Kids ‘n Kinship provides friendships and positive role models to children and youth ages 5-16 who are in need of an additional supportive relationship with an adult. Here’s one of the youth waiting for a mentor:

First name: Emmett

Age: 15

Interests: He enjoys art, especially drawing. He also likes swimming and is into soccer. His favorite food to eat is tamales! He fills the rest of his time reconnecting with friends online and playing games together.

Personality/Characteristics: Emmett is a quiet and soft-spoken teenager, but opens up once he connects. He describes himself as kind, carefree and quiet. He is bilingual and is from a Spanish-speaking home.

Goals/dreams: He would like a mentor who is compassionate and enjoys animals. He’s moved several times, so many of his friends are not in the area. He is looking for a stable and consistent adult to connect and spend time with. If he could have three wishes he would have LOTS of money, travel to Tokyo, and have super powers (any kind would do). When he grows up he wants to be in animation. A mentor with an artistic strength or who works in graphic design is a bonus but not required.

For more information: Emmett is waiting for a mentor through Kids n’ Kinship in Dakota County. To learn more about this youth mentoring program and the 39+ youth waiting for a mentor, sign up for an Information Session, visit www.kidsnkinship.org or email programs@kidsnkinship.org. For more information about mentoring in the Twin Cities outside of Dakota County, contact MENTOR MN at mentor@mentormn.org or fill out a brief form at www.mentoring.org/take-action/become-a-mentor/#search.

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It’s that time of year when the cold and snow and gloom have even the most die-hard Minnesotans considering getting out of town for a long weekend. For the suddenly-vulnerable Minnesota Wild, a little getaway might be the best course of action, after a homestand they would just as soon forget.

Practically everything went wrong for Minnesota on Thursday, as the Winnipeg Jets won 6-2 for their seventh consecutive victory in the Wild’s home rink.

After surviving, and thriving, on their longest road trip in franchise history, the Wild returned to Grand Casino Arena and posted a 0-2-1 record in a trio of home games.

“We are a top-five team in the league and we have a three-game homestand after having an exceptional road trip to start the new year and we didn’t perform well for our fans. One out of six points that’s disappointing, I think that’s the most disappointing part,” Wild defenseman Jake Middleton said. “We’ve faced adversity the whole season thus far and we haven’t hit the panic button yet, which is kudos to us as a team. It sucks that it happened at home, but you are going to go through ups and downs throughout the year and we’re going through that right now.”

They head out on the road for their next three, visiting Buffalo, Toronto and Montreal – not exactly havens from the snow and cold of Minnesota.

But for a Wild team that is doing uncharacteristically negative things, like taking penalties that prove costly, perhaps a little more time away may be beneficial. One of the NHL’s least-penalized teams this season, Minnesota put the Jets on the power play seven times, and Winnipeg scored on four of them. Although when given a chance to share his feelings about the guys in the stripes, at least one veteran didn’t bite.

“I’ve got nothing to say about them,” said Wild top-line winger Mats Zuccarello. “You know, they’re doing their job and trying to do the best they can and obviously we can’t blame it on them.”

The Wild are not fully healthy, with two veteran defensemen and second line center Joel Eriksson Ek missing. And it would be understandable if there’s a sense of fighting through the next 10 games before February’s three-week Olympic break.

Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes watches their game against the Winnipeg Jets during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Craig Lassig)

For coach John Hynes the venue matters less than the trends, and right now they are of some concern.

“You can talk about home and road, to me it’s much more of a short-term focus. I’m not necessarily looking at the homestand. It’s three different games played here and we didn’t get the results that we want,” he said. “But I also think there’s some things you have to extract from this as we go on the road to be able to play. Like I said, it’s disappointing. No one feels it more than the players I think, like, they care.”

Just how much they care was underscored by one of the seven penalties. When Quinn Hughes was thwarted on a second period breakaway, and tripped over Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck on the play, forward Nico Sturm made his frustrations clear from the bench, landing in the box with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Winnipeg scored on the ensuing man advantage to go up 5-1, drawing a rain of boos from the audience.

Sturm offered a postgame mea culpa.

“By that point in the game, kind of frustration got the better of us,” Sturm said. “Obviously I apologized for the penalty, or the words that I said to ref. I respect the refs in this league as well. So, I apologize for that. I was just frustrated.”

It sounds like the words of a team that is still on very, very solid playoff footing despite the mini swoon – but they could maybe use a few days out of town.

