Olympic Trials: Minnesota gymnast Shane Wiskus proves he’s not done yet

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After pulling out of last summer’s Pan American Games because his body wasn’t cooperating with him, Shane Wiskus could be forgiven for going into this weekend’s U.S. Olympic Trials with a bit of an underdog complex.

But in the first of two days of competition at Target Center, the former Gophers All-America from Spring Park, is right in the thick of it, finishing third in the all-around competition after Friday’s first run through the six apparatuses.

Not bad for a guy who, not long ago, contemplated retirement. His generally excellent six routines amassed him 84.300 total points in front of a partisan crowd not afraid to cheer for the only Minnesotan among the 20 men’s participants.

“I was having fun out there, so that produces the best results for me,” Wiskus said. “The second I stepped out on that field and heard the Minnesota love and the fans screaming for me, It was an incredible experience and a memory I’ll have forever.”

The U.S. women, with a field that boasts Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles and Suni Lee of St. Paul, begin their trials here on Friday. The Summer Games begin with Opening Ceremonies July 26 in Paris.

Wiskus, 25, is one of three 2020 Olympians in Minneapolis this weekend trying to earn a ticket back. Brody Malone, who finished 10th in the Tokyo Games, was in second place on Friday with 85.100 points, just behind University of Michigan sophomore Fred Richard, who burst into the lead with 14.700 points from the night’s best floor routine in the sixth rotation.

Returning Tokyo Olympian Yul Moldauer fell behind early because of an aborted horizontal bar routine but will go into Saturday sixth in the all-around. The winner will qualify automatically for the Games. The other four members of the team will be chosen by a USA Gymnastics committee tasked with choosing the team with the best potential to win a medal in Paris.

Wiskus, who had the third-best floor and rings scores on Friday — and was top five on three other apparatuses — appears to have given that committee something to think about.

“I hope so,” he said. “If my MO can be going out there and getting the ball rolling and being consistent and doing my job for Team USA, I’m going to keep working toward that on Saturday.”

Perhaps because he was performing on his home turf, Wiskus was one of the few gymnasts who didn’t seem to be affected by nerves as the trials got started. Even Malone, the 2024 World Championships gold medalist in the all-around and horizontal bar, had an issue on the pommel horse, earning his lowest score (13.450) of his night.

“For a lot of us, it’s the biggest competition of our lives,” said Malone, one of six Stanford gymnasts competing. “All the guys out there who haven’t made the Olympics before, this is their ticket to go. So, of course, the nerves are going to be going crazy.

“Even those of us that have been to the Olympics before, we want to go again. The nerves are still there, for sure.”

Wiskus didn’t seem bothered by the pressure, and in fact used it to his benefit. After a crisp turn on the horizontal bar — a 13.550, the fifth-best score of the night — Wiskus looked up at the crowd, beckoned them with his open hands and yelled, “Let’s go!” After his floor routine, a clearly please Wiskus put his hand to his ear, asking for noise from a crowd that was happy to supply it.

“I allowed myself to have some fun in what could potentially be the last meet of my career,” he said. “I want to have fun and I want to do the things I don’t normally do — that I wish I would do — and just really enjoy it. I’m having a blast.”

Richard also had the top score in the high bar (14.400), and Stephen Nedoroscik had the top score in the only event he competed in, earning a 14.450 in the pommel horse. Curran Phillips had the best score in any event, a 15.600 in the parallel bars, four-tenths of a point away from a perfect score.

Malone, who had the second best score in vault and high bar, said he expects the competition to pick up a notch for Saturday’s six rotations, after which the Olympic team will be announced.

“You settle into it a little more on Day 2,” he said. “Day 1, you just get the nerves out, just get some routines under your belt, and then Day 2 you’re a little more comfortable. It should be better all around from everyone on Day 2.”

‘If it fits through the front door, we’ll work on it.’ Longtime Lake Elmo veterinarian retires after 52 years.

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When staff at Cedar Pet Clinic in Lake Elmo asked John Baillie on Thursday morning for some last words of wisdom on his last day at work, the longtime veterinarian was already thinking about one of his upcoming cases.

“I think we should start an ImmunoRegulin on Torey,” Baillie said, referring to an immune modulating injection for Linda Stratig’s Lynx Point cat.

By the end of the day, after treating more than a dozen different pets, Baillie was once again asked if he had any wise words to share with staff before retiring after 52 years as a veterinarian.

