When it was all over, and the Twins’ All-Star Game-bound ace righty had bested Pittsburgh’s All-Star Game-bound ace righty in Friday night’s classic pitchers’ duel, Minnesota starter Joe Ryan could joke about his heavy early workload.

Ryan escaped the first inning of an eventual 2-1 win without allowing a run, but only after the Pirates loaded the bases with two outs, and the Twins’ starter needed 34 pitches to get back to the dugout. He joked after the game that 34 pitches is fine for the first three innings, but a bit much for the first inning alone.

It became a rousing story, with the season’s first sellout crowd at Target Field seeing Ryan’s last appearance before he is part of the American League roster at Tuesday’s midseason festivities in Atlanta. But Twins manager Rocco Baldelli admitted a day later that he almost brought an early end to Ryan’s evening, as his pitch count reached the 30s.

“I think he was very happy with the way he went out there and competed. The way he got through that first inning, made it work. Got the outs when he needed to. That took a lot,” Baldelli said prior to Saturday’s rematch versus Pittsburgh. “That outing could’ve ended in about five more pitches. And instead of going five (innings), you end up going 2/3. It takes a toughness to get through those types of situations. And Joe continually finds ways to get big outs and get through games. So that’s where it kind of started for him, and then he settled in and threw great. That’s not surprising, to see him have a really good outing.”

Having watched many, many pitchers, both as a player and as a manager, Baldelli said he was prepared to make a change if Ryan would have approached the 40-pitch mark in Friday’s first inning.

“No one’s fine after throwing 40 pitches in an inning. Nobody’s fine. We can say they’re fine, but they’re not fine. The players might say they’re fine, but they’re not fine,” he said. “So that’s a lot of work. That’s two and a half innings worth of work in a really compressed time frame. So all that said, he wasn’t going to throw too much longer. He might have had one more hitter in him, and that would have certainly been it for Joe. And that’s just probably just too many pitches, we’re just calling it what it is.”

Instead, Ryan’s 34th pitch coaxed a pop-up out of Pirates infielder Ke’Bryan Hayes, and he needed 52 more pitches to get through the next four innings. Improving to 9-4 on the season, Ryan allowed five hits and struck out five.

With the head-to-head matchup versus Pirates righty Paul Skenes, who will start the All-Star Game for the National League, Ryan said the key was escaping that rocky first inning without a Pittsburgh player reaching home plate.

“You know there’s not going to be a ton of runs scoring that day. So you just want to minimize as much as you can and I think we did a very good job of that early,” Ryan said. “And then the bullpen locked it and did an outstanding job, so that was great to just hold it and get a team win.”

Matthews headed east

The team announced prior to Saturday’s game that Twins right-hander Zebby Matthews will report to the St. Paul Saints to begin a rehab assignment on Sunday.

Matthews has been on the team’s injured list since early June with a strained right shoulder. He has a 1-1 record this season as a starter but has been unavailable for the past 33 games.

His last win came on June 4 in a 6-1 victory over the Athletics in Sacramento.

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CHS Inc. officials notified local officials and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development that the company plans to permanently close the largest grain elevator in the Twin Ports.

The facility in Superior will cease operations effective Aug. 31, according to the notice provided to the Department of Workforce Development. CHS has not yet made a public announcement or responded to an inquiry from the Duluth Media Group.

The decision has been decades in the making with the decline in the volume of grain that transits through the Superior terminal, said John Griffith, senior vice president of global grain marketing for CHS.

“It’s not just a CHS decline,” Griffith said. “It’s an entire grain export from the Duluth-Superior port that has declined over the past couple of decades, and it finally reached the point where there wasn’t the critical mass of grain movements through the port anymore.”

He said with the progression of larger unit trains, and new facilities, grain can be moved to deep-water ports and moved on larger ships that have lower costs for transportation to reach the same customers.

“I think that has been kind of the evolution over time that has brought us to this point after nearly 90 years in the port,” Griffith said.

The difficult part of the decision was the employees, Griffith said.

The closure will impact 23 union employees, who will be permanently separated from the company Sept. 8. Two additional employees will continue to work until about Dec. 31.

