Thai Basil Restaurant, a Stillwater spot started by the original chef behind Pad Thai on Grand, is closing.

Its last day will be July 7, owner and chef Phouvanh Soderquist said. The restaurant, just off MN-36, opened in February 2015.

“We want to express our deepest gratitude to our loyal customers who have supported us the last 10 years,” she wrote on the restaurant’s website.

In a conversation Wednesday, she identified staffing as one of the biggest challenges the restaurant faced.

Soderquist and her husband own the building and have been looking to sell it for some time, she said Wednesday. They found a buyer who plans to lease the space to a new restaurant, she said, but more specific details have yet to be finalized.

Soderquist, who emigrated from Thailand, previously opened Pad Thai on Grand, near Macalester College, in 1999. She sold her stake to her business partner about five years ago, she said, and is no longer involved in the restaurant.

After Thai Basil closes, Soderquist said, she plans to pivot toward hosting private dinners and tastings from her home.

Thai Basil Restaurant: 1180 W Frontage Rd., Stillwater; 651-439-4033; thaibasilstillwater.com

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Once a staple event in the Twin Cities, Somali American Soccer Week had been canceled since 2015 until state Rep. Samakab Hussein and renowned coach Fartun Osman helped bring it back.

This year’s tournament, featuring adults and teens from as far as London and Sweden, ran June 22 through July 2 at Central High School and Macalester College. The 24 teams competed for a trophy and what Osman hopes is a chance to play in Somalia, pending arrangements.

The soccer finals also featured ethnic Karen soccer teams, as well as a presentation from Karen dancers and other artists.

“We don’t want our kids to forget where they come from, and that’s why we’re doing this. It’s so they know their roots and their culture,” said the tournament’s lead organizer Osman, who splits her time between the U.S. and Somalia and coaches the Somali women’s national basketball team. “It’s culture and sports.”

The event was peaceful overall, said Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, whose deputies were contracted to provide security.

On the last night, at the end of the championship game, there was a fight between two players, he said. Their teammates were around and some attendees came onto the field. Deputies used a chemical irritant to clear out the area, said Fletcher, adding that he was on the scene.

All in all, “it was an upbeat event” with 3,000 people attending the championship game, Fletcher said.

Pursued sports despite taunts

Born and raised in Mogadishu, Somalia, Osman grew up with soccer and a dream to be the female version of Pele, the legendary Brazilian player. She pursued her passion in sports with family support, despite taunting from peers unaccustomed to seeing women succeed in athletics.

Her hard work paid off when she was selected as a high schooler to join the Somali national track and field team, and later the national basketball team.

Osman recalls finding the passion to coach sports in her youth. A coach noticed her playing basketball and taught her how to improve her skills on the court. Afterward, Osman gathered a group of girls to play basketball and taught them what she learned. The next day, they scrimmaged against the boys team.

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“And we won. Then he said to me, not only can you be a good player, but you can be a good coach,” she said. “And that’s what I became.”

Osman moved to the U.S. in 1994 and continued to coach and play sports with her children. But she saw through her daughter that the same stigmas and resistance for Somali and Muslim girls still existed in America.

“I decided to take it upon myself to make the change I wanted to see. I have always wanted to break barriers and overcome stereotypes through my coaching,” Osman said. “I felt as though I jumped over many obstacles to reach this point.”

Girls Rock and the NCAA

Osman is the founder and chief executive officer of Girls Rock, formerly known as Somali Girls Rock. She created the nonprofit organization to help young Somali and Muslim girls succeed in sports and education. The organization later expanded its mission to serve young girls from all backgrounds.

Throughout her career, Osman has received numerous awards for her coaching and leadership skills, along with fighting for the rights of Muslim girls to wear a hijab in competition. Osman received the NCAA Legacy Award in 2022.

“I am proud to be a role model for girls and women all over who have never had someone look like me represent them, and I’m proud they are able to do the same,” she said.

Osman has coached basketball, soccer, swimming and track and field, and hopes to someday coach gymnastics. She has supported many in the community, including Hussein, the state representative said.

Tournament organizers Rep. Samakab Hussein, DFL-St. Paul, left, and Fartun Osman at Somali American Soccer Week on Wednesday. Once a staple event for the Twin Cities Somali community, Somali American Soccer Week had been canceled since 2015 until Hussein and Osman helped bring it back. (Gwynn Vang / Pioneer Press)

“She was my mentor growing up. She used to bring us, the young, underrepresented kids, to play basketball,” Hussein said. “Fartun Osman has been a pillar in our community, dedicating over 20 years to fostering youth sports.”

