The concept of “One Minnesota” became mainstream with state government initiatives in 2018 and often flows into sports with professional and college teams wishing each other good luck with #OneMN in social media posts.

Gophers football, in particular, is grateful the Vikings take it above and beyond quick well wishes slapped with a hashtag. In the last three years, the college program has increasingly benefitted from the NFL team’s willingness to open up its doors to talk ball.

Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck thanked Vikings’ General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell for the access. That includes watching practices and sitting down with the NFL staff at different times of the year. The Vikings already turn out en masse for the U’s annual Pro Day.

“The access (O’Connell has) allowed us to have as a staff, it’s humbling because that’s not normal amongst NFL teams,” said Fleck, beginning his ninth season at Minnesota. “It wasn’t even (there) before (O’Connell) got here.”

Given the cutthroat pinnacle of the NFL, it would be easy for Vikings to not pay much attention to a local college football outfit — even if they are in the Big Ten Conference.

“An NFL coach can easily just be like, ‘Listen, I’m gonna run my own organization, and you run your college program,” Fleck told the Pioneer Press. “I think Kevin’s really kind of looked at it as One Minnesota and what’s good for us can be good for them. What’s good for them can be good for us. Really kind of connect this whole city and this sport.”

Gophers offensive coordinator Greg Harbaugh incorporated a red-zone concept used by O’Connell and peer OC Wes Phillips to success during the 2024 season, while new U defensive coordinator Danny Collins has lifted some of the versatile sub packages that’s been a hallmark of fellow DC Brian Flores’ units for early usage at Huntington Bank Stadium this fall.

When the NCAA added helmet communications between coaches and one player on the field before the 2024 season, the Gophers leaned on the Vikings for best practices and for troubleshooting when things might go awry.

Fleck asked O’Connell about the Vikings’ vast experiences with the technology. O’Connell talked about identifying the quarterback needs: Does the QB want a lot of information to be fed into his ear? Or is it a less-is-more situation, with a point of overload before each snap?

Then the two leaders discussed how to handle it if the headset communication cuts off, slips to a low volume or becomes scratchy.

“There’s all these things that you don’t know when you’re using it for the first time,” Fleck said. “Those are simple pieces of advice that go a long way.”

When Harbaugh sat down with the Pioneer Press last December, he pointed to a few plays with Vikings fingerprints on them. On Wednesday, he shared how a summer project dove into the Vikings’ system. In previous years, he dissected the Buccaneers and Lions.

“I studied a ton of it,” Harbaugh said of the Vikings. “I use a lot of those things, whether it’s under-center stuff or two-back game, drop-back, play-action versus run action. Coach McConnell does an awesome job with all that, manipulating it and making things look the same.”

When the Gophers went to TCO Performance Center in Eagan in June, Harbaugh had done his homework and was able to ask questions to McConnell and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown.

“It was cool to be able to have that,” Harbaugh said.

In Collins’ new leadership role, he used athletic young linebackers Emmanuel Karmo and Matt Kingsbury in a unique 3-3 front in early-down sub packages in the 23-10 win over Buffalo on Aug. 28. Flores does similar things to confuse opposing quarterbacks.

“That is very rare in the history of this defense to have packages like that on first and second down,” Collins said. “That is just a glimpse of what can happen.

“The relationship we have with Coach Flores, what he does and that whole Vikings staff has been huge for us to open up our minds.”

One benefit to the Vikings was the glimpse of quarterback Max Brosmer they received during the U’s Pro Day in 2024. It was a full year before Brosmer entered the NFL draft process, and he was throwing to other draft-eligible pass catchers in front of talent evaluators.

But it left a mark on O’Connell.

“Then all Kevin hears about is me talking about this kid every time I’m around Kevin,” Fleck said. “Anytime Kevin came to the house, (I’m) talking about Max.”

Brosmer went undrafted last April, but signed with the Vikings and made their 53-man roster. He joined a growing list of former U players to wear purple in recent years: Blake Cashman and Esezi Otomewo as well as short-timers in Mo Ibrahim, Tanner Morgan, Sam Schlueter and Chuck Filiaga.

“I would have loved to see (Brosmer) get drafted, and I think everybody knows he probably should have been drafted,” Fleck said. “But if he would have got drafted, maybe he wouldn’t have went to the right fit. When you’re a free agent, you get to pick the right fit. He had offers from the Jaguars and some other suitors, but he knew Kevin was the right fit.”

