Aviation officer Blake Freking walks toward a CL-215T firefighting plane at the Ely Air Attack Base near Ely, Minn., on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Freking, an aviation officer for the U.S. Forest Service, had spent the past four days battling a pair of fast-spreading fires from the airfield. (Wyatt Buckner / Forum News Service)

ELY, Minn. — Blake Freking struggled to recall what day of the week it was Wednesday as he paused to discuss the team effort mounted to slow the spread of the Camp House and Jenkins Creek wildfires from the air.

Small wonder. As an aviation officer for the U.S. Forest Service, the days of battling a pair of fast-spreading fires from the Ely Air Attack Base had been a bit of a blur.

A couple of De Havilland CL-215T scooper planes had just hit the tarmac, and crews quickly went to work preparing the valuable aircraft for their next sorties on the flames.

The airplanes arrived by way of Bozeman, Mont., and would be joined Thursday by another duo from Spokane, Wash.

With more than 140 homes already lost to the forest fires and more than 35,000 acres of land already blackened, it may seem difficult to imagine anyone uncovering a silver lining amid the ashes. But Freking did:

“There’s never a great time for a forest fire,” Freking said. “But at least the Rocky Mountains and California aren’t burning yet this year.”

He explained that air assets can be tougher to come by at times when multiple fires across the nation are competing for resources.

“Clearly, this is being viewed as a high-priority situation, largely because we have a lot of structures at risk,” Freking said.

Coordinating aircraft

Moments after touching down, pilot Mike Kinsey described what it’s like to scoop 1,400 gallons of water from the surface of a lake in 10 seconds. It’s a relatively smooth maneuver in choppy water, but tougher as waves kick up. The important thing is not to let the nose of the plane dip as it skims across the water’s surface, he said.

Then, loaded with water, he climbs, flying into position, under the radio direction of an aerial tactical group supervisor, surveying the scene mid-air from a Kodiak.

Mike Kinsey talks about his experience flying a CL215-T to battle the Jenkins Creek and Camp House fires. (Wyatt Buckner / Duluth Media Group)

“We’re constantly taking commands from him, and he paints a picture in our minds, as we listen to what he’s telling us and all the other aircraft in the area,” Kinsey said.

Forest Service pilots also maintain direct radio contact with one another on another channel, he said, while simultaneously monitoring chatter between ground crews and the group supervisor.

With multiple aircraft working the scene, coordination is critical, Freking said.

“Especially with two fires burning this close together, the airspace can get a little tight,” he said.

Kinsey said he typically approaches his assigned target at an altitude of around 1,500 feet, dropping to 100 to 150 feet above ground level before releasing his liquid payload.

“At that height, just above the trees, you can have quite an intimate encounter with the flames and smoke,” he said.

At the opportune moment, Kinsey releases a thundering 12,000 pounds of water. The sudden change of weight causes the airplane to lift and buck, especially as it rides atop the rising convection currents of the fire below.

“It’s not as bad as a roller coaster, but you need to keep a strong hand on the flight controls,” he said, explaining the need to keep the plane level, despite its inclination to tip dangerously nose-up toward a potential stall.

Supporting role

A CH-47 Chinook departs the Ely Air Attack Base to battle the Jenkins Creek and Camp House fires on Wednesday. (Wyatt Buckner / Duluth Media Group)

This is Kinsey’s third year battling forest fires from the air, and he said the work has taken him from Alaska to locations throughout the lower 48 states, flying missions in support of Canadian firefighting efforts as well.

He has helped notch numerous victories and has also seen plenty of destruction.

But Kinsey said it still pains him to see homes lost to fire. Flying over the Camp House Fire a day or so after the blaze began and surveying the number of houses destroyed below still made an impression on Kinsey.

“It’s just heartbreaking to see,” he said.

Air assets play only a supporting role, Freking said, often on the front end of the Forest Service’s firefighting efforts.

“Aircraft don’t put out forest fires. But they can cool them enough so that firefighters on the ground can get in there and finish the job,” he said.

In addition to fixed-wing aircraft, several helicopters have been deployed to Ely as well, including large Type III Chinook choppers that can suck up 23,000 gallons of water from a lake in 31 seconds, using powerful hydraulic pumps and 18-inch-diameter intake tubes.

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A small crowd of local onlookers gathered to take in the scene Wednesday afternoon at the Ely base.

Stefanie Kosinski was there with her five children, ages 3 to 14. They live just a couple of miles away from the airfield and had seen aircraft of all sorts flying overhead for the past several days.

“The kids were curious. So we came by to get a closer look, and of course to say, ‘Thank you,’ ” she said.

One of the Forest Service pilots offered to show the children around a Chinook awaiting its next flight, too.

Kosinski expressed her gratitude to the pilot but noted that he waved it off, saying: “These youngsters are the ones that are going to be doing this job one day.”

