Kody Clemens makes most of opportunity with Twins

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Sometimes, father does knows best.

Just a couple of weeks ago, speaking at Fenway Park days after the Twins swung a trade for his son, Kody Clemens, MLB great Roger Clemens predicted his son would be just fine — he just needed a few more at-bats.

“It’s tough what he’s doing right now. He had two wonderful spring trainings and then he got kind of stymied a little bit in Philly. It’s going to take him a few more at-bats to get comfortable,” Roger Clemens said. “I think it’s going to take him a little time to work his way back, but he’s capable of doing it.”

And the Twins are seeing that now.

A day after his dad’s comments, Kody Clemens hit a home run at his dad’s old stomping grounds that helped propel the Twins to what would become the first win of their 13-game winning streak, which finally came to an end Sunday. He has settled in well since then.

“My whole big league career to this point has been pinch-hitting, sporadic starts after sitting for a while,” Clemens said. “I’ve never really gotten the opportunity to play every day or at least multiple times during the week. It’s been nice to try to get in a rhythm and see a lot of pitches and get a lot of consistent at-bats.”

Clemens, who was not in the starting lineup on Monday with a lefty on the mound, has made the most of his opportunity, entering the day hitting .297 with a 1.003 OPS. He has three home runs in 15 games as a Twin. Over the weekend, he went 3 for 5 in a win over the Brewers.

“I try to keep it as simple as possible,” he said. “I look in a general area of where I want the ball to be and stay as disciplined as I can and just try to put the best swing on these pitches. I feel like I’m just seeing the ball well and getting good pitches to hit.”

His contributions haven’t stopped there, as he has moved around the field for the Twins. Clemens has primarily played second base — the Twins swung a trade for him the night Luke Keaschall was hit by a pitch, fracturing his forearm — but he has also appeared at first base and in left and right field.

“We knew that he was a very capable at-bat and could impact the baseball and hit some line drives all around the field and hit ’em hard. We knew he was a versatile player,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “We also didn’t know what our roster was going to look like, what our needs were going to be. But he’s just ready to play. He just is excited to play. He wants to be out there on the field.”

Wallner nears rehab

Injured outfielder Matt Wallner expects to head out on a rehab assignment this week, possibly as soon as Wednesday, as he works towards a return.

Wallner landed on the injured list with a hamstring strain on April 17, but he has been running full speed and reported feeling good.

The outfielder said he doesn’t know much of his schedule — “I bug the trainers enough,” he said — but a rehab assignment obviously represents a big step in the right direction.

“I think it’s progressed faster than I thought, so I’m in a good spot,” Wallner said.

Briefly

Chris Paddack is scheduled to start on Tuesday against Cleveland right-hander Gavin Williams. That game could be threatened by a weather forecast in Minneapolis that calls for rain all day.

CommonBond Communities to outsource, layoff 117 from St. Paul headquarters

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CommonBond Communities, a nonprofit provider of affordable and supportive housing throughout the Midwest, will lay off 117 positions from its St. Paul headquarters, cutting its central workforce by more than half.

In a letter to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, officials with CommonBond said they had decided to outsource their property management department and “tangential positions” from 1080 Montreal Ave. to “other companies within the area.”

The layoffs are scheduled to begin July 18 and continue through Jan. 31, impacting a variety of company work units, including community resource advantage services, compliance, facilities, finance, fund development, human resources, information technology, marketing and communications, and property management.

The reduction in workers will leave a team of 107 employees covering the remaining business areas. No further information was immediately available.

Since 1971, CommonBond Communities has managed and developed affordable housing in more than 60 cities across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota. Its properties include Seward Tower East and Seward Tower West on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis, as well as Skyline Tower, Wilder Square and Lexington Commons in St. Paul.

The nonprofit is also developing five affordable housing developments within Highland Bridge, including the new Lumin and Harken apartments, both of which cater to low-income seniors.

