Mary Lucia has returned to radio, although this time she’ll be working behind the scenes.

On May 6, Lucia began her new job as the program advisor at the University of Minnesota’s Radio K. It’s one of three paid, full-time positions at the college radio station, which is otherwise staffed by students. Her job entails training the volunteer DJs, coaching the station’s weekly “Real College Podcast” and advising the student-run programming.

A native of Massachusetts and the younger sister of the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg, Lucia began her Twin Cities radio career in the early ’90s on REV 105. She went on to host on Zone 105 and KSTP 1500.

When St. Paul-based Minnesota Public Radio launched its music station The Current in January 2005, Lucia was hired as afternoon drive host. She quickly became one of The Current’s most popular DJs and was voted best FM radio personality by the late alt-weekly City Pages 12 times.

In April 2022, Lucia surprised listeners when she said she was leaving the station. In a Facebook post she wrote that she was “concerned with equity and fair treatment of all of my sisters at the station.” She took several shots at management during her final on-air shift, soon after which the station fired program director Jim McGuinn.

In the time since, Lucia wrote a column for the local arts and culture publication Dispatch, which went on hiatus last year. She also wrote a memoir, “What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Weirder and Harder to Relate To,” which will be published in the spring of 2025 by the University of Minnesota Press. In it, she addresses the stalker who harassed her to the point that she took a seven-month leave of absence from The Current in 2015. The same man later went on to stalk Lucia’s coworker Jade Tittle, who left the station in October.

During her career, Lucia has interviewed everyone from Johnny Rotten to Tori Amos to Trent Reznor and is known for her warm, personable on-air charm. She has appeared in commercials, local theater and in the films “The Last Word” and “Tuscaloosa.” She also was the narrator for the audiobook of Bob Mehr’s acclaimed biography “Trouble Boys: The Story of the Replacements.”

Lucia also “likes cats and dogs more than people,” according to a Radio K news release.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have identified a planet that’s bigger than Jupiter yet surprisingly as fluffy and light as cotton candy.

The exoplanet has exceedingly low density for its size, an international team reported Tuesday. The gas giants in our solar system — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are much denser.

“The planet is basically super fluffy” because it’s made mostly of light gases rather than solids, lead author Khalid Barkaoui of Massachusetts Institute of Technology said in a statement

Scientists say an outlier like WASP-193b is ideal for studying unconventional planetary formation and evolution. The planet was confirmed last year, but it took extra time and work to determine its consistency based on observations by ground telescopes. It’s thought to consist mostly of hydrogen and helium, according to the study published in Nature Astronomy.

The planet is located some 1,200 light-years away. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. It’s the second-lightest exoplanet found so far based on its dimensions and mass, according to the researchers.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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By LEA SKENE and DENISE LAVOIE (Associated Press)

BALTIMORE (AP) — Investigators probing the March collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore said in a preliminary report Tuesday the cargo ship Dali experienced an electrical blackout about 10 hours before leaving the Port of Baltimore while undergoing maintenance.

The power outage was caused by a crewmember mistakenly closing an exhaust damper, causing the ship’s engine to stall, the report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board said. The ship lost power again and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns shortly after leaving the port on March 26, which brought the bridge down in seconds.

A full investigation could take a year or more, the agency said.

The board launched its investigation almost immediately after the collapse, which sent six members of a roadwork crew plunging to their deaths. Investigators boarded the ship to document the scene and collect evidence, including the vessel’s data recorder and information from its engine room, according to board chair Jennifer Homendy. Investigators also interviewed the captain and crew members.

“Our mission is to determine why something happened, how it happened and to prevent it from recurring,” Homendy said at a news conference days after the disaster.

According to the preliminary report, at 1:25 a.m. on March 26, when the Dali was a little over half a mile away from the bridge, a primary electrical breaker that fed most of the ship’s equipment and lighting unexpectedly tripped, causing the ship to lose electrical power and experience a blackout. The main propulsion diesel engine shut down after the pumps lost electrical power. The ship’s crew was able to restore power, then called for an assist from tug boats and the senior pilot ordered the ship’s anchor to be dropped.

A second blackout then occurred and a marine radio call was made to warn waterborne traffic. The ship then struck a main support pier on the bridge, causing it to collapse within seconds.

The ship, which was headed from Baltimore to Sri Lanka, issued a mayday alert with just enough time for police to stop traffic, but not enough to save the workers filling potholes on the bridge.

The last of the victims’ bodies was recovered last week.

On Monday, crews conducted a controlled demolition to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, a major step in freeing the grounded Dali container ship.

The board’s preliminary report released Tuesday likely includes a fraction of the findings that will be presented in its final report, which is expected to take more than a year.

Testing of the ship’s fuel did not reveal any concerns related to its quality, according to the preliminary report.

The FBI has also launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading up to the collapse.

Homendy said the National Transportation Safety Board investigation would probe all aspects of the crash, including what caused the ship’s power loss and whether it had been experiencing similar issues prior to the blackout.

Investigators also planned to review policies, training practices and other factors that could be relevant. And the design, engineering and condition of the bridge would be studied, she said.

Homendy said before a U.S. Senate committee last month that the investigation was focused on the ship’s electrical system generally.

Homendy said investigators were collecting information from the vessel’s engine room and circuit breakers, which she said “will help us tremendously.”

Marcel Muise, safety board investigator in charge, previously laid out a preliminary timeline assembled from the voyage data recorder comprising audio from the bridge and radio exchanges ahead of the collapse. He said experts would review the entire voyage data recording and develop a detailed transcript.