Abdelhakim Ismail, 29, has been playing soccer for about 16 years and played for MPLS United in the recent soccer tournament. Ismail was introduced to soccer by Osman at a young age and learned the game through her coaching.

“I think a lot of people don’t see the beautiful part of this community. It brings in many people from different countries and states, and you build unity, you build a family,” Ismail said.

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In light of what it described as a “structural deficit” driven by inflation and labor costs, the Minnesota Historical Society has laid off seven employees, at least three of them dedicated to creating visitor content for popular sites such as Historic Fort Snelling, the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis and the James J. Hill House in St. Paul. Five of the workers were represented by the MNHS Workers Union.

The St. Paul-based Historical Society, a private nonprofit, operates the Minnesota History Center and oversees tours of the Split Rock Lighthouse, the Minnesota State Capitol building and two dozen other historic locations statewide. The nonprofit has attributed the layoffs, in a written statement, to rising expenses related to “higher employee, maintenance, insurance, and other costs, which have risen due to inflation, the competitive employment marketplace, and the increased costs associated with the recent AFSCME Local 3173 contract.”

Officials with the nonprofit said Friday that their board recently approved an operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 with a $782,000 deficit, meaning expenses will outpace projected revenues.

The layoffs were announced June 30 by the union, which issued a written statement that said workers were given little notice and that demanded the society “rescind these layoffs and recall these employees immediately.”

Following the layoffs, the Historical Society said it maintains 419 positions.

The layoffs followed an “ongoing need to right-size our organization and address a structural deficit. … These difficult decisions were made through thoughtful and thorough analysis for the future of the institution,” reads a written statement attributed to Nicole Tuescher, Vice President of People & Culture for the Historical Society.

Even with a recent financial boost from the state and increases in earned income, “overall funding has not kept pace with expenses and MNHS has operated in a structural deficit since the pandemic,” reads a follow-up statement from the institution. “Staffing costs are the largest part of MNHS’s operating budget.”

It was not entirely clear from publicly available materials on Friday exactly when those deficits began. In 2022, the nonprofit had more than $65.7 million in expenses, according to the most recent tax return on file with Guidestar.org, up from $55.4 million the year before. Still, net revenues ($25.7 million) and fund balances were still in the black at the time, according to the Form 990 filing, and both revenues and balances had grown substantially from the year before.

‘It was a surprise’

Jacob Rorem, a member of the AFSCME Local 3173 executive board, said on Friday that many employees were not aware the Historical Society had entered financially troubled waters.

“For a lot of us, it was a surprise,” said Rorem, who works in public programming for the Historical Society. “We’ve seen this as a need within the organization for better transparency and communication. I don’t think of it as a malicious thing, but the realities they’re stating have not been clearly communicated to the employees. To say ‘well, we’ve been talking about this’ doesn’t ring true to us.”

Funding for the Historical Society comes from a mix of sources, including appropriations from the state, which increased last year, as well as program fees, memberships, philanthropic giving and certain restricted funds.

The nonprofit’s strategic plans calls for a variety of initiatives to balance future budgets, including taking a hard look at sites and facilities. MNHS’s leadership team has “embarked on a multi-year plan to create a sustainable future … by aligning income and expenses” by July 1, 2026, reads the statement.

Two days’ notice

The Minnesota History Center in St. Paul on Friday, July 5, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

According to the union, the three staff members dedicated to content creation have a combined 60 years of service experience with the Historical Society.

“All of these passionate and talented employees were given two days’ notice and were asked to sign away their recall rights in exchange for a few weeks of separation pay and job coaching,” reads the statement.

The union said the Historical Society has 14 active job postings, “some of which have substantial overlap with eliminated positions.”

As part of their collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME Local 3173, the five unionized employees who were laid off received vacation and sick time payouts, Tuescher wrote, and some eligible employees received six months of continued employer contributions to medical insurance.

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By Craig Joseph | NerdWallet

The most avid travel hackers often shoot me a skeptical glare when I utter the words “timeshare presentation” as a way to get discounted hotel stays and piles of points to use toward future travel.

The deal is pretty simple: receive a heavily discounted hotel or resort stay and other perks in exchange for attending a timeshare presentation — better known as a sales pitch.

The last email offer I received was in March 2023 from Hilton Grand Vacations. It dangled a three-night stay in Las Vegas plus 50,000 Hilton Honors points in exchange for $149 and sitting through a 90-minute talk.

