NONPROFITS

Rolf Nordstrom

The Great Plains Institute, a Minneapolis-based organization focused on reducing carbon emissions, announced that President and CEO Rolf Nordstrom plans to retire on July 31, 2026.

ARCHITECTURE/ENGINEERING

St. Paul-based engineering and architecture company Short Elliott Hendrickson announced the reelection of board directors Randy Jenniges and Randy Sanford, and the appointment of April Ryan as board secretary.

CONSTRUCTION

Knutson Construction, St. Louis Park, announced the hire of Jason Peterson as director of K12, a newly created position partnering with communities and school districts for pre-referendum planning and ongoing support during construction projects. Peterson is a member of the Minnesota Construction Association, the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, the Minnesota Rural Education Association and the Minnesota Administrators for Special Education.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Piper Sandler Cos., a Minneapolis-based national investment bank, announced it has named Michael Piper as the head of fixed income, effective in the first quarter of 2026. He succeeds John Beckelman, who  will transition to vice chairman of fixed income capital markets. Piper joined the firm as part of the firm’s Sandler O’Neill acquisition in 2020. … Bridgewater Bank, St. Louis Park, announced that Jeff Bajek has joined as SVP, senior credit officer on Dec. 1. He most recently served as chief credit officer and shareholder at Platinum Bank.

HONORS

KLC Financial, a Minnetonka-based provider of equipment lease and purchase financing for business, announced that Monitor magazine has named commercial equipment finance consultant Lesley Farmer to its Top 50 Women in Equipment Finance. Farmer also was named to Finance & Commerce’s Top Women in Finance – Circle of Excellence; she serves on the boards of the Risk Management Association of Minnesota and the Turnaround Management Association of Minnesota. … Blaze Credit Union, Falcon Heights, announced it has been honored by the Marketing Association of Credit Unions with three awards for 2025: Silvers in Digital Advertising and Rebrand categories; and Bronze for Commercial Video.

LAW

Moss & Barnett, Minneapolis, announced the expansion of the firm’s Real Estate Finance team with the arrivals of lawyers Timothy E. Lovett and Atiya Oberoi. Lovett previously served as in-house counsel for Wellington Management in St. Paul and practiced real estate law for Meagher + Geer in Minneapolis; Oberoi is a graduate of the University of St. Thomas School of Law and the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management. … Fredrikson, Minneapolis, announced that commercial law and energy attorney Ryan Cox has been included for a second year in The National Black Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 in Minnesota. Prior to joining Fredrikson, Cox worked in the general counsel’s office at Xcel Energy.

MANUFACTURING

Sleep Number Corp., a Minneapolis-based maker and retailer of specialty beds and mattresses, announced the hire of Amy O’Keefe as chief financial officer, effective Dec. 8. She succeeds interim CFO Bob Ryder. Most recently, O’Keefe served as chief financial and administrative officer of Avaya, and has served in similar executive roles at Black & Decker, Weight Watchers International, Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare, Savant Systems and D&M Holdings.

MEDIA

MSP Communications, a St. Paul-based publisher, announced the promotion of executive editor Adam Platt to editor at Twin Cities Business, and the hire of Charlie Rybak to the role of editorial director at the magazine and as vice president/innovation at parent company MSP Communications. Rybak previously served as COO at Cooperative Energy Futures and was co-founder of Minneapolis Voices, a digital local news organization.

ORGANIZATIONS

Housing First Minnesota, a Roseville-based residential builders trade and lobbying organization, announced the appointment of Jessica Ryan as chief impact officer, a new executive role, and the promotion of Sofia Humphries to executive director of the Housing First Minnesota Foundation. … The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce announced the following board leadership and officers for the 2025–26 year: Board Chair Brooke Lee, Anchor, succeeding Bill Keegan, Dem-Con Cos., who will serve as past chair; Ross Widmoyer, Faribault Mill, chair-elect, and Steve Rosenau, American Crystal Sugar, treasurer and secretary.

RETAIL

Best Buy, a Richfield-based national electronics retailer, announced it has appointed Dylan Jadeja to its board of directors. Jadeja has served as chief executive officer of video game developer and publisher Riot Games since July 2023.

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By MARÍA VERZA

POPOCATÉPETL VOLCANO, Mexico (AP) — In the predawn darkness, a team of scientists climbs the slope of Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano, one of the world’s most active and whose eruption could affect millions of people. Its mission: figure out what is happening under the crater.

