Don Halverson’s 103rd birthday is Tuesday, but the World War II vet who served in Italy celebrated a day early with the Minnesota National Guard at the 34th Infantry Division “Red Bull” Headquarters in Arden Hills.

A birthday cake for World War II veteran Don Halverson birthday cake is ready for slicing as he is honored by his old unit, the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, at the division’s Arden Hills headquarters on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Halverson stays connected with his fellow service members, sometimes sharing a meal at his VFW club. Halverson was a part of the 168th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division (Red Bulls). He was a weapons platoon sergeant in charge of machine and motor sections while in combat in Italy from 1943 to 1945.

“I figured they got me through World War II without getting hit. I got to hang with them,” joked Halverson, who lives in Brooklyn Center.

Halverson said he used to get birthday and Christmas cards from his fellow WWII veterans and now when he goes to the State Fair on Veterans Day, he’s the only WWII veteran there.

“Or my VFW club, I’m the only World War II veteran there. There’s a lot of them around yet, but they’re all in senior centers or somewhere,” Halverson said.

Members of the 34th Infantry Division were in attendance at Halverson’s celebration Monday and took the chance to shake his hand and wish him a happy birthday.

World War II veteran Don Halverson, left, explains where and when photos of him were taken (Italy in 1945) to Brigadier General Joseph Sharkey as he is honored by his old unit, the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, at the division’s Arden Hills headquarters on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“It’s esprit de corps. It’s the 34th Infantry Division in Minnesota. It’s a proud division,” said Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Sharkey, commanding general of the 34th Infantry Division. “And to hear stories from Don, what they had to endure during World War II, specifically in Italy — heaven forbid our division should see another day like that — but it’s a good reminder to our current serving soldiers that service does come with sacrifice and always be prepared for the unknown. So that’s what we do day in and day out across the state.”

Halverson, who grew up in the Minneapolis area near Minnehaha Park, was drafted at the age of 20. When asked about his service, Halverson remembered one November in the mountains of Italy, walking around the cliffs to find rainwater to drink, clothes soaked through by rain and snow.

“You take your helmet and sit on that so you didn’t have to lay in the mud because you had a few inches of mud in your foxhole. Then eat a couple cans of stew every day — cold stew — and lick your spoon clean, put it back in your pocket,” Halverson said.

Halverson — a sergeant in the 4th Platoon, G Company, of the 1st Battalion — led a platoon of soldiers north from Naples, Italy up to the border of Switzerland. The 34th Infantry Division endured 517 days of frontline combat operations in World War II — the second most of any American division, according to the Minnesota National Guard.

After the war, French General Charles de Gaulle honored the division with the “Croix de Guerre” with Palm.

Upon returning to Minnesota, Halverson worked for Downtown Chevrolet and Mid-Continent Engineering until his retirement in 1988. He was married to his wife, Bernice, for more than 62 years until her death in 2010 and the couple had three children.

The Minnesota National Guard also celebrated Halverson’s birthday last year when he was awarded the Order of St. George bronze medallion, He wore the medallion Monday along with the Order of St. Maurice medallion. Halverson was awarded the Bronze Star, the Distinguished Unit Badge, and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, among other recognitions, before his return to Minnesota in 1945.

“He was in fighting shape during World War II and clearly Don’s in fighting shape today. So, you know, it is a blessing,” Sharkey said. “I don’t think there’s many divisions, whether in the active component or in the National Guard that have living veterans from World War II that are available to tell their stories to the current generation.”

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By JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. will be honored at the South Carolina capitol in the state where he was born and where his crusade career as a civil rights activist started in high school by pushing to integrate his local library.

Jackson’s body will lie in state next Monday at the South Carolina Statehouse, Gov. Henry McMaster announced. Details were to be released later.

Jackson, 84, died on Feb. 17 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his ability to move and talk.

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He will lie in repose this week at the Chicago headquarters of his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. His body will then travel to South Carolina and Washington, D.C., for more celebrations of his life. A public service will be held in Chicago at House of Hope, a 10,000-seat church, on March 6, followed by private homegoing services the next day at Rainbow PUSH, which will be livestreamed.

Jackson was born in 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, in a tiny house on Haynie Street just outside of downtown. A portion of the street will be named in his honor.

He was the quarterback at segregated Sterling High School, where he led seven other Black classmates into the whites only public library in Greenville in 1960 where they sat and read books and magazines until they were arrested.

It was the start of a long civil rights career during which Jackson became a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., including joining the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Jackson went on to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.

He continued to be active in his home state, pushing in 2003 for Greenville County to honor King by matching the federal holiday in his honor and in 2015 by advocating for removing the Confederate flag from South Carolina Statehouse grounds after nine Black worshipers were killed in a racist shooting at a Charleston church.

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. Peter Attia, a medical influencer whose emails with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were revealed in the latest U.S. Justice Department release of files, has resigned a post with CBS News.

Attia, podcast host and author of “Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity,” was one of a group of people named last month by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss as a contributor to network programming. He was the subject of a “60 Minutes” profile that ran on the network last October.

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But shortly after the appointment, Attia’s name surfaced in hundreds of Epstein documents. While Attia said he was guilty of no wrongdoing and did not attend any of Epstein’s sex parties, he admitted in an apology earlier this month that some of his emails were “embarrassing, tasteless and indefensible.”

Despite some public pressure, CBS News did not cut ties with Attia after the documents surfaced. Instead, Attia resigned from the network on his own, according to published reports confirmed by CBS News on Monday.

Attia is one of several public figures, including some in the corporate and public sectors, whose relationships with Epstein have surfaced in recent weeks, causing resignations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said it killed three people Monday in a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers.

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Monday’s attack brought the death toll to at least 151 people since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels in early September.

As with most of the military’s statements on the more than 40 known strikes, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs but posted a video on X that showed a small boat with outboard engines being destroyed.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” Southern Command stated in a post on X. “Three male narco-terrorists were killed during this action.”

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

Critics have questioned the overall legality of the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the U.S. over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.

The boat strikes also drew intense criticism following the revelation that the military killed survivors of the very first boat attack with a follow-up strike. The Trump administration and many Republican lawmakers said it was legal and necessary, while Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the killings were murder, if not a war crime.