A 54-year-old South St. Paul woman was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries Friday following a four-vehicle crash in Eagan, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

Anne Marie Stabe Keroff, of South St. Paul, was driving a 2022 Ford Escape northbound on Interstate 35E just north of Lone Oak Road shortly after 4:30 p.m. when a 2024 International MV607 box truck collided with her vehicle.

The box truck then hit a 1969 Chevrolet C10 and pushed it into a 2019 Ford F150. All vehicles were traveling northbound.

The drivers of the box truck and Ford F150, as well as their passengers, did not suffer any injuries, according to State Patrol. The driver of the Chevrolet, a man in his 50s, suffered non-life threatening injuries and was brought to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

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WASHINGTON — Provisions in proposed federal legislation would limit enforcement of a mining ban in the same watershed as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and return a pair of mineral leases to a company hoping to open a copper-nickel mine.

The language, included in the U.S. House of Representatives’ version of an appropriations bill for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, would bar any money from being spent to enforce the 20-year moratorium on hard-rock mining on 225,000 acres of the Superior National Forest and reinstate two key mineral leases to company Twin Metals.

It comes even as Trump officials say they are taking steps to reverse the mineral withdrawal and reinstate the leases through an administrative process, which requires a public notice and comment period but no congressional approval.

The Trump administration announced June 11 its plans to take such steps, a day after Republicans struck language from the massive spending and tax bill that would have ended the withdrawal and returned the leases.

Asked if the legislative route would be faster or less prone to legal challenges than the Trump administration’s path, U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minnesota, said all possibilities were being considered.

“After Republicans took back the White House and Congress this past fall, I have maintained that all options are on the table to restore key leases and reverse the Biden administration’s harmful, politically motivated, and illegal mineral withdrawal in the Superior National Forest,” the congressman from Hermantown, Minnesota, said in an emailed statement. “I will pursue every avenue available to get this done quickly and decisively.”

The House Committee on Appropriations passed the bill July 24, the same day that the Senate Committee on Appropriations passed its Senate companion. However, the Senate version does not include language related to Twin Metal’s mineral leases or the mineral withdrawal.

Chris Knopf, executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, said he’s “very concerned” the language in the appropriations bill could make it into law.

“The assault is coming from really all branches of government,” Knopf said.

Unlike administrative actions, which can be reversed by a future president, laws passed by Congress would require another act of Congress to change.

The administrative back-and-forth on Twin Metals’ federal leases and the mineral withdrawal has been going on for more than eight years.

They were first enacted in the final days of the Obama administration. The first Trump administration then reversed those moves, but the Biden administration later reinstated them.

The Biden administration also released an accompanying U.S. Forest Service study that said hard-rock mining in the Rainy River Watershed could pose an environmental threat to the BWCAW, particularly for water quality, if the mineral withdrawal was not enacted and mining projects were allowed to proceed.

Twin Metals, owned by Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta, is hoping to build a large underground copper-nickel mine and dry-stacked tailings storage facility near Ely, Minnesota, and along Birch Lake, within the Rainy River Watershed and 5 miles from the BWCAW.

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But that would not be possible if the Biden administration’s actions were to stand.

In a statement, Twin Metals spokesperson Kathy Graul said the company remained “committed to pursuing the responsible development of the copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals resources in northeast Minnesota.”

“Twin Metals Minnesota appreciates the champions in Congress that recognize the significance of the domestic mineral resources that are available in northeast Minnesota, which are urgently needed to accomplish our nation’s energy independence, job creation and national security goals,” Graul said.

Lawmakers seek answers

In a July 18 letter to Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Democratic representatives from Minnesota — Betty McCollum, Angie Craig, Ilhan Omar and Kelly Morrison — urged the cabinet members to set up a meeting with them or respond to their list of questions.

The letter was also signed by Jared Huffman, D-California, and Chellie Pingree, D-Maine.

The letter largely took aim at Rollins’s June 11 post on X, formerly Twitter, which announced the U.S. Forest Service would be “initiating the process” to reverse the withdrawal.

“After careful review, including extensive public input, the US Forest Service has enough information to know the withdrawal was never needed,” Rollins said in the post.

While there has been extensive public comment during the withdrawal’s shifting status over the last eight years, the second Trump administration has not yet sought public comments on reversing the mineral withdrawal’s latest iteration.

Rollins’ post also misspelled “Rainy River.”

“The people of Minnesota and Americans nationwide overwhelmingly support permanent protection for the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness,” the lawmakers wrote. “The use of an inaccurate tweet lacking substantive detail has generated confusion and concern among our constituents, who have already provided extensive public input in support of protecting the Boundary Waters through a mineral withdrawal.”

Luke Bishop, a spokesperson for McCollum, said the Trump administration acknowledged the letter and intends to send a response in the future.

USDA did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment.

