The boys state hockey tournament kicks off Wednesday with Class A quarterfinal action in St. Paul.

All winner’s bracket games throughout the tournament will be played at Xcel Energy Center and aired locally on television on KSTC-Channel 45 and streamed on prep45.tv.

Here are a few things to watch in Class A competition:

Mahtomedi set to defend title: Mahtomedi is back after winning last year’s state title in dramatic fashion, topping Warroad in double overtime to hand Warroad its first loss of the season.

The Zephyrs have proven to be a bit of a giant slayer in Class A in recent years, though it’s about time Mahtomedi is viewed in such a light. And yet still, Mahtomedi enters this week as a bit of an underdog, at least to win the whole thing.

The Zephyrs are seeded fourth. They did beat their quarterfinal opponent — fifth-seeded Orono — 5-2 earlier this season.

There’s a decent chance if Mahtomedi is to defend its title and lift the trophy again on Saturday, it’ll have to top Orono, Hermantown and Warroad in succession.

Sure, Mahtomedi fell to Warroad and Hermantown earlier in the season, but history tells us the Zephyrs are consistently much better in March than they are in December or January.

The Zephyrs — who edged Southwest Christian in overtime of the Section 4 final — are led by senior forward Jake Hodd-Chlebeck, who has 25 goals and 22 assists this season.

Warroad looks to take final step: Warroad has played in the final game of the Class A season in each of the past two campaigns, without a state title to show for it in that span.

Warroad fell to Hermantown in the 2022 title game, then to Mahtomedi last season. But while last year’s team was dominant up to the state tournament, this year the Warriors had to top East Grand Forks in double overtime of the section final to get back to St. Paul.

That doesn’t make Warroad any less dangerous this week, though. It again touts a potent offense, featuring three players with 50-plus points this season. The charge is led by Carson Pilgrim. The senior forward is a North Dakota commit with 29 goals and 34 assists.

The gang is all here: There is seemingly no one missing from this year’s Class A field. The traditional powers of Hermantown, Warroad, St. Cloud Cathedral and Mahtomedi are all in attendance — all seeded No. 1-4. If the seeds hold, the semifinals figure to be rather memorable.

And, should an upset occur Wednesday to shake up the status quo, that would be a memory in itself.

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By CHRISTINE FERNANDO and KIM CHANDLER (Associated Press)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — More than 6,000 voters in a newly formed congressional district drawn to heighten Black voting power in Alabama received postcards with incorrect voting information ahead of Tuesday’s primary, alarming advocates concerned about the potential impact on a race seen as crucial to boosting Black representation and Democrats’ hopes to flip the U.S. House in November.

James Snipes, chair of the Montgomery County Board of Registrars, said 6,593 county voters received postcards listing the incorrect congressional district after the county’s election software misidentified some people living in the 2nd Congressional District as living in the 7th.

Snipes said voters arriving at the polls were still able to vote for the correct candidates. The county had sent about 2,000 notices to affected voters as of Tuesday evening and will send out an additional 4,000 on Wednesday, he said.

“Everyone who came to their precinct was able to vote for the correct candidates,” Snipes said, attributing the incorrect information to a “software glitch” made when adjusting to the recent shift in state congressional districts. “This was a good-faith effort.”

Montgomery County, home to about 159,000 registered voters, now falls in the 2nd Congressional District after a federal court drew new congressional lines in November. That was in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state had diluted the voting power of Black residents, violating the Voting Rights Act.

The three-judge panel decided that Alabama, which is 27% Black, should have a second district where Black voters comprise a large share of the population. The move has sparked a congested and competitive primary contest as Democrats hope to flip the congressional seat in the fall.

The redrawn map could lead to the election of two Black congressional representatives from the state for the first time. After the districts were redrawn, Black residents will comprise nearly 49% of the 2nd district’s voting-age population, up from less than one-third.

“For many Black voters in that district, this is the first election where they have the opportunity to elect a representative who looks like them,” said Camille Wimbish, national director of campaigns and field programs for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “This could have caused many Black Alabamans to just stay home and not vote at all.”

State Rep. Napoleon Bracy Jr., one of 11 Democratic candidates running in the 2nd District primary, said “it is disappointing to see that voters in Montgomery County are facing classic disenfranchisement.” He noted it came days after the state marked an anniversary of key events that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Election officials caught an error in the cards sent to voters in January and attempted to update their systems so voters would be listed in the correct congressional district, said Snipes, of the county elections board.

