Enforcement agencies across the country, including the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, will participate in “Operation Dry Water” over the coming Fourth of July weekend.

The national campaign aims to increase knowledge about the dangers of boating under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Participating enforcement agencies will target intoxicated boaters and drivers July 4-6 as part of the effort. In Minnesota, the State Patrol, county sheriff’s offices and other state public safety agencies also will participate, the DNR said in a news release.

In recent years, as many as half of boating fatalities in Minnesota involved alcohol, the DNR said.

“Shared waterways mean shared responsibility, and it’s up to every boater to make sure they’re keeping themselves and other boaters safe,” the DNR said.

The goal is to reduce the number of accidents and deaths associated with alcohol and drug use on state waterways.

While educating boaters about the hazards associated with boating while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is a year-round effort, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department said wardens during Operation Dry Water weekend will focus on the water, informing boaters about safe boating practices and removing impaired operators from the water.

Game and Fish offers these tips for staying safe on the water, not only what promises to be a busy long holiday weekend but throughout the boating season:

Boat sober: Alcohol use is the leading contributing factor in recreational boater deaths. Alcohol and drug use impair a boater’s judgment, balance, vision and reaction time.

Wear your life jacket: 85% of drowning victims nationwide were not wearing a life jacket.

Take the online boating safety education course: 71% of deaths nationwide occurred on boats where the operator had not received boating safety instruction.

More information about Operation Dry Water can be found online at www.operationdrywater.org.

The Stillwater City Council this week unanimously approved a conditional-use permit for the city’s first – and only – licensed adult-use recreational cannabis retail business.

Officials with Silver Therapeutics, which will be located at 1778 Greeley St. S., still must get their state license before the city can complete their registration process, but that is “in the works,” Interim Community Development Director Jason Zimmerman told council members on Tuesday night.

Silver Therapeutics officials are applying for a state license from the Office of Cannabis Management to operate as a “microbusiness,” one that would be allowed to grow, make and sell consumer products to customers and businesses out of a single retail location, but Silver Therapeutics will do only retail sales at the Stillwater location, Zimmerman said. There will be no on-site consumption, he said.

“The CUP language limits them to retail, and the city’s zoning doesn’t allow anything other than retail (at the site), so our bases are covered,” Zimmerman said.

‘We’re making history tonight’

In accordance with state law and city ordinance, Stillwater, population 19,200, is allowed to issue one cannabis business registration per 12,500 residents, as determined by the most recent state demographer’s estimate. The cap on registrations does not apply to a medical cannabis combination business or a lower-potency hemp edible retailer.

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“Congratulations. You’re the first legal weed spot in Stillwater,” Mayor Ted Kozlowski said Tuesday night. “We’re making history tonight. …

“Everybody has done a great job in dealing with all of this,” Kozlowski said. “It was not easy how the state rolled this out … I appreciate everybody’s patience. I’m sure you had to have some patience during this process as well, and our city attorney has done mountains of work.

“We had many, many meetings where all we heard about was weed, weed, weed,” the mayor said. “I was surprised to just be so bored with weed. My 16-year-old self was like, ‘How can you be bored of talking about weed?’ I’m like, ‘Hey, it can happen. Just wait till you’re almost 50. It becomes less interesting.’”

The city’s process

Silver Therapeutics’ CUP application was compliant with all city regulations that determine appropriate locations for cannabis-related businesses in Stillwater, Zimmerman said. The property is zoned business park/commercial, and falls outside of all sensitive use buffers from residential zones, childcare and educational facilities, and park amenities frequented by minors. It also is more than 1,000 feet away from any other cannabis business in the city, he said.

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A public hearing on the CUP application was held during the city’s June 25 planning commission meeting, and the planning commission recommended approval. There were no public comments for or against the proposal submitted in writing or in person, Zimmerman said, and the store’s security plan was reviewed by the city’s police department.

Business plans

According to a letter accompanying the CUP application, Silver Therapeutics proposes to employ 10 to 14 full-time team members and plans to work with the landlord to invest more than $250,000 to renovate the property, “providing a more attractive storefront and interior of the building to facilitate the applicant’s proposed retail use,” the letter states.

“In addition, the applicant will utilize a point-of-sale system that permits customers to order products online for in-store pick up only and only after on-site age verification can be completed,” the letter states. “This process will cut down on the number of parking (spots) required and the number of customers on site at any given time.”

Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck is in line for a one-year contract extension — along with increased retention bonuses and smaller buyout figures — when the Board of Regents meets next Wednesday.