Debuting on the eve of the millennium in the year 2000, the “Final Destination” franchise gave a generation of millennials some very specific phobias, including lumber trucks, airplane tray tables (a friend still checks hers before every flight to this day), lawn mowers, shower curtains, roller coasters, etc. By weaponizing these otherwise mundane objects into murderous Rube Goldberg machines set into motion by carelessness or random chance, “Final Destination” set itself apart during the late ’90s teen horror trend by what it lacked: a knife-wielding killer.

Death emerged from the world around these characters, seemingly wielded by a menacing unseen force. The only explanation for these outrageously violent deaths was the theory that they had escaped their fate thanks to a harrowing premonition. In the world of “Final Destination,” death wants what it wants, and it is a vengeful god.

The original five-film franchise spanned 2000 to 2011, years that included the Y2K panic, 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and two Bush administrations. In a world that may have felt out of control and increasingly violent, “Final Destination” amplified that feeling, perhaps offering a strange kind of emotional catharsis in its magnification of the horrific randomness of life and death. It stands to reason that the franchise might resonate anew, five years after a deadly global pandemic, the climate crisis accelerating, images of war and suffering pumped into smartphones regularly. Then again, “lega-sequels” are hot right now, and movie studios love a dependable piece of nostalgic IP.

Still, like the characters in the “Final Destination” franchise, it’s impossible to not try and make meaning out of what seems overwhelming. Indeed, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” does respond to our collective anxiety about death, dying and how to control it (spoiler alert: you can’t).

Devon Sawa played the psychically gifted Alex whose bad dream set off this violent string of events; in “Bloodlines,” which is directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor (who developed the story with Jon Watts), the dreamer in question is Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana). Her night terrors are causing her to flunk out of college, and her roommate demands she go home and get some answers so that she can get some sleep.

Stef dreams of the same thing every night: a mind-meltingly horrific collapse of the Skyview Hotel in 1968, centering on a young woman, Iris (Brec Bassinger), who doesn’t listen to her intuition about going up that very, very high elevator. Iris is Stefani’s grandmother, who has turned into a paranoid loner living in a rural fortified compound only the Unabomber could love. When Stef pays her a visit, her grandmother sees she’s received her psychic gift, and passes on her years of (terrifying) research. It’s enough to drive a girl mad.

“Bloodlines” reinvigorates “Final Destination” in a way that makes its predecessors proud, utilizing a family tree death order structure that links the Skyview Hotel event to the freak accidents that now plague Stefani and her extended family. The connective tissue to the previous films takes the form of the late, great Tony Todd, who reprises his role as a wise coroner who offers guidance and advice to our characters, frantic to halt their impending doom.

The “Bloodlines” characters are well-drawn within the ensemble, but make no mistake, the stars of the film are the over-the-top death sequences, which Lipovsky and Stein have elevated and escalated, including a backyard barbecue littered with hazards, and a masterfully executed tattoo-shop scene that links a ceiling fan, skull bobblehead and septum piercing. The opening Skyview nightmare is also especially great for its retro ’60s-style, manic energy and sheer audacity of scale. These new scenarios call back to some of the memorable deaths in the earlier films but are even more elaborate and twisted. This is the kind of film that will give you a phobia of insert shots (“what could that beer bottle possibly do?” you’ll be fretting).

Each sequence is cleverly planned and staged, but timing is everything, and the rhythm and cadence of the edit is perfectly executed by Sabrina Pitre. There’s an odd smoothness to the look and feel of the cinematography by Christian Sebaldt, but the uncanny valley is welcome when it comes to watching such bodily destruction unfold. The artifice is a comfort.

Larger existential questions, philosophical quandaries and mental health themes are present if you want to look for them, but “Final Destination: Bloodlines” also revels in the gleefully gory and low-brow bloody thrills that are the hallmark of the franchise. It’s as deep as you want it to be, and the shockingly wild death traps are enough to keep you gasping while pondering how to try and make meaning out of a world that’s out to get you.

‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for strong violent/grisly accidents, and language)

Running time: 1:50

How to watch: In theaters May 16

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By JILL COLVIN

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota assailed Donald Trump in a law school graduation speech Saturday, accusing the Republican president of creating a national emergency by repeatedly violating the rule of law.

Walz, the vice presidential nominee in 2024, used his remarks at the University of Minnesota’s law school commencement ceremony to call on graduates to stand up to abuses of power. Lawyers, he said, “our first and last line of defense.”

“Right now, more than any other time in my lifetime, we need you to live up to the oath that you’re about to make. Because, I have to be honest with you: You are graduating into a genuine emergency,” Walz told the crowd, which greeted him with loud applause. “Every single day, the president of the United States finds new ways to trample rights and undermine the rule of law.”

Walz pointed to Trump’s immigration crackdown, which includes deporting alleged gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador without due process, and the offer of a gifted jet from the Qatari ruling family to the president.

“This is what the crumbling of rule of law looks like in real time. And it’s exactly what the founders of this nation feared: A tyrant, abusing power to persecute scapegoats and enemies,” he said.

Since Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump in November, Democrats have been debating which direction to take the party amid deep frustrations from Democratic voters that its leaders are failing to do enough to check the new administration.

