Today is Thursday, Sept. 25, the 268th day of 2025. There are 97 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 25, 1957, nine Black students who had been forced to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, because of unruly white crowds were escorted to class by members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division and the National Guard.

Also on this date:

In 1513, Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and sighted the Pacific Ocean.

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In 1789, the first United States Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. (Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights.)

In 1956, the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable officially went into service with a three-way ceremonial call between New York, Ottawa and London.

In 1978, 144 people were killed when a Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a private plane collided over San Diego.

In 2005, in the presence of disarmament observers, the Irish Republican Army decommissioned its arsenal of weapons, officially ending a 36-year armed campaign for a unified Irish state.

In 2012, President Barack Obama, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly, pledged U.S. support for Syrians trying to oust President Bashar Assad, calling him “a dictator who massacres his own people.”

In 2013, skipper Jimmy Spithill and Oracle Team USA won the America’s Cup with one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, speeding past Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand in the winner-take-all Race 19 on San Francisco Bay.

In 2018, Bill Cosby was sentenced to three-to-10 years in prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home. (After serving nearly three years, Cosby went free in June 2021 after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his conviction.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Basketball Hall of Famer Hubie Brown is 92.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is 82.
Actor-producer Michael Douglas is 81.
Model Cheryl Tiegs is 78.
Actor Mimi Kennedy is 77.
Film director Pedro Almodovar is 76.
Actor-director Anson Williams is 76.
Actor Mark Hamill is 74.
Basketball Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo is 74.
Actor Heather Locklear is 64.
Actor Aida Turturro is 63.
Actor Tate Donovan is 62.
Actor Maria Doyle Kennedy is 61.
Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen is 60.
Actor Will Smith is 57.
Actor Catherine Zeta-Jones is 56.
Football Hall of Famer John Lynch is 54.
Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups is 49.
Actor Clea DuVall is 48.
Rapper T.I. is 45.
Actor-rapper Donald Glover (Childish Gambino) is 42.
Actor Zach Woods is 41.
Actor Jordan Gavaris is 36.
Actor Leah Jeffries is 16.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Josh Smith homered, Billy McKinney drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning and the Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins 4-2 on Wednesday night to end a season-worst eight-game losing streak.

Ezequiel Duran had a one-out single off Travis Adams (1-4) in the seventh before stealing his 11th base. McKinney hit an RBI single to left field and went to second on the throw home. Jonah Heim singled to put runners at the corners and McKinney scored on a wild pitch for a 3-1 lead. Génesis Cabrera replaced Adams and threw a wild pitch that made it 4-1.

Byron Buxton hit his career-high 32nd home run on the second pitch from Jacob deGrom — a 447-foot shot to center field for a 1-0 Twins lead. It was the 18th time in his career that Buxton led off a game with a homer.

DeGrom allowed a single and a walk from there, striking out nine in five innings. He left his 30th start of the season after five innings and 74 pitches, finishing with a 12-8 record and a 2.97 ERA.

Robert Garcia (4-7) pitched two scoreless innings for the win. Shawn Armstrong allowed Royce Lewis’ RBI single in the eighth before Phil Maton pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save.

Smith hit his 10th home run — a leadoff shot against Taj Bradley in the fourth to tie it 1-all.

Bradley struck out nine and allowed one run on two hits and two walks in six innings.

Key moment

Kody Clemens drew a leadoff walk in the fourth, stole his fifth base and moved to third on a wild pitch, but deGrom struck out Trevor Larnach and Ryan Jeffers before retiring Brooks Lee on a flyout to keep it 1-0.

Key stat

The last time deGrom, 37, made 30 starts in a season was in 2019 with the Mets.

Up next

Twins RHP Bailey Ober (5-9, 5.32 ERA) starts Thursday’s rubber game opposite Rangers RHP Tyler Mahle (6-3, 2.20).

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The list of highlights for the Twins this season is few and far between.

Byron Buxton has stayed relatively healthy and has produced a season that should get him some down-ballot Most Valuable Player votes. Joe Ryan became an all-star for the first time in his career. And in between injuries, Pablo López put together a solid season.

And then there’s Luke Keaschall.

Keaschall, one of the organization’s top prospects heading into the season, provided the Twins with a much-needed spark in his rookie season and looked every bit like a player that the Twins can build around. But his rookie season came to an end on Tuesday night in Arlington, Texas, when he sprained his left thumb sliding into second base for his 14th steal of the season.

The second baseman stayed in the game initially before eventually coming out. The Twins sent him for imaging on Wednesday, and later in the day manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters in Texas that surgery was “likely at this point.” Keaschall is expected to see a hand specialist next week.

“I know I’m going to be the same player at the end of it,” Keaschall told reporters in Texas. “Trying to keep a positive outlook on it knowing that the offseason is right around the corner. So I mean timing-wise, it’s probably the best case scenario, so I’m trying to take the silver lining.”

