The Gophers said Tuesday they will bring back the spring football game on Saturday, April 25 at Huntington Bank Stadium.

The U stopped hosting a public intrasquad scrimmage a few years ago due to a string of poor weather on the game’s date and amid concerns about losing current players after the game via the transfer portal. This year, the NCAA went down to one transfer portal window in January.

The Gophers will share details for the upcoming spring game, including its start time, at a later date.

The U encourages fans to bring a personalized, decorated oar to hang in the stadium’s tunnel and to donate baby diaper to help families in need.

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PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — Four people died in a pileup involving over 30 vehicles, including six semitrailers, on an interstate in Colorado Tuesday after blowing dirt made it hard for drivers to see, authorities said.

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Dirt kicked up by heavy winds caused “brown out” conditions at the time of the pileup on Interstate 25 south of Pueblo around 10 a.m. the Colorado State Patrol said. It said drivers had “low to no visibility.”

The patrol said 29 people were taken to the hospital but the extent of their injuries wasn’t known.

The cause of the crash is still being investigated. The lack of visibility will be considered as one of the factors in the crash, but others may also be involved, said Trooper Sherri Mendez, a patrol spokesperson.

Emergency personnel work the scene of a crash involving 30-plus vehicles including six semi trucks on Interstate 25 south of Pueblo, Colo., on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)

The eastern half of Colorado was being hit by strong winds Tuesday, which combined with warm weather and very dry conditions, have also raised the risk of wildfires and caused flight delays at Denver’s airport.

Meanwhile, it was snowing in the western part of the state, bringing much needed snow to the mountains.

A six-foot wooden whistle sculpture is not the kind of artwork photographer Wilson Webb usually creates.

But when federal immigration enforcement raids ramped up earlier this year in West St. Paul, where Webb lives, he knew he wanted to show his support for the thriving Latino population in the city and other immigrant groups in the Twin Cities, he said. And the whistle, which activists blow to warn of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ presence, was emerging as a powerful symbol of community solidarity against ICE.

“I wanted to make something that made a larger statement physically and showed my support, and maybe in turn would give others some small glimmer of hope in these horrible times,” Webb said. “It’s out of frustration for what’s going on and the injustices that have been happening here in the community.”

A large whistle sculpture sits in photographer Wilson Webb’s front yard in West St. Paul on Feb. 9, 2026. Webb, who built the sculpture, also offered free whistles, which have become a way for activists to alert one another of the presence of federal immigration agents. (Courtesy of Wilson Webb)

The completed work, a large white coach’s whistle with the words “ICE OUT” painted on the side, went on display in the front yard of Webb’s West St. Paul home earlier in February.

And it immediately caught the attention of neighbors and local media like the West St. Paul Reader, which first posted a video of the sculpture on Facebook that has since been viewed more than 300,000 times.

Webb began drawing out plans for the whistle in late January, and construction took about two weeks, he said.

Professionally, Webb is an on-set photographer, documenting behind the scenes of movies like the Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man” and capturing theater poster images for Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” and Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” among others.

He has some woodworking experience from previous jobs as a handyman and painter, he said, but some of the more complex fabrication elements like the curved body of the whistle were figured out on the fly.

“I’m always making things,” he said. “Sometimes those things are photos, sometimes sculptures, sometimes fixes around the house. Figuring out how to materialize something with your own hands is just a challenge that I enjoy.”

When the sculpture was installed in early February, Webb also set out free whistles for passersby to take. The overarching goal, he said, is to show like-minded neighbors that they are not alone in their opposition to ICE activity in Minnesota.

“It’s a sculpture in a yard; it’s not changing the way things are done — but, as a small symbol, it might add up to more positivity,” he said.

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By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and JULIE WATSON

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Search and rescue crews were looking for multiple backcountry skiers feared missing Tuesday after a reported avalanche in Northern California as a powerful winter storm moved through the state, authorities said.

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The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call at about 11:30 a.m. reporting an avalanche with people buried, said Ashley Quadros, a department spokesperson.

The sheriff’s office, the sheriff’s Search & Rescue team and a crew with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection responded to the area of Castle Peak, which is northwest of Lake Tahoe, Quadros said.

“It has been reported that a group of back country skiers was involved in the incident, with several members of the party missing at this time,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a Facebook post.

California is being walloped this week by a powerful winter storm carrying treacherous thunderstorms, high winds and heavy snow in mountain areas.

According to the Sierra Avalanche Center based in Truckee, the area in the Central Sierra Nevada, including the Greater Lake Tahoe region, was facing high avalanche danger in the backcountry with large slides expected to occur Tuesday and into Wednesday.

Several ski resorts around Lake Tahoe were fully or partially closed due to the extreme weather.

Snow falls on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photos/Brooke Hess-Homeier)

The dangerous conditions were caused by rapidly accumulating snowfall, weakening snowpack layers and gale-force winds. Ski areas or highways where avalanche mitigation programs exist were not expected to be at as high of a risk, the center said.

Castle Peak, a 9,110-foot peak in the Donner Summit area of the Sierra Nevada, is a popular backcountry skiing destination. In the nearby town of Soda Springs, at least 30 inches of snow had fallen in the last 24 hours, according to the Soda Springs Mountain Resort.

Forecasters said the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in northern Shasta County — including portions of Interstate 5 — and parts of the state’s Pacific Coast Range could see up to 8 feet of snow before the storm moves through late Wednesday.

Snow falls on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Truckee Calif. (AP Photos/Brooke Hess-Homeier)

The storm wreaked havoc on roadways spanning from Sonoma County to the Sierra Nevada. Traffic was halted temporarily in both directions on I-80 near the Nevada state line due to spinouts and crashes, the California Department of Transportation reported.

In January, an avalanche in the region buried a snowmobiler in snow and killed him, authorities said. Each winter, 25 to 30 people die in avalanches in the U.S., according to the National Avalanche Center.

Watson reported from San Diego.