Big River Pizza, which started as a mobile wood-fired pizza shop and opened its brick-and-mortar pizzeria in Lowertown in 2015, is closing this month.

Owner Steve Lott has chosen not to renew the restaurant’s lease, saying in a social media post that “the current political and policy landscape in St. Paul has made it increasingly difficult to ensure the safety of our employees.”

The pizzeria’s last day is expected to be June 29, though “possibly beyond.”

Lott said in the post that he “won’t be elaborating further on the local political landscape at this time.” In response to an interview request, he replied via email with a few lines from the Grateful Dead song “Terrapin Station.” (“The storyteller makes no choice, soon you will not hear his voice / His job is to shed light, and not to master / Since the end is never told, we pay the teller off in gold / In hopes he will come back, but he cannot be bought or sold”)

In a previous conversation with the Pioneer Press, he had expressed concerns over apparent increases in burglaries, drug use and gun presence in Lowertown. Light-rail stations and homeless service centers that have been added to the neighborhood contribute to these challenges, he said in February.

“I think elected officials have good intentions,” Lott said at the time. “But some of the policies have negatively impacted the business community.”

In closing, Big River Pizza joins a string of other restaurants in and around the area, including Saint Dinette in Lowertown and the Apostle Supper Club across from the Xcel Energy Center, whose owners have cited changing demographics as reasons for shutting down.

However, from new restaurants and event centers to commercial leasing successes, there appears to be new life ahead for some downtown and Lowertown spots. Specifically on the pizza scene, Prince Coal-Fired Pizza is set to open next month on Robert Street. Plus, the Palace Pub is now open next to the Palace Theater, and after announcing a closure, Dark Horse in Lowertown is set to reopen next month.

Big River Pizza is located within the Lofts at Farmer’s Market, an apartment building that is now privately owned but was originally developed by the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority in 2012. Of an approximately $304,000 buildout for Big River Pizza in 2015, $180,000 came from the city, per Pioneer Press reporting.

“Thank you for your unwavering support, your patronage, and for making our human experience in St. Paul so memorable,” Lott wrote in the pizzeria’s farewell post. “We will truly miss you all.”

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A Maple Grove lawmaker has confirmed that her house was one of four known residences visited early Saturday morning by the gunman accused of killing state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, as well as seriously wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.

“The past several days have been surrounded by so much grief and fear,” wrote State Rep. Kristin Bahner, DFL-Maple Grove, in a public statement released Wednesday.

“This senseless violence came to my door as well, placing me and my family in harm’s way,” she wrote. “I do not know why this man was filled with such hatred that he would come to my door; divine intervention led my family to change our plans, keeping us safe.”

Bahner said her family was away on vacation when Vance Boelter allegedly showed up at her residence at 2:24 a.m., less than 20 minutes after shooting the Hoffmans, carrying a handgun and wearing a black tactical vest, a mask and a badge.

Video from her home showed Boelter repeatedly ring the doorbell and announce loudly, “This is the police. Open the door. … We have a warrant,” according to criminal charges.

He was later spotted outside the New Hope home of state Sen. Ann Rest before driving to Brooklyn Park at 3:30 a.m. to kill the Hortmans. Following a massive manhunt, Boelter was captured within 48 hours and now faces both state and federal murder charges, the latter of which could involve life in prison or even the death penalty if he’s found guilty.

Bahner said she was “devastated by the loss of my leader, mentor and friend, Melissa, and her husband Mark. I would walk through fire to follow Melissa. She was strong and steadfast, she believed in cutting through to the essence of what was important. She never wavered from placing the people of Minnesota at the center of our work.”

She said she would keep the Hoffmans and their adult daughter, who was also home at the time of the shootings but not hit by gunfire, “in my constant thoughts and prayers. I know we will once again spar in the halls of the Capitol my friend, I look forward to the next great debate.”

Bahner said the Maple Grove Police Department has provided “excellent care, allowing us to continue to feel safe in our own home.”

“We will not let fear or division win,” she wrote. “Melissa has set a high bar, placing the work in our hands to make the world a better place.”

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By MIKE STOBBE and LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisers meet next week, but their agenda suggests they’ll skip some expected topics — including a vote on COVID-19 shots — while taking up a longtime target of anti-vaccine groups.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices makes recommendations on how to use the nation’s vaccines, setting a schedule for children’s vaccines as well as advice for adult shots. Last week, Kennedy abruptly dismissed the existing 17-member expert panel and handpicked eight replacements, including several anti-vaccine voices.

