After back-to-back weather delays, the long-planned weekend closure of Interstate 94 east of downtown St. Paul was short-lived.

This time, plummeting temperatures were not the culprit for yet another delay in the replacement of the Kellogg Boulevard/Third Street bridge.

After closing a section of I-94 in both directions on Friday night, crews planning to set beams for the new bridge scrapped the operation the next morning and had the interstate reopened by about noon on Saturday, more than 24 hours ahead of schedule.

The problem? Work crews with Lunda Construction were not able to get their trailer situated correctly to pick up and set the first beam, which repeatedly rolled or leaned on the trailer, making it unsafe to back into position given the elevation of the highway. After deliberating for about two hours on Saturday morning, they abandoned the effort.

Beam setting will be rescheduled for a future weekend.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Transportation referred questions to St. Paul Public Works. While MnDOT is in charging of closing segments of the interstate when bridge work necessitates, the Kellogg Blvd/Third Street bridge replacement is a city project.

“They had some unforeseen technical difficulties with the beam, so they got the interstate reopened as quickly as possible,” said Lisa Hiebert, a spokesperson for St. Paul Public Works. “It sounds like they need some extra-specialized equipment, and now they have to work with MnDOT to determine when that can happen because it requires the interstate to be closed in order to get these beams in place.”

Hiebert said more information will likely become available later this week.

This isn’t the first delay for the beam setting. The planned weekend closure of I-94 was rescheduled from Jan. 16 through Jan. 18 to Jan. 23 through Jan. 25 due to severe cold and weather-related safety conditions, and then postponed again from Jan. 23 though Jan. 25 to Feb. 6 through Feb. 8 due to weather.

The $91 million bridge replacement project began in July 2024 and is expected to be complete in the fall of 2027. The bridge, which connects Kellogg Boulevard from Broadway Street to Mounds Boulevard, was limited to its three center lanes in 2014 after cracks were found in the bridge’s cantilevers, the support arms extending from the structure’s piers.

A city review found the structure was no longer in step with updated federal standards, but it took another decade for the city to assemble funding for bridge demolition and replacement.

For more information, visit stpaul.gov/kellogg-3.

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Scott Jensen announced Monday, Feb. 9, that he is withdrawing from the Minnesota governor’s race and will instead run for state auditor.

“Our state’s problems can’t be fixed by simply replacing a leader. Our biggest problem right now is broken trust in government,” Jensen said in a news release.

Jensen previously ran for governor in 2022 with the GOP nomination, but came up short by over 7 percentage points to Gov. Tim Walz. His announcement comes shortly after Jensen came in fourth place in the Feb. 3 caucus night GOP straw poll in a pool of 12 gubernatorial candidates.

Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth received 32% of the caucus goers’ support; Kendall Qualls, also a 2022 gubernatorial candidate, received roughly 26%; and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell had 17%.

Jensen acknowledged the numerous “highly qualified” gubernatorial candidates and said he is confident that one will be well-positioned to win in November.

“We don’t need more massive fraud that has demonized our state and made us the laughingstock of the nation. We need a

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watchdog,” he said. “It’s time to resurrect good government.”

Other candidates for state auditor include Republicans Elliot Engen and Nate George, Democrats Dan Wolgamott and Zack Filipovich, and Forward Independence Party candidate Jay Reeves. Current State Auditor Julie Blaha announced in September that she would not be seeking reelection.

Duluth is returning to the Olympic curling medal podium, and taking the United States with it.

The Duluth Curling Club team of Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse knocked Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse guaranteed the U.S. its first Olympic medal in mixed doubles curling, reaching the final Monday with a 9-8 victory over defending champion Italy.

Thiesse was on target for a takeout on the final throw of the game, which ejected the closest Italian stone, netted the U.S. two points and sent them into the gold medal game Tuesday at 11 a.m. CST vs. Sweden.

United States’ Korey Dropkin competes, during the semi-finals round of the mixed doubles curling match against Italy, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

“We just kept making shots, countering their makes. We got a big opportunity in that sixth end and my all-star here capitalized,” Dropkin said in a postgame interview with NBC. “Oh, my gosh, what a day. We’re going for gold.”

The U.S. and Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner played Monday morning in the final match of the round-robin, and in that instance it was Constantini who had the walk-off shot for a 7-6 victory in a game the US trailed 6-2 after five ends.

In the evening semifinal, before another partisan crowd, it was the Americans who were the better squad. Thiesse was rated at 92% accuracy, while both Italians were at or below 75%. However, Constantini delivered on the last shot of several ends to get her team out of trouble.

The U.S. achieved its first lead when Thiesse used a deft touch to complete a score of three for a 5-4 lead to complete the fourth end. After that, momentum shifted further in their favor as Italy got into big trouble in end five. Constantini bailed them out to claim a single point, but the Americans now had the advantage, which they pressed to score two more points in the sixth.