“I hope you all enjoy it for as long as you want to, as I have,” Baillie said, raising a Champagne flute for a toast. “Here’s to all of you — the best staff I’ve ever had.”

At the end of his shift veterinarian John Baillie gets a toast from his staff at Cedar Pet Clinic in Lake Elmo on Thursday, June 27, 2024. Thursday was Dr. Baille’s last day after 52 years in practice. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

For Baillie, 76, of St. Paul, who started treating animals, reptiles and birds in the Twin Cities in 1972, deciding to retire was “bittersweet,” he said. “I got enough signals that it was probably for the best, and I’m leaving it in really good hands, and that certainly helps.”

His practice included dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, gerbils, hamsters, hedgehogs, turtles, rats and mice, chinchillas, ferrets, guinea pigs, pet chickens, ducks and geese, snakes, iguanas, chameleons, frogs and sugar gliders, emus, peacocks and pot-bellied pigs.

His philosophy was: “If it fits through the front door, we’ll work on it,” he said.

Cases in point: He once performed a cesarean section on a 15-foot boa constrictor, lanced and cleaned an abscess on an elephant, and treated a tarantula for a respiratory illness. He once had a horse dislocate his shoulder; picked up psittacosis, a rare infectious disease, from a parrot; and was clawed by a tiger.

Treating such a wide variety of animals meant Baillie was never bored.

“It’s been constantly interesting,” he said. “I never knew what the next thing coming in the door was going to lead to. It’s pretty different from a dog-and-cat practice. If all you saw were dogs and cats, you might see very similar problems all day long. For me, I never had any idea what I was going to see and what I was going to be doing. It’s been quite the career.”

On Thursday, his caseload included doing acupuncture on five cats, a Clumber spaniel named Aspen and a guinea pig named Pony; vaccinating a 14-year-old Bichon Frisé named Cabo San Lucas and doing a checkup on a 30-pound, 12-week-old Bernese mountain dog.

Aspen’s owner, Jayde Dian of Somerset, Wis., is a certified veterinarian technician at Cedar Pet Clinic. She and a number of other employees brought their pets to work on Thursday for last treatments by Baillie.

Veterinarian John Baillie treats Gracie a 16 year-old cat for arthritis with acupuncture as owner Kristen Featherly and certified veterinarian technician Jade Dian assists at Cedar Pet Clinic in Lake Elmo on Thursday, June 27, 2024. Thursday was Dr. Baille’s last day after 52 years in practice. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“Aspen gets more needles than any of my other patients at this point just because she’s got multiple areas that are involved,” Baillie said. “She likes it. She’s being petted. Life is good for her. That’s just this dog’s personality. It’s ‘Oh, good. I’m being petted. I don’t care what else you’re doing with me.’”

Baillie’s clients come from all over the state to be treated.

“I’ve got some rabbits in Rochester that I see,” he said. “I’ve got one bird that comes from Sioux Falls once a year, and a bird from Iowa that comes once a year. I have some patients that I see from Fargo on a fairly regular basis.”

Baillie, who grew up in Roseville, decided he wanted to be a vet when he was 14. He graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Science in 1972.

After working at a clinic in Eagan for a year, he and a partner co-founded the Cedar Pet Clinic in South Minneapolis in 1973.

“When we set up the clinic, we wrote a letter to all 100 clinics in the five-county area and said that if people had clients with birds, we would see them,” he told the Pioneer Press in 2022. “I think every veterinarian at those clinics said, ‘Hmmmm. If they see birds, they’ll see anything, and that’s what’s happened.’”

Cedar Pet Clinic expanded to Lake Elmo in 1996 after Baillie and his wife, Margaret “Peg” Guilfoyle, who lived in Grant, decided it was time to find a practice closer to home. Guilfoyle found a building in Lake Elmo near the Lake Elmo Inn, and Baillie began practicing two days a week in Minneapolis and two days a week in Lake Elmo. Cedar Pet Clinic moved to its current location on Stillwater Boulevard in 2006; Baillie sold his interest in the Minneapolis clinic in 2005, but remained in practice there until 2007.

Baillie began cutting down his days at work a few years ago, and he has worked one day a week since the beginning of the year.

As word of his upcoming retirement spread over the past few months, clients like Tim Buske began booking appointments for their pets to be seen by Baillie one last time. Buske, who lives in Brooklyn Center, brought Noah, his Goffin’s cockatoo, in last week. Noah has been treated by Baillie for 31 years, Buske said.