“My heart goes out to them,” said Rep. Angela Stroud, D-Ashland, who was notified about the closure by company officials Thursday, July 10. “I understand it. I, myself, just got laid off last year. It’s extremely disruptive, and you know, frankly, depressing and scary. So, I understand what they’re going through and I really feel for them, and I’m here to help in any way I possibly can.”

Stroud encouraged anyone who has difficulty with the unemployment system to reach out to her office for assistance.

“It’s devastating anytime you lose a significant employer,” Stroud said.

Exports falling for decades

Superior Mayor Jim Paine, who was briefed on the closure Thursday morning, said he was told the reason is tied to the global economy and global shipping routes.

“It’s obviously bad news, especially for those employees, and we need to do what we can to take care of them, but this is one of the challenges of working with commodities-based industry,” Paine said.

Exports of grain by ship from the Port of Duluth-Superior have been falling for decades, down from a high of 9.2 million metric tons in 1978 to 645,000 tons in 2022, the lowest since 1890.

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The 2023 and 2024 shipping seasons were only slight improvements at 790,000 and 794,000 tons, respectively, according to port statistics. That is driven, in part, by a changing market.

For example, soybeans now go by rail to the West Coast, and the geographic area where grains were harvested before being sent to the port for transport has shrunk, among other factors.

And in late 2022, fewer ocean-going vessels, or salties, were reaching Duluth with wind turbine components, making it less likely — and more expensive — to send empty salties into the westernmost port on the Great Lakes.

Part of the problem was the war in Ukraine, which shifted European demand for corn and beans from the Black Sea to some Great Lakes ports like Chicago and Toledo. Salties discharging in lakes Michigan, Erie or Huron are less likely to sail empty to the Port of Duluth-Superior to fill up with grain, CHS officials said at the time. The war continues more than three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a major agricultural producer on the continent.

Despite lower shipping figures, grain has still moved through the Twin Ports by train, including at CHS. However, unlike shipping’s tonnage reports, the amount of grain moved by rail is not public.

Potential reuse of facility

“The CHS decision to cease operations at its Superior terminal is a disappointing blow to the Port of Duluth-Superior and the community as a whole,” the Duluth Seaway Port Authority wrote in a prepared statement. “Most immediately, our thoughts are with the employees who will be affected by this decision. We will work with the city of Superior to seek solutions that could lead to a more positive outcome, and hopefully, continued use of this grain terminal.”

“Those are really large and effective grain elevators so sitting empty and doing nothing is not its best future,” Paine said.

Stroud said she asked what would happen to the facility, and CHS representatives said they would be available to help transition the infrastructure CHS owns to any entities that might be interested.

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“It’s very possible that … another company would have interest in doing very similar activities at the facility,” Griffith said. “The facility is certainly still operational, so we will look to disposition the facility in the most effective and thoughtful way possible, up to and including a sale of the facility,” Griffith said.

“This is bad news for that pier and that terminal, but in terms of the port overall, the port is still growing, and the port is still performing very strongly,” Paine said. “We just had that $28 million investment in C. Reiss just a little ways over. There’s still growth and strength in global shipping, but it is a moving economy.”

Reporter Jimmy Lovrien contributed to this story.

Amy Lindgren

Second Sunday Series – Editor’s Note: This is the eleventh of 12 columns on AI and work, appearing the second Sunday of each month, from September through August. Last month’s column discussed AI as a core skill, while previous columns looked at AI issues for writers; AI tools for organizing or conducting the job search; interview prep; resumes and cover letters; best practices for companies using AI; tips for using ChatGPT; work opportunities with artificial intelligence; AI use in the hiring process; and an overview of artificial intelligence in general. Amy Lindgren

I’ve been sipping from the proverbial fire hose for a year now, while researching the use of AI in job search and the workplace. And, while I’ve shared a couple dozen websites and tools related to specific tasks (such as interviewing or résumé writing), I haven’t yet offered a more general set of resources.

There’s a reason for that: Fire hose again, coupled with intermittent kinks and leaks. Some of the sites I’ve used shifted into sales mode on me, while others have turned out to be one-trick ponies. I generally have better luck with books in both regards, although they can get outdated fast.