For five years, the group from Mexico’s National Autonomous University has climbed the volcano with kilos of equipment, risked data loss due to bad weather or a volcanic explosion and used artificial intelligence to analyze the seismic data. Now, the team has created the first three-dimensional image of the whole 17,883-foot (5,452-meter) volcano’s interior, which tells them where the magma accumulates and will help them better understand its activity, and, eventually, help authorities better react to eruptions.

Marco Calò, professor in the UNAM’s Geophysics Institute’s vulcanology department and the project leader, invited The Associated Press to accompany the team on its most recent expedition, the last before its research on the volcano will be published.

Karina Rodriguez, left, a master’s student, and Marco Calo, center, a geophysicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), collect information from a monitoring station on the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Movement underground

Inside an active volcano, everything is moving: the rocks, magma, gas and aquifers. It all generates seismic signals.

Most of the world’s volcanoes that pose a risk to humans already have detailed maps of their interiors, but not Popocatépetl, despite the fact that some 25 million people live within a 62-mile (100 kilometers) radius and houses, schools, hospitals and five airports could be affected by an eruption.

Other scientists took some early images 15 years ago, but they showed contradictory results and did not have sufficient resolution to see “how the volcanic edifice was being built,” and above all, where the magma gathered, Calò said.

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His team increased the number of seismographs from the 12 provided by Mexico’s National Disaster Prevention Center to 22 to cover the entire perimeter of the volcano. Even though just three can alert to an emergency, many more are needed to understand what is behind those emergencies.

The devices measure vibrations in the ground 100 times per second and generate data that Karina Bernal, 33, a doctoral student and researcher on the project, processed by using artificial intelligence to adapt algorithms developed for other volcanoes.

“I taught the machine about the different types of tremors there are in El Popo” and with that they were able to catalog the different kinds of seismic signals, she said.

Little by little the scientists began to infer what kinds of material were where, in what state, at what temperature and at what depth. Later they were able to map it.

The result is far more complex than the drawings of volcanoes most saw in school, with a main vent connecting a chamber of magma with the surface.

This first three-dimensional cross-sectional image goes 11 miles (18 kilometers) below the crater and shows what appear to be various pools of magma at different depths, with rock or other material between them and more numerous toward the southeast of the crater.

Marco Calo, a geophysicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), rests near the campsite on the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano, Mexico, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A “majestic” giant

Popocatépetl emerged in the crater of other volcanoes in its current form more than 20,000 years ago and has been active since 1994, spewing plumes of smoke, gas and ash more or less daily. The activity periodically forms a dome over the main vent, which eventually collapses, causing an eruption. The last was in 2023.

Calò, a 46-year-old Sicilian, speaks passionately about El Popo, as Mexicans call the volcano, rattling off trivia.

He explains that its height can change because of eruptions and recounts how Popocatépetl, in the first century, had its own “little Pompeii” when a village on its flanks, Tetimpa, was buried in ash. In the early 20th century, it was human actions — using dynamite to extract sulfur from the crater — that provoked an eruption. And even though El Popo emanates more greenhouse gases than almost any other volcano, its emissions are still a small fraction of what humans generate in nearby Mexico City.

For years Calò studied volcanic activity from his computer, but trying to “understand how something works without touching it” spurred a feeling of disappointment, he said.

That changed with Popocatépetl, a volcano he describes as “majestic.”

Students observe the moon near the campsite on the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano, Mexico, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

To touch a volcano

After hours of walking up the volcano’s flank, Calò’s team sets up camp in a pine grove at about 12,500 feet of elevation, an apparent safe spot from pyroclastic explosions, since the trees have managed to grow to significant height.

A short distance higher on the mountain, the trees and scrub give way to ash and sediment.

They must cross a lahar, a mixture of rock and ash that during the rainy season becomes a dangerous mudflow carrying away everything in its path. Now, the dry clearing provides a spectacular view: to the east the Pico de Orizaba — Mexico’s tallest volcano and mountain and the dormant volcano La Malinche; to the north, Iztaccíhuatl, an inactive volcanic peak known as “the sleeping woman.”

Popocatépetl’s sounds seem to multiply at night with the echoes. An explosion like a rocket might sound like it’s coming from one direction, but a puff of smoke from the crater belies the real source.

Karina Rodríguez, a 26-year-old master’s student on the team, said you can also hear small tremors in the earth or even ash falling like rain when the volcano is more active. On dark nights, the rim of the crater glows orange.

Marco Calo, a geophysicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), prepares food at the campsite on the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano, Mexico, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A natural laboratory

Having direct knowledge of the volcano provides a much more objective sense of the limits of their analysis, Calò said.

