24 Mar 2024

Already down two relievers, Twins lose Justin Topa for start of the season

by | posted in: News | 0

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Twins were already expecting to be without two of their top relievers to begin the season. Now, they’ll have to weather at least the beginning of the season without another bullpen arm who they figured would be throwing important innings.

Justin Topa, whom the Twins acquired earlier this year in the trade for Jorge Polanco, tweaked his left knee and is dealing with tendinitis, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said.

Topa, who hasn’t pitched in a Grapefruit League game since March 15, will begin the season on the injured list, joining closer Jhoan Duran (oblique strain) and lefty Caleb Thielbar (hamstring strain). Falvey said the injury occurred when Topa went to back up home in a game and his foot got jammed up.

“We don’t want tendinitis to track through the year if we can knock it out ahead of time, so we’re going to knock it out now, give him some time down and ultimately build back up,” Falvey said. “Hopefully he’s not tracking foo far behind.”

The Twins plan to shut him down for a week to 10 days, a period that has already started, treat the issue and then start to build him back up.

Topa, 33, played a major role out of the Mariners’ bullpen last season, posting a 2.61 earned-run average across 69 innings while establishing himself as a set-up man.

Now, with Topa, Duran and Thielbar out, the Twins will have to turn to other options to fill out their bullpen. While they appeared to have one roster spot open to begin camp, they now have four. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said that while they would like to have everything wrapped up while they are still in Fort Myers, they could end up making decisions once they get to Kansas City, where they will open their season. The Twins will depart Florida following the conclusion of their last Grapefruit League game on Tuesday.

“There’s still things to be discussed and at this moment in time, we’re talking mainly about our bullpen and just where we’re going to land there,” Baldelli said. “The goal is to get out of camp, at this point, with only that to talk about, and if that happens, that’d be pretty solid. But we’ve got to get through the next couple of days.

The Twins have a number of relievers in the mix for those spots, including Jorge Alcala, Josh Staumont, Kody Funderburk and Cole Sands, all of whom are on the 40-man roster. They also still have some non-roster options, with Daniel Duarte at the front of that group if the Twins choose to go in that direction, or they could also make an external addition.

“We are monitoring the opt-outs and guys who are around and available and having conversations with different people,” Falvey said. “More just as we continue to build up depth, we have guys in camp who we think can do some of this, certainly fill some of these roles. It never hurts when you’re down a few to keep an eye on how to add to that depth. We’d be doing that even if we weren’t dealing with some injuries.”

24 Mar 2024

Gophers season ends in NIT second-round loss to Indiana State

by | posted in: Politics | 0

The Gophers men’s basketball team made significant progress this season. The U more than doubling its win total from nine to 19, and while picked to finish last in the Big Ten Conference, they were ninth in the 14-team league and advanced in their first postseason since 2019.

But it came to an end Sunday with a 76-64 loss to top seed Indiana State in the second round of the National Invitational Tournament at Hulman Center in Terre Haute, Ind.

Gophers head coach Ben Johnson called Indiana State worthy of making the NCAA tournament, but they were passed over for an at-large berth. The Sycamores (30-6) move on to play No. 2 seed Cincinnati in the NIT quarterfinals at 8 p.m. Tuesday

“It was a great challenge,” Johnson said in KFAN postgame. “… It was a tough way to go out, but I told our guys, ‘You can’t let one game dictate how we were for the course of the year.’ I think from the very beginning when nobody had us in anything to be able to orchestrate a new crew and to figure out and understand winning. … There is more to be had. Hopefully (the players) leave here a little bit hungry but also satisfied (in) knowing they took the right step.”

Minnesota (19-15) was a 7.5-point underdog Sunday and made it interesting in the second half with an 11-0 run to cut the Sycamores lead to 52-49 with 12 minutes remaining. But Indiana State never trailed and separated from the U yet again to win comfortably.

Gophers best player Dawson Garica didn’t score until hitting a pair of free throws with 13 minutes remaining in the second half. He finished with six points as 12 rebounds.

Garcia put himself on the bench in the first half. He was called for a personal foul, his second of the game, with 10 minutes left in the first half. Then he talked trash with Xavier Bledson and both players were hit with a technical fouls. It was Dawson’s third and he sat for a long stretch.

Indiana State had been separating itself before Garcia went to the bench, but it was an onslaught afterward. The Sycamores used a 24-7 run to take a 33-15 lead.

Minnesota responded with a 12-2 run to make it 35-27. They did it without point guard Elijah Hawkins, who went to the bench with an apparent left hip injury. The teams traded baskets and Indiana State led 38-28 at the break.

“We didn’t get off to a good start and then when we started to get our rhythm, it is toward the end of the game, so you just run out of time,” Johnson said on the radio.

Hawkins returned for the second half, but he couldn’t last, sitting back down with 15 minutes remaining. He finished with 10 points and one assist in 22 minutes played.

“He tried and it just had too much pain,” Johnson told Mike Grimm. “In a game like this that is really physical, you got to have everything and got to be able to move. He just couldn’t go. Credit to him for trying.”