Fleck’s contract was amended last year to $6 million in combined base salary and supplemental compensation through the 2029 season. Now, Fleck’s deal will run through Dec. 31, 2030.

Fleck, who has a 58-39 overall record at Minnesota since 2017, has received nearly annual contract enhancements and extensions.

His new retention bonuses will start at $1 million this year; $1.2 million in 2026; $1.3 million in 2027; $1.4 million in 2028; $1.5 million in in 2029; and $1.6 million in 2030. Each year, those sums are split evenly and paid on Sept. 1 and Dec. 31.

In the terms from last year, Fleck was set to get retention bonuses starting at $700,000 in 2024 that would grow incrementally to $1.2 million in 2029.

If Fleck leaves before his contract expires, his buyout structure has been revised down from $7 million to $5.5 million in Year 1; $5 million to $4.5 million in Year 2; $4 million to $3 million in Year 3; $3 million to $2 million in Year 4; $2 million to $1 million in Year 5; and remains at $0 in Year 6.

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By CHRISTOPHER WEBER and TRÂN NGUYỄN

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Rescue crews were searching on Thursday for seven people still missing days after an explosion at a fireworks warehouse in Northern California shook a tiny farming community and forced the cancellation of nearby July Fourth celebrations.

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The barrage of fireworks that exploded Tuesday caused a massive blaze that led to other spot fires and collapsed the building in Yolo County about 40 miles northwest of Sacramento.

Family members gathered near a sheriff’s checkpoint about a mile from the blast site in rural Esparto, hoping for news about their loved ones. Syanna Ruiz, who is pregnant, said her boyfriend, 18-year-old Jesus Ramos, was working his first day at the warehouse when the explosion occurred. Ramos’ brothers, 22-year-old Johnny Ramos and 28-year-old Junior Melendez, were also missing, she said.

“I’m just praying to God that some way, somehow, they’re OK,” Ruiz told the Sacramento Bee on Wednesday.

Two people were treated for injuries, officials said. The cause of the explosion was under investigation.

The warehouse was managed by Devastating Pyrotechnics, which has more than 30 years of experience designing and producing fireworks shows in the Bay Area, according to a screenshot of its website before it was taken down. The company, with headquarters in both San Francisco and Esparto, focuses mainly on display fireworks for big productions instead of those for retail.

“Our hearts and thoughts are with those we lost, their families, and everyone impacted in our community,” the company said in a statement. “Our focus will remain on those directly impacted by this tragedy, and we will cooperate fully with the proper authorities in their investigation.”

After Tuesday’s blast, officials in nearby Sutter and Yuba counties issued a statement calling the company “a trusted partner and a cherished part of our regional fireworks celebrations.”

Living near a fireworks warehouse always means a risk of fire and explosion, said fire investigator expert Richard Meier, but it is especially dangerous when it involves fireworks for large shows.

“You don’t want to live in the house right next door,” he said, adding that such large fireworks can “shoot a quarter of a mile or more.”

Meier said anything from a nearby brush fire to workers using equipment that were potential ignition sources could have triggered the explosion. Fireworks being stored too closely in large quantity also could have contributed to the scale of the blast.

The company’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to question about whether the business was manufacturing fireworks on-site or how many fireworks were stored at the facility.

Authorities were working with the property’s owner and monitoring the area using drones to find the missing people as small explosions continued late Wednesday, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

The fire was held at nearly 80 acres after scorching surrounding agricultural fields, officials said.

“This type of incident is very rare, as facilities like this are required to not only follow our stringent California pyrotechnic requirements, but also federal explosive storage requirements,” Cal Fire said.

Nisa Gutierrez told the Sacramento CBS affiliate KOVR-TV that the blast was so strong it blew open the doors of her home, damaging the door frames.

She and her daughter were in their yard and were nearly knocked over as their pony and goats scattered.

“We hear like a big boom, and feel the wave,” Gutierrez said. “I thought it was a bomb.”

Crews including a team with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were working to enable safe access to the site “to conduct recovery operations and bolster investigative efforts for the explosion investigation,” the statement said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said it was tracking what happened and that state ground and air resources were deployed.

Officials in nearby Sutter and Yuba counties announced Wednesday that they were exploring alternatives for Fourth of July celebrations after their fireworks were destroyed in the blast.

“This tragic incident is a sobering reminder of the many hands behind the scenes who help create joy for others,” they said in a statement.