Rising temperatures are making for a tough drive in some corners of St. Paul.

St. Paul Public Works has posted “Rough Road” signage on arterial street segments where drivers should take extra caution and stay alert for loose pavement, potholes and patching crews.

The road segments will be addressed by street maintenance crews this spring, likely through pothole patching or skim paving, according to Public Works.

The segments include Hamline Avenue from Concordia Avenue to Selby Avenue, Vandalia Street from University Avenue to Interstate 94, Shepard Road from Springfield Street to Gannon Road, and Childs Road at Warner Road.

Why does the freeze-thaw cycle lead to so many potholes? In the winter, water that seeps into pavement cracks freezes and expands underground, acting like a wedge. As the ice melts, it leaves a void beneath the surface, creating ripe conditions for cars passing overhead to disturb the pavement and create holes and loose ground.

Drivers can report potholes to potholes@stpaul.gov or fill out an online form at stpaul.gov/publicworks.

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By TRAVIS LOLLER and KRISTIN M. HALL

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — In the military-heavy communities surrounding Fort Campbell, a sprawling U.S. Army base that straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky line, the war in Iran is on a lot of people’s minds.

The base is home to the 101st Airborne Division, known as “the Screaming Eagles,” which has been a key force in America’s major conflicts since World War II. After Sept. 11, 2001, tens of thousands of troops from the post started regular deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. During troop surges in those countries, yearly combat casualties in the division surpassed some of its deadliest years in Vietnam.

The towns of Oak Grove, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Tennessee, surround the base and cater to the soldiers there with military clothing stores, barbershops and fast food restaurants. War memorials and monuments fill the cities’ green spaces. There are American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and military support centers. At Austin Peay State University, in Clarksville, a third of the students are military or veterans.

Fort Campbell Army installation is seen Monday, March 2, 2026, in Oak Grove, Ky. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

‘Mixed emotions’ about the conflict

Juan Munoz is an Army veteran who spent time in Afghanistan and now works as a career counselor in Clarksville for people leaving the military. He said families in the area have “mixed emotions” about the new war. Many younger soldiers are excited to deploy, while their spouses, parents and siblings worry about their safety.

“You can’t ever give up the concern for your loved one, who’s potentially putting themselves in harm’s way,” he said. However, that concern doesn’t stop them from supporting the attack on Iran. “At the end of the day, they’re going to support their service member.”

Munoz said he thinks the war is a “great move,” because Iran is equipping our enemies, putting our troops and our allies in the region in danger.

Army veteran A.J. Mayo sits during an interview Monday, March 2, 2026, in Clarksville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

“It’s what needs to be done,” he said.

Trust in Trump

Edward Bauman, a veteran with 23 years in the Army who deployed to Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, spoke to a reporter on Monday outside an Oak Grove box store. He based his support for the war on his trust in President Donald Trump.

“My takeaway is there had to have been some reason for him to bomb them. I don’t think he would have just went out of his way to just, ‘I’m going to bomb these people’,” he said.

He does not believe Trump is taking America into another prolonged conflict in the Middle East.

“It’s not going to be another Afghanistan. It’s not going to be another Iraq. We’re not going to go in and try to occupy them,” he said.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Monday that the conflict “is not endless” even as he warned that more American casualties are likely in the weeks ahead.

An entrance to Fort Campbell Army installation is seen Monday, March 2, 2026, in Oak Grove, Ky. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Many unknowns for families

Shannon Razsadin, CEO of the Virginia-based nonprofit Military Family Advisory Network, said there is “a good amount of stress and anxiety from the community just around the unknowns right now.”

In spite of the stress, she said, “They’re incredibly proud. Military families are proud of their service. And our military, our service members are prepared, and they are ready.”

Susan Lynn, a state representative in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, about 70 miles southeast of the Army base, is one of those proud but concerned family members. In 2020, she took to Facebook to thank Trump for not sending her son, who is enlisted in the Air Force, into “another war.” On Saturday, she posted that he has been deployed and asked for prayers.

“From the time my son was a little boy, he wanted to be in the Air Force,” Lynn said in a phone interview on Monday. “He’s extremely patriotic. He will do anything to support our commander in chief. And I feel the same way. That if our commander in chief has made this executive decision, that this is something we should do, then I will trust that.”

Some veterans oppose the attack

Meanwhile, Chris McFarland, another veteran who served out of Fort Campbell and deployed to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, has been making his opposition to the war in Iran well known. As soon as he learned of it, he had a sign made declaring “No more wars” and has been holding it on a major thoroughfare in Clarksville every day.

Army veteran Christopher William McFarland protests the war in Iran on Monday, March 2, 2026, in Clarksville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

McFarland, who leads the nonprofit Veterans for All, which advocates for veteran healthcare, said he has seen some hostility from drivers during his protest, but also some people have pulled over to talk to him. Many want more information about what is happening.

They are ”in shock, confused, concerned,” he said.

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McFarland does not mince words in describing his personal feelings about the attack on Iran.

“It is 100% unnecessary. It is unconstitutional. Literally, our own Congress didn’t even approve of this. This was done without anyone’s acknowledgement at 3:00 in the morning to murder people over in Iran.”

For many combat veterans like himself, he said the idea of a new war is bringing up bad memories.

“It just puts us right back in, right back at ground zero.”

Associated Press reporter Allen G. Breed in Wake Forest, North Carolina, contributed.