Indiana State is having its best season since Larry Bird starred there in the late 1970s. Indiana State won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title, but missed out on the NCAA tournament as Drake won their conference tournament. Their bespectacled current leading scorer, Robbie Avila, has a handful of nicknames, including “Larry Nerd.”

But Avila had an off shooting afternoon and finished with 11 points on 1 of 6 from 3-point range. Ryan Connell led all scorers with 23 points.

This is the Gophers’ first NIT appearance since they won the championship in 2014; they won their first-round matchup 73-72 over Butler on Tuesday.

Johnson said he will meet with players when they return to Minnesota this week and determine how many with remaining eligibility will come back for next season. If the majority returns and other additions are made, the Gophers will be in position to take another step next season.

Related Articles

College Sports |


Gophers defense simplifying scheme to play faster

College Sports |


Charley Walters: Futures of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell hinge on picking right quarterback

College Sports |


Gophers football adds first commitment for next year’s recruiting class

College Sports |


On UCLA interest, Gophers coach P.J. Fleck says he loves being at Minnesota

College Sports |


Gophers football: Small-town Oklahoman Kyler Baugh goes big at Pro Day

24 Mar 2024

Business People: Arise Community Credit Union becomes Minnesota’s first Black-led credit union

by | posted in: News | 0

OF NOTE

Debra Hurston

The Minnesota Department of Commerce announced it has issued a charter for Arise Community Credit Union, based in Minneapolis. It is the first new state-chartered credit union in 23 years and the state’s first Black-led credit union. Arise will be a not-for-profit cooperative owned by members, with membership open within Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. The Association for Black Economic Power, under the leadership of Executive Director Debra Hurston, has led the creation of the organization.

ADVERTISING/PUBLIC RELATIONS

Minneapolis-based digital-first media agency KOSE announced the promotion of Colin Murphy to group media director. Murphy’s career includes working with such brands as Buffalo Wild Wings, American Express, General Mills, Nestle, Purina, H&R Block and 3M. … Lime Valley Advertising, Mankato, announced it has received two Service Industry Advertising Awards for communication excellence this year: Gold Award — Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School, Building on the Rock Casebook; and Silver Award — North American Society for Trenchless Technology, No-Dig Show 2024 – Sponsor & Exhibitor Prospectus.

ARCHITECTURE/ENGINEERING

Wold Architects & Engineers, St. Paul, announced the promotion of Jacob Windschitl to the Associates Leadership Team. … Braun Intertec, a Bloomington-based engineering and environmental consulting and testing firm, announced the retirement of Chief Executive Officer and President Jon Carlson, to be succeeded by Tim Lenway. Lenway has been with Braun Intertec since 2007 and was named a corporate officer in 2018.

ATTRACTIONS

The Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, announced the following new members to its board of trustees: Dr. Bret Haake, Regions Hospital; Jennifer Hellman, Goff Public; Sri Koneru, Winnebago Industries; Jennifer Lastine, Securian Financial; Timothy M. O’Brien, Ecolab; Claudine Rydstrand, Delta Air Lines; Arvind Sharma, Ameriprise Financial; Susan Rundell Singer, St. Olaf College, and May yer Thao, Hmong American Partnership.

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

Stateside Associates, an Arlington, Va.-based state and local government lobbying firm, announced that Kurt Daudt is joining the firm as vice president. Daudt is a former Minnesota state representative and served as Speaker of the House from 2015 to 2019 and House Republican minority leader.

MANUFACTURING

New Wave Design and Verification, an Eden Prairie-based maker of digital electronic interfaces for business, announced the appointment of Darlene Weiss as director of human resources. Weiss has held similar roles at Donaldson, Medtronic, Integra LifeSciences and Lockheed Martin.

MILESTONES

Steve’s Appliances, a Mounds View retailer, announced its 50th anniversary in business.

NONPROFITS

Operation Underground Railroad, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based organization focused on combating human trafficking that plans to expand to Minneapolis, announced that Tammy Lee has been appointed chief executive officer. Lee previously led Xena Therapies, a med-tech company based in Red Wing, Minn. In conjunction, Xena announced that Lee’s business partner and co-founder Mitch Abrahamsen becomes CEO with Lee assuming the role of board chair. … Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity announced the following new board members: Cecilia Stanton Adams, The Diversity Institute; Steve Albrecht, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community; Brian Durmaskin, North America Surgical, Ecolab; Lara Koza, Longevity Holdings; Jamie McCarty, Dorsey and Whitney; Tariq Malik, Securian Financial; Tara Norgard, Carlson Caspers; Rich Rubenstein, General Mills; Jonathan Sage-Martinson, Amplio Economic Development Corp.; Board Chair is Nash Shaikh, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota; executive committee: Tony Barranco, Ryan Cos.; Jim Mulrooney, Bremer Bank; Keiko Sugisaka, Maslon LLP, and Paul Delahunt, community volunteer. … Woodbury Community Foundation announced the following new board members: Erich Mische, SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), and Ross Hillukka, Thrivent. Both are residents of Woodbury.

SERVICES

St. Paul-based Ecolab, which provides businesses with sanitary protection products and services and also runs several related subsidiaries, announced it has appointed Judson Althoff to its board. Althoff is chief commercial officer at Microsoft.