Walz is among a long list of potential 2028 candidates who have been traveling to early voting states.

Others include Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who sharply criticized “do-nothing” Democrats last month for failing to oppose Trump. Pritzker, who is scheduled to headline a Minnesota Democratic dinner in June, drew attention in February when he used part of his joint budget and State of the State address to draw a parallel between Trump’s rhetoric and the rise of Nazi Germany.

This past week, President Joe Biden’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, returned to Iowa for a town hall where he criticized Trump’s administration while demanding that Democrats make their agenda clear and reach out to people who disagree with them.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been hosting a high-profile podcast. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been drawing huge crowds to rallies across the country. Walz and Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland have scheduled stops in South Carolina at the end of May.

In his commencement speech, Walz acknowledged his words were particularly pointed for a celebratory ceremony.

“Some would say, ’Boy, this is getting way too political for a commencement address.’ But I would argue: I wouldn’t be honoring my oath if I didn’t address this head on,” he said to applause and cheers.

Later, he scoffed at some Democrats who have urged the party to focus on issues such as trade, where Trump is polling badly, instead of the rule of law.

He also attacked “feckless” and “cowardly” big law firms that have acquiesced to Trump in the face of threats, with some offering millions in pro bono work and other benefits.

“It’s a flagrant betrayal of the oath they took as lawyers,” he said, urging graduates to refuse to work for or with those firms as they make their way into the workforce.

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Amy Lindgren

Is there a difference between being stuck and feeling paralyzed? Probably, although it may be more linguistic than actual. When someone says they’re stuck, I imagine someone trying to move forward but not succeeding for some reason. Some version of flailing arms or bicycling legs comes to mind, like in the cartoons.

Figurative paralysis feels more extreme, and more difficult to resolve. For paralyzed job seekers, my mental image is closer to a deer in the headlights, about to get flattened.

Neither condition is good, but I’d say the goal is to get unstuck before paralysis sets in. If you can flail your arms, that’s a good sign, even if it’s a metaphorical flailing.

So how to get unstuck? These 17 tips may help; try them independently or in pairs or all at once. It’s OK to throw everything you have at this kind of problem: The sooner something works, the sooner you can get on with things.

• 1. Change your routine. A different place to sit, different job boards, a different schedule — try to make things fresh again.

• 2. Get a routine. Oops, no routine? That’s a killer. Pick a time to start each day, and build the habit of searching even when you don’t feel motivated.

• 3. Pair difficult activities with something pleasant. It could be a trip to your favorite coffee shop while you send outreach letters or texting with a friend as reward for a challenging task.

• 4. Find an accountability partner. Checking in with someone as you start each day helps reduce the job search isolation.

• 5. Use government services. Every state offers both physical offices and online services dedicated to helping job seekers. Check your browser for “Workforce Centers” to find the nearest option.

• 6. Join a club. Job clubs provide ongoing support and advice from fellow job seekers, which can be invaluable. They are often hosted by workforce centers and local faith groups.

• 7. See a career counselor. A few hours with a professional can save months of flailing. Find the services for free at workforce centers, or on a fee basis in the private sector.

• 8. See a therapist. Is there something deeper going on? A mental health professional can help you find out.

• 9. Try a side hustle. Side gigs and part-time jobs provide countless benefits when you’re stuck, from essential cash flow to new contacts — not to mention an obligation to leave the house.

• 10. Take a class. Or a whole degree program? Increasing your education can create a reset for your search, while showing employers that you’re keeping up.

• 11. Set daily productivity goals. Try a 1, 1, 1 system to start: One job applied for, one outreach for networking, one entry in your job search log to record the activity. Increase the numbers each week while adding new activities.

• 12. Limit your daily search hours. If you’re setting aside whole days to search, you’re giving yourself whole days to flail. Set a two-to-four maximum but hit it every day, preferably starting at the same time. Then commit to meeting your productivity goals in that timeframe.

• 13. Increase your daily search hours. Not searching every day? It’s the habit and process that bring results; even 30 minutes will matter if it’s daily.

• 14. Set an end date for the search. This can feel impossible, but is it? Choose a date 10-15 weeks from now — no more — and work backwards to set daily production goals. As you approach the last five weeks, re-evaluate to determine what will be needed to meet the deadline.

• 15. Make a radical change in your process. If you’ve sent dozens of applications with no results, shift to direct in-person contact. If you’ve been getting interviews but no offers, find an interview coach. Don’t do the same things if they’re clearly not working.

• 16. Make a radical change in your goal. Target small companies instead of the bigs; get a certificate and change fields; reconsider relocation — you may need a new direction altogether to shake things up.

• 17. Take the job you swore you wouldn’t. Whether that’s night shift, a past career you didn’t enjoy, or the job your uncle keeps offering, consider this: Would it really be worse than draining all your savings first and ending up there anyway?

There’s some tough love in these tips, but this is a tough process in what’s looking to be toughening times. You can do this; it’s just a matter of replacing flailing with focus.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.