Fresh from a year that saw her open for Post Malone at U.S. Bank Stadium, sell out Surly Brewing Festival Field, make a surprise appearance at Farm Aid and sweep the roots categories at the Grammy Awards with four wins, buzzy Americana act Sierra Ferrell will headline 89.3 The Current’s Music On-a-Stick on Sunday, Aug. 30 at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand.

Tickets are priced from $99.25 to $46 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Feb. 12 through Etix or by phone at 800-514-3849. Ferrell’s opening acts will be announced at a later date.

A native of West Virginia, Ferrell grew up living in a trailer with her single mother and one of her two siblings. Despite the region’s rich history in bluegrass music, the young Ferrell spent her time exploring her mom’s collection of cassettes from ’90s acts like 10,000 Maniacs and Tracy Chapman.

Ferrell began performing in band and choir in school, eventually learning to play the guitar and playing in a Grateful Dead cover band. In her early 20s, she lived a nomadic lifestyle, hitch-hiking, freight hopping and living in her van, while busking in Seattle and New Orleans.

She self-released her first two albums in 2018 and 2019, selling hard copies while busking and uploading her original music and cover versions online. That caught the attention of producer Gary Paczosa, who is known for his work with Alison Krauss and Dolly Parton. Paczosa helped Ferrell land a three-album deal with Rounder Records in 2019.

Sierra Ferrell poses in the press room with the Grammys for Best Americana Album, Best Americana Roots Song, Best Americana Performance and Best Americana Roots Performance during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, 2025. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images)

“Long Time Coming,” her 2021 Rounder debut, earned rave reviews and made it to No. 15 on Billboard’s Americana chart. She followed that by guesting on tracks from the Black Keys, Ray LaMontagne, Shakey Graves and Zach Bryan.

Ferrell’s fourth album, 2024’s “Trail of Flowers,” further expanded her audience. In addition to winning her four Grammys, it landed her artist and album of the year at the Americana Music Honors and Awards.

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Make your claim to fame with a new name — for a snowplow.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is inviting the public to join in on its sixth annual Name a Snowplow contest. Voting is open as of Thursday and goes through noon on Feb. 13, with votes deciding eight new snowplow names – one for each MnDOT district.

Participants can only vote once but can select up to eight names from the list of 30 finalists. To see that list and to vote, go to mndot.gov/nameasnowplow.

The 30 finalists were selected by MnDOT from more than 6,750 submissions received in December.

They include names such as 867-530 Brine, presumably a reference to the 1981 song 867-5309/Jenny by the band Tommy Tutone. Another finalist, O Brother, Where Art Plow?, likely gives a nod to the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which was written and directed by Minnesota-natives Joel and Ethan Coen.

‘Anthony Sledwards,’ ‘Taylor Drift,’ among past winners

Last year’s winner was Anthony Sledwards, likely in honor of Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards. Other past winners include Taylor Drift, Plowy McPlowFace and The Big Leplowski. Previous contests have named 40 snowplows, in addition to four snowplows named by MnDot staff in recognition of the highways they maintain next to tribal lands.

There’s a slight chance of snow next week, according the National Weather Service.

“MnDOT’s 800 snowplows keep Minnesota’s roads clear, drivers safe and traffic moving, despite the snow and cold,” said MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger, in a news release. “Name a Snowplow is a fun way to highlight the work of these plows and their operators, and to celebrate one of the ways Minnesotans get through winter together. We hope Minnesotans take time to notice all of our plows — named or not — so all of our operators can safely do their work.”

MnDOT staff select their finalists based on factors such as frequency of submissions, Minnesota-specific ideas and names easily recognizable to most people.

For updates on the Name a Snowplow contest, follow MnDOT on Facebook (facebook.com/mndot), X (x.com/MnDOT) and Instagram (instagram.com/mndot). The department also updates its social media with winter weather alerts, safety messages, construction updates and more.

Real-time travel information on current road conditions, road closures, traffic cameras and more is available at 511mn.org or with the 511MN mobile phone app.

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By MATTHEW PERRONE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Telehealth company Hims & Hers said Thursday it will launch a cheaper, off-brand version of the weight-loss pill Wegovy, just weeks after drugmaker Novo Nordisk launched its highly anticipated reformulation of the blockbuster medication.