Having attended four timeshare presentations over the last decade, I find that the discounted hotel stay and extra perks — like hotel points and discounted spa treatments or amusement park tickets — are worth my time. All you have to do is attend the presentation and say “no” (sometimes several times) if the timeshare is not right for you.

Here’s how to get nearly free vacations with timeshare presentations.

Determine the value of the promotion, then negotiate

I’ve successfully negotiated the terms of a timeshare presentation in the past, so I called Hilton to see if it could sweeten the deal with upgrades like more travel rewards points or food and beverage credits.

After reviewing the terms of my promotion — and with some very polite back and forth — I requested an increase to 100,000 points and a waiver on the additional resort fees of $34 per night. After a long wait, the sales representative’s supervisor approved the deal if I accepted it on the spot, which I did.

According to NerdWallet’s valuation, Hilton points are generally worth about 0.5 cent each, giving the 100,000 points an approximate value of $500. The nightly room rate over my travel dates was $249, plus $34 per night in resort fees. That gives this deal a value of over $1,300 in exchange for 90-minutes of my time and the $149 I paid for the package.

Understand the restrictions and limitations

Certain hotels require attending the presentation with a spouse, while others may have specific income requirements. Ask about blackout dates, package expiration dates and any other hidden fees (like those pesky resort fees).

For Hilton, I had to verbally confirm my income was above a certain threshold and attest that I hadn’t participated in another Hilton-based timeshare presentation over the past six months.

Once I purchased the package, Hilton gave me 12 months to use it. After my reservation in Las Vegas was booked, Hilton assigned a set date and time for the timeshare presentation. If you miss it, the company can charge the full cash rate for the stay and revoke any perks offered.

Also be aware that you won’t earn hotel points or elite night credits with the host brand for the promotional stay.

Know what to expect at the sales pitch

The pitch usually starts with an introduction to your salesperson and a general video or presentation about the company’s timeshare program. You’ll then be whisked away to an office, where the salesperson asks about your finances and travel habits. You’ll be introduced to a rubric of costs to stay at different tiers of properties — costs that may fluctuate seasonally or during periods of high demand.

Many timeshare companies, even Disney, have transitioned to a points-based system, where you buy points used to make reservations after you’re an “owner,” but be aware these points are independent of the chain’s loyalty program.

Once the salesperson estimates the cost required to live your best timeshare life, they’ll take you on a tour of a model property. You’ll then return to the office and be introduced to the “closer” — the person who ran the numbers and tries to pressure you into signing.

The sales professionals will tug at your emotions with aspirational travel fantasies while making you feel like family. Remember, they are incentivized by commissions to make you buy a timeshare through signing a contract that can last the rest of your life.

Timing the pitch using my phone allowed me to politely tell the salesperson their time was up once the required duration under the promotion elapsed (usually 90 to 120 minutes).

Be in the ‘no’

Timeshares are big business, with $10.6 billion in domestic sales in 2023, according to a 2024 study by the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), a trade association for the timeshare industry. For comparison, that’s similar to the annual revenue of Major League Baseball in 2023.

Hospitality companies wouldn’t offer these lucrative promotions unless enough people were buying what they’re selling.

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Jason Gamel, president and CEO of ARDA, says that approximately 2 in 10 people decide to buy after a sales presentation. And that purchase, of course, comes with a financial commitment. The average purchase transaction was $24,170 in 2023, according to the ARDA study, with average annual interest rates near 15%.

This amount covers the initial cost to join the timeshare and the financing of the balance but does not include ongoing costs such as membership dues, maintenance fees or other required resort operation expenses.

If you’re not in the market for a timeshare, no sales pitch should persuade you to get one. Before the pitch, think (or talk) through the process of saying “no,” and if you have a spouse who’ll be attending, include them in the conversation.

Later, if you change your mind and decide to sign a contract, a state’s rescission laws could allow the contract to be canceled within a certain window after signing — usually between five and 10 business days.

“I think that’s important because it does help people evaluate whether they’re making the right decision for them, and it gives them a very easy way to say no after everything is said and done,” says Gamel.

Simply pack up and go

Despite skepticism from my travel-hacking cohorts, timeshare promotions allow me to save money on travel now and earn rewards to use for free travel in the future. The process won’t be for everyone, but if you’re willing to sacrifice a couple of hours and know the power of saying “no,” it could do the same for you.

Craig Joseph writes for NerdWallet. Email: cjoseph@nerdwallet.com.

The article How Timeshare Presentations Earn Me Cheap Travel originally appeared on NerdWallet.