Hastings-based home and office supply firm Smead Manufacturing has been sold to TOPS Products, an Illinois-based company, according to an announcement released June 2.

Smead was established in 1906 and has been operating as a family-owned business ever since. The company is known for its Bandless File System and gained attention during World War II for producing more than two million wallets for the U.S. armed forces, per the company’s website.

TOPS Products is an office and organizational supply company based in Naperville, Illinois. It owns manufacturing and distribution centers across the United States, Canada and Mexico, according to the release.

Casey Avent, who has served as Smead CEO since 2021, marks the fourth generation of Smead’s family ownership.

“After nearly 120 years as a family-owned business, I’m proud to usher in this new chapter for Smead with the right home to build upon what we’ve created,” Avent said in the announcement. “Joining TOPS is the next step in a line of strategic decisions we’ve made to do what’s best for the Smead business and our exceptional team.”

The transaction terms were not disclosed, and no additional information has been released about how the sale will affect Smead employees.

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Last June, Minnesota United’s season began to crater.

The Loons suffered a combination of players away on international duty and a few injuries during a nine-match winless skid from June 8 through July 17.

MNUFC rebounded by the end of July to surge into the MLS Cup Playoffs, but that sour stretch still sticks with Eric Ramsay.

“We were entering the dark days about now last year,” the head coach said a week ago.

United is in a much better position this season. The team is healthier (Hassani Dotson’s season-ending knee injury is the only major absence), fewer players are gone with their respective national teams, and Ramsay believes the overall squad is deeper.

“I think the players and us as a group all will feel that sense of responsibility to make sure that when those guys get back, we are in a good place,” Ramsay said.

Minnesota will have four players gone to play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup: goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair and striker Tani Oluwaseyi (Canada); wingback Joseph Rosales (Honduras) and center back/center midfielder Carlos Harvey (Panama). They could miss up to four matches into early July.

Last year’s skid started with 11 players out for the 1-1 home draw against FC Dallas on June 8. This year, the Loons were off when the international window hit the hardest with six absences.

Since then, Loons leaders Michael Boxall (New Zealand) and Robin Lod (Finland) finished their international duties on Tuesday and are expected to return to training in Blaine before Saturday’s home match against San Diego FC.

The biggest absences going forward will be St. Clair — who leads MLS with eight shutouts — and Oluwaseyi, tied for 10th in MLS with eight goals scored.

Goalkeeper

Backups Alec Smir and Wessel Speel, an un-drafted rookie from Duke, both appear in line to to play in MLS this summer. The 6-foot-7 Speel was a surprise selection over Smir in both of the Loons’ U.S. Open Cup wins to reach the quarterfinals.

“We wanted to make sure, first and foremost, that we saw Wessel in a really competitive context,” Ramsay said. “I’ve been really pleasantly surprised with (the 23-year-old Dutchman). I think everyone who is involved in the group has felt a real level of trust that is perhaps not common with someone with that depth of experience.”

Ramsay has raved about Speel’s size and strong leg for distribution on goal kicks covering most of the field. “He has some ingredients that are really hard to come by,” the coach said.

“Alec will be desperately fighting for that spot because he’s done really well for us and he’s a really well-liked guy … a real team player,” Ramsay said. “He does that well and he supports the group.”

Striker

Kelvin Yeboah is the most-obvious choice to step in for Oluwaseyi; the two strikers were playing together at the same time until Ramsay chanced the formation to one striker.

The most-glaring issue with Yeboah is the Italian/Ghanian hasn’t scored an MLS goal since March — albeit he did get on the scoresheet in the Open Cup win over St. Louis on May 21.

Besides Yeboah, Sang Bin Jeong and Bongi Hlongwane could get wishes for more playing in attacking positions. Then there is 17-year-old Darius Randell, who just signed a first-team, homegrown contract.

Ramsay sees the St. Michael, Minn., resident as a forward who can help change the game with his athleticism, pace and dribbling abilities. He scored the winning goal in the Open Cup win over Louisville on May 7.

“It won’t be token-gesture minutes, nor minutes from a perspective of publicity around young players,” Ramsay said. “He can definitely go and make a mark. He’s shown that in the Cup games.”

Wingback

Rosales is not just away with Honduras, he could be on his way out of Minnesota at some point this summer. GiveMeSport reported Wednesday MNUFC is expecting other clubs to bid on Rosales this summer after rejecting an offer from an Italian club in Serie A over the winter.

Anthony Markanich has developed into a capable replacement at left wingback, and with Rosales’ injuries and three-match suspension, the pair have nearly evenly split playing time this season.

Central spots

With the versatile Harvey gone with Panama, the Loons have developed cover with Jefferson Diaz and Morris Duggan at center back and Owen Gene in midfield. Hoyeon Jung, however, remains on the outside looking in at midfield.

Gene earned his first MLS start in the 3-2 win at Seattle on June 1. “I think he did an amazing job for a 21-year-old kid,” midfield partner Wil Trapp said afterward.

