Taylor Heise has been a household name in American hockey for years.

The current Frost center won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as college hockey’s best player while at the University of Minnesota in 2022, later that year was named MVP of the IIHF World Championships and then was the first overall selection in the inaugural PWHL draft.

Heise has helped the Frost win each of the first two PWHL titles. Dating back to her high school days in Red Wing, Heise even claimed Ms. Hockey honors.

Minnesota Frost forward Taylor Heise (27) and Toronto Sceptres forward Daryl Watts (9) watch the puck fly past them in the first period of a PWHL game at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

But there is still one thing Heise has yet to do on the ice — play for Team USA in the Winter Olympics.

“Just the experience of being there would be legit,” Heise said. “I’ve watched the Olympics every year I can ever remember, I think, since I was like 6. Just watching, not caring what the sport was, just that there was USA on their emblem. It’s just special.”

The PWHL will be on a nearly month-long hiatus from Jan. 29-Feb. 25 to allow its players to participate in the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Heise was one of the last Team USA cuts prior to the Beijing Games in 2022.

While she remained stateside, her longtime teammate and roommate with the Frost and Gophers, Grace Zumwinkle, made the team that won a silver medal.

It was a tough time in their relationship, but it never caused a rift between the duo. Their bond on and off the ice has become unbreakable, no matter what’s thrown at them.

“I think she’s grown a ton from overcoming adversity, and I think coming short in 2022 was obviously a huge disappointment for her,” Zumwinkle said. “I think it’s a huge testament that we’ve both had to overcome injuries or adversity, and I think it’s always through those times you can see who you can rely on and trust.”

Some time after the Olympics in 2022, Zumwinkle wanted to create a more fun culture for the Gophers away from the ice and established “Team Fun.” Heise immediately joined her roommate’s new venture as a way to help balance out life when things weren’t going her way on the ice.

Heise said Zumwinkle “is someone that brings my energy up. And sometimes when I’m not feeling it, she always brings it up and always has a positive attitude.”

The tandem of Heise and Zumwinkle has kept ‘Team Fun’ going with the Frost, most recently following a TikTok trend calling their teammates to say ‘Good night’. A video of them making these calls was posted to the Frost’s social media channels on Thursday, showcasing how Team Fun brings the team together.

“I think you saw a variety of reactions and responses, but I think that what makes it fun and it’s always those memories that you remember more than highlight reel goals,” Zumwinkle said. “Yeah, it’s cool, but it’s those things that help with the chemistry you build off the ice.”

Frost coach Ken Klee said Heise and Zumwinkle are “fun personalities” and “great kids.”

“They come to the rink every day with a smile on their face,” Klee said. “Obviously, they’re talented players. They’re good teammates, good people, they like funny stuff, and kind of keep their teammates with their smiles, as well.”

Team Fun has also been a helpful balance for Heise as she continues to build on her dreams of making the Olympic roster and winning a third straight Walter Cup with the Frost. It can sometimes be challenging for athletes to find an equilibrium between the PWHL season and preparation for the Olympics, but Heise says the mentorship she’s received from Klee and John Wroblewski, head coach of the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team, helped strike that balance.

“It’s really stressful when the Olympics come. It’s once every four years, so competing for that, it’s where my mind is at all the time,” Heise said. “And I think when I’m here, I try to push that out. Just understand that when I’m here, I want to get better for over there, and when I’m there, I want to be getting better for this team.”

Barring any injuries, Heise is all but a guarantee to be on the Team USA roster — which will be finalized Jan. 5 — for the Olympics this February.

Team USA will practice with those on the preliminary roster who are present for the International Rival series this week. They will not practice again until the finalized roster is in Italy for the Olympics.

If and when the time comes, it will be a rewarding outcome for Heise to accomplish a dream she’s been chasing since she was six years old.

Of course, the real satisfaction will come if Team USA manages to bring home gold.

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By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that Thai and Cambodian leaders have agreed to renew a truce after days of deadly clashes had threatened to undo a ceasefire the U.S. administration had helped broker earlier this year.

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Trump announced the agreement to restart the ceasefire in a social media posting following calls with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.

“They have agreed to CEASE all shooting effective this evening, and go back to the original Peace Accord made with me, and them, with the help of the Great Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim,” Trump said in his Truth Social posting.