With all of those caveats, here we go — resources that you might find helpful as you launch or continue your own journey into the untamed world of AI.

Posts that include helpful lists or tips

I’ve focused here on job search, while trying to limit the sell-you-something sites. Not so easy, but these four mostly meet the criteria.

• “Job Search Tips: 10 AI tools to help you land your next job” by Kiera Abbamonte, July 2025: https://zapier.com/blog/ai-job-search/

• “A curated list of 20 AI tools, 60 creative strategies to harness the power of ChatGPT” (and more): https://offers.hubspot.com/ai-job-seeker

• LinkedIn posts from Adam Broda. An Atlanta career coach (www.brodacoaching.com), Broda posts practical tips for using AI. The links are cumbersome for a newspaper article, so try a general internet search using “Adam Broda AI advice” and “Adam Broda ChatGPT advice.”

• The nonprofit SkillUp.org offers this brief list of AI job search tools: https://skillup.org/resources/ai-job-search-tools — but do explore their other offerings, such as free and low-cost career counseling and training.

Training

Talk about abundance. Just for starters, there are too many YouTube videos on using AI to even consider listing. I’m going a different direction, limiting myself to just two recommendations.

• Coursera. This is the online training platform I use, mostly because I like their pricing model: Free for some offerings, and the option of a monthly or annual subscription to access almost anything else on an all-you-can-learn basis. A quick look at their catalog — https://www.coursera.org — shows courses ranging from simple (“AI for Everyone”) to full certificate programs. Bonus: They’re running a sale on annual subscriptions ($240 instead of $399) until July 21.

• Syntax and Script. In a heroic act of generosity, fashion-professional-turned-techie Chika H. Orji has curated and posted a list of 77 free online AI training programs, current as of June 2025. You can download the list as a pdf from her website: https://syntaxandscript.com/free-online-ai-courses/ Her blogs are also worth visiting, just for the perspective of a career-changer whose tagline is “Come on a tech journey with me.”

Books

Books are still my personal go-to resource for a broad perspective or in-depth analysis and steps on just about anything. Although this is my curated list, I’ve only had time to review one. And yikes — I’ve definitely tried to identify and avoid AI-written books about using AI. That’s just a bit too meta for me.

• The Author’s AI Tool Kit, by Hank Quense, self-published, 2025. This is the book I have actually read, and I can recommend it as a resource specific to novelists and writers who want to leverage AI in both writing and marketing their work. The primer on creating ChatGPT queries is especially useful.

• Generative AI for Dummies, by Pam Baker, 2024.

• The AI-Driven Job Search Roadmap, by K.L. Cardozo, self-published, 2025.

• The AI-Savvy Job Seeker, by Michelle Dumas, Distinctive Career Publishing, 2025.

• Career Coach GPT, by Jeremy Schifeling, self-published, 2023.

And that, as they say, is that. Not nearly everything available, but enough resources to get you started. If you have others you’ve enjoyed using, send them my way and I’ll put them in the column. In any case, do come back next month for my wrap-up on this year-long series of articles on the use of AI in job search and the workplace.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

SAN DIEGO — The USS Midway Museum is opening the doors to a previously unseen, top-secret area of the ship where naval intelligence history was once made.

Dozens of guests flocked to the flight deck of the USS Midway Museum on Friday morning, standing in front of a ribbon and balloon display, that marked the grand opening of the museum’s immersive new exhibit, “Top Secret: Inside the High-Stakes World of Naval Intelligence.” Men in bright red sport coats, dressed in a style reminiscent of characters from the movie “Men in Black,” assisted retired Rear Adm. and the USS Midway Museum’s current President and CEO Terry Kraft with unveiling the once restricted area of the ship known as the Carrier Intelligence Center, or CVIC.

Opening day of the a new exhibit at the USS Midway Museum called Top Secret: Inside the High-Stakes World of Naval Intelligence on Friday, June 27, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

“I took over the Midway Museum in 2023 and I thought about spaces that were important to me when I served on Midway. I did two deployments on Midway. I flew forward to combat missions from Desert Storm,” Kraft said. “One of the places where it was kind of transformational for me was all the work we did here in the Carrier Intelligence Center during Operation Desert Storm. So, I wanted to open it up.”