“We have a natural laboratory here,” he said. It’s “very important to be able to understand and give residents detailed, trustworthy information about what is happening inside the volcano.”

At 13,780 feet (4,200 meters), their backpacks full of computers, equipment to analyze gases, batteries and water begin to weigh more and their pace slows.

Ash, dark and warm, dominates the landscape here.

At a seismographic station, the team digs up the equipment and celebrates that it’s still working. They download its data and rebury it.

A “volcanic bomb,” a rock a yard and a half in diameter and weighing tons, marks the way and gives an idea of what the start of an eruption can mean. That is why the top area of the volcano is restricted, though not everyone pays heed. In 2022, a person died after being hit by a rock about 300 yards (meters) from the crater.

A bottle of tequila near a rocky hollow, known as El Popo’s belly button, hints at some of the traditions surrounding the volcano, including an annual pilgrimage to what some consider a point of connection to the underworld.

The drive to keep climbing

Digging up one of the last seismic stations, Calò’s face falls. The last registered data are from months earlier. The battery died. Sometimes rats chew the machines’ wires or an explosion causes more serious damage.

The project has yielded some certainties and if repeated will allow the analysis of changes that eventually will help authorities make better decisions when eruptions occur.

But Calò says that, as always happens with science, it has also generated new questions that they will have to try to address, like why the tremors are more frequent on the southeast side — where there is more accumulated magma — and what implications that could have.

This was the last expedition before their years of work to map the volcano’s interior is published. Watching the volcano’s interior move in 3D on a computer screen makes all of the effort worthwhile.

“It’s what drives you to start another project and keep climbing,” Rodríguez, the master’s student, said.

The first sentence of the tagline for the new film “We Bury the Dead” reads, “After a catastrophic military disaster, the dead don’t just rise — they hunt,” its official synopsis going on to use words and phrases including “catastrophic military disaster,” “quarantine zone” and “undead.”

Yep, this is a zombie movie.

However, no doubt at least in part to what appears to have been a relatively limited budget, this is more of a character study than a thriller based around heart-pounding encounters with hordes of mindless hungry types.

That’s understandable.

The problem is that as a character study, writer-director Zak Hilditch’s “We Bury the Dead” — in theaters this week — largely spins its post-apocalyptic wheels despite some nice touches and a game effort from star Daisy Ridley.

The “Star Wars” alum portrays Ava Newman, an American living in California with her Australian husband, Mitch (Matt Whelan). After a flashback introducing us to the seemingly happy pair, we find Ava in the Australian island state of Tasmania, where “the pulse” — a U.S. military experiment gone wrong — has killed many.

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Ava has traveled there to join the Body Retrieval Unit to search for Mitch, who was in Woodridge, in southern Tasmania, on a work retreat at the time of the disaster. Traveling that far south is forbidden due to inherent dangers, but Ava intends to find a way to reach Mitch, who, with any luck, is alive.

However, while some affected folks have been awakening after the disaster, they’re not exactly themselves. If anyone in the BRU encounters any deceased showing signs of activity, Ava and others are told by a military man, soldiers will get to them quickly to put down the rising dead “with the dignity they deserve.”

Early on, Ava befriends Clay (Brenton Thwaites of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”), a long-haired, foul-mouthed, cigarette-smoking Australian with a far different reason for volunteering for the BRU. She makes a deal with him to take her south on a motorbike they find, which he covets.

Daisy Ridley’s Ava and Brenton Thwaites’ Clay embark on a dangerous mission in “We Bury the Dead.” (Courtesy of Vertical)

They go about their way with only minimal issues — until they encounter Riley (Mark Coles Smith, “Hard Rock Medical”), a soldier who eventually offers to take Ava on the rest of her journey. Seeing the wedding ring on his finger, she chooses to trust him.

Without going into too much detail about Ava’s time with Riley, it’s safe to say that, as is the case with much zombie-based fare, “We Bury the Dead” traffics in the well-worn idea that humans living among the undead may be the real danger.

To be fair, despite the film’s tagline, Hilditch — who, according to the movie’s production notes, found inspiration for the tale in his mother’s long battle with cancer — tries to do something more soulful with his zombie offering. Through flashbacks, Hilditch (“1922,” “These Final Hours”) gradually peels away the layers of Ava’s relationship with her husband, paying off that bit of the narrative reasonably nicely in the third act.

