Today is Tuesday, July 15, the 196th day of 2024. There are 169 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone, a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian scripts, was found at Fort Julien in the Nile Delta during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt.

Also on this date:

In 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished more than 350 years after its creation.

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In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.

In 1913, Democrat Augustus Bacon of Georgia became the first person elected to the U.S. Senate under the terms of the recently ratified 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for popular election of senators.

In 1916, The Boeing Company, originally known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.

In 1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.

In 1976, a 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, California, by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed; the kidnappers were caught.)

In 1996, MSNBC, a 24-hour all-news network, made its debut on cable and the internet.

In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace, 50, was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan (koo-NAN’-an), 27, was found dead eight days later, a suicide. (Investigators believed Cunanan killed four other people before Versace in a cross-country rampage that began the previous March.)

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, an American who’d fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to two felonies in a deal sparing him life in prison.

In 2006, Twitter (now known as X) was launched to the public.

In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced by a state court to life in prison plus 419 years for killing one and injuring dozens when he deliberately drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (The previous month, Fields received a life sentence on 29 federal hate crime charges.)

In 2020, George Floyd’s family filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force. (The city would agree to pay $27 million to settle the lawsuit in March 2021.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Patrick Wayne is 86.
R&B singer Millie Jackson is 81.
Singer Linda Ronstadt is 79.
Author Richard Russo is 76.
Musician Trevon Horn is 76.
Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, is 75.
Former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura is 74.
Actor Terry O’Quinn (TV: “Lost”) is 73.
Rock drummer Marky Ramone is 73.
Rock musician Joe Satriani is 69.
Model Kim Alexis is 65.
Actor Willie Aames is 65.
Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 64.
Actor Brigitte Nielsen is 62.
Rock drummer Jason Bonham is 59.
TV personality Adam Savage (TV” “MythBusters”) is 58.
Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 57.
Actor-screenwriter Jim Rash (TV: “Community”) is 53.
Actor Scott Foley is 53.
Actor Brian Austin Green is 52.
Singer Buju Banton is 52.
Actor Diane Kruger is 49.
Actor Lana Parrilla (LAH’-nuh pa-REE’-uh) is 48.
Actor Travis Fimmel is 46.
Actor-singer Tristan “Mack” Wilds is 36.
Actor Iain Armitage (TV: “Young Sheldon”) is 17.

Courtney Williams reiterated what has been a Lynx mantra all season.

“We know if we lean into our defense and we bring energy on defense, our offense follows,” she said after Monday night’s 91-78 win at Chicago.

That was a significant difference for the Lynx (19-4), who played much better in their own end against a Chicago team with a strong inside presence. The Sky had a 36-34 edge in the paint, both teams had 34 rebounds, and second-chance points were just 7-5 Sky.

In Saturday’s 87-81 loss in Chicago, the Lynx were outscored 44-28 in the paint, were outrebounded 45-28, and the Sky had a 28-10 advantage in second-chance points.

“It takes a lot out of you physically to make plays against some pretty good pressure. … I was hoping we could wear them down and I think that happened a little bit,” said coach Cheryl Reeve.

Williams had four of Minnesota’s season-high 14 steals. Napheesa Collier and Bridget Carleton each had three.

“Getting those steals, we had a lot deflections, trying to get them off the boards. That was really huge, because those second-chance points they get off those offensive rebounds allows their field-goal percentage to go up with easy buckets, and then we’re not playing in transition, which is where we want to be,” Collier said.

She scored a game-high 29 points, including 11 for 11 from the free-throw line and 4 of 7 from deep. Williams scored 18 points, grabbed eight rebounds and added seven assists.

“I had a chip on my shoulder for sure,” Williams said.

“After we lost the last game, all my comments — Instagram, Facebook, Twitter — was flooded like, ‘You ain’t beat Chicago.’ They want to be trolls, but they can’t troll the troll,” she said with a devilish-like laugh. “We had to get our git back.”

With the final seconds of the third quarter ticking away, Williams drove into the lane and passed it out to Collier, who drained a 3-pointer with less than a second left for a five-point Minnesota lead.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Williams had a steal in the defensive end. Nineteen seconds later, her pass from below the basket went out to Collier, who calmly stroked another trey for a 12-point cushion.

This is the last of four straight road games for the Lynx, who went 2-2 on the trip. Minnesota has a Wednesday noon home game against Phoenix before the all-star break.

Minnesota shot 46.5% from the field, had 26 assists on 33 makes, and scored 24 points off 19 Sky turnovers.

Kayla McBride added 17 points, including a trio of fourth-quarter baskets, and Carleton had a trio of treys amongst her 11 points.

