According to a survey from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 96 million Americans are bird-watchers, or 37% of the population aged 16 and above. Most observe from home, but 43 million have traveled 1 mile or more to go birding.

Sausalito’s Amy Tan, author of the book “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” knows why.

“Birds are some of the most magical animals on Earth,” Tan said. “They fly, they sing crazy beautiful songs, they have amazing navigational systems that feel the magnetic force of the universe and guide themselves by the sun and the moon.”

Because birding can be done almost anywhere and requires little gear, it’s an easy activity to pick up and a practice suitable to many trips. Here’s how to get started.

Hone your powers of observation

Bird-watching requires observing not just a bird’s appearance but its behavior.

“Is it quick, slow, frenetic, soaring or staying in the underbrush?” said Nate Swick, the education and digital content coordinator for the nonprofit American Birding Association and the author of “The Beginner’s Guide to Birding.” “Those are clues as much as colors and patterns.”

Most experts suggest starting in your backyard or neighborhood park and learning the local resident birds to refine your birding skills before you take them on the road.

Download apps

In the digital age, apps have made birding easier than paging through field guides by offering step-by-step processes that narrow down a list of possible birds or identify a bird by its song.

The free app Merlin Bird ID from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology does both. Also free, the Audubon Bird Guide app from the nonprofit conservation group uses visual input to identify birds and displays a tally of birds seen. Both apps allow the user to search according to geographical area so they are handy for travelers, and both can be used offline.

Don’t forget binoculars

Binoculars are graded by two sets of numbers, such as 8×30, explained Chris Harbard, the president of the Southwest Wings birding festival in Sierra Vista, Ariz. who has worked as a birding expert for Silversea Cruises.

The first number indicates the degree of magnification. As the magnification number gets larger, so does the size of the set, making them harder to carry and hold steady.

The second number relates to the diameter in millimeters of the lens at the larger end of the binoculars. The bigger the number, the more light the lens admits, making the image you see brighter and clearer.

While mini travel binoculars provide some magnification, Harbard recommended starting with 8×30 or 8×32, which are not too bulky to pack, though choosing the right set is an individual choice.

Good starter binoculars are estimated to run about $200 to $250. Make sure they have rain covers for the eyepieces and look for binoculars that are labeled “sealed” or “nitrogen filled,” which prevents moisture from condensing inside the lenses.

Dress for success

If birders often look like they could be on safari, there’s a reason.

“You don’t want to stand out to a bird,” Harbard said, noting anything bright and light like white or yellow are conspicuous. “If you are not seen, you will see a lot of birds.”

Birders should wear comfortable shoes that allow them to stand or walk for long periods. Make sure they are closed-toed in places like the tropics where your feet can be vulnerable to insect bites. Carry a backpack with a waterproof or warm layer, snacks, sunscreen, bug spray and water.

Incorporate birding into travel

Birding can be part of nearly any journey. Travelers can look up chapters of Audubon to find area events like bird walks or use a website like Birding Pal to find local birders and volunteer guides (annual subscriptions, $10).

“There are opportunities in every state to visit birding hot spots or trails, which are collections of good birding spots,” said Brooke Bateman, the senior director of climate and community science for Audubon.

Up the odds by viewing a migration

Traveling to witness a migration — such as the warblers that visit northwest Ohio each spring, an event celebrated as the Biggest Week in American Birding festival — can reduce the risk of disappointment inherent in wildlife watching.

“Birding can be like fishing sometimes; you never know exactly what you’re going to get and it can be slow,” said Swick. “But migrations are more of a guarantee.”

Graduate to a birding trip

Birding-specific trips offer opportunities to see specific or rare species, from snowy owls in Minnesota to resplendent quetzals in Costa Rica.

“The tropics is where diversity is at,” said Kathi Borgmann, an ornithologist and the communications manager at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, highlighting the band around the equator. In a place like Mindo, Ecuador, she added, birders might see 50 to 100 species in a day.

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Birding trips often specify the degree of physical activity required. Naturalist Journeys, a tour company specializing in birding and nature, has trips at “a birder’s pace” and more active ones labeled “humming along.”

Expect an early-to-bed, early-to-rise schedule. On its website, the birding-focused tour company Wings publishes a guideline on what to expect, including possible pre-breakfast birding walks, walking for up to six hours a day and taking a midday break in warmer climates.

“Birding makes anywhere you go special,” said Swick. “Like local food, local birds are distinct.”

