A gun was discovered Tuesday at Burnsville High School and police called in other agencies during a search for a second gun, which was not found.

The school reported at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday that they suspected two students had guns and staff had already confirmed one in a student’s backpack.

“Given the dangerous circumstances of the presence of weapons, Burnsville police officers and several mutual aid agencies responded quickly and tactically in order to ensure the safety of all students and staff,” said Carissa Larsen, Burnsville spokesperson, in a statement.

The gun found by staff was loaded and officers secured it.

Principal Jesús Sandoval wrote in a message to families there “is no evidence a specific threat was made. There was no apparent conflict between students that led to the weapon being brought to school or shown.

“This doesn’t change the fact that this was very dangerous and completely unacceptable,” his message continued. “Weapons of any kind are not allowed at school and the consequences for a student can be significant, even if there is no intent to harm others.”

Sandoval added he knew there “were concerns about potential threats on social media. Our investigation did not reveal any actual threats.”

Police took the student who had a gun into custody. The other student was briefly detained and released when no firearms were found on him. The case will be forwarded to prosecutors for charging consideration.

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Brad Larmie has been appointed the executive director of University Enterprise Labs, the nonprofit announced Tuesday.

Brad Larmie was appointed as the executive director of life science incubator nonprofit University Enterprise Labs. The nonprofit, which is located in St. Paul, made the announcement on April 2, 2024. (Courtesy of UEL)

Located in St. Paul, University Enterprise Labs is a life science incubator and accelerator that offers laboratory spaces and scientific equipment for rent for companies in the biotech, medtech, tough tech and agricultural tech fields.

In his new role, Larmie will oversee operations, investment strategy, programs and partnerships for the 150,000-square-foot facility, per the news release.

“Starting a company is really tough and finding lab space to prove out what you’re working on is even harder when you’re early into your journey,” Larmie said in the release. “I am excited to take UEL to the next level, which will allow us to increase our contribution to Minnesota’s thriving life sciences ecosystem.”

Larmie, who has a degree in biological sciences, previously held roles at Children’s Minnesota, analytical testing lab ChRi Laboratories and the pharmaceutical company Novartis.

“We have ambitious goals for UEL’s next phase in terms of our mission to foster Minnesota’s next generation of life sciences companies and support economic growth in the Twin Cities,” said Barbara Nelsen, Chair of the UEL Board, in the release. “For that, we need an equally ambitious and qualified leader. We are thrilled to have Brad at the helm of UEL.”

Located at 1000 Westgate Drive in St. Paul, UEL has over 35 wet, dry and clinical labs for scientific research and development.

Since its founding in 2005, UEL has supported more than 175 startup companies and currently has 65 tenant companies working on projects ranging from medical devices and diagnostic tools to robotics and atmospheric carbon capture.

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WASHINGTON — NASA wants to come up with an out-of-this-world way to keep track of time, putting the moon on its own souped-up clock.

It’s not quite a time zone like those on Earth, but an entire frame of time reference for the moon. Because there’s less gravity on the moon, time there moves a tad quicker — 58.7 microseconds every day — compared to Earth. So the White House Tuesday instructed NASA and other U.S agencies to work with international agencies to come up with a new moon-centric time reference system.

“An atomic clock on the moon will tick at a different rate than a clock on Earth,” said Kevin Coggins, NASA’s top communications and navigation official. “It makes sense that when you go to another body, like the moon or Mars that each one gets its own heartbeat.”

So everything on the moon will operate on the speeded-up moon time, Coggins said.

The last time NASA sent astronauts to the moon they wore watches, but timing wasn’t as precise and critical as it now with GPS, satellites and intricate computer and communications systems, he said. Those microseconds matter when high tech systems interact, he said.

Last year, the European Space Agency said Earth needs to come up with a unified time for the moon, where a day lasts 29.5 Earth days.

The International Space Station, being in low Earth orbit, will continue to use coordinated universal time or UTC. But just where the new space time kicks in is something that NASA has to figure out. Even Earth’s time speeds up and slows down, requiring leap seconds.

Unlike on Earth, the moon will not have daylight saving time, Coggins said.

The White House wants NASA to come up with a preliminary idea by the end of the year and have a final plan by the end of 2026.

NASA is aiming to send astronauts around the moon in September 2025 and land people there a year later.

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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.

On Tuesday, a day after registrations opened and quickly filled for free youth swimming lessons this summer, St. Paul Parks and Recreation officials confirmed they had set aside 1,000 additional slots for low-income kids and others from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The city plans targeted outreach through its Rec Check after-school program and other nonprofit partners that work with young people, with the goal of more than doubling current enrollments.

“This is the same model we used last year,” said Clare Cloyd, a spokesperson for Parks and Rec. “They just weren’t free. We held lessons back for targeted enrollment using scholarships. This year, they’re all free. … We have a pretty good grasp on the lanes we expect to use for getting those spots filled.”

Targeted programs

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and others have long pointed to inequities in water safety, leading to at least seven targeted programs, including free lifeguard training for city teens.

According to national studies, Black youth are more than three times as likely to drown as their white peers, leading many kids of color to avoid the water entirely. Carter highlighted those concerns during his budget address last August when he noted a planned $250,000 investment to support free swimming in city-owned pools.

“I expect this proposal to have the same impact on our pools that eliminating participation fees had on our recreation centers last year,” Carter said at the time.

On Monday, he made good on that promise when phone and online registration opened at 9 a.m. for free youth swimming classes this summer.

Hundreds signed up

The offering, announced by the city last week, caught many parents off-guard and led to a sudden deluge of registrations, overwhelming the computer system. Some St. Paul families reported receiving erroneous messages saying they were being denied because they live outside the city, even though they do not.

Still, in what parks officials called a positive sign, 763 youth slots were filled within two hours, and some lessons were full within minutes.

By comparison’s sake, the city’s fee-based swimming lessons usually fill within about a week or two, though prime scheduling hours can be snatched up the same day registration opens.

“The hundreds of residents who flocked to sign up for free swim lessons offered the strongest possible endorsement of the program’s value,” said the mayor, in a written statement on Tuesday. “We are aware that the rush created frustrating technical issues as hundreds of residents attempted to access our systems at the same time. These technical issues will be addressed.”

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