The injury puts a close to his rookie season during which he hit .302 with a .382 on-base percentage and a .827 OPS. His 129 OPS+ is a number that is 29 percent better than the league-average hitter. Keaschall posted a 2.1 bWAR (Wins Above Replacement per Baseball Reference), which was third on the team among position players, impressive considering he played in just 49 games.

Called up in April, Keaschall missed most of the summer with a fractured forearm after getting hit by a Kyle Hendricks pitch late that month. He returned after more than three months in August and picked up right where he left off as he put together a strong rookie campaign.

“I’m just happy I got the opportunity to be here and be with a good group of guys and go out there and compete every day,” Keaschall told reporters in Texas. “I like to try to stay in the present moment. I feel like I did a good job of that this year, just trying to maximize each day and keep trying to do it next year and build off of it and take what I learned this year and build off it.

Briefly

Starting pitcher David Festa traveled with the team to Texas and met with Dr. Gregory Pearl on Tuesday. Festa is set to get Botox injections on Thursday, which should help ease the achiness he has been feeling in his shoulder. He has been on the injured list since July 23. …  Bailey Ober will face former Twin Tyler Mahle on Thursday in the series finale in Texas. … The Twins will then send Joe Ryan, Mick Abel and Simeon Woods Richardson to the mound in Philadelphia over the weekend. The Twins acquired Abel in July as part of the return for closer Jhoan Duran.

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St. Paul police overtime spending was down about half a million dollars in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year, the assistant chief told the city council Wednesday.

There was back-and-forth between the city council and the mayor’s office last year about heavy police overtime spending, and the city council requested a report from the police department about it.

Though the police department has an authorized strength of 619 officers, they haven’t been able to keep their ranks fully staffed. There are 562 officers on the payroll, with 539 available to work, according to the police department.

Most of the $1.4 million in police overtime spending from the general fund for the first six months of this year has been to cover staff shortages — $579,000.

“Like many cities across the country, we’ve relied on overtime as a stop gap to cover a lot of our staffing needs,” which also happens in the fire department, said City Council Member HwaJeong Kim, vice chair of the budget committee, on Wednesday.

For better budgeting and planning, the city council wants to understand the actual costs of running the city, “especially when we’re talking to our residents about why we’re increasing property taxes by a certain amount every year,” said Council Member Saura Jost.

Mayor Melvin Carter presented his 2026 budget proposal on Sept. 4, which relies on a 5.3% property tax levy increase. The city council will finalize the budget in December.

Gun violence decreases, pushing down need for overtime

Another $113,417 in overtime this year has been for investigating homicides and major crimes, which is down from $151,041 last year as gun violence has fallen.

There have been eight homicides in St. Paul this year, compared to 19 in the city at this time last year. Forty-nine people have been injured in nonfatal shootings, according to preliminary information as of last week; there were 77 during the same period last year.

Nonfatal shootings were previously handled by homicide investigators. Designating investigators to solely solve nonfatal shootings led from a clearance rate of 38% at the end of 2023 to 71% for 2024 cases, according to the police department.

Kim said they’re proud of the police department’s success in reducing gun violence.

“At the same time, the city has … limited revenue tools beyond property taxes, state aid,” she said. “… As a council, we definitely have a fiduciary responsibility to ask tough questions, but necessary questions about how we allocate resources.”

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The city’s general fund is on the hook for overtime that happens when officers get a call late in their shift and have to stay to finish it, SWAT team call-outs and middle-of-the night investigations for major crimes.

Overtime also results from filling in shifts due to being short staffed. The discrepancy between the number of officers on the payroll and how many are able to work is due to officers on medical or military leave, among other reasons.

Overtime for rallies and protests, and for presidential or dignitary visits, also comes out of the general fund.

Overtime for events

Two types of overtime are fully reimbursed: Contractual, when a business hires an officer to work as off-duty security; and special event, when officers work at sporting events, festivals or concerts. The total police overtime, including those two types, was nearly $5.2 million vs. $5.7 million in the first half of the year compared to the same time last year, according to the police department.

Officers sign up for overtime based on seniority, and businesses and organizations are currently charged a flat rate of $126 per hour, regardless of an officer’s rank, said Assistant Police Chief Paul Ford.

Council Member Anika Bowie said, in talking to event organizers, she hears the police department decides how many officers to assign even if organizers have their own private or volunteer security. Ford said they look for ways to reduce the number of officers they use to staff events.

Various organizers of events in St. Paul have brought up concerns about increasing police costs.

“We want to help bolster our free and open-to-the public events and festivals,” Bowie said.

Council has been asking for info

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Wednesday’s presentation by Ford happened after three city council members wrote in a June memo that they’d requested police overtime information from the mayor’s office in April and May, but hadn’t received a response.

“The administration has remained in regular contact with council leadership and staff over the course of the year on an array of topics heading into the 2026 budget process,” Jennifer Lor, Carter’s spokesperson, said in a statement.

The council memo formally requested the police department provide a report about overtime by Aug. 6. The timeline was pushed back due to the cyberattack on the city, Council Member Cheniqua Johnson said.