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Trump administration to pay nearly $5M to settle suit over Ashli Babbitt’s fatal shooting in Capitol

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By ERIC TUCKER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has agreed to pay just under $5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit that Ashli Babbitt’s family filed over her shooting by an officer during the U.S. Capitol riot, according to a person with knowledge of the settlement. The person insisted on anonymity to discuss with The Associated Press terms of a deal that have not been made public.

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The settlement will resolve the $30 million federal lawsuit that Babbitt’s estate filed last year in Washington, D.C. On Jan. 6, 2021, a Capitol police officer shot Babbitt as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby.

The officer who shot her was cleared of wrongdoing by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, which concluded that he acted in self-defense and in the defense of members of Congress. The Capitol Police also cleared the officer.

Settlement terms haven’t been disclosed in public court filings. On May 2, lawyers for Babbitt’s estate and the Justice Department told a federal judge that they had reached a settlement in principle but were still working out the details before a final agreement could be signed.

Justice Department spokespeople and two attorneys for the Babbitt family didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran from San Diego, was unarmed when she was shot by the officer. The lawsuit alleges that the plainclothes officer failed to de-escalate the situation and did not give her any warnings or commands before opening fire.

The suit also accused the Capitol Police of negligence, claiming the department should have known that the officer was “prone to behave in a dangerous or otherwise incompetent manner.”

“Ashli posed no threat to the safety of anyone,” the lawsuit said.

The officer said in a televised interview that he fired as a “last resort.” He said he didn’t know if the person jumping through the window was armed when he pulled the trigger.

Thousands of people stormed the Capitol after President Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of supporters at his Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House. More than 100 police officers were injured in the attack.

In January, on his first day back in the White House, Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of charges for all of the more than 1,500 people charged with crimes in the riot.

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

Authorities analyzing nihilistic writings of suspect in California fertility clinic bombing

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By CHRISTOPHER WEBER

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Investigators on Monday were combing through the writings of a 25-year-old man believed responsible for an explosion that ripped through a Southern California fertility clinic over the weekend.

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The FBI identified Guy Edward Bartkus as the suspect in the apparent car bomb detonation Saturday that damaged the American Reproductive Centers building in Palm Springs, east of Los Angeles. Bartkus died in the explosion. None of the facility’s embryos were damaged.

Authorities called the attack terrorism and said Bartkus left behind nihilistic writings that indicated views against procreation, an idea known as anti-natalism.

Here’s what to know about the case.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene.

The blast gutted the clinic and shattered the windows of nearby buildings along a palm tree-lined street. Passersby described a loud boom, with people screaming in terror and glass strewn along sidewalks of the upscale desert city.

Bartkus’ body was found near a charred vehicle.

Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, called it possibly the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.”

There were no patients at the facility and all embryos were saved.

“This was a targeted attack against the IVF facility,” Davis said Sunday. “Make no mistake: we are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.”

The investigation is ongoing.

Authorities executed a search warrant in Bartkus’ hometown of Twentynine Palms, a city of 28,000 residents northeast of Palm Springs with a large U.S. Marine Corps base.

Bartkus tried to livestream the explosion, but the attempt failed, the FBI said.

Authorities haven’t shared specifics about the explosives used to make the bomb and where Bartkus may have obtained them.

What were his views?

Authorities were working to learn more about Bartkus’ motives. They haven’t said if he intended to kill himself in the attack or why he chose the specific facility.

His writings communicated “nihilistic ideations” that were still being examined to determine his state of mind, said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the area. In general, nihilism suggests that life is meaningless.

This image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigations shows Guy Edward Bartkus. (FBI via AP)

He appeared to hold anti-natalist views, which include a belief that it is morally wrong for people to bring children into the world. The clinic he attacked provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilization and fertility evaluations.

Some people with extreme anti-procreation views have a lack of purpose and a bleak feeling about their own lives “and they diagnose society as suffering in a similar way that they are,” said Adam Lankford, a criminology professor at the University of Alabama. “Essentially, they feel like we’re all doomed, that it’s all hopeless.”

That hopelessness is a way for attackers to rationalize their violent actions, Lankford said Monday.