Several eastbound Interstate 94 entrance and exit ramps in Woodbury will close early Thursday for repaving, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

The ramps to and from eastbound I-94 and Woodbury Drive/Keats Avenue North will close starting at 5 a.m. Thursday and will reopen in mid-October.

Motorists going toward I-94 can use Woodbury Drive/Keats Avenue North, westbound or eastbound I-94 and Radio Drive/Inwood Avenue North. Those coming from I-94 can bypass this closure using eastbound or westbound I-94, Manning Avenue and Woodbury Drive/Keats Avenue North.

This closure is part of a larger MnDOT I-94 pavement project between state Highway 120/Century Avenue and the St. Croix River that will end this fall, according to the release. All construction activities are weather dependent and subject to change.

More information can be found at mndot.gov/metro/projects/i94oakdale-stcroix.

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Urban Roots, a nonprofit that provides environmental education internships to youth on St. Paul’s East Side, will be hosting a tree planting event Saturday in an effort to improve the tree canopy in that area of the city.

The organization is aiming to plant more than 100 trees in one day on the East Side, which has lower tree canopy coverage than other parts of the city, according to Tree Equity Score, a database that measures the distribution of tree cover in urban areas across the United States.

Tree canopy coverage can reduce air pollution and mitigate the urban heat island effect, a phenomenon where urban areas are significantly warmer than neighboring rural ones, according to an Urban Roots media release. The tree planting event is part of a larger initiative with other environmental organizations including Frogtown Green, Tree Trust and the Nature Conservancy.

To learn more about Urban Roots, their work and how to get involved, visit their website at urbanrootsmn.org.

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Two informational plaques were stolen from a St. Paul park over the weekend and police are asking the public for tips.

The plaques, which contain valuable metals, are 18 inches by 24 inches and were taken from Summit Lookout Park at Summit Avenue and Ramsey Street.

“Not only is there a cost associated with replacing these plaques, it takes away from the public space,” police wrote on social media Tuesday, comparing the case to what happened in the spring on Harriet Island. At that time, a person or people tried to make off with a large, multi-piece metal sculpture. The attempts led the city to take down at least half of the sizable pieces of public art.

Police are asking anyone with information about the plaque thefts to call Sgt. Carlson at 651-266-5572.

Metal thieves have targeted streetlights and other infrastructure in recent years.

St. Paul spent more than $1.2 million last year to repair and replace street lights and traffic signals damaged by copper wire theft, according to the city.

This year, the city spent just over $1 million as of the beginning of September. The City Council approved an additional $500,000 for St. Paul Public Works for this year, which has included hiring a dedicated seasonal, full-time electrician crew to repair damaged street lights.

The problem has skyrocketed in recent years — restoring lighting from wire theft cost the city $98,588 in 2019, $104,595 in 2020, $294,494 in 2021 and $453,172 in 2022, including labor, materials and equipment.

St. Paul has “got really creative with strategies and techniques, some that are showing successes,” said Lisa Hiebert, Public Works spokesperson. She didn’t provide details for security reasons because, in the past, thieves have found a way around measures the city has taken.

But a downside has been thieves moving their attention to areas that weren’t previously targeted for wire theft, in more residential areas, Hiebert said.

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By SARAH PARVINI

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Social media platform X on Wednesday published its first transparency report since the company was purchased by Elon Musk. The report, which details content moderation practices, shows the company has removed millions of posts and accounts from the site in the first half of the year.

X, formerly Twitter, suspended nearly 5.3 million accounts in that time, compared with the 1.6 million accounts the company reported suspending in the first half of 2022. The social media company also “removed or labeled” more than 10.6 million posts for violating platform rules — about 5 million of which it categorized as violating its “hateful conduct” policy.

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Posts containing “violent content” — 2.2 million — or “abuse and harassment” — 2.6 million — also accounted for a large portion of content that was labeled or removed. The company does not distinguish between how many posts were removed and how many were labeled.

In an April 2023 blog post published in lieu of a transparency report, by contrast, the company said it required users to remove 6.5 million pieces of content that violated the company’s rules in the first six months of 2022, an increase of 29% from the second half of 2021.

Some have blamed Musk for turning a fun platform into one that’s chaotic and toxic. Musk has previously posted conspiracy theories and feuded with world leaders and politicians. X is currently banned in Brazil amid a dustup between Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court judge over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

To enforce their rules, X said, the company uses a combination of machine learning and human review. The automated systems either take action or surface the content to human moderators. Posts violating X’s policy accounted for less than 1% of all content on the site, the company said.

When Musk was trying to buy Twitter in 2022, he said he was doing so because it wasn’t living up to its potential as a “platform for free speech.” Since acquiring the company that October, Musk has fired much of its staff and made other changes, leading to a steady exodus of celebrities, public figures, organizations and ordinary people from the platform.