“We thought we had it all fixed,” he said, adding that officials didn’t realize that more voters had been affected. “We can’t figure out how the software did that to us.”

Laney Rawls, executive assistant for Alabama’s secretary of state, said the office was not involved in sending the postcards to voters.

It was one of the few issues reported on Super Tuesday, the biggest day of the primary calendar. Only sporadic voting problems surfaced, most of which were resolved quickly. In Texas’ Travis County, which includes Austin, some voters had problems checking in when they tried to cast their ballots.

The Travis County Clerk’s Office said about 1% of registered voters were affected. Officials blamed a “data issue” but did not offer more details. Affected voters were asked to either wait while the problem was resolved or were told they could cast a provisional ballot if they couldn’t wait.

“Our team quickly identified the issue and pushed out a solution,” the clerk’s office said in an email.

___

Associated Press writer Juan A. Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.

A 34-year-old Burnsville man has been sentenced in federal court to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to a count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

John Majerus II, who pleaded guilty on Nov 8, 2023, will be on supervised release for 10 years after serving his sentence.

According to court documents, in September of 2022 he was serving a prison sentence for a prior federal drug crime when authorities began investigating a drug trafficking operation by federal inmates.

Majerus coordinated the sale of methamphetamine to an undercover officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to federal authorities. After being released, he continued drug sales and conspired to deal methamphetamine from a “stash house” in Southeast Minneapolis, according to federal authorities.

While executing a search warrant on the house, federal authorities found approximately 30 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in the wall. They also recovered drug paraphernalia and two firearms.

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Comedian Richard Lewis never lived in Minnesota, but he was laid to rest last week at the Temple of Aaron cemetery in Roseville.

In a 2015 interview with American Jewish World, Lewis talked about how he first learned that news from his wife, St. Paul native Joyce Lapinsky.

“My in-laws are buried there,” Lewis said. “My wife, she decided one day — talk about a breakfast talk! — she went, ‘I know you’re a Brooklyn boy and you’re not that sure where you want to go at the end,’ and I said, ‘Well, is it the end?… So what are you saying?’ ”

Her response: “You’re going to be next to me for the rest of eternity … you’re going to come to Temple of Aaron cemetery.”

Lewis, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2021, died of a heart attack in his Los Angeles home on Feb. 27 at the age of 76. Known for his dark jokes about his many neuroses and struggles with addiction, Lewis began performing stand-up in 1971 and became a familiar talk show guest, appearing on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” 22 times and “Late Night with David Letterman” 48 times over the span of a decade. He starred in the ABC sitcom “Anything but Love” with Jamie Lee Curtis and was a mainstay on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” since it began in 2000.

Lapinsky got her start singing backup vocals on “Mouth to Mouth,” the debut album from Minneapolis dance group Lipps Inc. that spawned the worldwide 1980 hit “Funkytown.” After leaving Minnesota, she went on to work behind the scenes in producing and music publishing.

The couple met in 1998. In a 2010 interview, Lewis talked about how he introduced himself by giving her “my usual note … which was, ‘I hope you’re married and happy, but if you’re not …’ And I’d have my number on it. And it would be so sleazy. That’s how I picked up my wife. That same note. At a Ringo Starr party, if I can name-drop. And she saved the note. And she gave it to me for our first anniversary, this sleazy note.”

After dating for seven years, Lewis took Lapinsky to meet his therapist. “It’s sad, (I) had no confidence in my ability to select a mate,” he said in a 2007 interview with the Observer. “In a voice that was almost satanic — it was so dark and loud that it seemed to echo through the neighborhood — my therapist screamed at me, ‘This is as good as it gets!’ ”

The pair married in 2005 and Lewis took to matrimony with zeal. “Joyce has such a stabilizing effect on him. Everybody is looking for that one person in life who will love you unconditionally, and he’s found that with her,” his “Curb Your Enthusiasm” co-star and longtime friend Susie Essman told the Observer.

“On stage, I still mine my bottomless pit of bad memories,” Lewis said in a 2008 interview. “In real life, I’m still crazy, but I’m far happier and more grateful than I’ve ever been. Marriage has a lot to do with that. We have a neurotic relationship that’s, 99 percent of the time, filled with laughter and love.”

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