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Take one sip of the Colorado-made spirit Tingala and you’ll understand why it’s unlike anything else currently available on the market.

The sensory experience starts with a bouquet of cinnamon and allspice in the aroma, and at first those are the dominant flavors on the palate, too. But soon, spicy notes give way to tingling sensations that build and build until the whole tongue feels numb, almost like it’s vibrating. Stick with it for just a couple of brave moments and the experience will peak before mellowing out and returning your mouth back to normalcy.

Phew, you made it through the rollercoaster of flavors. Ready for another ride?

That’s the appeal of Tingala, which has been tantalizing tastebuds since it debuted in 2016. Its secret ingredient is the buzz button, a Brazilian flower that includes a compound responsible for evoking the intense sensory effects.

While bartenders throughout the U.S. have garnished cocktails with buzz buttons for fun and flare, company president Susan Tews believes Tingala is the first to use them in distillation. It’s fair to say, though something of a novelty, it has been a hit.

Demand skyrocketed in recent years as Tingala added a second spirit recipe to its portfolio. The company doubled its sales in 2024, Tews said, and its products have continued to grow in popularity – so much so, that Tingala is currently facing a shortage.

“Starting fall of last year, demand just suddenly soared and we simply sold out,” Tews said. “We had a reserve built up that up until then was adequate.”

Until this point, Tews admits the company kept a modest backstock. She describes Tingala is a “micro-mini” brand and family operation based in Greenwood Village that typically only produces a few thousand cases per year. Tews’ husband Bob and their son Eric are the creators of this inventive spirit, the recipe for which they first drafted by infusing store-bought liquor with buzz buttons grown in their home garden.

Their inspiration? Anthony Bourdain.

Susan and Bob Tews had seen one of Bourdain’s travel shows that took the chef and TV personality to Brazil, where he encountered the buzz button. Locals there use the flower, known scientifically as spilanthes acmella, in medicines and stews.

Bob and Eric Tews were homebrewers who always had an interest in unusual flavors, so buzz buttons seemed like a fun experiment. The first time they used them to infuse a spirit, they put the tingly tipple into Jell-O shots. Talk about a fun party trick.

“Our friends just loved it,” Susan Tews said. “From there, we just decided to look into what it would take to get a formula approval from the TTB and try bottling it.”

The family first worked with Mile High Spirits in Denver to produce and distribute Tingala commercially. In 2020, they partnered with Golden’s Local Distilling, maker of VANJAK Vodka, which now produces its two recipes.

The original is a 50% ABV liquor meant for mixing. In 2023, the company released Tingala Gold (35% ABV), made with vanilla and agave for a touch of sweetness, for the customers who wanted to sip it on its own. That second product is what helped put Tingala on the map, Tews said, as it both captured attention and renewed interest in the original, higher proof recipe. Both products are currently distributed throughout Colorado and in eight additional states.

Because the family originally worked with a farm in California to grow the buzz buttons, Tingala used to be a seasonal project, Tews said. But as thirst outpaced production, the company enlisted the help of Denver’s Rebel Farm to grow them hydroponically year-round.

Spilanthes, commonly known as buzz buttons or electric daisy, grows in the greenhouse at Rebel Farm in Denver on May 28, 2025. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)

“The flowers just go crazy,” said James O’Brien, owner of Rebel Farm.

O’Brien and his team recently completed test batches of about 120 plants, which yielded five pounds of buzz buttons per week. The farmer’s goal is to quadruple production to harvest 20 pounds of flowers per week, which will help the Tewses double their production in 2025 and keep stores and bars stocked.

“We think we’ll be caught up by the end of summer and able to resupply everybody,” Tews said. Until then, visit tingalaspirits.com to see where the spirits are sold and be sure to call ahead to see if it’s in stock.

Because the flavor is unique, Tingala keeps a robust collection of cocktail recipes on its website for newbies. If you want to try it straight, Tews has one piece of advice for maximum enjoyment: “Take a little sip, roll it around in your mouth and then swallow,” she said. “You don’t want to shoot it, that is a mistake.”

Liver specialist Maurizio Bonacini is in the race for a cure for hepatitis B, one of the world’s most widespread diseases and a top cause of liver cancer around the globe.