Baillie was always willing to go the extra mile when it came to Noah, Buske said. “One day, about 10 years ago, Noah got really sick, and Dr. Baillie was on vacation up on the North Shore,” he said. “I called, and they said, ‘We’ll try and get a hold of Dr. Baillie, and he can walk us through treating him. In the meantime, he’s coming back home to take care of him.’ He cut his vacation short because of a sick bird.”

Noah scared other vets, but Baillie never flinched when treating him, Buske said.

“The first time Dr. Baillie treated him, he reached right into the cage and took him right out with his bare hands,” Buske said. “I refer to him as the real life Dr. Doolittle. He’s that way with every animal. We are going to miss him. We’ve been really lucky. Noah wouldn’t have made it past whatever was going on 10 years ago if not for Dr. Baillie.”

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Baillie is a past president of the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association, and in 2016 was named the state Veterinarian of the Year. He was a regular lecturer at the University of Minnesota School of Veterinary Medicine, for the Minnesota Medical Association and other organizations.

In honor of his retirement, the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Foundation is setting up a Dr. John Baillie Exotic Pets Scholarship.

Veterinarian Kirstin Keller is succeeding Baillie as medical director of Cedar Pet Clinic. Keller worked at Cedar from 2006 to 2010 as support staff before achieving her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and returning as a doctor in 2014.

The clinic’s leadership team also includes lead certified veterinary technician Sue Walter, who has worked with Baillie since 1987. Baillie’s daughter, Maggie Baillie, also will stay on as hospital manager; she has worked for Cedar on and off since she was about 14.

“It is such a special place,” Maggie Baillie said. “No other work environment could compare. ‘Doc’ — that’s what we call him — has touched the lives of thousands of people and their pets over the years. We are all lucky to have worked with him.”

Baillie and his wife, Peg, plan to spend part of their retirement aboard Blue Boat Home, their 25-foot Ranger Tug.

“It’s a sleep-aboard boat, and it’s trailerable,” he said. “It’s like a mobile cabin. We plan to haul it to Lake Michigan and spend six to seven weeks on Lake Michigan. We’ll get some visits from family and see some other friends along the way.”

Baillie, who owns a rescue gray tabby cat named Wheezy, said he remains fascinated by the intelligence of animals.

“They understand a lot of commands,” he said. “They understand what you want from them. Most of our dogs, their goal in life is to please us. The better they understand us, the more pleased we are, and people can interpret that as they wish.

“You know cats wake up in the morning and wonder, ‘Where are the servants with my food?’ The dogs wake up in the morning and say, ‘Where are the gods with my food?’ The cats are, like, ‘Why should I learn to do anything? They’re going to take care of me anyway.’”

IF YOU GO

A party to honor John Baillie, the longtime veterinarian and owner of Cedar Pet Clinic in Lake Elmo, will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Lake Elmo Inn Event Center. Clients and community members are invited. Refreshments will be served.

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Lori Barghini and Julia Cobbs say farewell during final episode of their ‘Lori and Julia’ radio talk show

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The first of many standing ovations, and Donna Summer’s disco anthem “Last Dance,” greeted Lori Barghini and Julia Cobbs Thursday afternoon at the Fillmore Minneapolis as they hosted the final episode of their MyTalk 107.1 talk show “Lori and Julia.”

The pair filled the VIP balcony with paying customers, while listeners who won tickets on the air took seats on the main floor of the nightclub. For three full hours, Barghini and Cobbs shared an oversize plush chair (a second was removed soon after it was clear they were sitting together) as well as memories, laughs and more than a few tears with the rapt audience and a select number of guests.

“I’m already starting to cry,” Cobbs said at the top of the show.

“We don’t have to say a thing,” Barghini added. “For once we’re speechless.”

Ginny Morris, the Hubbard Broadcasting executive who hired the pair 22 years ago despite neither having a background in broadcasting, described the skepticism from local media after the show debuted. “What the hell is that about? Their voices! They are not voices for radio,” Morris said. “You showed them, for darn sure.”

Barghini and Cobbs’ heavy, almost comic, Minnesota accents and tendency to talk over each other were one of many trademarks of the daily show, which featured the longtime friends discussing pop culture, sex, celebrities, books and numerous other random topics. At one point Thursday, Cobbs told the crowd that they never wanted to say thanks to the audience for listening, but rather thanks for hanging out.