By BECKY BOHRER and MARK THIESSEN

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A deckhand on the reality television show “Deadliest Catch,” which documents the lives of crab fishermen working in one of the world’s harshest environments, died after he was reported to have fallen overboard, the U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday.

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The Coast Guard received a notification shortly after 5 p.m. Feb. 25 from the Aleutian Lady that crew member Todd Meadows had fallen overboard about 170 miles north of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, Chief Petty Officer Travis Magee, a spokesperson with the Coast Guard’s Arctic District, said by email Tuesday.

“He was recovered unresponsive by the crew approximately ten minutes later,” Magee wrote. Efforts to resuscitate Meadows were unsuccessful, and the crew brought his body to Dutch Harbor, he said.

The Coast Guard is investigating.

Meadows, from Montesano, Washington, was in his first year as a cast member of the Discovery Channel show. He joined the series last May but no episodes for the new season have aired.

“We lost our brother,” Aleutian Lady Capt. Rick Shelford said in a social media post that did not detail how Meadows died. Shelford called it the “most tragic day in the history of the Aleutian Lady on the Bering Sea.”

Meadows was the newest member of the boat’s crew but quickly became family, Shelford wrote.

“Todd’s love for his children, his family, and his life was evident in everything he did. He worked hard, loved deeply, and brought joy to those around him,” Shelford wrote.

A statement released by the Discovery Channel called Meadows’ death “a devastating loss, and our hearts are with his loved ones, his crewmates, and the entire fishing community during this incredibly difficult time.”

An online fundraiser had brought in about $30,000 by Tuesday to assist Meadows’ family, including his three sons, and pay for funeral costs and other expenses. The fundraiser said Meadows, 25, died what doing what he loved best: crabbing on Alaska waters.

The death is the latest for cast members of the show detailing dangerous crab fishing on the Bering Sea. The show first aired in 2005.

In 2021, crewman Todd Kochutin, 30, died as a result of injuries he received while aboard the fishing vessel Patricia Lee, according to his obituary.

Several other cast members have died of substance abuse or natural causes. They include Capt. Phil Harris of the fishing vessel Cornelia Marie, who died in 2010 at age 53 following a massive stroke, NPR reported.

Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.

A St. Paul man who killed his puppy with a hammer has been put on probation for three years.

Tyler John Van Lannen (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Tyler John Van Lannen, 30, lived at a New Brighton apartment building with his then-wife and their puppy at the time of the June 2024 killing, telling police after his arrest that he repeatedly struck the 6-month-old soft-coated Wheaten Terrier in the head because it kept barking.

Van Lannen was accepted into Ramsey County Mental Health Treatment Court on Dec. 17 and pleaded guilty to felony animal cruelty the same day. His plea came 10 days after he was arrested in Mendota Heights on suspicion of DWI.

He has two prior DWI convictions, both out of Ramsey County stemming from incidents about four months apart in 2021.

On Monday, Ramsey County District Judge Timothy Carey followed a plea agreement Van Lannen reached with the prosecution and stayed a one-year prison sentence for three years.

The sentence includes a stay of imposition, which means the conviction will become a misdemeanor if he successfully completes the conditions of his probation. Conditions include complying with all expectations of mental health treatment court, and random testing for alcohol and controlled substance use.

Bludgeoned dog found in trash bag

According to the criminal complaint, New Brighton police responded to an apartment building in the 2200 block of Palmer Drive around 3 p.m. June 23, 2024, on a report that a man had been verbally aggressive with his wife and had killed their puppy.

Officers saw a man matching the description walking from the building and carrying a large garbage bag. As officers drove toward him, he ran toward a dumpster.

As they approached, he said, “He wouldn’t stop barking, the dog,” the complaint read. He said he had killed the dog and that it was in the bag. Inside the bag was a curled-up, dead dog that appeared to have been bludgeoned. The man, Van Lannen, was arrested.

Back outside the apartment, officers met with Van Lannen’s wife. She said she’d been away from the apartment and received a call from him complaining about their puppy’s behavior. She said he then added, “So I killed it.”

She said that she came home and they argued, and that he left with the puppy in the garbage bag.

In an interview, Van Lannen told police they had been having problems with the puppy soiling the apartment. He said that on that day, he lost his patience, as the dog would not stop barking, and hit it on the head with a hammer about six times.

Van Lannen’s wife gave officers consent to search their apartment. She gave them a hammer, saying it was the only one they have; it was clean. In the living room was a pool of blood, along with excrement. The living-room floor had a divot that matched the head of a hammer.

About a month before the killing, the complaint said, Van Lannen’s wife reported to police that he was threatening her through texts. She gave police screenshots of aggressive and threatening texts from him.

‘Ready to get back up on my feet’

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Van Lannen appeared for sentencing in Ramsey County Mental Health Treatment Court via Zoom from an inpatient treatment center.

He chose not to address the court before hearing his sentence from Carey, who asked how he is doing.

“I’ve really gotten back into my faith. That’s my No. 1 thing,” he replied. “But I’m also ready to get back up on my feet, get better. I didn’t like being homeless and just being drunk.”

Court records show Van Lannen and his wife finalized a divorce two months after the puppy’s killing and that he later moved to St. Louis Park and then to a St. Paul homeless shelter.

He is due back in mental health treatment Court on March 16 for a progress check-in and Dakota County District Court on gross misdemeanor DWI charges April 28.