Gene didn’t want to join Guadeloupe in the Gold Cup in order to solidify a spot with MNUFC.

By PATRICK WHITTLE, Associated Press

The defense in the second trial of Karen Read rested its case on Wednesday and said Read was framed for the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend.

Read, 45, is accused of fatally striking O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside another officer’s home when she dropped him off at a party in January 2022 after the two had been drinking. She’s charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene in Canton, outside Boston.

Prosecutors have said Read intentionally struck O’Keefe with her sport utility vehicle and left him to die. Read’s defense has suggested she was the victim of a wide-ranging conspiracy that included planting evidence and using her as a convenient scapegoat for her boyfriend’s death.

Defense attorneys in the case have accused the prosecution of twisting Read’s words into a confession she never made. The state has pointed to a television interview in which Read said, “I mean, I didn’t think I ‘hit him’ hit him, but I could I have clipped him?”

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That’s not a confession but a person expressing genuine concern during a desperate situation, defense attorney Alan Jackson has said.

“That’s a person trying to make sense of an unexplainable circumstance, a natural concern of a bereaved significant other,” he said.

A crash expert who testified for the defense said, based on tests he performed, the damage to Read’s taillight and O’Keefe’s clothing was inconsistent with her SUV striking an arm or body at the speed described by the prosecution.

Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, a former medical examiner called by the defense, said O’Keefe’s injuries were indeed consistent with blunt force trauma to the back of the head, but that his eye wounds were not consistent with being hit by the rear of Read’s SUV. She also testified she did not think O’Keefe was hit by the SUV at all.

The defense also unsuccessfully sought a mistrial earlier in the second trial. Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. The attempt for a second mistrial hinged on a defense theory that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home where the party took place, and that he was bitten by a family dog and then left outside as part of a conspiracy by the police that included planting evidence against Read.

The defense team tried for a second mistrial after the prosecution pointed out that no dog DNA was found on O’Keefe. The defense said there had been no mention in the trial about DNA and the dog bite, and argued that raising the subject while questioning Russell had prejudiced the jury.

Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone said the trial could proceed.

The defense has also attempted to show that police were biased against Read from the start and wanted to pin O’Keefe’s death on her. Jonathan Diamandis, a friend of Michael Proctor, the lead investigator of Read’s case, was asked by the defense team to read text messages that Proctor sent to friends about the investigation.

Proctor was fired in March after a disciplinary board found he sent sexist and crude text messages about Read to his family and colleagues. His testimony played a key role in the first trial. Defense attorneys used his text messages to attempt to show that Proctor was biased and ignored the possibility of other suspects.

The next big step in the case is closing statements from both sides. The case will then go to the jury.

Most people think of a yo-yo as going up and down. But Dave Schulte, also known as “Dazzling Dave,” says yo-yoing looks different at the Midwest Regional Yo-Yo Championship.

Schulte has been organizing the contest since its creation in 1998 and is one of the 16 official masters in the National Yo-Yo League.

“This yo-yo is not like the yo-yo you’re thinking of,” Schulte said. “Most people walk away flabbergasted, thinking ‘I would have tied that in a whole bunch of knots,’ because it is, you know, way more advanced than it used to be.”

The contest will be held 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Huntington Bank Rotunda in the Mall of America. All skill levels can compete in the contest, which will feature a Beginner’s Luck division where competitors can perform beginner yo-yo tricks like the windup, dribble and forward pass to earn raffle tickets for prizes.

The championship division will begin at noon. Winners in this division earn a seed in the National Yo-Yo Contest June 27 in Las Vegas.

Ben Gates is the coordinator of videography for the National Yo-Yo League. Gates said the format of a yo-yo tournament is comparable to a figure skating tournament. Spectators watch competitors perform a choreographed yo-yo routine to music in front of a judging panel.

“It’s a very niche hobby, but, you know, in some ways, it’s an art form, like a performance art,” Gates said. “And to others, it’s a competitive sport.”

Gates and Schulte said the yo-yo community is rebuilding its contest circuit after a three-year window without competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During those three years, a lot of the kids that were just getting into it didn’t have a support structure to keep them at it,” Schulte said. “It was really a tough restart as far as making sure to get enough people at the event and making sure it was going to work.”

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The National Yo-Yo League used to have nine regional contests across the country. After the pandemic, the league has cut back to three or four each year — the other 2025 regional competitions were held in Oregon and New Jersey. But Schulte said he expects to have nearly 50 competitors at the championship Saturday. He sees some of his closest friends a few times a year at these contests, which provide an in-person space for the yo-yo community to connect.

“People will be trading tricks, teaching tricks to one another and showing off, you know, new things they’ve been working on,” Gates said. “People trade yo-yos and all kinds of things. It’s a very lively community.”

For more information, visit the contest website at yoyocontest.com/mwr.