Gophers football: Texas Longhorns nab another U pledge

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The Gophers football program lost a second high school recruit to the Texas Longhorns on Sunday.

Three-star running back Jett Walker from Georgetown, Texas, flipped his commitment from the U to an in-state SEC school. He followed Portage, Mich., tight end Charlie Jilek, who changed his mind from Minnesota to Texas last week.

“Staying Home!!” Walker wrote on X after a visit to the Austin campus this weekend.

The Gophers got Walker, who is listed at 6-foot-2 and 215 pound, as a flipped commitment from West Virginia on Nov. 3.

Minnesota now sits at 30 total commitments for its 2026 class. The early signing period starts Dec. 3.

Minnesota, other states reach $7M settlement in rent-fixing case against major apartment manager in U.S.

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The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, along with eight other states, filed a proposed $7 million settlement with one of the nation’s largest apartment managers on Wednesday.

The AG’s office announced a planned settlement with Greystar Management Services, LLC, which manages 31 properties in the Twin Cities metro area including Irvine Exchange and Waterford Bay Apartments in St. Paul and The Westlyn Apartments in West St. Paul.

The settlement comes from an ongoing multi-state civil antitrust lawsuit filed in January against RealPage, Inc. and several of the nation’s largest residential property managers, including Greystar. The lawsuit alleges RealPage, a Texas-based property management software company owned by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo, has artificially hampered competition in apartment pricing. Landlords and rental companies use RealPage to price apartments. The suit alleges RealPage monopolizes the market for commercial rental revenue management software.

The lawsuit also alleges Greystar and other landlords and rental companies worked together to set the parameters for RealPage’s software. They also discussed competitively sensitive topics such as pricing strategies and rents, the suit alleges.

In the proposed settlement, Greystar will pay $7 million to Minnesota and the other states involved in the litigation: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon and Tennessee. Minnesota is set to receive roughly $483,000 of the $7 million, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

In addition to payout, the settlement requires Greystar to limit its use of rent setting algorithms and refrain from sharing competitively sensitive information with competitors.

The settlement would also prevent Greystar from participating in RealPage events and compels Greystar to cooperate with Minnesota and other plaintiffs in their ongoing litigation against RealPage.

In a news release, Attorney General Keith Ellison said corporate greed like this is fueling inflation.

“I’m proud to join this bipartisan coalition and the (Department of Justice) in once again holding a company accountable that is violating antitrust law and illegally making it harder for people to afford their lives,” Ellison wrote.

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Sec. Kristi Noem hands out $10,000 bonus checks to Minnesota TSA workers and announces increased funding

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U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem awarded $10,000 bonus checks to several dozen Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport TSA agents on Sunday, and announced that her department will be spending $1 billion to improve TSA technology and operations.

Noem praised the Minnesota workers’ dedication during the government shutdown despite hardships that came from working without pay, noting that TSA employees across the country are being recognised with bonuses. She has not specified how many TSA officers qualify for the bonuses.

“I just want to express my deep, great gratitude for all of you,” she said. “I’m thankful for individuals who serve in TSA, who serve in our airports and security checkpoints with dignity, integrity and a happy attitude every day.”

The checks for Minnesota workers came a day after Noem visited Las Vegas, also handing out bonuses to TSA workers there.

Nationally, only 776 air traffic controllers and technicians who had perfect attendance during the government shutdown will receive $10,000 bonuses, while nearly 20,000 other workers will be left out, the Federal Aviation Administration said last week.

President Donald Trump suggested the bonuses for those who have stayed on the job in a social media post, along with suggesting that air traffic controllers who missed work should have their pay docked. FAA officials haven’t publicly announced plans to penalise controllers.

$1B improvements planned

Noem spoke Sunday about her department’s $1 billion planned investment in TSA security checkpoints at airports across the United States, first announced in Las Vegas.

“We will be putting over $1 billion into new scanning equipment, new X-ray equipment, AIT equipment and resources for all of you so that you will be able to do your jobs well, accurately, efficiently and make it easier and will you more time to enjoy not just your positions at work while you’re serving but to do so with confidence, knowing that we are keeping our passengers safe,” Noem said.

This report includes information from the Associated Press.

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Mats Zuccarello’s impact hard to miss at Wild surge continues

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WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Amid all of the Wild training camp hype surrounding new arrivals Nico Sturm and Vladimir Tarasenko, the full-time arrival of rookies like Danila Yurov and Jesper Wallstedt, and the contract extensions handed to Filip Gustavsson and Kirill Kaprizov, there was another storyline that probably should have been noted as a bigger deal.

Veteran forward Mats Zuccarello was injured, we learned in September. Not only would he miss all of training camp, he might not be ready until after Thanksgiving because of a lower body ailment, maybe not unexpected for a 38-year-old mainstay with more than 1,000 NHL games on his resume.

As the Wild slouched out of the gate, winning just three times in their first dozen games, the “things will get better when Zuccy returns” mantra was heard again and again from fans looking for any reason to be optimistic about the season.

It can hardly be a coincidence, then, that after Sunday’s game in Winnipeg, the Wild are 7-0-1 since Zuccarello returned for a Nov. 7 road game against the New York Islanders. On that night on Long Island, Zuccarello notched a highlight reel assist in his 2025-26 debut, and had an assist versus the Jets on Sunday, giving him eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his first eight games.

“I think Zuccy brings a personality and a veteran presence to the team that I think is very positive,” Wild coach John Hynes after Zuccarello posted his fifth point in three games in a 5-0 victory Friday in Pittsburgh. “He’s a highly talented player that plays the game in the right way, I think.

“Just (with) his attitude around the group, he can loosen some things up. But he can do that because he plays the right way. So it’s good to see him come back right off the injury, and he has made a major impact for us.”

Part of that impact can be seen on the ice, clearly. But the Zuccarello teammates and media meet behind the locker room doors is a force all its own. He also has shown some grit since returning from injury, fighting his way into the lineup for a Nov. 15 home win over Anaheim despite dealing with an illness that added pregame IV fluids to Zuccarello’s pregame routine.

One of the rare Norwegian players in the NHL, Zuccarello made his debut in the 2010-11 season with the Rangers and spent his first nine seasons in New York. After a brief stint with the Dallas Stars, Zuccarello signed with Minnesota in 2019.

Zuccarello has declined to speak about the impact he has made on the ice since returning, although it appears that’s only around reporters.

“He talks to me about it, I can tell you that,” Hynes said, with a smile.

Briefly

Hynes said Sunday that forward Vinnie Hinostroza, who suffered a lower body injury Friday in Pittsburgh, will be out week-to-week. His loss coincided with the return of Sturm from the back surgery he had following a training camp injury, so the Wild have not had to call up a forward. Hinostoza left the team’s road trip and returned to Minnesota to meet with doctors after the injury.

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