NONPROFITS

Jenna Ray

GiveMN, a Minnesota nonprofit donations hub and sponsor of the annual Give to the Max Day, announced the appointment of Jenna Ray as executive director and CEO, effective July 1. She succeeds Jake Blumberg, who left the organization in January. Ray has been the organization’s interim executive director, and before that served as GiveMN’s deputy executive director and chief impact officer.

ARCHITECTURE/ENGREERING

Golden Valley-based engineering and consulting firm WSB announced the promotion of Monica Heil to senior vice president of municipal services. Heil has been with the firm for 12 years and has held various leadership roles.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Securian Financial, St. Paul, announced that Chris LeClair has joined as an external wholesaler for the company’s Institutional Retirement Solutions business. LeClair most recently was with Bremer Bank, where he was a vice president and retirement plan consultant. He’s also had earlier stints with Securian, RBC Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch, Russell Investments and LeClair Group, his family’s insurance business. … Forvis Mazars, an international public accounting, auditing and consulting firm, announced the opening of an office in Minneapolis, its first in Minnesota. The launch will be spearheaded by Tyler Aldridge.

HEALTH CARE

Patrick Conway, CEO of health insurer UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Health care delivery unit, has been promoted to CEO of the broader Optum division, adding the title of Optum Health CEO. He succeeds Amar Desai, who will become president of Optum integrated care and vice-chairman of Optum Health. The appointments were reported by Bloomberg News. UnitedHealth Group and Optum are both based in Eden Prairie.

LAW

Fredrikson, Minneapolis, announced that attorney Tom Brett has joined its Energy & Natural Resources, Energy Regulation & Permitting, Energy Litigation and Environmental Law groups. … Faegre Drinker announced that Beata Spuhler has joined the firm’s customs and international trade team and government and regulatory group in Minneapolis. Spuhler joins the firm from 3M Co., Maplewood, where she spearheaded global trade compliance for international subsidiaries.

MANUFACTURING

Lakeshirts, a Detroit Lakes, Minn.-based nationwide maker of screen-printed souvenir logo apparel and goods for colleges and destination locations under various brands, announced the appointment of David Best as chief executive officer, effective July 7. He succeeds co-founders Mark Fritz and Mike Hutchinson, who will transition to advisory roles and serve on the company’s board of directors.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Sanuwave Health, an Eden Prairie-based developer and maker of electronic wound care products, announced the hiring of Dustin Libby as executive vice president of commercial operations. Libby previously held leadership roles at Abiomed, Smith & Nephew, Arthrex and Hill-ROM. … Vensana Capital, an Edina-based medical technology-focused venture capital and growth equity investment firm, announced the additions of Dr. Maria Berkman as partner and Dr. Ross (Rusty) Segan as venture partner. Berkman most recently was director and head of the MedTech practice at Broadview Ventures; Segan previously served as director of the office of Product Evaluation and Quality at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

REAL ESTATE

National commercial real estate firm CBRE announced that Tannen Loge has joined as managing director and property management market leader in Minneapolis. Loge joins CBRE from JLL, where he most recently served as vice president, group manager.

SERVICES

Regis Corp., a Minneapolis-based operator and franchiser of retail hair care salons, announced that Matthew Doctor will step down as president, chief executive officer and director, effective June 30. Jim Lain, current EVP brand operations – Supercuts and Cost Cutters, has been selected serve as interim president and CEO. A Succession Planning Committee will be led by director Susan Lintonsmith. Doctor will be staying on in a support role until Sept 1.

TECHNOLOGY

KLDiscovery, an Eden Prairie-based global provider of electronic data discovery, investigation and retention technology for business, announced the appointment of Lou Paglia as chief executive officer. He succeeds Mike Suchsland, who remains chairman of the board, and has served in an interim leadership role since January. Paglia most recently served as president and chief operating officer of Sterling Check Corp.

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EMAIL ITEMS to businessnews@pioneerpress.com.

Edward Lotterman

The Federal Reserve has gotten lots of media attention recently, notwithstanding everything else that’s happening in the world.

Consider the following news items in from the past week:

• Fed Governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller spoke in favor of lowering the Fed’s interest rate target — immediately.

• In his inimitable style, President Donald Trump came up with new nasty adjectives to describe Fed Chair Jerome Powell — who has the temerity to be willing to wait to lower rates until the data actually call for it.

• Powell’s semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins report to Congress stretched over three days and included testy questions by multiple senators and representatives.

• The Fed announced it would loosen reserve requirements imposed on large banks in the 2007-09 financial debacle.