The USS Midway’s CVIC once served as the backbone and nerve center for naval intelligence during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the early ’90s. The exhibit takes guests through the day-to-day lives of the naval intelligence specialists behind Desert Storm’s strategic gathering and analysis, mission planning and decision-making that supported aviators’ efforts against the Saddam Hussein-led Iraqi army’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait.

People experience a new exhibit at the USS Midway Museum called Top Secret: Inside the High-Stakes World of Naval Intelligence on Friday, June 27, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The exhibit consists of six themed displays. Through a narrow hallway and the connecting rooms of the once high-stakes environment, bright photographs, naval artifacts and old newspaper clippings don the walls of the exhibit. Tables are scattered around each room, filled with artifacts that offer guests a more hands-on experience, as they’re able to get a close-up glimpse of detailed flip-books aviators created for a quick reference during flights, toolkits where intelligence specialists stored their grease pencils and measuring tools or one of the telephones that play a recording describing the stories of intelligence officers.

Guests are even allowed to step into the shoes of intelligence specialists, testing their skills in a group of tests based on visual memory, codebreaking, site assessment and close aerial looking skills, where guests learn what naval intelligence role best suits them, and participate in an immersive mission planning activity.

People experience a new exhibit at the USS Midway Museum called Top Secret: Inside the High-Stakes World of Naval Intelligence on Friday, June 27, 2025 in San Diego, Calif. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The exhibit’s opening comes after a nearly two-year planning and working period. Initial talks to restore the CVIC were fleshed out in 2009; however, the idea didn’t come into fruition until summer 2023, when discussions of restoring the space earned the formal backing of a partnership between Naval Intelligence Professionals and the USS Midway Museum, which funded the bulk of the project. Construction began in the winter of 2023 and concluded in May this year.

“We worked with a great company called Art Processors, who did our another new exhibit for us last year,” Kraft said. “We wanted to make this something that anybody can come down and understand the role of intel professionals, how they interface with aviators, that kind of fusion that took place and get an appreciation for really the high stakes planning that went on down here.”

Kraft and the museum enlisted the help of every intelligence officer he remembered serving with on the USS Midway, as well as intelligence officers and specialists from the Midway’s docents, to study and prepare for the exhibit — eventually totaling up to around 750 volunteers.

Retired Commander Diana Guglielmo, an imagery analyst, helped lead the planning efforts.

“I was one of their advisors, because I served on board five aircraft carriers as a senior intelligence officer,” Guglielmo said. “I was the first woman to serve as the senior intelligence for the air wing, and so I basically ingested all the artifacts, and then grouped them together, and then put them into the exhibit in the right place based on what would be on a carrier.”

People experience a new exhibit at the USS Midway Museum called Top Secret: Inside the High-Stakes World of Naval Intelligence on Friday, June 27, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Reflecting and honoring the real stories behind the CVIC and the intelligence specialists involved was essential to the team; a space of the exhibit is dedicated to retired Capt. William Marcus “Marc” Luoma, who died in 2021. Luoma’s jacket and the coffee cup he used frequently on board are even on display. As guests exit, the last section of the exhibit displays historic photos from the naval intelligence community and a message paying tribute to their “dedication and excellence” in CVIC

“We hope they feel honored,” Mark Berlin, the USS Midway Museum’s director of operations said. “We hope that they recognize our appreciation for the hard work and dedication that they have to everything that they do. We saw that in engineering, when we had a lot of our former engineers go through this space and feel like their story is being told. We hope the same thing happens here.”

The team behind the exhibit hopes that even the general public will find something meaningful to take from their experience.

“I hope one day, as young people come through here, men and women, they see kind of this quiet profession, and they’re motivated or enthusiastic about doing this job. It’s one of those parts of the Navy that we just don’t talk a lot about,” Guglielmo said. “In the intelligence community, we say open the green door, because all the classifieds are always hidden behind the green door, and so this will open the green door and let them see, kind of what their contributions can do.”