St. Paul Corner Drug will be hosting a “retirement party” for its old-fashioned soda fountain from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The fountain’s final ice cream scoops will be served at the event.

Owner John Hoeschen said the fountain is closing due to financial pressure in the pharmacy industry and a lack of physical space in the building at the corner of Snelling and St. Clair avenues.

The fountain has been out of service since October 2020, when the independent pharmacy needed room to provide vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic. After removing the fountain, the drug store will rearrange to maximize its 1,200-square-foot space for vaccination services.

“It (the fountain) wasn’t a profit center, it was more of a community builder,” Hoeschen said. “We had to ask, ‘If we reopen the fountain, can we generate enough revenue to justify its space being there? And the math just didn’t add up.”

Hoeschen said the soda fountain’s closure represents the tough decisions community pharmacies must make to stay in business amid rising costs and low reimbursement rates.

According to the Minnesota Pharmacists Association, 61% of independently owned and 39% of chain pharmacies have closed since 2013. In St. Paul, the West Seventh Pharmacy will be closing June 30 as the owners retire without finding a buyer for their business.

At the farewell party, community members will share memories and stories of the soda fountain, which has been a community gathering place since the pharmacy opened in 1922. Hoeschen said his neighbors met at the fountain, got married and raised their children two blocks away from the pharmacy.

“It’s touched million of lives. It was a great thing, I loved it,” Hoeschen said. “But unfortunately, the times are changing, and we have to retool and focus on trying to keep this pharmacy open.”

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Baseball fans tend to get a kick out of watching a major league position player mop up for the bullpen when a team is getting its clock cleaned late, and it makes no sense to waste another pitching arm.

It’s a bit of levity, or morbid curiosity, to take a little of the sting off a blowout loss.

A day after infielder Jonah Bride put in two innings in a 14-3 loss to the Athletics in West Sacramento, Calif., manager Rocco Baldelli said he hates putting a position player on the mound so much that he’s petitioning his bullpen to start paying for it.

Literally.

“I’m petitioning our bullpen to throw in a few bucks every time we have a position player pitch, a little thank you and pat on the back from the boys,” he told reporters before Friday night’s 7:10 p.m. first pitch against Toronto at Target Field.

With one out and two on in the bottom of the seventh, Bride gave up a two-run double to former Twins outfielder Brent Rooker. Otherwise, he was pretty sharp in his two innings.

Bride was charged with two earned runs on four hits and a pair of walks and fanned one. He then pitched a scoreless eighth.

“He did a good job,” Baldelli said. “After the first inning, I asked him if he was ready for another. He started telling me all the things he was gonna do, and I just stopped listening. I said, ‘Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re doing fine.’ ”

Baldelli said Bride, 29, told him he had done it before, but according to baseball-reference.com, it must have been in the minors. Thursday was his first major league pitching performance.

He joins a list of Twins position players to pitch in games recently and includes Ehire Adrianza, Michael Cuddyer, Willians Astudio (seven times), Matt Wallner and Kyle Farmer.

“Only a couple of sickos really want to go out there and pitch,” Baldelli said. “Most of the guys that we have go out there and pitch, they don’t want to do it. They do it to be a good member of the team. But trust me, it’s not that comfortable for those guys unless they’re just a little cuckoo.”

Correa sits

Shortstop Carlos Correa wasn’t in the starting lineup Friday because of continuing pain in his upper back. He missed the last two games of the A’s series, explaining that the batter’s box at Sutter Health Ballpark was causing him to slip on swings, and his back to compensate.

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“I can’t really say just exactly what he’s feeling,” Baldelli said, “but we felt he needed at least another day to get back here, get on the field, and just get himself in a good spot so we’re not sending him out there on the field not ready to play.”

New arm

The Twins recalled right-hander Travis Adams from Class AAA St. Paul and added him to the 26-man active roster. He was available to make his major league debut tonight against Toronto.

To make room, left-hander Kody Funderburk was optioned back to St. Paul. In his second stint with the Twins this season, Funderburk appeared in seven games, allowing eight runs on 15 hits and four walks in eight innings. He struck out four.

A patch referencing St. Paul on an ICE agent’s uniform was authorized, but that wasn’t the case for an ATF agent’s patch that people noticed during a federal law enforcement operation in Minneapolis this week, the agencies said Friday.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer wore a circular patch on the arm of his uniform reading “St. Paul Field Office Special Response Team.”

A patch reading “St. Paul Field Office Special Response Team” is seen on the uniform of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while federal investigators conduct a criminal operation in Minneapolis at Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Courtesy of Brandon Schorsch)

Each of the 25 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Special Response Teams across the U.S. has a unique patch, an ICE spokesperson said Friday.

The St. Paul patch is intended to depict an “ancient Scandinavian warrior and a Vegvisir, or ‘wayfinder,’ and ties into the regional identifiers for Minnesota including a nod to the Scandinavian heritage of many of the early European settlers in Minnesota,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The imagery raised questions for some people. Brandon Schorsch, who took video of the patch and posted a photo of it on social media, wrote: “I am deeply concerned about this patch.”

