By JON GAMBRELL (Associated Press)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A rocket exploded late Tuesday night off the side of a ship traveling through the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, authorities said, the latest suspected attack to be carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The attack comes as the Houthis continue a series of assaults at sea over Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and as the U.S. and its allies launch airstrikes trying to stop them.

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, which oversees shipping in the Mideast, reported the attack happened about 110 kilometers (70 miles) off the coast of the Houthi-held port city of Hodeida. The rocket exploded several miles off the bow of the vessel, it said.

“The crew and vessel are reported to be safe and are proceeding to next port of call,” the UKMTO said.

The private security firm Ambrey reported that the vessel targeted appeared to be a Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier in the area at the time. Another ship, a Panama-flagged, Emirati-owned chemical tanker was nearby as well, Ambrey said.

The Associated Press could not immediately identify the vessels involved.

The Houthis typically take several hours to claim their assaults and have not yet done so for the assault late Tuesday.

Since November, the rebels have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea and surrounding waters over the Israel-Hamas war. Those vessels have included at least one with cargo for Iran, the Houthis’ main benefactor, and an aid ship later bound for Houthi-controlled territory.

Despite over a month of U.S.-led airstrikes, Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks. Last week, they severely damaged a ship in a crucial strait and downed an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars. The Houthis insist their attacks will continue until Israel stops its combat operations in the Gaza Strip, which have enraged the wider Arab world and seen the Houthis gain international recognition.

The Houthis, a Zaydi Shiite group, seized Yemen’s capital in 2014 and have battled a Saudi-led coalition since 2015. Their Zaydi people ran a 1,000-year kingdom in Yemen up until 1962.

SACRAMENTO, California — This could be one of the most consequential elections for Californians — but you wouldn’t know that by looking at ballot returns: Turnout is on track to be the lowest in history.

Only 1.7 million of California’s 22 million registered voters had returned their mail-in ballots as of Tuesday. That’s about 8 percent of the total, according to Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc., which monitors turnout.

A few hundred votes could make a world of difference in California’s swing districts — including those held by Republican Reps. David Valadao and John Duarte in the Central Valley — which will help decide control of the House of Representatives.

Then there’s the high-stakes Senate race, where Democratic Rep. Katie Porter is straining to box out Republican Steve Garvey for second place behind Rep. Adam Schiff. 

Lower turnout generally means fewer Democrats are voting. “This is the kind of thing that would benefit Steve Garvey,” Mitchell said.

Primary turnout is typically all over the map. But there’s at least the potential for this year to be among the lowest in history due to an all-but-decided presidential primary and voter apathy.

California is lagging behind the 2022 midterm return rate, when the state had more ballots returned by this point in the race. Ultimately, 2022 saw a 33 percent turnout.

There’s dozens of factors that could affect the state’s final turnout number, but Mitchell is cautiously speculating that only 29 percent of California’s registered voters will turn in their ballots, falling below the current record low of 31 percent in 2012.

“Voters don’t view this as being an election that is the ‘most important election’ of their lifetime,” Mitchell said.

This is the exact thing California’s Democrat-dominated government has been trying to avoid. The state in recent years has taken steps to increase voter turnout, including sanctioning a “motor voter” program allowing eligible voters to register at the DMV, and automatically sending all eligible voters mail ballots.

A recent pollfrom the Public Policy Institute of California found low numbers of likely voters are excited about the election. Less than 40 percent said they were “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic about voting for president this year. That number dropped even further (28 percent) when it came to voting for Congress.

Another factor that helps drive up turnout is a competitive battle at the top of the ballot. But with President Joe Biden holding steady as the presumptive nominee for Democrats, and former President Donald Trump making a near clean-sweep through the early Republican primary states, there’s so far little cause for action in the top contests.

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As a teachers strike looms over St. Paul Public Schools for the fourth time since 2018, district leadership on Tuesday said it is open to taking contract talks into arbitration to avoid a March 11 walk-out.

