5 Dec 2024

Twins add three to finalize 2025 coaching staff

by admin | posted in: Politics | 0

The Twins on Thursday added three coaches to their 2025 staff, filling the vacancies left when the team fired three hitting coaches in the wake of a late-season collapse that left them out of the playoffs.

Minnesota added Rayden Sierra as a hitting coach, Trevor Amicone as assistant hitting coach and Ramon Borrego as first base/infield coach.

Hank Conger, the team’s first base coach last season, has been promoted to assistant bench coach and will serve as catchers coach, as well.

The Twins lost 27 of their last 39 games last season and acted quickly to fire hitting coaches David Popkins and Rudy Hernandez, and assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon. Assistant bench coach/infield coach Tony Diaz also was let go.

Sierra enters his fifth season in the Twins organization and first as a coach at the major league level. He has been the organization’s minor league assistant hitting and development coach and a hitting coach at Class A Fort Myers.

Amicone completed his second season as hitting coach for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the New York Yankees organization, which finished the 2024 regular season second in the International League in runs scored (854), OPS (.796) and on-base percentage (.358).

Borrego joins the major league staff after 21 seasons as a coach or manager in the Twins organization. He spent the past four seasons as manager for the Class AA team in Wichita, Kan., where he was Central manager of the year in 2021.

Twins 2025 coaching staff

Rocco Baldelli – Manager
Trevor Amicone – Assistant Hitting Coach
Matt Borgschulte – Hitting Coach
Ramon Borrego – First Base/Infield Coach
Hank Conger – Assistant Bench/Catching Coach
Nate Dammann – Quality Control Coach
Pete Maki – Pitching Coach
Luis Ramirez – Assistant Pitching Coach
Rayden Sierra – Hitting Coach
Colby Suggs – Bullpen Coach
Jayce Tingler – Bench Coach
Tommy Watkins – Third Base/Outfield Coach

5 Dec 2024

Wall Street parties like it’s 1998 as AI fuels gains unmatched since dot-com era

by admin | posted in: Politics | 0

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The S&P 500 is on track to close 2024 with a gain of nearly 27%, after setting 50 record highs this year. That’s on top of its 24.2% spurt the year before, a spectacular two-year run unmatched since the dot-com boom.

This time around, it’s not dot-com stocks boosting the market but skyrocketing prices for companies in the artificial-intelligence business. Nvidia, for example, has more than doubled in value after surging over three times in 2023 because its chips are powering much of the move into AI. Super Micro Computer, which makes servers used in AI and other computing, has jumped nearly 48% this year after more than tripling last year.

The economy, meanwhile, isn’t far removed from its last recession, which struck with the COVID-19 pandemic. But perhaps more importantly, it’s so far avoided a recession that many on Wall Street worried was inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked its main interest rate to a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the economy to beat high inflation.

So what happened to stocks after that fantastic two-year run in 1998? The market rose again in 1999, by 19.5%, as the economy kept growing and the dot-com bubble inflated.

Many voices on Wall Street say the stock market could keep rising in 2025 too, though likely not to the same degree.

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The economy is still growing, and the Federal Reserve appears set to keep cutting interest rates to make things easier. That has Jason Draho, head of asset allocation, Americas, at UBS Global Wealth Management, forecasting the S&P 500 could end 2025 at 6,600, for example. That would be a roughly 9% rise from Monday’s close.

But similar winning streaks have also come to a sudden end in the past, like after 1999. The S&P 500 ended up peaking in early 2000 before falling for several years as the dot-com bubble deflated and the economy fell into its 2001 recession.

Like then, critics this time around are calling the stock market too expensive after prices climbed faster than companies’ profits. Plus, the S&P 500 hasn’t experienced a drawdown of at least 10% this year, and such “corrections” tend to happen every couple of years.

Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise, urges caution.

“At the end of the day, there’s just too much optimism and not enough recognition of what could derail stock momentum for rational investors not to pump the brakes a bit,” Saglimbene said.

5 Dec 2024

Vikings fullback C.J. Ham is nominee for Walter Payton Man of the Year Award

by admin | posted in: News | 0

Vikings fullback C.J. Ham has long used his platform in the NFL to give back to people across his home state. Now he’s being recognized for his actions as the team’s nominee for the 2024 Walter Payton Man of Year Award.

The annual accolade is widely regarded across the NFL among the most prestigious awards a player can win. It recognizes the player that best exemplifies commitment to philanthropy and community impact.

There’s no doubt that Ham fits the mold. He’s been actively involved in the community ever since he reached the NFL. He and his wife Stephanie launched the Ham Scholarship Fund in 2022, for example, which, though financial support, encourages and supports diverse students pursing high education.

“He truly is Minnesota’s favorite,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said in a release. “He doesn’t take that for granted.”

Some of the other initiatives Ham has attached himself to include supporting the Boys and Girls Club at locations across the Twin Cities, visiting patients at Children’s Minnesota, and participating in the Vikings Crucial Catch Youth Football Clinic.

“The long lasting relationships he has established with local organizations is proof of C.J.’s passion and commitment,” co owner Mark Wilf said in a release. “We’re proud of the positive impact he continues to make and honored to nominate him for an award of this magnitude.”

Each of the 32 nominees from across the NFL will receive up to $55,000 and the award winner will receive up to a $265,000 donation to their charity of choice. They will be recognized for their achievements during the week leading up to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans with winner of the 2024 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award being announced during NFL Honors on Feb. 6.

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Forest Lake dairy farmer, part of Autumnwood Farms family, wins Excellence in Agriculture competition

by admin | posted in: News | 0

Fourth-generation dairy farmer Luke Daninger of Forest Lake recently won the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers & Ranchers Excellence in Agriculture competition and will represent Minnesota in the national competition in San Antonio next month.

Daninger, 34, is an agronomy sales manager with Ag Partners Coop in Goodhue, Minn., and works at his family’s farm, Autumnwood Farms, in Forest Lake. The 110-cow dairy has been in the family since 1902; the family built the creamery in 2008.

Luke Daninger, 34, will represent Minnesota at the national Young Farmers & Ranchers Excellence in Agriculture competition Jan. 24-29, 2025 in San Antonio, Texas. (Courtesy of Luke Daninger)

“Farming requires being nimble and thinking outside the box in terms of what you can continue to improve,” Daninger said Thursday. “We started the on-farm micro-creamery with that in mind, essentially to market direct to consumer. It’s going well. We’ve been fortunate and continue to steadily grow the business. Other than COVID, we’ve had a steady growth trajectory.”

Autumnwood Farms has an on-farm store and its products are sold in retail grocery stores and coffee shops. It also has some ice cream partners as well, Daninger said.

The Young Farmers & Ranchers Excellence in Agriculture competition is “designed as an opportunity for young farmers and ranchers to earn recognition while actively contributing and growing through their involvement in Farm Bureau and agriculture off the farm,” Farm Bureau officials said.

Participants are judged on their involvement in agriculture, leadership ability and involvement/participation in Farm Bureau and other organizations.

Daninger, vice president of the Washington/Ramsey County Farm Bureau, helps to promote agriculture through tours of Autumnwood Farms both for consumers and legislators, Farm Bureau officials said.

He will represent Minnesota at the national Young Farmers & Ranchers Excellence in Agriculture competition, held Jan. 24-29, during the American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention in San Antonio.

Daninger also received a $500 cash award, an opportunity to participate in a Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation “Farmers to D.C.” trip, and paid registration and lodging for the 2025 Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation’s annual Leadership, Education, Advocacy and Promotion (LEAP) Conference.

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