• Fed Governor Michael Barr bluntly asserted, “I expect inflation to rise due to tariffs,” in calling for no change in interest rates.

• While speaking before Congress, Powell was forced to explain a large cost overrun in remodeling the Fed’s 90-year-old primary D.C. headquarters building.

What to make of all of this?

Start by backing off the details to review fundamentals:

Contrary to what the media, general public and many politicians may think, a Fed Board Chair is not a dictator. They cannot make unilateral decisions on the money supply and thus interest rates. These fall to a 19-person Federal Open-Market Committee that meets eight times a year. The committee consists of the seven governors appointed by presidents and confirmed by the Senate, together with the presidents of the 12 Fed District Banks.

These independent banks are individual private corporations who hire their own executives. Neither the president nor Congress have any say over their ongoing operations.

All 19 members participate in discussions, but when time comes for a vote, only five of the 12 district presidents vote in an annual rotation. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari does not vote this year, but will in 2026 and again in 2029.

The vote is on a motion by the chair for monetary policy to follow until the next meeting — either in increasing or decreasing the money supply via the buying and selling of government bonds in the “open market.” This then determines the interest rate that Trump wants Powell to lower.

The motion always passes, but only because a chair never makes a motion that would cause a bad split. One or two dissents by district presidents are not uncommon. Three or more are. And dissents by other governors are rare indeed.

The reason is that the seven governors work in the same building and can hammer out differences behind closed doors. Differences may be accommodated in the wording of the “FOMC Statements” released to the press after meetings. Open splits are avoided since they might panic financial markets.

If any of the 12 district presidents meet between FOMC meetings, it is only incidentally. There is an unwritten rule that they not caucus between meetings. All give public speeches frequently. They communicate their personal views to each other via bland statements in these speeches. When voting members, they can dissent at any meeting. But frequent dissents soon devalue one’s message. In the 1990s, Cleveland Fed Bank President Jerry Jordan dissented so frequently that he was largely ignored.

So now two governors, Bowman and Waller, very openly oppose the chair. While not unprecedented, this is highly unusual, especially only days after a meeting in which all had agreed to make no changes to rates.

It means nothing that the dissenters were appointed by Trump in his first term (as was Powell). Given their backgrounds, it is highly likely Bowman and Waller detest Trump’s style of governance. Bowman is a Kansan and a long-time aide of Sen. Bob Dole. With Dole’s favor, she spent two years as that state’s commissioner of banking.

Waller, a Bemidji State econ grad, spent 10 years as research director, the No. 2 policy position, at the St. Louis Fed. He was generally in favor of low interest rates. However, in 2021, during COVID and already a governor, he did call for higher rates as inflation took off.

Michael Barr, who last week rose to refute his colleagues, is a policy wunderkind with a law degree from Yale. Like President Bill Clinton he is a Rhodes Scholar. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice David Souter. By age 30, he was a special assistant to Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. He moved to a policy position and returned to the Treasury in the Obama administration before coming to the Fed. So he is a heavy hitter.

Barr also was an architect of nearly every post-2007-09 financial debacle regulatory action — the Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulation act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, limitations on credit card and “industrial loan” abuses. He also fought to implement the “Volcker Rule,” limiting speculative investments by “depository institutions” — banks — that the industry fought tooth and nail. All these regulations are now targets of the Trump administration and the GOP in Congress.

With Barr publicly opposing his renegade colleagues, the leadup to the next FOMC meeting, July 30- 31, seems like a standoff from Gunsmoke. A rough gang wants to go tarryhooting all around Dodge. Marshall Powell quietly steps into the street and says he won’t allow it. Citizens Bowman and Waller step into the street to join the yahoos. But Barr, a respected town leader, joins Powell. And five district bank presidents from New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Richmond, four of whom will vote, also step onto the street saying, “At least not today boys!”

While not that cinematic, and no one will be shot, the next FOMC meeting likely will be a standoff. Each side may politely criticize each other. But the renegade gang will turn and ride out of town, at least for now, hoping others will join them six weeks later. That — a seemingly inevitable decision to lower rates — will depend on second-quarter GDP numbers, along with those from monthly price indexes and labor market indicators between now and then. Indeed, Powell said as much in his testimony before Congress.

Unfortunately, nearly everyone, at least in the media and general population, let alone Congress and the White House, will ignore the most important indicator — the money supply. Remember the Fed does not control interest rates, it only influences them. Yes, the FOMC does set a target for one very short-term interest rate — overnight loans between banks or “fed funds.” But fears of inflation or economic disruptions can drive longer-term rates — as for home mortgages,  business loans and farm operating money — higher even if the Fed lowers its target rate. It would be nice if Trump understood this instead of reflexively scapegoating Powell.