The agenda for the new committee’s first meeting, posted Wednesday, shows it will be shorter than expected. Discussion of COVID-19 shots will open the session, but the agenda lists no vote on that. Instead, the committee will vote on fall flu vaccinations, on RSV vaccinations for pregnant women and children and on the use of a preservative named thimerosal that’s in a subset of flu shots.

It’s not clear who wrote the agenda. No committee chairperson has been named and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not comment.

Committee won’t take up HPV or meningococcal vaccines

Missing from the agenda are some heavily researched vaccine policy proposals the advisers were supposed to consider this month, including shots against HPV and meningococcal bacteria, said Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Instead, the committee is talking about subjects “which are settled science,” she said.

“Every American should be asking themselves how and why did we get here, where leaders are promoting their own agenda instead of protecting our people and our communities,” she said. She worried it’s “part of a purposeful agenda to insert dangerous and harmful and unnecessary fear regarding vaccines into the process.”

The committee makes recommendations on how vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be used. The recommendations traditionally go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. Historically, nearly all are accepted and then used by insurance companies in deciding what vaccines to cover.

But the CDC has no director and the committee’s recommendations have been going to Kennedy.

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Thimerosal is a longtime target of antivaccine activists

Thimerosal was added to certain vaccines in the early 20th century to make them safer and more accessible by preventing bacterial contamination in multi-dose vials. It’s a tiny amount, but because it’s a form of mercury, it began raising questions in the 1990s.

Kennedy — a leading voice in an antivaccine movement before he became President Donald Trump’s health secretary — has long held there was a tie between thimerosal and autism, and also accused the government of hiding the danger.

Study after study has found no evidence that thimerosal causes autism. But since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine.

Thimerosal now only appears in multidose flu shot vials, not the single-shot packaging of most of today’s flu shots.

Targeting thimerosal would likely force manufacturers to switch to single-dose vials, which would make the shots “more expensive, less available and more feared,” said Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Doctors’ groups have opposed Kennedy’s vaccine moves

Last week, 30 organizations called on insurers to continue paying for COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women after Kennedy said the shots would no longer be routinely recommended for that group.

Doctors’ groups also opposed Kennedy’s changes to the vaccine committee. The new members he picked include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a conservative darling for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, a top critic of pandemic-era lockdowns and a leader of a group that has been widely considered to be a source of vaccine misinformation.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has long put out its own immunization recommendations. In recent decades it has matched what the government recommended. But asked if they might soon diverge, depending on potential changes in the government’s vaccination recommendations, Kressly said; “Nothing’s off the table.”

“We will do whatever is necessary to make sure that every child in every community gets the vaccines that they deserve to stay healthy and safe,” she said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

NEW YORK (AP) — Honda is recalling more than 259,000 of its cars across the U.S. due to a problem that can cause the brake pedal to shift out of position, potentially interfering with a driver’s ability to stop or slow down.

According to documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the recall covers certain Honda Pilots between model years 2023 and 2025 — as well cars under the auto maker’s luxury Acura brand: 2021-2025 Acura TLX and 2023-2025 Acura MDX vehicles.

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The NHTSA’s recall report notes that the brake pedal pivot pin in some of these vehicles was not secured properly during production. That can lead the pedal to shift out of place and “may lead to unintended application,” the report notes, increasing crash risks.

“The issue could also cause an abnormal brake pedal feeling during operation, illuminate the brake malfunction light in the instrument cluster, or cause the vehicle’s brake lights to remain lit even when the brake pedal is not applied,” America Honda said in a statement Wednesday.

As a remedy, Honda says authorized dealers will inspect the vehicles covered by this recall and replace the brake pedal assembly if necessary, free of charge. Per the NHTSA’s report, the company estimates 1% of these vehicles have this issue.

Dealer notifications began on June 13. And mailed owner notification letters are set to follow on July 28. In the meantime, drivers can also confirm if their specific vehicle is included in this recall and find more information using the NHTSA site or Honda’s recall lookup.

Between February 2024 and June 5, the NHSTA notes, Honda received three warranty claims related to this issue — but no reports of injuries.

Honda began investigating the faulty brake pedal in April 2024, after receiving a report of a vehicle experiencing this issue. The company later determined that improper assembly of the brake pedal pivot pin occurred at a supplier’s U.S. plant, which has since been closed. Production was transferred to a plant in Mexico — where the supplier now uses a camera sensor “to verify whether the pivot pin is staked,” the recall report notes.