The Department of the Interior said in an email that while it does “not comment on congressional correspondence through the media, the Department of the Interior takes all correspondence from Congress seriously and carefully reviews each matter. Should there be any updates on this topic, we will provide further information at the appropriate time.”

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Amy Lindgren

Today I’m writing about launching successfully after graduating from high school, college or tech school. But first, a joke I’ve always found annoying:

Q: What do recent graduates say when they can’t find a job?

A: ‘Want fries with that?’

Oh, ha ha. One reason that bugs me is that I know multiple paths lead to post-graduation success — however you define it, and whatever you just graduated from. I also know the quickest path isn’t always the straightest.

I re-learned this lesson from a woman who took the indirect path about 15 years ago. She finished an arts degree, then worked as a fast food manager and lived at home while paying off her $30,000 student debt.

The loans were gone in two years, and she moved in with a roommate. From there she pursued work in the arts, which was more possible without the debt.

I wouldn’t say that establishing herself came easily, but that’s the arts for you. Low pay didn’t stop her from buying a home or starting an IRA, although she needed multiple jobs to do it.

Parents and economists can dispute whether it counts as success when college graduates need multiple jobs to stay in their field while also reaching life milestones.

Me? I call this an absolute success story. This person had specific goals — to work in the arts, to be self-supporting, to own a home, to start funding retirement — and she met them all. How is that not success?

Contrarians could also argue that burnout usually results from working multiple jobs. Yes, a definite possibility, similar to the possibility of burning out from a single job, even when it’s in your field.

My point isn’t that new graduates can’t win, no matter what they do. Just the opposite: they can’t control final outcomes, so they should take the smaller wins early. In other words, it’s alright to just get started on your life, regardless of how your career is going.

That’s what another graduate did. This young man had low expectations for the post-COVID job market but high expectations for himself when he finished college. He wanted to live independently while sorting out his career path and traveling frequently. He started working in retail and moved into cheap housing with friends. Not long after, he upgraded to a semi-professional job in an elementary school, leaving summers available for travel.

Is he launched? I would say yes. Will he need a relaunch at some point? I don’t know, but why delay his current life while trying to figure out the next one?

Of course I also know new graduates who quickly landed jobs in their field, so my point isn’t that relevant work can’t be found. Some live with parents, some with partners, some on their own. With this in mind, I wouldn’t count living independently as the key factor in being launched, either.

My bar for whether someone is launched is both higher and lower than those factors. I just want to know: Is this new graduate achieving / on the way to achieving goals that they’ve set? If yes, then things are fine.

If you are a new graduate yourself, or know one you’d like to advise, the following steps fit this particular worldview:

• 1. Rank your goals. For example, embedded in the examples above are working in one’s field, eliminating debt, living independently, owning a home, traveling, saving for retirement. Of course, most people want all of these, but that’s where things get tangled. Rather than trying to reach all goals at once, it’s better to reach for a couple, then reevaluate before pushing forward.

• 2. Create a plan for the top goal. Want to live apart from your parents? Then any job and a pile of roommates might do. Most interested in starting your career? Then perhaps you live at home while interning in your field. Remembering that you can’t solve everything at once will protect you from analysis paralysis.

• 3. Start on the next goal. You can (should) overlap goals, as long as you don’t pursue them all simultaneously. For example, living at home and interning still lets you work part-time and save for a down payment.

• 4. Set deadlines. Working backwards from a date lets you set a pace, which lets you measure progress or ask for help. Goals without plans, and plans without deadlines? That’s the real formula for burnout.

This is doable. And yes, I do want fries with that, if it means supporting someone on their path. Thanks for asking.

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

By SAM METZ, Associated Press

SMIMOU, Morocco (AP) — Argan oil runs through your fingers like liquid gold — hydrating, luscious, and restorative. Prized worldwide as a miracle cosmetic, it’s more than that in Morocco. It’s a lifeline for rural women and a byproduct of a forest slowly buckling under the weight of growing demand.

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To make it, women crouch over stone mills and grind down kernels. One kilogram — roughly two days of work — earns them around $3, enough for a modest foothold in an economy where opportunities are scarce. It also links them to generations past.

“We were born and raised here. These traditions come from nature, what our parents and grandparents have taught us and what we’ve inherited,” cooperative worker Fatma Mnir said.

Long a staple in local markets, argan oil today is in luxury hair and skin care products lining drugstore aisles worldwide. But its runaway popularity is threatening argan forests, with overharvesting piled on top of drought straining trees once seen as resilient in the harshest of conditions.

Hafida El Hantati, owner of one of the cooperatives that harvests the fruit and presses it for oil, said the stakes go beyond the trees, threatening cherished traditions.

“We must take care of this tree and protect it because if we lose it, we will lose everything that defines us and what we have now,” she said at the Ajddigue cooperative outside the coastal town of Essaouira.