The original ceasefire in July was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.

Despite the deal, the two countries carried on a bitter propaganda war and minor cross-border violence continued.

The roots of the Thai-Cambodian border conflict lie in a history of enmity over competing territorial claims. These claims largely stem from a 1907 map created while Cambodia was under French colonial rule, which Thailand maintains is inaccurate. Tensions were exacerbated by a 1962 International Court of Justice ruling that awarded sovereignty to Cambodia, which still riles many Thais.

Thailand has deployed jet fighters to carry out airstrikes on what it says are military targets. Cambodia has deployed BM-21 rocket launchers with a range of 30-40 kilometers (19-25 miles).

According to data collected by public broadcaster ThaiPBS, at least six of the Thai soldiers who were killed were hit by rocket shrapnel.

The Thai army’s northeastern regional command said Thursday that some residential areas and homes near the border were damaged by BM-21 rocket launchers from Cambodian forces.

The Thai army also said it destroyed a tall crane atop a hill held by Cambodia where the centuries-old Preah Vihear temple is located, because it allegedly held electronic and optical devices used for military command and control purposes.

Film fans like to lament, “they don’t make them like they used to,” specifically about the kinds of wry, life-affirming dramedies that director James L. Brooks perfected back in the 1980s and ‘90s, like “Terms of Endearment,” “As Good as It Gets” and “Broadcast News.” Films of that tone and character are rarer and rarer these days, so it’s worth noting when a new one comes along. But as it turns out with Brooks’ latest, the deeply strange “Ella McCay,” he doesn’t make them like he used to either.

“Ella McCay” is a portrait of a lady on fire — from stress. The quirky, twitchy Ella (Emma Mackey, horrifically bewigged) is the youngest lieutenant governor in her state, an awkward policy wonk serving under her mentor, Gov. Bill Moore (Albert Brooks). When he’s tapped for “the Cabinet,” Ella gets the promotion that she craves, sworn in as the youngest female governor of her state, even as her family life descends into chaos. But Ella’s family life has always been chaotic, as we see in flashbacks to her teenage years, wherein our narrator describes how Ella experiences seeing other happy families as a stab in the heart.

Our narrator is Estelle (Julie Kavner), Ella’s secretary, who explains she’s also biased, claiming “I’m nuts about her.” The year, by the way, is 2008, “when we could still talk to each other.” So, Brooks has set this political film in the recent past, giving a wide berth to the third rail that is MAGA, but his shrinking away from political hot buttons just renders the whole gambit frustratingly vague and therefore meaningless. Ella lives in “the state,” she runs afoul of “the party,” but skirting the details is a cowardly move, frankly. It’s clear Ella’s politics are liberal, as she champions a bill designed to support parents and children in early childhood (she tears up over “tooth tutors”) but why play coy with the specifics?

All Ella wants to do is run her policy meetings, but the men in her life keep getting in the way. First there’s her dad (Woody Harrelson), an inveterate philanderer who would like to make amends — in order to please his new girlfriend. Then there’s Ella’s agoraphobic brother (Spike Fearn), over whom she frets (the less said about his bizarrely tacked-on romantic entanglement with an ex-girlfriend played by Ayo Edebiri, the better). Then there’s her husband (Jack Lowden), a seemingly nice, if cocky guy who suddenly starts to love the warmth of the spotlight as Ella ascends.

Again and again, Ella runs in circles trying to put out fires with these men without ever getting to her meetings, or doing the job she claims she loves so much (and when she finally does get to her meeting, it’s a flop). The entire movie is about how men are always getting in the way of women’s work, but it’s not entirely clear that Brooks knows that this is what his film is about, as Ella happily embarks on pointless side quests with her dad and brother, and becomes embroiled in the tamest political sex scandal of all time The real scandal here is why she entertains any of these losers at all.

It never feels like Brooks has a grasp on the material here, which careens aimlessly through Ella’s harried day-to-day, in a handsomely bland, serviceable style. The thread about Ella’s childhood trauma resulting from her parents’ messy relationship is lost, and was never that convincing to begin with. She has an unconventional family, but her aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), who helped raise her, is a fierce protector and confidant. Their relationship is fun to watch, so why bother with all these men and their inane storylines? The only worthy man in Ella’s life is her designated security detail (Kumail Nanjiani). In another movie, they’d have a romance, some sexual tension, or at least a heartfelt and wise conversation. Here, his character is denied any chance of that.