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Today is Friday, Jan. 16, the 16th day of 2026. There are 349 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 16, 1996, Wayne Newton performed his 25,000th Las Vegas show. Newton had performed more shows as a headliner in Las Vegas than any other entertainer.

Also on this date:

In 1865, Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman decreed that 400,000 acres of confiscated land in the South would be divided into 40-acre lots and given to former enslaved people. (The order, later revoked by President Andrew Johnson, inspired the expression, “40 acres and a mule.”)

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In 1942, actor Carole Lombard, 33, her mother, Elizabeth Peters, and 20 other people were killed when their plane crashed near Las Vegas, Nevada, while returning to California from a war-bond promotion tour.

In 1989, three days of rioting began in Miami when a police officer fatally shot a Black motorcyclist, causing a crash that also claimed the life of his passenger. (The officer was convicted of manslaughter, but later acquitted in a retrial.)

In 1991, in a televised address to the nation, U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced the start of Operation Desert Storm, a combat operation that drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

In 2001, Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila was fatally shot by one of his own bodyguards.

In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the first elected female head of state in Africa when she was sworn in as president of Liberia.

In 2018, authorities in Denmark charged inventor Peter Madsen with killing Swedish journalist Kim Wall onboard his private submarine. (Madsen would be convicted and sentenced to life in prison.)

Today’s birthdays:

Opera singer Marilyn Horne is 92.
Hall of Fame auto racer A.J. Foyt is 91.
Country musician Ronnie Milsap is 83.
Filmmaker John Carpenter is 78.
Actor-dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen is 76.
Singer Sade (shah-DAY’) is 67.
Boxing Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr. is 57.
Model Kate Moss is 52.
Actor-producer-songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda is 46.
Baseball great Albert Pujols is 46.
Singer-Songwriter Yebba is 31.

Mark Scheifele officially became a NHLer in the summer of 2011, when he was the first draft pick of the new Winnipeg Jets, after they relocated from Atlanta. The draft that year was held at the rink now known as Grand Casino Arena, and to this day Scheifele clearly enjoys his return visits to Minnesota.

On Thursday Scheifele had a goal and three assist as the recently resurgent Jets won their fourth in a row, blowing out the suddenly struggling Minnesota Wild 6-2.

Danila Yurov scored for Minnesota in the second period, as the Wild went without a regulation win on their three-game homestand, and are now 1-3-2 in their last half-dozen. Rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt started – but did not finish – the game, stopping 14 of the 20 shots he faced in the first two periods before giving way to Filip Gustavsson who played the third.

Winnipeg was the NHL’s best team in the regular season a year ago, then had an ugly first half this season and looked like they might go first-to-worst. But after a come-from-ahead overtime loss to the Wild late last month sent them into an ugly 0-5-1 stretch, the Jets have seemingly gotten their groove back. The win on Thursday was Winnipeg’s seventh straight in St. Paul.

Out-shooting Winnipeg 10-0 after 12 minutes had elapsed, the Wild were stymied by Jets star goalie Connor Hellebuyck. They then opened the door for Winnipeg to re-engage, taking penalties 31 seconds apart and giving the Jets an extended two-man advantage. They made it count when Jonathan Toews popped in a rebound, giving the visitors the first period lead. It was the 900th career goal for Toews, and his 19th versus Minnesota – the previous 18 coming as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks.

They then sent the crowd to the first intermission break in some shock, as Winnipeg victimized the Wild’s fourth line, scoring twice in the final 10 seconds of the first period to lead 3-0. After Minnesota got the first 10 shots of the period without scoring, the Jets recorded 10 of the next 11 shots, and scored on three of them.

Minnesota finally answered early in the middle frame via rookie Danila Yurov’s one-timer following a cross-ice pass from Jake Middleton. The Wild then killed a Jets  power play, only to see the momentum disappear in an instant, when a turnover at the blue line and a long-range slap shot put Winnipeg ahead by three again. When a power play goal by the visitors later in the second, and a late goal that fooled Wallstedt to make it 6-1, boos rained down, directed at the officials, or the Wild, or both.

Marcus Johansson scored Minnesota’s second goal in garbage time, his first of the New Year and 13th of the season.

Gustavsson had eight saves in the third, while Hellebuyck finished with 32 in the game for Winnipeg. The Central Division rivals finished the four-game season series with each team winning twice in the other’s building.

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