A forest out of time

For centuries, argan trees have supported life in the arid hills between the Atlantic Ocean and the Atlas Mountains, feeding people and animals, holding soil in place and helping keep the desert from spreading.

The spiny trees can survive in areas with less than an inch of annual rain and heat up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). They endure drought with roots that stretch as far as 115 feet (35 meters) underground. Goats climb trees, chomp their fruit, and eventually disperse seeds as part of the forest’s regeneration cycle.

Moroccans stir the oil into nut butters and drizzle it over tagines. Rich in vitamin E, it’s lathered onto dry hair and skin to plump, moisturize and stave off damage. Some use it to calm eczema or heal chicken pox.

But the forest has thinned. Trees bear fewer fruit, their branches gnarled from thirst. In many places, cultivated land has replaced them as fields of citrus and tomatoes, many grown for export, have expanded.

Communities once managed forests collectively, setting rules for grazing and harvesting. Now the system is fraying, with theft routinely reported.

What’s wrong with the forest

But a forest that covered about 5,405 square miles (14,000 square kilometers) at the turn of the century has shrunk by 40%. Scientists warn that argan trees are not invincible.

“Because argan trees acted as a green curtain protecting a large part of southern Morocco against the encroaching Sahara, their slow disappearance has become considered as an ecological disaster,” said Zoubida Charrouf, a chemist who researches argan at Université Mohammed V in Rabat.

Shifting climate is a part of the problem. Fruit and flowers sprout earlier each year as rising temperatures push the seasons out of sync.

Goats that help spread seeds can be destructive, too, especially if they feed on seedlings before they mature. Overgrazing has become worse as herders and fruit collectors fleeing drier regions encroach on plots long allocated to specific families.

The forests also face threats from camels bred and raised by the region’s wealthy. Camels stretch their necks into trees and chomp entire branches, leaving lasting damage, Charrouf said.

Liquid gold, dry pockets

Today, women peel, crack and press argan for oil at hundreds of cooperatives. Much makes its way through middlemen to be sold in products by companies and subsidiaries of L’Oréal, Unilever, and Estée Lauder.

But workers say they earn little while watching profits flow elsewhere. Cooperatives say much of the pressure stems from climbing prices. A 1-liter bottle sells for 600 Moroccan dirhams ($60), up from 25 dirhams ($2.50) three decades ago. Products infused with argan sell for even more abroad. Cosmetics companies call argan the most expensive vegetal oil on the market.

The coronavirus pandemic upended global demand and prices and many cooperatives closed. Cooperative leaders say new competitors have flooded the market just as drought has diminished how much oil can be squeezed from each fruit.

Cooperatives were set up to provide women a base pay and share profits each month. But Union of Women’s Argan Cooperatives President Jamila Id Bourrous said few make more than Morocco’s minimum monthly wage.

“The people who sell the final product are the ones making the money,” she said.

Some businesses say large multinational companies use their size to set prices and shut others out.

Khadija Saye, a co-owner of Ageourde Cooperative, said there were real fears about monopoly.

“Don’t compete with the poor for the one thing they live from,” she said. “When you take their model and do it better because you have money, it’s not competition, it’s displacement.”

One company, Olvea, controls 70% of the export market, according to data from local cooperatives. Cooperatives say few competitors can match its capacity to fill big orders for global brands. Representatives for the company did not respond to requests for comment.

Mounting challenges, limited solutions

On a hill overlooking the Atlantic, a government water truck weaves between rows of trees, pausing to hose saplings that have just started to sprout.

The trees are a project that Morocco began in 2018, planting 39 square miles (100 square kilometers) on private lands abutting the forests. To conserve water and improve soil fertility, argan trees alternate rows with capers, a technique known as intercropping.

The idea is to expand forest cover and show that argan, if properly managed, can be a viable source of income. Officials hope it will ease pressure on the overharvested commons and convince others to reinvest in the land. The trees were expected to begin producing this year but haven’t during a drought.

Another issue is the supply chain.

“Between the woman in the village and the final buyer, there are four intermediaries. Each takes a cut. The cooperatives can’t afford to store, so they sell cheap to someone who pays upfront,” Id Bourrous, the union president, said.

The government has attempted to build storage centers to help producers hold onto their goods longer and negotiate better deals. So far, cooperatives say it hasn’t worked, but a new version is expected in 2026 with fewer barriers to access.

Despite problems, there’s money to be made.

During harvest season, women walk into the forest with sacks, scanning the ground for fallen fruit. To El Hantati, the forest, once thick and humming with life, feels quieter now. Only the winds and creaking trees are audible as goats climb branches in search of remaining fruits and leaves.

“When I was young, we’d head into the forest at dawn with our food and spend the whole day gathering. The trees were green all year long,” she said.

She paused, worried about the future as younger generations pursue education and opportunities in larger cities.

“I’m the last generation that lived our traditions — weddings, births, even the way we made oil. It’s all fading.”

Islam Aatfaoui contributed reporting.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.