Starting in March 2020, at the first FOMC meeting after the first U.S. COVID case was diagnosed, the Fed boosted the M2 money supply to an unprecedented degree. It was up 25% by the time Joe Biden was inaugurated 10 months later. The cumulative rise topped out at 40.6% in April 2022, more than over the entire high-inflation years of the Carter administration.

The term “inflation” here is a two-part metaphor for what happened next. The money supply ballooned so did consumer prices. And that doomed the Biden presidency from the beginning. The Fed had held “interest rates” — at least the short-term one it controls — steady at 0.25%. Few looked at the money expansion needed to achieve that.

However, in March 2022, the Fed started to tighten, raising the Fed funds target to 5.5% by mid-2023 by slowly bleeding the money supply back down so that by November of that year, M2 was only 34% higher than pre-COVID. But then market forces grabbed the wheel. To keep short-term rates from being driven above its target, the Fed had to goose the money supply again, month by month. This has been especially true since it started cutting the target rate nine months ago.

The upshot is that by last month, the money supply was 42% greater than it was pre-COVID while real output is not even 14% greater. That is like a dud WWII bomb of money. It could explode if someone shakes it too much. But few realize it is there, again waiting to goose inflation, tariff effect notwithstanding.

And all this doesn’t even get at the other issues the Fed chair has had to deal with in the past week.

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St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.

By Amanda Hernández, Stateline.org

After years of pressure over lost or untested sexual assault kits, a growing number of states are adopting systems to track the kits — giving survivors a way to follow their evidence through the justice process.

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But despite nearly $400 million in federal support since 2015, backlogs persist, and some states still lack basic oversight. And now, advocates fear such financial support is on shaky ground.

There are an estimated 49,248 untested kits across the country, according to data collected by the Joyful Heart Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group. Although the exact number of backlogged kits nationwide is unknown, a 2022 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service that summarized existing research found backlog estimates ranging from 90,000 to 400,000 kits.

After a sexual assault, a survivor may choose to undergo a forensic exam, during which a trained health care professional collects evidence over the course of several hours.

That evidence — which may include clothing, photos of injuries, blood, urine and DNA samples — is compiled into what’s commonly known as a rape kit or sexual assault kit. The kit is then sent to a crime lab for further testing.

Test results are sometimes returned to investigators who check for DNA matches in national or state databases. A match could connect the case to other sexual assaults or link a suspect to another crime.

But processing a single kit can take days, months or even years, depending on when they are submitted and how much other work crime labs have. In some states, there are no laws requiring law enforcement to send rape kits to a lab within a specific time frame or mandating how quickly those kits must be tested.

Survivors are often left in the dark. They may not know if their kit was tested, whether a suspect was identified, or if their case is moving forward.

That silence — the uncertainty about what happened to the kit — has long been the norm in many parts of the country.

“We have betrayed at least a generation of survivors in the way that the criminal justice system and the larger public have responded to sexual assault,” said Rachel Lovell, an associate professor of criminology and the director of the Criminology Research Center at Cleveland State University. Lovell has conducted extensive research on the impact of untested rape kits in Ohio.

The goal of tracking systems is straightforward: bring transparency to a process that for decades left survivors without answers. These systems allow victims to log in and track the status of their kits — from collection to testing to storage — and offer law enforcement agencies a tool to identify and prevent testing backlogs, and strengthen criminal investigations.

At least 37 states and Washington, D.C., have established or committed to establishing a rape kit tracking system, according to the End the Backlog website run by the Joyful Heart Foundation. The foundation supports survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse.

Two more states — New Jersey and Pennsylvania — announced plans this year to build their own tracking systems. In New Jersey, a new law gives the attorney general’s office until Aug. 1 to set up the tracking system. Pennsylvania officials are preparing to launch a statewide inventory of kits to better understand the scope of the backlog before developing their system.

A handful of other states have also enacted or are considering legislation to support their sexual assault kit tracking programs.

In Arizona, for example, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill into law in May requiring all police departments in the state to use a system called “Track-Kit.” The new law primarily affects the Phoenix Police Department, which opted out of using the system in 2016. That department is expected to launch the platform later this year.

At the federal level, support for kit testing and tracking has often come from the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, or SAKI, which has awarded nearly $400 million to 96 grantees, including local and state agencies, across 44 states since 2015.

But the program’s future has not always been certain.