“It’s the last frontier,” said Dr. Bonacini, a San Francisco-based clinical researcher who has spent his career studying the chronic version of the disease estimated to affect more than 2 million people in the United States.

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The World Health Organization estimates that one of three people worldwide has been infected by acute hepatitis B. The likelihood of developing chronic hepatitis B is higher for the young — the risk is 90 percent for babies with the bloodborne disease. When untreated, the virus progresses into liver cancer 25% of the time, killing one of four.

Although hepatitis B is both preventable with vaccines and treatable with oral medication, the virus continues to spread 60 years after its discovery. There is no cure yet.

Hoping to change this, Bonacini joined B-United, a clinical trial with 300 chronic hepatitis B patients at 80 sites across 18 countries, sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, a biopharma company headquartered in the U.K.

Bonacini leads one of two investigation locations in California — the other is in San Jose, led by Dr. Huy A. Nguyen at San Jose Gastroenterology. Bonacini’s San Francisco site was first to treat a patient with a potential cure for chronic hepatitis B.

Until there’s a cure, patients with hepatitis B must take antiviral pills for life so the virus does not rebound. The medication stops the replication of hepatitis B DNA in the body, halving the risk of liver cancer and other complications. But the drugs can cause side effects such as upper respiratory infections, fatigue, nausea and gastrointestinal issues. Sometimes, people develop resistance to the antivirals, and in rare cases experience kidney or liver complications or failure.

“When we treat patients with hepatitis B, it’s like the Olympics. What we have now is the bronze medal,” Bonacini said.

Bonacini wants gold — a sterilizing cure that eradicates every trace of the virus and cannot return.

For now, he’ll take silver, a functional cure, one in which the virus could return, but which reduces cancer risk by 80% and allows patients to stop taking the antiviral pills.

Bonacini follows 10 Bay Area participants while observing 200 others under his care who could not qualify for the trial.

While still taking their regular medication, study patients receive monthly injections of an investigational drug that slows production of the surface antigen, the hallmark of the infection. After 24 weeks, they receive weekly injections of a different research drug for another 24 weeks. If surface antigens are still gone after 24 more weeks, patients stop all treatment but remain under close monitoring.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration might consider the injections for market approval starting in late 2027, Bonacini said.

Bonacini emphasized the need for better prevention and diagnosis in the interim. This June, he asked more than 60 primary care physicians in California to flag state-mandated screening for hepatitis B in electronic health records systems. He said he received the pushback from the time-strapped practitioners.

“The consensus seemed to be that implementing this would be very burdensome. It takes time. I’ve been there,” he said.

Many of the doctors also did not want to make their patients take an additional test. “In theory, it should be covered (by insurance) in California, but the reality could be different,” he Bonacini.

Additionally, U.S. law requires proof of vaccination for immigrants entering the country, but not screenings. “That is a big mistake,” Bonacini said.

Even if a person shows proof of vaccination or receives one, vaccinations administered to those who are already infected don’t work.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services oversees immigration health requirements and designates doctors called “civil surgeons” to sign off on these requirements. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issues technical instructions for hepatitis B vaccines, confirmed that testing for the disease is not a part of protocol for civil surgeons because prospective immigrants would not be inadmissible–rejected from entry–for having the disease.

One of Bonacini’s study patients, a San Francisco resident in his 40s, slipped through this crack. He immigrated to the U.S. from Southeast Asia at age 9 and received a hepatitis B vaccination later as a student.

But after his first physical exam when he was in his 30s, he learned he had contracted hepatitis B before receiving the vaccination and now had fatty liver and mild cirrhosis.

He met Bonacini while volunteering for COVID vaccine studies and enrolled in the chronic hepatitis B cure research as soon as he became eligible.

Hepatitis B DNA became undetectable his system within months of taking oral medication; 26 weeks into trial injections, he is essentially noncontagious.

The man, who asked not to use his name because of the stigma around the condition, wishes more people talked more about hepatitis B. He’s speaking out more and finding others living with the condition. While glad to know he’s not alone, he is exhausted from maintaining his health under the ever-looming threat of liver cancer.

Every six months, he pays $100 to $200 for bloodwork and $500 to $700 for imaging before hitting his deductible. He said he can’t imagine the financial burden for those with inferior coverage.

“I’m getting used to it but there has to be a better way,” he said. “I will participate in any clinical trial just to find a cure.”