The announcement from Hims is the latest example of the company’s efforts to capitalize on the booming popularity of GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy, which have revolutionized weight loss treatment in the U.S.

For years, Hims has sold compounded versions of the weight-loss drugs, which were initially only available as injections. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy is the first of the medications to become available in a pill format.

The Danish drugmaker responded to the news Thursday by vowing to sue Hims, calling the new product “an unapproved, inauthentic, and untested knockoff” of semaglutide, the chemical name for Wegovy.

“Novo Nordisk will take legal and regulatory action to protect patients, our intellectual property and the integrity of the U.S. gold-standard drug approval framework,” the company said in a statement.

Despite previous threats and warnings from the Food and Drug Administration, Hims has been able to keep its products on the market due to their status as compounded medications, a class of drugs that are customized and aren’t subject to strict federal regulations.

San Francisco-based Hims said it will launch its compounded pill at $49 for the first month, as part of an introductory offer for new customers, followed by $99 per month. That’s well below Novo’s price of $149 per month.

In September, the FDA issued a warning letter to Hims over “false and misleading” marketing language which regulators said suggested its compounded products were the same as FDA-approved GLP-1 drugs.

Thursday’s announcement from the company states that its pill contains “the same active ingredient as Wegovy,” but also mentions that is it not “approved or evaluated for safety, effectiveness, or quality by the FDA.”

The FDA permits specialty pharmacies and other companies to make compounded versions of brand name drugs when they are in short supply. And the booming demand for GLP-1 drugs in recent years prompted companies like Hims to jump into the multibillion-dollar market for the drugs, with many patients willing to pay cash.

Beginning in 2024, FDA began announcing that GLP-1 drugs were no longer in a shortage, a step that was expected to put an end to the compounding. But there is an exception: The practice is still permitted when a prescription is customized for the patient.

Hims and other companies say they offer “personalized” dosages and formulations of GLP-1 drugs that benefit patients.

“Whether a patient needs a specific dosage adjustment or prefers a compounded semaglutide pill over an injection, our platform now supports a deeper level of personalization,” said Dr. Craig Primack, who heads weight-loss products at Hims, in a statement Thursday.

Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S fell more than 8% in afternoon Thursday.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

ZAPOPAN, Mexico (AP) — The Mexican state of Jalisco on Thursday issued a health alert and mandated the use of face masks in schools as a measles outbreak hit the state capital, a key host city for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The measures come on the heels of an epidemiological alert issued by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) earlier this week over the spread of the preventable disease across the Americas, particularly in Mexico, which leads the region with 1,981 cases confirmed by authorities this year and more than 5,200 suspected cases.

Jalisco is the epicenter of the outbreak, with 1,163 cases confirmed this year and 2,092 suspected cases, according to Mexico’s government.

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The measles outbreak in Mexico began last year in the northern state of Chihuahua, after a Mennonite child fell ill while visiting relatives in a region in Texas that was suffering an outbreak. Cases surged in Mennonite communities — which have high rates of vaccine hesitancy — and have rippled out across Mexico in the country’s biggest outbreak in decades. Scientists say rising outbreaks across the hemisphere are linked to declining vaccination rates.

Jalisco health authorities announced Thursday that masks will be required in Guadalajara schools across seven specific neighborhoods for the next 30 days.

Jalisco was the first Mexican state to take such measures as medical groups urged the local government to take urgent action, marking the country’s first such public health mandate since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Classes were also recently suspended in 15 schools in Jalisco and the central state of Aguascalientes due to outbreaks of the highly contagious airborne virus.

The outbreak comes as Mexico prepares to host visitors from across the world for the World Cup, which will be held simultaneously in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Guadalajara is one of the main venues in Mexico for the soccer tournament.

Canada lost its measles-free status in November and the U.S. and Mexico face the risk of meeting the same fate. Both governments have requested a two-month extension to try to control the outbreak, although in January the Trump administration withdrew from the World Health Organization, under whose umbrella PAHO operates.

In the first three weeks of this year, 1,031 additional measles cases were confirmed in seven countries in the Americas with no deaths reported — a figure 43 times higher than that recorded in the same period last year — PAHO said Wednesday in a statement.

The Mexican government has spent weeks encouraging the population to get vaccinated against the measles, which is preventable with two doses of the vaccine, and announced the launch of vaccination sites in places such as airports and bus stations.