The vegvisir has been co-opted by some far right extremist groups, according to a senior research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, though more information has to be known about a person’s intentions to determine the significance of the image in a particular use.

The ICE patch “is in no way an affiliation to an extremist group,” the agency spokesperson said.

ICE patch drew attention

On Tuesday, a large federal law enforcement presence drew protests in South Minneapolis from people concerned it was an immigration raid. Officials from the FBI, ATF and the Department of Homeland Security gathered with tactical vehicles at the corner of Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue late in the morning.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said it “was related to a criminal search warrant for drugs and money laundering and was not related to immigration enforcement.” It was one of eight search warrants “for a transnational criminal organization,” according to Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt.

“Federal investigators conducted a groundbreaking criminal operation today — Minnesota’s first under the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) umbrella — marking a new chapter in how we confront complex, multidimensional threats,” Jamie Holt, ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge for St. Paul, said in a statement.

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Schorsch, of Minneapolis, heard from his wife about armored vehicles and the large amount of law enforcement gathered Tuesday. “That’s going to make people feel frightened,” he said.

He went to the area and was recording video when he noticed the ICE agent wearing the patch. He had an audible, “Ohhh,” reaction on the video when he saw it.

“In my job, I do look out for things like this,” said Schorsch, who works as the combatting hate organizer for Jewish Community Action, though he was not there in his work capacity on Tuesday.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says there are Neo-Völkisch groups that “rely on a romanticized Viking aesthetic and mythos — imagery they use to perpetuate their belief in white racial superiority. This adaptable and covert messaging, anchored by a nationwide network of ‘kindreds,’ has allowed these groups to grow in recent years.”

More people are on the lookout for symbols that may have nefarious meanings, Schorsch said.

An ICE agent was seen last week in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., with a tattoo of a Valknot on his arm. The symbol is used in Norse mythology. “Some white supremacists, particularly racist Odinists, have appropriated the Valknot to use as a racist symbol,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

‘The Others’ patch not authorized

An ATF agent, center, wears a small patch next to his badge saying “The Others,” while federal investigators conduct a criminal operation in Minneapolis at Lake Street and Bloomington Avenue on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Courtesy of Brandon Schorsch)

Schorsch also saw two ATF agents on Tuesday with a small patch on their uniforms that said, “The Others,” and he photographed one of them.

The agent seen in the photo is an ATF special agent assigned to a sheriff’s office taskforce, said Ashlee Sherrill, a spokeswoman in the ATF’s St. Paul Field Division, in response to a reporter’s questions.

“The patch in question is not an authorized part of the ATF uniform and has been addressed internally,” Sherrill said, adding that she couldn’t provide further information on personnel matters.

It’s not clear what the patch was meant to convey.

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The University of Minnesota Board of Regents is expected to vote Thursday to authorize the sale of the Les Bolstad golf course, with University officials citing financial and infrastructure needs.

The approximately 141-acre public facility in Falcon Heights will remain open during the 2025 season – with scheduled activities to proceed for the remainder of the year – and close as usual in the fall, but will not reopen in the spring.

“We recognize this course holds generations of memories for our community. This decision reflects careful consideration and was made in light of today’s challenging financial environment. As a public university, we have a responsibility to ensure that our land and resources are aligned with our core mission: supporting students, advancing research, and serving the state of Minnesota,” U officials said in a statement.

The golf course, which opened in 1928, requires significant work and no longer meets the University’s threshold for investments that advance teaching, research and service, according to the University.

“The course requires significant infrastructure upgrades to remain viable. The irrigation system is more than 50 years old and past its useful life,” according to a Board docket. “The original clubhouse has been closed for over a decade due to safety concerns, and the operations of the course are currently housed in a temporary facility. These investments are not mission-critical and would divert resources from core academic and research priorities.”

The University will obtain two independent appraisals to help guide setting a market value for the property. A final sale price will depend on market conditions, land-use potential and buyer negotiations.

The John W. Mooty Golf Facility used by the University’s men’s and women’s golf teams, as well as the Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium used by the women’s soccer team and the KUOM radio tower will not be included in the sale.

Falcon Heights city officials said in a Friday statement that they look forward to working with the University, potential buyers and community members on the future of the property.

If the site were to become available for private development, it might provide an opportunity for the city, which is fully developed, to create a new neighborhood, according to the city’s 2024 Larpenteur Avenue Corridor Study.

“The Falcon Heights community has taken proactive steps to plan for the potential reuse of the property with the adoption of our Larpenteur/Snelling Corridor Study, which was approved in 2024 and included looking at potential future zoning for the site,” Friday’s statement said.

The sale of Hillcrest Golf Course on the Greater East Side for $10 million in 2019 to the St. Paul Port Authority has opened up 112 acres for residential and commercial development.

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