With better prevention, Bonaicini said we would rarely, if at all, see cases like this patient’s in a generation or two. But even then, a cure would still be necessary because it is impossible to inoculate every human.

As part of a global quest, he exchanges notes with respected virologists and clinicians in places like Tanzania and Hong Kong, where up to 7% of the population contends with the disease. He said studies increasingly suggest a cure is within reach.

“We just have to find the right drugs,” he said.

By DID TANG and COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Over a recent two-year period, the Pentagon funded hundreds of projects done in collaboration with universities in China and institutes linked to that nation’s defense industry, including many blacklisted by the U.S. government for working with the Chinese military, a congressional investigation has found.

The report, released Friday by House Republicans on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, argues the projects have allowed China to exploit U.S. research partnerships for military gains while the two countries are locked in a tech and arms rivalry.

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“American taxpayer dollars should be used to defend the nation — not strengthen its foremost strategic competitor,” Republicans wrote in the report.

“Failing to safeguard American research from hostile foreign exploitation will continue to erode U.S. technological dominance and place our national defense capabilities at risk,” it said.

The Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment. Beijing has in the past said science and technological cooperation between the two countries is mutually beneficial and helps the two sides cope with global challenges.

The congressional report said some officials at the Defense Department argued research should remain open as long as it is “neither controlled nor classified.”

The report makes several recommendations to scale back U.S. research collaboration with China. It also backs new legislation proposed by the committee’s chairman, Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Michigan. The bill would prohibit any Defense Department funding from going to projects done in collaboration with researchers affiliated with Chinese entities that the U.S. government identifies as safety risks.

Republicans say the joint research could have military applications

The 80-page report builds on the committee’s findings last year that partnerships between U.S. and Chinese universities over the past decade allowed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to help Beijing develop critical technology. Amid pressure from Republicans, several U.S. universities have ended their joint programs with Chinese schools in recent years.

The new report focuses more narrowly on the Defense Department and its billions of dollars in annual research funding.

The committee’s investigation identified 1,400 research papers published between June 2023 and June 2025 that acknowledged support from the Pentagon and were done in collaboration with Chinese partners. The publications were funded by some 700 defense grants worth more than $2.5 billion. Of the 1,400 publications, more than half involved organizations affiliated with China’s defense research and industrial base.

Dozens of those organizations were flagged for potential security concerns on U.S. government lists, though federal law does not prohibit research collaborations with them. The Defense Department money supported research in fields including hypersonic technology, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, advanced materials and next-generation propulsion.

Many of the projects have clear military applications, according to the report.

In one case, a nuclear scientist at Carnegie Science, a research institution in Washington, worked extensively on Pentagon-backed research while holding appointments at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences.

The scientist, who has done research on high-energy materials, nitrogen and high-pressure physics — all of which are relevant to nuclear weapons development — has been honored in China for his work to advance the country’s national development goals, the report said. It called the case “a deeply troubling example” of how Beijing can leverage U.S. taxpayer-funded research to further its weapons development.

In another Pentagon-backed project, Arizona State University and the University of Texas partnered with researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Beihang University to study high-stakes decision-making in uncertain environments, which has direct applications for electronic warfare and cyber defense, the report said. The money came from the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The Shanghai university is under the supervision of a central Chinese agency tasked with developing defense technology, and Beihang University, in the capital city of Beijing, is linked to the People’s Liberation Army and known for its aerospace programs.

Calls for scaling back research collaborations

The report takes issue with Defense Department policies that do not explicitly forbid research partnerships with foreign institutions that appear on U.S. government blacklists.

It makes more than a dozen recommendations, including a prohibition on any Pentagon research collaboration with entities that are on U.S. blacklists or “known to be part of China’s defense research and industrial base.”

Moolenaar’s legislation includes a similar provision and proposes a ban on Defense Department funding for U.S. universities that operate joint institutes with Chinese universities.

A senior Education Department official said the report “highlights the vulnerability of federally funded research to foreign infiltration on America’s campuses.” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said the findings reinforce the need for more transparency around U.S. universities’ international ties, along with a “whole-of-government approach to safeguard against the malign influence of hostile foreign actors.”

House investigators said they are not seeking to end all academic and research collaborations with China but those with connections to the Chinese military and its research and industrial base.