While the St. Paul Federation of Educators and the school district say there has been some progress in closed-door mediation sessions over the last month, they’re still working through major disagreements on pay and insurance.

District human resources chief Pat Pratt-Cook told reporters at a Tuesday news conference that the district hopes to settle the contract over the weekend, though there are no more mediation sessions scheduled after Friday.

“We are committed to being there the entire weekend,” she said. “A potential educators strike impacts not only our students but has significant disruption for the greater community.”

Arbitration

If the district and union can’t reach an agreement by March 11, another option to avoid a strike would be to enter arbitration, Pratt-Cook said. Each side would present their case to a third party who would make a final decision on the new contract.

The district said it was sending a letter to the union Tuesday to request the option, though the union would have to accept the offer. For now, there’s little indication they are interested.

SPFE President Leah VanDassor said they first heard of the district’s arbitration proposal through the news conference on the negotiations.

“Our union is disappointed to learn of this development in a news conference, instead of talking to us first,” she said. “We remain committed to reaching a settlement that benefits both our students and our educators, and believe this can still be accomplished via mediation.”

Gap in spending targets

St. Paul Public Schools faces a $107.7 million budget shortfall and district officials have said they can only expand spending by about $12.4 million. Union requests for spending total around $112 million, according to the school district.

Declining enrollment, the expiration of federal pandemic aid and growing operational expenses are to blame for the shortfall, and a $56 million boost in ongoing funding from the state tied to inflation still isn’t enough to shore up losses.

District leaders say they’ll have to make cuts to programs to balance the budget, but they haven’t shared which ones will be affected.

“We’ve got a long list of things that we’re going to be reducing or removing from our budget,” said Superintendent Joe Gothard. “We don’t have them itemized and certainly the result of this contract settlement could play a factor in that.”

At the St. Paul school board’s Feb. 20 meeting, district officials said it would be hard to avoid cuts affecting employees since they make up 80% of the budget.

“There’s no way we’re not going to touch people,” said Jackie Turner, the district’s chief of administration and operations.

Bargaining has been behind closed doors since mediation started in January, so it’s not exactly clear what each side is offering at this point.

Offers on both sides

But in the most recent publicly available offers, the union was seeking a $7,500 pay bump for all teachers and community service personnel in the district in the first year, and a 7.5% raise in the second year. They’re also asking for a $5.43-an-hour raise for educational assistants followed by a 7.5% raise in the second year.

Meanwhile, the district was offering a 2% raise in the first year, and a 3% increase for teachers at the lowest pay level.

St. Paul teachers have threatened to strike every bargaining cycle since 2018. The union went on strike for four days in 2020 and almost went on strike in 2018 and 2022.

In this year’s strike vote, two-thirds of the union’s 3,700 members voted, with 92% supporting the strike — far higher than the last two strike-authorizations.

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Thomas Dunne, who fought two tours in Vietnam as a Marine and went on to serve in the Minnesota National Guard and the Wisconsin Army Reserves, died Friday at Regions Hospital, nearly a month after St. Paul police say a 17-year-old severely injured him with a punch to the face at Harriet Island Regional Park.

Dunne, 76, and his wife, Helen Broderick, had finished a walk before 5 p.m. Jan. 28. He’d put his walker in his car, and saw a male urinating. He pulled out his phone to try to catch the act.

Thomas Dunne, 76, of St. Paul, died Feb. 23, 2024, at Regions Hospital. (Courtesy of Helen Broderick)

That didn’t go over well with three teens. One of them threw and landed a punch, knocking Dunne to the ground, according to a Jan. 30 juvenile petition charging the Rosemount teen with first-degree assault causing great bodily harm.

At Regions Hospital, Dunne had emergency surgery for “traumatic damage” to his right eye. He had several fractures to both his eye socket and nose.