The pair’s bond with their listeners was obvious Thursday, as fans brought flowers and photographs to share with the women during commercial breaks. Others wanted a selfie or just the opportunity to tell Barghini and Cobbs just how much they loved them and loved the show.

Barghini and Cobbs shocked listeners and fellow local media types in March when they announced their impending retirement from the airwaves. Over the last few weeks in particular, they’ve filled the show with their favorite guests and spent time reminiscing about spending more than two decades together on the show.

A real air of permanence hung over the proceedings Thursday, as the women and their guests often fought back tears as everyone in the room realized this really was the end.

Original “Lori and Julia” producer Don “Donny Love” Michaels, who was laid off from the station two months into the pandemic lockdown in 2020, joked about how he would turn down the microphones whenever the hosts attempted to sing on the air. He also chatted about some of their worst celebrity guests, including motivational speaker Susan “Stop the Insanity!” Powter and “M*A*S*H” star Loretta Swit, who Michaels dubbed a “beeotch” who didn’t take kindly to the hosts’ questions.

No other radio show in America could draw an audience to show up like this, Michaels added.

Minnesota native Melissa Peterman (“Reba,” “Young Sheldon”) sent a message from the set of her current gig hosting the game show “Person, Place or Thing” telling the audience she continued to listen to the show after she moved to Los Angeles: “Listening to them made me feel like I was home.”

Jason Matheson, co-host of MyTalk’s morning show and host of TV’s “The Jason Show,” led a group of other on-air personalities in roasting, and then toasting, Barghini and Cobbs. “The final episode is just like the rest of them,” he said, smiling to the crowd. “You will always be the queens,” he later told them.

The final segment of “Lori and Julia” ended with the Surburbs’ Chan Poling, joined by locals Kat Perkins and Shannon Curfman, performing a slowed-down version of “Love Is the Law,” the show’s unofficial theme song. “For 22 years, Chan hasn’t made a dime off us,” Barghini said with a laugh.

A running theme throughout the three hours was the pair’s clear bond and true chemistry. A listener in the crowd asked them what they would miss most about the show. Their joint response: “Each other.”

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Trump and Biden spar on economy and abortion at their presidential debate

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By JONATHAN J. COOPER

PHOENIX (AP) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump opened their first 2024 president debate without shaking hands and went right to mixing it up on policy Thursday night. Some key moments from their 90-minute faceoff.

Economic fireworks

Their first exchange delved into the economy.

Biden spoke softly, in a hoarse voice, as he talked up the economic gains on his watch, saying he rescued it from “free fall” and “chaos” when he took over the presidency from Trump in 2021. He cleared his throat several times.

Trump listened with a bemused expression but did not try to interrupt, though his microphone was muted while Biden spoke.

When it was his turn to speak, Trump bragged about the state of the economy during his term, saying “everything was rocking good.” He blamed Biden for rising prices that have frustrated Americans.

“Inflation is killing our country,” Trump said. “It’s absolutely killing us.”

Candidates tangle over who’s extreme on abortion

Biden blamed Trump for eroding abortion rights after the Republican’s three appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court voted to reverse Roe v. Wade, which had recognized a nationwide constitutional right to abortion. The reversal has energized many voters who support abortion rights and it helped power Democratic victories in the 2022 midterms and special elections.

“It’s been a terrible thing what you’ve done,” Biden said, turning to his rival. He pledged to restore the law under Roe if given a second term but didn’t say how he’d accomplish that. He said the idea of turning abortion laws back to states “is like saying we’re going to turn civil rights back to the states.”

Trump said his presidency returned the issue of abortion to the people through state laws. He said he supports abortion ban exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, and he repeated his false claim that Biden supports abortion up to and after birth.

“We think the Democrats are the radicals, not the Republicans,” Trump said.

Trump pushes Jan. 6 falsehoods, minimizes conduct of those convicted of rioting

Trump lied about his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol, and tried to deflect by pivoting to other issues.

Pressed on his role, he said he encouraged people to act “peacefully and patriotically,” then changed the subject to launch an attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

He said Biden ought to “be ashamed” for the way the Jan. 6 defendants have been handled.

Trump, who has floated the idea of pardons for the 6 rioters, suggested his supporters who stormed the Capitol were actually peaceful and are now being politically persecuted.

In fact, the rioters engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police and used makeshift weapons to attack officers. More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal offenses stemming from the riot, and more than 1,000 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.

“The only person who’s on this stage that’s a convicted felon is the man I’m looking at right now” Biden said of his rival.