“This was one of BC’s best games this year,” Reeve said. “We’ve been really on her about aggression and being more of an assassin mindset as a shooter. When she doesn’t take those shots and be aggressive, what she’s leaving for the others gets a lot harder. I really thought BC took that to heart and from start to finish was locked in.”

Minnesota led by seven late in the first quarter. Chicago (7-14) led by 10 late in the second quarter, but treys from Carleton and McBride got the Lynx within 46-44 at halftime.

Two days ago, the Sky had 57 first-half points and a 13-point lead at the break.

The first day of a felony burglary trial for a Minnesota senator was dominated by jury selection Monday in Becker County District Court.

Sen. Nicole Mitchell is accused of burglarizing her stepmother’s house in Detroit Lakes in April 2024. According to court documents, when Mitchell was arrested, she told police officers she was retrieving items that belonged to her late father.

Mitchell was charged with two felony burglary counts: first-degree burglary and possession of burglary or theft tools. She pleaded not guilty to the charges. If found guilty, Mitchell could face prison time.

In a Facebook post in the days after her arrest, Mitchell said her family was “watching a loved one decline due to Alzheimer’s and associated paranoia.” The post went on to say she went to check on that family member. After she entered the house, Mitchell startled the relative and was accused of stealing, she wrote, an accusation she denied.

As Mitchell’s attorney, Bruce Ringstrom Jr., questioned the pool of prospective jurors, he asked about their affinity to grabbing a gun if somebody broke into their house, and experiences with break-ins and unexpected people showing up at their houses.

He polled them on experience with Alzheimer’s, dementia and memory loss, and how jurors would feel seeing a witness with memory loss being questioned.

Ringstrom touched on Mitchell’s status as a state lawmaker, asking prospective jurors whether lawmakers should be held to a higher standard than the average person. Questions mostly steered clear of politics but touched on how prospective jurors handle political disagreements and the fact that some may see the outcome of the trial as a political statement.

As the prosecutor, Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald, took the podium, he asked if jurors had been involved in disagreements over inheritance or family property. He also asked follow-up questions to some of Ringstrom’s inquiries related to their experiences with crimes, such as break-ins and burglaries.

Following jury questioning, attorneys whittled the group of 23 prospective jurors questioned down to a group of 15.

Mitchell, a Democratic-Farmer-Laborer lawmaker from Woodbury, was charged during the 2024 Minnesota legislative session. She was arrested in her stepmother’s house on April 22, 2024.

Nicole Mitchell (Courtesy of the Becker County Sheriff’s Office)

According to an amended complaint filed Feb. 10, around 4:45 a.m. April 22, 2024, Detroit Lakes police officers were dispatched to the home of Mitchell’s stepmother for a report of a break-in. There, officers found Mitchell in a basement bathroom, dressed in black clothing.

The complaint said Mitchell claimed she was trying to retrieve a couple of her father’s things. Mitchell’s father died in 2023 without a will, according to court documents. His surviving spouse, Nicole Mitchell’s stepmother, was awarded 100% of his estate.

On Feb. 10, McDonald added the possession of burglary tools charge, focusing on items found at the house. Court documents say Mitchell was carrying a flashlight covered by a black sock and that her stepmother found a crowbar in an egress window well. Mitchell denied that the crowbar belonged to her.

Charges against Mitchell were a point of contention in a divided Senate during the last two legislative sessions. DFL leaders barred Mitchell from participating in committee assignments or party caucus meetings. Senate Republicans called for her resignation and unsuccessfully tried to oust her from the Senate.

The trial has been pushed back multiple times. It was scheduled for January but was rescheduled to allow Mitchell to participate in the legislative session.

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The trial was then scheduled to begin June 16 but was pushed back again in the aftermath of the assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the attempted assassination of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife.

This week, the trial is scheduled to continue through Friday.

The felony burglary charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of at least six months in jail or a county workhouse, and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine. Felony possession of burglary tools carries a maximum sentence of 3 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Minnesotans will soon no longer need to leave the state to return their remains to nature by converting them into nutrient-rich soil.

As of July 1, human composting — also known as natural organic reduction — is legal in the state. But it likely will be another year before the process becomes available locally. At least one company plans to open a facility in the Twin Cities metro by next summer.

Legalization of the process comes after a push at the state Capitol to allow the emerging green burial option, which still currently requires a trip to another state to complete.

That was the case for Steve Wheeler, a longtime social studies teacher at Mahtomedi High School, who died in September 2023 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Wheeler, who had multiple sclerosis, started searching for burial options with his wife after learning he had a terminal diagnosis.

“He’d kind of always known that he didn’t traditional burial and he didn’t want cremation, because those things are just so incredibly bad for the environment,” said Katie Wheeler, Steve’s wife. “He didn’t want to leave, you know, such a large negative mark on the world, on the environment, in his death.”

