet. The puck sticks on her stick like no one else’s. She’s got great stickhandling skills, she can skate it up the ice. Plus, she can see the play.”

Starting her pro career in Boston, where she played in seven games without recording a point, Jaques, 24, was the centerpiece of the first trade in PWHL history when Minnesota acquired her one-third of the way through the 2023-24 season. She put up good numbers after the trade and was an important defensive player in Minnesota’s run to the 2024 league title.

She acknowledged, however, that switching time zones and teams midseason presented some challenges, and Jaques’ offensive numbers more than doubled — team-high 15 assists, seven goals in 25 regular-season games — in her first full season with the Frost.

“Last year, she really came on once she got here. Her game picked up. Her confidence level picked up. She kind of got back to where she was before,” Frost coach Ken Klee said. “And then she’s just continuing. You look at the points she put up this year. She’s still trying to take pride in her own zone and being an offensive threat when she can.”

Originally from Toronto, Jaques has gotten to face her hometown team two consecutive years in the opening round of the playoffs. While she relishes the chance to play near where she learned the game, Jaques admitted that with the Sceptres playing well, tickets are harder and harder to come by for all of the family and friends who turn out when the Frost visit.

“It’s good to see how the team has grown in Toronto, but I’m happy to still get a good group out to our games,” she said.

And with the Frost ending the regular season with must-win games in Ottawa and Boston, then traveling right to Toronto for the first two playoff games, playing close to home also meant playing close to her parents’ washer and dryer — a bonus.

“We had been on the road for about eight days, and then we still had about seven games left. So it made sense to get a load of laundry in, for sure,” Jaques said.

Sophie Jaques #16 of the Minnesota Frost skates against Kristin O’Neill #43 of the Montreal Victoire during the second period at Place Bell on Jan. 17, 2025 in Laval, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Victoire defeated the Minnesota Frost 4-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

By JESSE BEDAYN

A rock climber who fell an estimated 400 feet while descending a steep gully in Washington’s North Cascades mountains survived the fall that killed his three companions, hiked to his car in the dark and then drove to a pay phone to call for help, authorities said Tuesday.

The surviving climber, who has not been publicly identified, extricated himself from a tangle of ropes, helmets and other equipment after the accident and made the trek despite suffering internal bleeding and head trauma, Okanogan County Undersheriff Dave Yarnell said.

Falls like this leading to three deaths are extremely rare, and many details about what led up to it still aren’t known, said Cristina Woodworth, who leads the sheriff’s search and rescue team. Seven years ago, two climbers were killed in a fall on El Capitan at Yosemite National Park.

The group of four — including the victims, aged 36, 47 and 63 — were scaling the Early Winters Spires, jagged peaks split by a cleft that’s popular with climbers in the North Cascade Range, about 160 miles northeast of Seattle. The surviving climber was hospitalized in Seattle.

The group of four met with disaster that night when the anchor securing their ropes appears to have failed as they were descending in a steep gully, trying to reach the spire’s base, Yarnell said.

They plummeted for about 200 feet into a slanted gulch and then tumbled another 200 feet before coming to rest, he said. Authorities believe the group had been ascending but turned around when they saw a storm approaching.

A three-person search and rescue team reached the site of the fall Sunday, Woodworth said. The team used coordinates from a device the climbers had been carrying, which had been shared by a friend of the men.

Once they found the site, they called in a helicopter to remove the bodies one at a time because of the rough terrain, Woodworth said.

On Monday, responders poured over the recovered equipment trying to decipher what caused the fall, Woodworth said. They found a piton — basically a small metal spike that is driven into rock cracks or ice and used as anchors by climbers — that was still clipped into the climbers’ ropes.

Pitons are oftentimes left in walls. They can be there for years or even decades, and they may become less secure over time.

“It looked old and weathered, and the rest of their equipment looked newer, so we are making the assumption that it was an old piton,” Woodworth said.

Rock climbers secure themselves by ropes to anchors, such as pitons or other climbing equipment. The ropes are intended to arrest their fall if they should slip, and typically climbers use backup anchors, said Joshua Cole, a guide and co-owner of North Cascades Mountain Guides, who has been climbing in the area for about 20 years.

Generally, it would be unusual to rappel off a single piton, said Cole, adding that it is still unknown exactly what happened on the wall that night.

“We eventually, if possible, would like to get more information from surviving party,” Woodworth said.

The spires are a popular climbing spot. The route the climbers were taking, said Cole, was of moderate difficulty, and requires moving between ice, snow and rock.

But the conditions, the amount of ice versus rock for example, can change rapidly with the weather, he said, even week to week or day to day, changing the route’s risks.

Bedayn reported from Denver.