Today is Friday, Aug. 2, the 215th day of 2024. There are 151 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On August 2, 1921, a jury in Chicago acquitted several former members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team and two others of conspiring to defraud the public in the notorious “Black Sox” scandal (though they would be banned from Major League Baseball for life by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis).

Also on this date:

In 1776, members of the Second Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence.

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In 1790, the first United States Census was conducted under the supervision of Thomas Jefferson; a total of 3,929,214 U.S. residents were counted.

In 1873, inventor Andrew S. Hallidie (HAH’-lih-day) successfully tested a cable car he had designed for the city of San Francisco.

In 1876, frontiersman “Wild Bill” Hickok was shot and killed while playing poker at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, by Jack McCall, who was later hanged.

On Aug. 2, 1923, the 29th president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, died in San Francisco; Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president.

In 1934, German President Paul von Hindenburg died, paving the way for Adolf Hitler’s complete takeover.

In 1939, Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program.

In 1945, President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and Britain’s new prime minister, Clement Attlee, concluded the Potsdam conference.

In 1974, former White House counsel John W. Dean III was sentenced to one to four years in prison for obstruction of justice in the Watergate cover-up. (Dean ended up serving four months.)

In 1985, 137 people were killed when Delta Air Lines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, crashed while attempting to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. (The Iraqis were later driven out by the U.S. in Operation Desert Storm.)

In 2018, Pope Francis decreed that the death penalty is “inadmissible” under all circumstances and the Catholic Church should campaign to abolish it.

Today’s Birthdays:

Rock musician Garth Hudson (The Band) is 87.
Author Isabel Allende is 82.
Singer Kathy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 81.
Actor Butch Patrick (TV: “The Munsters”) is 71.
Rock music producer/drummer Butch Vig is 69.
Actor Mary-Louise Parker is 60.
Writer-actor-director Kevin Smith is 54.
Actor Sam Worthington is 48.
Actor Edward Furlong is 47.
TV meteorologist Dylan Dreyer (TV: “Today”) is 43.
Actor Lily Gladstone is 38.
WNBA point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith is 34.
Singer Charli XCX is 32.
Olympic swimming gold medalist Simone Manuel is 28.

Jair Camargo created runs with his swing and his batting eye, driving in four in the St. Paul Saints’ 8-2 win over the Iowa Cubs on Thursday night at Principal Park in Des Moines.

Camargo broke open a tight game with a three-run home run off I-Cubs starter Brandon Birdsell in the sixth inning, and he drew a bases-loaded walk in the seventh. He finished 1 for 3 with four RBIs.

Birdsell and Saints starter Adam Plutko were locked in a pitcher’s duel through the first five innings. Birdsell allowed a first-inning run aided by a fielding error but then retired 11 straight batters before Rylan Bannon hit a double off him in the fifth. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in that inning by striking out DaShawn Keirsey Jr. for the final out.

In the sixth, Edouard Julien led off with a single, and Yunior Severino reached on a fielder’s choice that included a fielding error by second baseman Jake Hager allowing Julien to reach third base. Camargo followed with his ninth homer of the season to give the Saints a 4-0 lead.

Plutko continued his recent stretch of strong performances. He shut out the I-Cubs for the first six innings before giving up two in the seventh. He allowed two runs on two hits with three walks and four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings, improving to 6-1 since joining the team in late May. He has won four of his last five starts, allowing nine runs over 28 2/3 innings in that span.

Keirsey went 3 for 5 with three runs, and Julien was 2 for 4.

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Ramsey County is reviewing the fees it charges residents for emergency mental health services after a local television news report about the practice sparked criticism from advocacy organizations.

KMSP-TV on Sunday reported that people who called the county’s crisis help line during mental health emergencies were later billed for the services they received, while neighboring Dakota, Washington and Hennepin counties provide the same services at no cost to residents.

The report said the county charged more than $1.1 million in the past three years for its mobile crisis intervention service, which dispatches a response team to treat residents experiencing a mental health emergency.

Fees

According to a county spokesman, the department of social services charges $62.50 for every 15 minutes that a team spends assessing a patient, plus $1 per minute of travel time.

“These fees are billed to insurance providers whenever possible, otherwise a variety of options are offered to the patient including a sliding fee schedule or payment plan,” county officials said in a statement published Tuesday.

Mental health advocates expressed “deep disappointment” over the revelations in the KMSP report.

In a joint statement released Thursday, Mental Health Minnesota and the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness said they “are extremely concerned to learn that Ramsey County is charging individuals for using mental health crisis services” and called on the county to end the practice.

Ramsey County officials respond

Ramsey County officials say they were taking seriously the feedback shared by members of the community following KSMP’s report.

“Based on this feedback, we are reviewing our mental health crisis fees,” Ramsey County spokesman Casper Hill said in an email Thursday evening. “Our objective is to gather comprehensive data, establish best practices and understand how other counties that offer similar services address this matter. The review will be provided to the board to determine next steps as any changes to the current fee structure require a board action.”

Ramsey County currently has no plans to change how it bills for emergency mental health services.

“The county will continue to bill health insurance providers and only bill individuals when there is no health care coverage or there are copays and deductibles,” Hill said.

Issues raised in report

Among the issues raised in the KMSP-TV report was the fact that the charges for emergency mental health services were not disclosed on the county’s crisis intervention webpage, nor were they listed on its most recent fee schedule.

Ramsey County said Tuesday that it would post “information to our website clarifying the fee and payment options for crisis services” and add the same information to the script used by staffers on its the mental health crisis phone line.

KSMP-TV also noted that the county initially told its reporter that federal law and state funding requirements compelled it to charge residents for the services in question. County officials later acknowledged that both of these statements were false.

“We would like to apologize directly to our constituents for initially providing the incorrect data and any confusion or harm it caused,” the county statement said.

A man who was billed $342 by the county last year for crisis mental health services told KMSP that he worries the charges will discourage people from seeking the care they need.

“We believe it is critical that this life saving service is available to all residents regardless of income,” Ramsey County officials said Tuesday. “We will continue to look at ways to improve our mental health and crisis response service.”

For help

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, you can call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. More information is available at 988lifeline.org and Save.org.

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Maplewood-based 3M said Thursday that Anurag Maheshwari will become executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective Sept. 1.

Maheshwari currently serves in similar roles at Otis Worldwide Corp., a global manufacturer, installer and servicer of elevators and escalators.

3M also announced that Teri Reinseth will serve as Interim chief financial officer; Reinseth currently serves as senior vice president, corporate controller and chief accounting officer.

Maheshwari will succeed Monish Patolawala, who announced in July he is leaving 3M to become CFO at agriculture supply company Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.

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