He left Regions the next day and had follow-up visits with an eye doctor and at the VA Hospital in Minneapolis, his wife said this week. He came down with a high fever on Feb. 4 and was taken by ambulance back to Regions, where he was “bouncing from progressive to ICU,” she said. “He went unresponsive at one point, and they had to intubate him.”

He died just after midnight Friday.

St. Paul police spokesman Sgt. Mike Ernster said Tuesday the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office is working to determine Dunne’s cause and manner of death.

A spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office said any new evidence presented by police will be reviewed and considered for additional charges.

Dunne was a “hero,” his wife said.

“For a hero like him to come home to his local park after being at risk in foreign wars,” she said, “and to be assaulted like that …”

Park visitor saw the punch

Officers were called to the 100 block of Water Street after Broderick reported her husband was punched in the face. Officers found him standing next to his car with blood streaming from his right eye socket. St. Paul fire medics were called to the scene.

He told officers that after he saw a male urinating and took out his phone to take a picture, two other males got out of a blue Ford Fusion. They approached him and tried to take his phone. One of them punched him in the face.

A witness told police she was getting out of her car and saw a male urinating in the “pond.” She said three males then confronted Dunne and that one of them slapped the phone out of his hand and punched him approximately two times in the face. She said she yelled at them before they walked away, headed east.

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Officers saw three males walking east along the river and asked if they were involved in a fight. One of them spoke up and said, “Yeah, that was me,” the petition says. He declined to give a formal statement.

One teen told police they confronted Dunne because they believed he was recording them and that he should have “minded his business.”

The other teen said he couldn’t find a public bathroom and began urinating in the “pond.” The other teens walked over and one “indicated that (Dunne) was recording or taking a picture of him,” the petition says. “(He) then approached (Dunne) and said, ‘Let’s get to it,’ before punching (him).”

Hospital staff told the police investigator that Dunne’s eye injury was “very severe” and that he “may permanently lose most of his vision in that eye, and it would be months before they could tell if there was any improvement.”

Born in Ireland

Born in Clonaslee, Ireland, Dunne emigrated to the U.S. at age 2 with his parents and his younger sister. They ended up on Chicago’s far southeast side, where growing up he delivered Chicago Tribune newspapers and graduated from George Washington High School. He then enlisted in the Marines Corps and served two tours in Vietnam as an infantryman. He was a staff sergeant when he got discharged in 1972.

Dunne moved to St. Paul in 1975. He met Broderick the next year in Ireland and they married five years later.

He re-entered the military in 1984 as a Minnesota National Guardsman, drilling once a month and going away for two weeks every summer, according to a biography he wrote and submitted to Twin Cities PBS’ online project, mnvietnam.org, which records local vets’ stories.

Dunne was recalled to active duty when Desert Storm began in 1991. He later transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve and had assignments in Somalia, Haiti and northern Iraq, where he helped coordinate and implement the evacuation of Kurds.

In 2002, Dunne became the command sergeant major of a Wisconsin Army Reserve battalion that sent most of its troops to war after 9/11, he wrote. “It was difficult for me as a Vietnam vet to do this as I was very much aware what they were heading into; it would have been much easier to go than stay,” he wrote.

Friend and fellow Vietnam vet Tom Storey said this week that Dunne was an “excellent writer who always had a real sympathy for the victims of war, the civilians. Some of his writing brings tears to your eyes.”

Friend Vernon Hall first met Dunne in the early 1990s through the Vietnam Veterans of America, St. Paul Chapter 320. “I can’t think of another person in the world who was more patriotic to this country than him,” Hall said.

Residents of the downtown St. Paul condominium building where Dunne lived with Broderick hosted a small memorial gathering Monday night.

“He loved St. Paul,” his wife said.

Funeral services for Dunne, who also worked for Ramsey County Public Works for over two decades and retired in 2010, will be held at noon Tuesday, March 5. A visitation will be at the O’Halloran and Murphy Funeral Home location in St. Paul, followed by a burial at Fort Snelling.

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Enjoy the spring-like warmth? Temperatures will plummet to single digits Tuesday.