Related Articles

Business |


Anna Peterson named vice president of people and culture at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

Business |


Business People: Former Mark Dayton general counsel Kimberly Slay joins Maslon as partner

Business |


3M Co. names aerospace industry exec William Brown as CEO

Business |


Business People: Diessner advances to CEO at Kraus-Anderson

Business |


Business People: North Memorial appoints Trevor Sawallish as CEO

EMAIL ITEMS to businessnews@pioneerpress.com.

24 Mar 2024

Murphy, Sperling: How a California climate win could end up destroying rainforests — and what to do about it

by | posted in: Society | 0

Half the diesel fuel in California is made not from unsustainable petroleum but from renewable biomass such as waste and plant oils. Soon all our diesel will be biofuels. This is particularly good for the environment if the fuel is made from wastes and residues, but it’s much less so if it’s made from crops that use energy and land but don’t produce food.

Unfortunately, a proposed amendment to California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard threatens to put the state, the country and the world on a course toward relying more heavily on diesel produced from crops, ensuring more widespread destruction of rainforests and diversion of farmland from food to energy production.

California pioneered the standard to support the development and use of lower-carbon fuels for transportation. It effectively encourages oil companies to subsidize low-carbon fuels and electric vehicles without bankrupting them, and the only costs to taxpayers are administrative. This innovative policy has been replicated in Oregon, Washington and Canada, while other states and Congress are considering comparable measures.

The fuel standard incentivizes the use of renewable diesel made from oil waste and crops, a major success of the policy. Renewable diesel can be used in virtually any diesel engine, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70% or more when it’s made from waste oils.

The environmental benefits are much less substantial, however, when the fuel is made from crop-based oils such as soybean or canola.

That’s because those crops require energy, fertilizer and land, among other environmental consequences.

Renewable diesel offers such a compelling business opportunity to oil companies that two Bay Area refineries are being converted to produce it, possibly by the end of this year. California-inspired renewable diesel is booming across the country.

As the industry grows, however, it’s having some unintended consequences.

Until recently, most renewable diesel was made from waste cooking oil, rendered beef fat and corn-ethanol byproducts. But now those domestic sources of waste oil are largely tapped out. Indeed, the U.S. has to import not only waste-based fuels but also the wastes and residues themselves to supply our processors.

That means more and more renewable diesel is likely to come from oil produced from soybeans and other food crops.

We know from experience that increasing demand for plant-based oils — whether for food, animal feed or biofuels — leads to more slashing and burning of tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia and South America to expand palm and soy oil production. This deforestation releases mass quantities of greenhouse gases by burning trees that have sequestered carbon over centuries. It also harms watersheds, disrupts Indigenous communities and causes a raft of other social and environmental problems.

If what happened in California stayed in California, we wouldn’t be so concerned. Global vegetable oil producers probably could replace California’s remaining fossil-fuel-based diesel without much additional harm.

But other jurisdictions that have adopted or are considering policies like California’s are watching the state carefully. And the Treasury Department, European Union and global airlines are about to embrace plant oils as a substitute for the fossil fuels used in aviation. What California decides about renewable diesel will therefore have far-reaching effects.

The California Air Resources Board is updating the Low Carbon Fuel Standard this year to raise its targets and make other adjustments, including expanding its scope to include jet planes operating within the state. It is not, however, proposing to rein in the use of crop-based fuels. If the board does not address this issue, it could spur extensive conversion of tropical forests and food production to energy generation.

So what should be done? We have two ideas.

The first is to update the fuel standard’s almost 10-year-old estimate of the greenhouse gas impact of increased crop production. There is considerable evidence that the current estimate greatly understates actual emissions. Crops such as soybeans would become less attractive for renewable diesel production if the standard were corrected.

It’s an elegant and seemingly simple adjustment. The problem is that there is no scientifically established method for making an estimate, even after extensive study. Picking a new number risks interminable debate and lawsuits by the oil industry and other threatened interests.

We lean toward a second idea, which is to cap the use of crops to produce fuels. Most environmental groups favor this approach, and the California Air Resources Board has considered it. But while it’s a straightforward concept, it would be complicated to implement and would have to be updated frequently to provide flexibility to companies as conditions change.

Whatever approach regulators take, they should do it quickly, before the rapid growth of renewable diesel has irreversible repercussions. Inaction risks sending one of California’s key climate policies off course in ways that will reverberate around the world.

Related Articles

Opinion |


David French: America’s most overlooked political divide is also its most revealing

Opinion |


Joe Soucheray: Reckless car thieves, streetlamp wreckers … we’re tired of this

Opinion |


Jane Eisner: How should we read the texts of Purim and Passover this year?

Opinion |


Bronson, Rieser: The stories that ‘Oppenheimer’ didn’t tell

Opinion |


Trudy Rubin: At this point, White House policy is more pro-Israel than Netanyahu’s

Colin Murphy is the deputy director of the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy, where he co-leads the Low Carbon Fuel Policy Research Initiative. Daniel Sperling is a professor of engineering and environmental science and policy at UC Davis and a former member of the California Air Resources Board. They wrote this column for the Los Angeles Times.