That lasted until the seventh and penultimate end, when a U.S. mistake failed to clear out enough Italian stones and left the defending champions an open hit for three points and the lead.

Still, going to the eighth, the Americans had the last throw advantage and the “power play,” a situation unique to mixed doubles curling in which each team gets one chance to pre-position stones to its advantage.

“I was shaking a little bit, but the whole end I knew Korey was going to put me in a position to have a shot to win the game,” Thiesse said. “I was just getting ready for that and visualizing that. When the rock came to a stop, I just knew that we had it. Korey gave me a ton of confidence, and I knew we weren’t missing it.”

The U.S. deployed its power play in the final end, shifting the action out of the middle and to the throwers’ right wing. With her last throw, Constantini knocked the closest American stone out of the rings but hit it too square to roll to a covered position alongside the others.

That gave Thiesse an opening to execute a similar shot. Hers did roll to the outside, giving American fans a nervous moment for a second, but it jammed against an Italian stone and remained in play to clinch the win.

In the post-game interview Dropkin noted that the result guarantees that Thiesse will be the first American woman to win a medal in Olympic curling, which has been in the Games since 1998. She also is a member of the U.S. women’s team, which begins play on Thursday against South Korea.

This marks the third time an American team has medaled in Olympic competition. In 2006, Pete Fenson’s bronze-winning men’s rink included John Shuster of the Duluth Curling Club, while Shuster skipped the 2018 Olympic champions in Pyeongchang.

Which medal Thiesse and Dropkin will earn is to be decided Tuesday. Team Sweden siblings Isabella and Rasmus Wrana delivered a stunning 9-3 rout in the other semifinal against a Great Britain team that had dominated the round-robin phase of the competition. The US defeated Sweden by an 8-7 score in the penultimate round-robin game on Sunday night.

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By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ, Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban aviation officials have warned airlines that there isn’t enough fuel for airplanes to refuel on the island, the latest step in its moves to ration energy as the Trump administration cuts the Caribbean nation off from its fuel resources.

The government of Cuba published the notices to airlines and pilots on Sunday night, warning that jet fuel won’t be available at nine airports across the island, including José Martí International Airport in Havana, starting Tuesday and continuing until March 11.

Political pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump on Latin America has effectively severed Cuba’s access to its primary petroleum sources in Venezuela and Mexico.

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In late January, Trump signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, a move that could further cripple an island plagued by a deepening energy crisis.

While the rationing may not disrupt shorter regional flights, it presents a significant challenge for long-haul routes from countries like Russia and Canada — a critical pillar of Cuba’s tourism economy.

On Monday, Air Canada announced it was suspending flights to the island, while other airlines announced delays and layovers in the Dominican Republic before flights continued to Havana.

One pilot added that while refueling issues have occurred before, an official announcement of this scale is extraordinary even for an island accustomed to perpetual crisis. The last time such cuts occurred — more than a decade ago — aircraft bound for Europe refueled in Nassau, Bahamas, the pilot recalled. Now, regional airlines could avoid problems by bringing extra fuel, while others could refuel in Cancun, Mexico, or in the Dominican Republic.

It remains unclear how long the notice will remain in effect and Cuban officials have made no public comments on the matter.

The fuel shortage deals another blow to a country that relies heavily on tourism, an industry that once generated $3 billion in annual revenue and served as a vital economic lifeline.

Cuban officials also announced Monday that bank hours have been reduced and cultural events suspended. In Havana, the public bus system has effectively ground to a halt, leaving residents stranded as endemic power outages and grueling fuel lines reach a breaking point.

The energy emergency has forced the suspension of major events like the Havana International Book Fair this weekend and a restructuring of the national baseball season for greater efficiency. Some banks have cut operating hours and fuel distribution companies said they would no longer sell gas in Cuban pesos — and that sales will be made in dollars and limited to 5.28 gallons per user.

The latest measures add to others announced Friday, including cuts to bus transportation and limited train departures.

On Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel delivered a two-hour televised address, acknowledging the impact and warning that measures would be taken in the coming days.

U.S. sanctions against Cuba have been in place for more than six decades and have long stunted Cuba’s economy. But they reached new extremes after a U.S. military operation deposed former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and Trump began to take an even more confrontational tone toward Latin America.

For many Cubans, the crisis has translated into power outages lasting up to 10 hours, fuel shortages for vehicles, and a lack of food or medicine that many compare to the severe economic depression in the 1990s known as the Special Period that followed cuts in aid from what was then the Soviet Union.

Associated Press journalists Joshua Funk in Omaha, Nebraska and Megan Janetsky in Mexico City contributed to this report.