For too much of “We Bury the Dead,” however, Hilditch saddles the viewer with bland dialogue and too few scares. Cinematographer Steve Annis (“I Am Mother”) gives the film an appropriately stark look, the sparse but haunting music of composer Chris Clark (“Elysium”) lands as it’s intended and the sound design of Duncan Campbell (“I Am Mother”) really hits home when the undead grind their teeth — it’s highly unsettling — but all of that goes only so far.

Ridley (“The Marsh King’s Daughter,” “Young Woman and the Sea”) is left to do a bit more heavy lifting than probably is fair to ask of her. For as promising as she seemed when introduced to the world as Jedi-to-be Rey in 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” she seems to possess only so high a ceiling and can’t find a way to elevate this so-so material.

That said, her time on screen with Smith is, increasingly, edge-of-your-seat stuff, a credit to the actors and Hilditch. Unfortunately, though, that’s as compelling as “We Bury the Dead” gets.

‘We Bury the Dead’

Where: Theaters.

When: Jan. 2.

Rated: R for strong violent content, gore, language and brief drug use.

Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Stars (of four): 2.

The proud hunter mounts the busts of his prey, reminders of conquests on many an adventure, deep in the wilds.

But no taxidermic deer, moose or antelope hang in his home. His walls are adored with beasts far more monstrous.

The heads of a “mind flayer” and an “owl bear” — creatures of Dungeons & Dragons lore — decorate Michael Jimenez’s game room, furnished with fantastical figurines and assorted medieval weaponry. A flail dangles. Swords shine all around.

And a custom table dominates from the center of the room.

Jimenez, 49, owns and operates The Weathered Dragon, which constructs gaming tables tailor-made for enthusiasts of Dungeons & Dragons and other similar sci-fi and fantasy tabletop role-playing games.

Each table takes a month to build and on average sells for between $12,000 and $15,000.

A game table by Michael Jimenez of The Weathered Dragon game tables in South Mills, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 2025. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot)

Commissions come from all across the country. He once shipped a table to Western Australia.

This month, Jimenez walked into his game room in his South Mills, North Carolina, home that he shares with his wife and children and circled to the back of the 6-by-6 custom table he keeps for himself. He flipped a switch, turning on internal LED light strips.

The table glowed purple and blue. He touched its African mahogany hardwood and slowly patted the tabletop.

“To think, it’s all for a game,” he said, with a smile, knowing the brand’s extreme popularity.

A view figures on the game table of Michael Jimenez, the owner of The Weathered Dragon game tables, in South Mills, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 2025. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot)

The company that owns D&D, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, estimates that over 50 million people have played since its 1974 release.

The game is based on storytelling — and imagination. Players are the characters in their own narrative of adventure, choosing who and what they want to be.

They first select their species. One can always, of course, choose to be human. Elf, gnome, dwarf, orc, half-orc, half-human are all also fun choices.

Next they choose a specialty: warrior, mage, a healing cleric, etc.

One person, the dungeon master, guides the players through a fantasy land and sets the framework for the adventure.

Dice are rolled to determine if individuals’ actions — i.e. picking locks on treasure chests, stabbing malevolent necromancers — succeed or fail. Miniature figurines that depict players’ characters and their foes are sometimes employed to enhance the imaginative experience. Hence, the need for a good table.

Jimenez played Dungeons & Dragons as a teenager but took a more than 20-year hiatus from its magical world until 2017, when he walked into a store to buy Magic: The Gathering trading cards for his son. He noticed a D&D starter kit on a shelf, took it home and played a little with his kids before reaching out to other adults inquiring if they might want to play.

Soon he built an official group of local friends who’d gather at his house to play. And Jimenez, who’d worked as a home improvement contractor for years, built a table for their games.

Its bar height gives the option of sitting or standing. The table is equipped with cup holders and decked out with ornamentations such as old-timey lanterns and runic carvings.

Michael Jimenez, the owner of The Weathered Dragon game tables, talks about the construction of the tables built in his garage in South Mills, North Carolina, on Dec. 17, 2025. (Peter Casey/The Virginian-Pilot)

His friends persuaded him to take his table to the biggest tabletop gaming convention in the country, Gen Con, a multiday festival that hosts about 70,000 per day. He set up his wares in its Hall of Vendors and quickly received five orders for custom tables.

He officially founded his company in 2019 and routinely travels with samples of his work to U.S. gaming conventions, steadily picking up new commissions.

Customers can choose their preferred wood and designs, including maxims or spells carved into the table frame in languages such as the elvish ones developed by J.R.R. Tolkien for his “The Lord of the Rings” books.

On his own table, Jimenez carved in the language of Tolkien’s dwarves: “Gather here and be merry, forget your woes and slay dragons.”

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Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com