Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon weekend kicks off Friday with some new twists in its 41st year.

One new event people can expect is the Best of the Midwest Invitational, a “race within a race” taking place during the marathon. Professional and aspiring Midwest athletes, who were chosen through an online application process, will race for a chance to win cash prizes.

Local athletes including Emma Lee, of St. Paul, Kim Horner, of Maplewood, Kevin Lewis, of Minneapolis, and Danny Docherty, of St. Paul are expected to run in the invitational. Invitational participants will lead the front of the marathon pack and will compete for a special $20,000 prize purse; they’re also eligible for the overall professional prize money.

Participants represent the Midwest states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Also new to the marathon is the inaugural TC Half Marathon for More, where 200 registered participants will run the final 13.1 miles of the marathon — which stretches from Nokomis Beach to the State Capitol — as part of a fundraising effort to support TC Kids Run Free, which invests in youth running for children under 18, and other Twin Cities in Motion projects.

For some people cheering on the race participants, this weekend will be a competition as well as the Diane and Alan Page Community Cheer Challenge is expected to have 40 cheer zones along the race course. That’s the most in the history of the challenge, which was founded in 2022 by Minnesota Vikings Hall of Famer and Twin Cities in Motion supporter Alan Page.

Participants in the Community Cheer Challenge can win prizes and a donation to a charity of choice. Although applications to participate in the Community Cheer Challenge are closed, people are are encouraged to join in and help motivate athletes. A map of cheer zones can be found at tcmevents.org/dapccc.

Runners and road closures

Over 28,000 people are expected to participate in this weekend’s festivities, which officially begin with the Health and Fitness Expo at the St. Paul RiverCentre, beginning at 11 a.m. Friday until Saturday evening, where marathon participants pick up their packets and are able to visit over 75 exhibits.

Participants doing the Twin Cities 5K and 10K runs will do so on Saturday beginning at the State Capitol. Families also can get in on the action Saturday with the Medtronic Twin Cities Family Events, consisting of the KARE 11 Family Mile, iHeartRadio Half Mile and the Diaper Dash.

The route map for the 2024 Twin Cities Marathon, scheduled to take place on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. The marathon starts in downtown Minneapolis and will conclude at the State Capitol in St. Paul. (Courtesy of Twin Cities in Motion)

There will be a sold-out crowd for the Twin Cities 10-Mile Run and the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, with 12,000 people participating in the 10-miler and 9,000 people participating in the marathon.

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Drivers this weekend should expect road closures near the Capitol starting 9 a.m. Thursday, with a part of Summit Avenue east of Snelling Avenue to close Saturday.

Parts of downtown Minneapolis will be closed to vehicle traffic early Sunday, but will reopen on a rolling basis as the marathon and 10-mile run proceed down their respective routes.

People can use Interstates 94 and 35 to get around the metro area on Sunday and are encouraged to be aware of meters and no parking signs along and near race courses, and to use public transportation if possible.

For more information on this weekend’s festivities, visit the marathon’s website, tcmevents.org.

By PAUL WISEMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some manufacturers and retailers are urging President Joe Biden to invoke a 1947 law as a way to suspend a strike by 45,000 dockworkers that has shut down 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas.

At issue is Section 206 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft-Hartley Act. The law authorizes a president to seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period for companies and unions to try to resolve their differences.

Biden has said, though, that he won’t intervene in the strike.

Taft-Hartley was meant to curb the power of unions

The law was introduced by two Republicans — Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio and Rep. Fred Hartley Jr. of New Jersey — in the aftermath of World War II. It followed a series of strikes in 1945 and 1946 by workers who demanded better pay and working conditions after the privations of wartime.

President Harry Truman opposed Taft-Hartley, but his veto was overridden by Congress.

In addition to authorizing a president to intervene in strikes, the law banned “closed shops,” which require employers to hire only union workers. The ban allowed workers to refuse to join a union.

Taft-Hartley also barred “secondary boycotts,” thereby making it illegal for unions to pressure neutral companies to stop doing business with an employer that was targeted in a strike.

It also required union leaders to sign affidavits declaring that they did not support the Communist Party.

Presidents can target a strike that may “imperil the national health and safety”

The president can appoint a board of inquiry to review and write a report on the labor dispute — and then direct the attorney general to ask a federal court to suspend a strike by workers or a lockout by management.

If the court issues an injunction, an 80-day cooling-off period would begin. During this period, management and unions must ”make every effort to adjust and settle their differences.”

Still, the law cannot actually force union members to accept a contract offer.

Presidents have invoked Taft-Hartley 37 times in labor disputes

According to the Congressional Research Service, about half the time that presidents have invoked Section 206 of Taft-Hartley, the parties worked out their differences. But nine times, according to the research service, the workers went ahead with a strike.

President George W. Bush invoked Taft-Hartley in 2002 after 29 West Coast ports locked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in a standoff. (The two sides ended up reaching a contract.)

Biden has said he won’t use Taft-Hartley to intervene

Despite lobbying by the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Retail Federation, the president has maintained that he has no plans to try to suspend the dockworkers’ strike against ports on the East and Gulf coasts.

On Wednesday, before leaving Joint Base Andrews for an air tour of North Carolina to see the devastation from Hurricane Helene, Biden said the port strike was hampering efforts to provide emergency items for the relief effort.

“This natural disaster is incredibly consequential,” the president said. “The last thing we need on top of that is a man-made disaster — what’s going on at the ports.”

Biden noted that the companies that control East and Gulf coast ports have made huge profits since the pandemic.

“It’s time for them to sit at the table and get this strike done,” he said.

Though many ports are publicly owned, private companies often run operations that load and unload cargo.

William Brucher, a labor relations expert at Rutgers University, notes that Taft-Hartley injunctions are “widely despised, if not universally despised, by labor unions in the United States.”

And Vice President Kamala Harris is relying on support from organized labor in her presidential campaign against Donald Trump.

If the longshoremen’s strike drags on long enough and causes shortages that antagonize American consumers, pressure could grow on Biden to change course and intervene. But experts like Brucher suggest that most voters have already made up their minds and that the election outcome is “really more about turnout” now.

Which means, Brucher said, that “Democrats really can’t afford to alienate organized labor.”

AP Writer Colleen Long at Joint Base Andrews and AP Business Writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.