In January, the federal Office of Management and Budget had listed the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative as a program whose funding would be frozen, before walking back the widespread freeze amid legal challenges.

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 would maintain funding for the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative at $51.5 million, according to a new report from the nonpartisan think tank Council on Criminal Justice.

But a separate round of federal Department of Justice grant cuts in April has raised concerns about the stability of broader support services for survivors. That round of cuts affected a variety of grant programs, including domestic violence shelters, trauma counseling, legal assistance and hospital advocacy.

The timing is especially concerning, advocates say, as victims of crime face growing obstacles to accessing state-provided support. In many states, victims seeking financial compensation encounter long delays, burdensome paperwork or are disqualified entirely by narrow eligibility rules.

Police investigations and funding

In jurisdictions that have worked to clear their backlogs, testing sexual assault kits has helped identify serial offenders, solve cold cases and connect assaults or other crimes to the same perpetrator.

Nationwide, testing supported by the federal Sexual Assault Kit Initiative has contributed to at least 1,538 convictions. Still, these types of crimes are vastly underreported to police.

Rapes and sexual assaults are notoriously difficult to investigate and prosecute, said Lovell, of Cleveland State University. But testing all rape kits can reveal patterns of criminal behavior over time and provide deeper insight into how, when and to whom these crimes are happening — ultimately helping improve support and case outcomes for survivors.

“By prosecuting sex offenders, you can also work to address violent crime more generally and solve past or future crimes with the addition of evidence and DNA,” Lovell told Stateline.

In her research on untested rape kits in Ohio, Lovell has found that since 2015 — when the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative launched — cases overseen by the Cleveland Police Department have been more likely to move forward in the investigative and prosecutorial process, with fewer being labeled as unfounded. Police reports, she said, also have become more detailed and trauma informed.

The initiative itself may not be the sole reason for these changes, Lovell said. Other factors, such as departmental policy changes or officer training, may also have played a role.

Although SAKI grants remain one of the primary sources of support for testing backlogged kits and building tracking systems, communities may face challenges sustaining progress once the federal dollars run out.

Capt. Tim Hegarty, division commander of the Office of Professional Standards at the Glynn County Police Department in Georgia, said local agencies must push through potential funding cuts.

“It falls back on agencies to do the job that they say they’re going to do, even when the money has dried up,” Hegarty said in an interview. “Doesn’t matter who’s in the (presidential) administration.”

Hegarty added that many departments across the country are still catching up when it comes to interviewing victims with sensitivity and investigating sex crimes.

“Law enforcement really has not advanced a great deal when it comes to dealing with these types of crimes,” Hegarty said. “It’s not the universal language when it comes to policing across the country.”

New statewide tracking systems

Other states are looking to strengthen existing programs through new oversight measures and stricter processing timelines.

Maine is one of the 11 states without a statewide rape kit tracking system. But state lawmakers are considering a bill that would create one and require law enforcement agencies and the state’s crime lab to inventory and test backlogged kits. The bill passed the House in mid-June and is currently under consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

In Colorado, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill in early June aimed at improving the state’s capacity to process sexual assault kits. The new law establishes the Colorado Sexual Assault Forensic Medical Evidence Review Board, which will evaluate the state’s medical, legal and criminal responses to sexual assault.

The governor and attorney general have until Aug. 1 to appoint board members. A preliminary report is due to lawmakers by Dec. 15.

The law also strengthens oversight of kit processing timelines. Law enforcement agencies must now provide survivors with updates on the status of their kits every 90 days. It also sets a new 60-day goal for crime labs to process forensic medical evidence, shortening the current 90-day goal.

As of May 31, 1,324 kits were backlogged, with an estimated testing turnaround time of about a year and a half, according to the state’s dashboard.

Alaska, which launched its statewide rape kit tracking system in 2023, considered a bill this year that would have expedited processing timelines for sexual assault kits. The bill passed the House without opposition but failed to advance through the Senate before the legislative session ended in May.

Although the number of untested kits has significantly declined since the state began inventorying them in 2017, 254 kits remained untested at the state’s crime lab in 2024 — up from 113 the previous year but well below the 3,484 recorded in 2017.

In Georgia, lawmakers considered a similar bill that would have established new rules for collecting, testing and tracking evidence from sexual assault kits. The bill did not advance before the legislature adjourned in April.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported in December that 2,298 kits were tested between July 2023 and June 2024, with 480 kits still awaiting testing. Another 1,612 older cases submitted before 1999 were flagged for DNA testing, of which 837 had been tested as of June 2024.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.