Truly green option

The couple had some initial frustration finding what they felt was a truly green burial option. Some funeral homes allowed for the burial of un-embalmed bodies, but still provided protective burial vaults — something the Wheelers felt ran counter to a truly environmentally-friendly burial. Vaults are typically made of inorganic materials like concrete.

Katie Wheeler and her husband, Steve, in a spring 2023 photo. Steve Wheeler died of cancer in Sept. 2023 and chose to have his remains turned into compost through a process known as natural organic reduction. (Courtesy of Katie Wheeler)

Eventually, they found an ideal option, human composting, a process where a body is placed in a ventilated container with organic materials like alfalfa, straw, and sawdust and allowed to naturally decompose over 60 days or so until it becomes soil.

Steve was excited about the option, Katie said, but there was one problem — the practice was illegal in Minnesota. Only a handful of states have legalized human composting — 13 as of 2025. Washington was the first to do so in 2020.

The Wheelers eventually found a way forward. Mueller Memorial, a White Bear Lake-based funeral home, had recently started working with a provider of natural organic reductions in Washington. Return Home in Auburn, Wash., a Seattle Suburb, had a well-established operation and was able to accept remains from other states.

The process

Other green burials, which avoid embalming chemicals and use biodegradable caskets, already are legal in Minnesota. Human composting is a different, newer process.

“Green burial, quite honestly … has been has been around since people have died,” said Scott Mueller, funeral director and owner of Mueller Memorial. Though in recent years, more people have been seeking environmentally friendly burials, he added.

“People are really looking for more sustainable options in every way that they live, and now they’re looking at it in how they die as well,” Mueller said.

So, what happens when a body goes under natural organic reduction? Remains are placed inside a vessel made of insulated plastic along with biodegradable materials. The container is well ventilated and about twice the size of a refrigerator, said Mueller.

What then starts is a roughly 30-day process where the body naturally decomposes and becomes nutrient-rich dirt. Airflow is pumped through the vessel, which becomes warm to the touch as its temperature reaches around 130 degrees Fahrenheit, Mueller said.

In natural organic reduction burials, after initial decomposition takes place, human remains are transferred to a second vessel for a “curing” process that lasts another 30 days or so. Family and friends can visit at any time during the process at Return Home, a funeral home in Auburn, Wash., where some Minnesotans’ remains have gone for composting. (Courtesy of Scott Mueller)

Once the temperature decreases, it’s a sign that the primary decomposition is complete. Remaining bones are pulverized and mixed with the compost, which is then put in another vessel and allowed to sit for another 30 days or so. The compost continues to produce heat at this point, Mueller said, and the vessel’s temperature can reach 80 degrees.

Mueller said he visited a site where 60 bodies were undergoing the composting process and there was no hint of the scent of decay or decomposition. Instead, the facility had the smell of earth. Families are free to visit during the process, and the funeral home provides live streams of the containers.

After around 60 or 65 days, all that remains is 230 to 260 pounds of compost. Families have the option of receiving all the compost in about a dozen bags, distributing it in a woodland area managed by Return Home in Washington, or keeping some of the compost.

Katie Wheeler decided to keep about 20 pounds of her husband’s compost. At first, she kept the bag at home. Last summer, she spread some at Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, one of Steve’s favorite places, and used it to plant two trees. She still has two or three pounds left.

Steve Wheeler wanted to testify before the Legislature to advocate for legalizing natural organic reduction and recorded a video outlining his reasons for choosing the process.

“With this act, I can at least go out on a high note and say I have left the world just a little bit better than when I found it,” he said.

Bill passed last year

State lawmakers passed a bill legalizing natural organic reduction during the 2024 legislative session and it went into effect this July 1.

The Minnesota Funeral Directors Association had initially opposed the bill because it had concerns about unlicensed and untrained people performing natural organic reduction. In testimony on the bill in 2024, the association said it had concerns about health, safety and dignity.

Lawmakers addressed their concerns about human composting by including licensing requirements in the bill, according to Funeral Directors Association Executive Director Miki Tufto.

“The association is completely in support of options for disposition for families in Minnesota,” she said.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference testified against legalizing human composting at a 2024 House hearing. They raised concerns about dignity and compared the practice to treating human remains like “fertilizer.”

Mueller, himself a Catholic, said he believes views will shift over time. The Catholic Church opposed cremation until 1963, but now allows for remains to be burned, though with a strong preference for the burying of ashes.

Mueller Memorial has sent seven bodies from Minnesota to Washington since it started working with Return Home. About 900 bodies have undergone composting at the facility since it first opened earlier this decade.

Natural organic reduction costs around $5,000 to $7,000. It’s more expensive to fly remains out of state. Return Home, for instance, charges a base rate of about $5,500 and $2,500 more for transporting remains from out of state.

Return Home said it hopes to open a facility for natural organic reduction by next summer.

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