As we move from broken home to political scandal to another broken home, Ella finally realizes that a woman’s place is not in the capitol, but rather in the nonprofit sector (not that she has much choice in the matter). What, exactly, is Brooks trying to say here? We spend two hours watching men mess things up for Ella and then she just accepts it and moves on. Even if the message weren’t profoundly weird, dramatically it falls flat, even if Estelle tries to tie it up with a positive final message — “the opposite of trauma is hope.” Whatever that means. It’s apt that this closing phrase makes as much sense as the rest of the movie, which is to say, very little.

‘Ella McCay’

1.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for strong language, some sexual material and drug content)

Running time: 1:55

How to watch: In theaters Dec. 12

TV legend Bryan Fuller, known for his cult classic television series like “Pushing Daisies” and “Hannibal,” just earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature, for his film “Dust Bunny.” It’s somehow a surprise that the well-known TV creator just directed his first film, after spending almost three decades working in television, on series like “Dead Like Me” and “American Gods.” Now, he turns to the world of indie film, reuniting with actor Mads Mikkelsen, his Hannibal Lecter, on the dark fairy tale “Dust Bunny.”

Fuller has a thing for idioms, exploring these tropes to their most extreme ends (e.g., “pushing daisies”), and so in “Dust Bunny,” he imagines what those bits of fluff could be if our nightmares came to life. He also posits an outlandish notion: what if a kid hired an assassin to kill the monster under her bed?

Aurora (Sophia Sloan) is an imaginative young girl who hears things that roar and scream in the night, the dust bunny under her bed a ravenous, monstrous thing. When her parents go missing, she’s convinced they’ve been eaten by the monster bunny, and seeks out the services of an “intriguing neighbor” (Mikkelsen, that’s how he’s credited), whom she has seen vanquishing dragons in the alley outside. With a fee that she purloins from a church collection plate, she implores him for help, and he agrees, as he learns more about this young girl’s challenging childhood.

At first, “Dust Bunny” feels a little light, the story skittering across its densely designed surface, with very little dialogue in the first half. But it grows and grows, more bits and pieces of story accumulating together as Fuller reveals this strange, heightened world. We meet Intriguing Neighbor’s handler Laverne (Sigourney Weaver), revealing the larger, Wick-ian world of killers that he inhabits. Wicked Laverne chomps through her scenes like the monster bunny chomps through the floorboards — literally, as she consumes charcuterie, dumplings and “suckling pig tea sandwiches” with gusto. Indeed, some monsters are seated across the table, Cheshire cat grinning in florals.

The film is essentially “Leon: The Professional” meets “Amelie” (one of Fuller’s favorite films), but with his distinct wit and flair. But that style also means that “Dust Bunny” is quite fussy and mannered, and if you don’t buy in on the film’s arch humor and stylized world, you’re liable to bounce right off of it. As Fuller opens the world up, revealing a sly FBI agent (Sheila Atim) and more and more baddies (David Dastmalchian, Rebecca Henderson), the story becomes more intriguing beyond its unwieldy childhood trauma metaphor, but there’s also not quite enough embroidered on this tapestry. It feels shallow, the world only gestured toward, not fleshed out.

Fuller demonstrates a strong command over his visual domain, but the pat allegory he presents about the monsters with whom we have to learn to live feels a bit muddled. Sloan and Mikkelsen are terrific together, but you feel that there is much more they could sink their teeth into here, and perhaps the limits of the story reveal the limits of the budget, carefully wallpapered over with opulent production design — explosions of patterns and color crafted by Jeremy Reed, captured with shadowy but lush cinematography by Nicole Hirsch Whitaker.

Fuller’s foray into film feels like a first feature — a bit of a surprise for someone so experienced. But the project sports his signature style, even if it doesn’t add up to much more than a neat kiddie-centric hard R genre exercise.

‘Dust Bunny’

2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for some violence)

Running time: 1:46

How to watch: In theaters Dec. 12

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