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How an ‘energizer bunny,’ cheeseburgers and $14 billion helped Canada woo Volkswagen

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

The $14-billion deal that will see Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker, set up a manufacturing presence in Canada for the first time in history, took a year of negotiations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.But the talks that led Volkswagen to choose southwestern Ontario for the location of its first battery plant outside Europe all started with a whim.Out of the blue in early 2022, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne decided he should call the company’s then-North American CEO, Scott Keogh. His staff dug up the number.Champagne said in an interview with The Canadian Press that he’d never met Keogh before, but he got him on the phone on St. Patrick’s Day last year. “I introduced myself, and I said, ‘Listen, here I am, Minister Champagne from Canada. I would like to start a discussion.'”Volkswagen has sold cars in Canada for decades, but it has never made them here. Still, like other large automakers, it is making the transi...

Pipeline plot twist: where Line 5 threatens nature, now nature is a threat to Line 5

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

WASHINGTON — The controversial Canada-U.S. oil and gas conduit known as Line 5 could be facing its toughest challenger yet: the very watershed the pipeline’s detractors are trying to protect. Spring flooding has washed away significant portions of the riverbank where Line 5 intersects Wisconsin’s Bad River, a meandering, 120-kilometre course through Indigenous territory that feeds Lake Superior and a complex network of ecologically delicate wetlands.The Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa has been in court with Alberta energy giant Enbridge Inc. since 2019 in an effort to compel the pipeline’s owner and operator to reroute Line 5 around its traditional territory.But last month, Mother Nature raised the stakes. “There can be little doubt now that the small amount of remaining bank could be eroded and the pipeline undermined and breached in short order,” the band’s lawyers argued in an emergency motion filed last week. “Very little ma...

Literary calendar for week of May 14

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

ABOUT “YOUNG MUNGO”: Authors Euan Kerr and Deborah Schlick introduce and discuss Douglas Stuard’s “Young Mungo,” in a book appreciation event. 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.ANTONIA DEIGNAN: Presents “Underwater Daughter.” 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.TOVE DANOVICH: Taps into the renewed interest in keeping chickens in urban areas with “Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them,” inspired by the eight chickens in her suburban yard in Portland, Ore. In her book she looks at the history of domesticated chickens and interviews people breeding, training, healing and adoring chickens, from a hatchery in Iowa to a chicken show in Ohio to a rooster rescue in Minnesota. 7 p.m. Monday, May 15, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.EVELYN KLEIN: Minnesota independent scholar discusses the poet as historian an...

Zeynep Tufekci: The pandemic threat that hasn’t gone away

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

In December 2014, two monkeys in outdoor cages at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, about 40 miles north of New Orleans, became ill with Burkholderia pseudomallei, a deadly bacteria in the federal government’s highest risk category, reserved for pathogens like smallpox, anthrax and Ebola. This is the category for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sees “significant potential for mass casualties or severe effects.”A short drive from the cages, there was a lab working with the pathogen, which at the time had never been found naturally in the continental United StatesSome of the staff members who worked with the monkeys were not told of the infections for nearly a month after the pathogen was suspected and 10 days after it was confirmed.In March 2015, the Tulane center’s director, Andrew Lackner, claimed that “various Burkholderia species have been present in domestic animals in Louisiana since at least 2004, long before any scientific study of the organism...

Letters: What population growth do we imagine we need to accommodate in St. Paul?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

What population growth?Your report, ”Loosen St. Paul zoning to allow more multi-family dwellings? Six views”, missed the most fundamental question: Why do we need to accommodate substantially more population growth?Here is the reality. The United States stopped having enough babies to replace people who are dying somewhere around 2008.  Currently, we are producing about 1.8 babies for every two people who die, and fertility rates have been declining since about 1950. Without immigration, we would be a cold Japan. It is unlikely we will see sizable changes in the rates of immigration into the future.When people do come to the United States, they are choosing warmer, lower-tax states, like Texas or Arizona. Since 2010, Minnesota has ranked 30th in terms of growth, growing only 8% over the last 10+ years. During the same time period, Texas grew over 21%.And when people do choose the Twin Cities, they can choose St. Paul, or they can choose a safer, lower-cost suburb with higher-ranked ...

Literary pick for week of May 14

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

Merwin and Louise, sibling Sycamore seeds living 100 million years in the Cretaceous period, long to put down roots and grow into big trees. But when a fire forces them to leave their mother tree prematurely, they find themselves catapulted into the unknown, far from home.Brian SelznickThat’s the essence of Caldecott medalist Brian Selznick’s new book “Big Tree,” which he will introduce with a reading at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 17, at the University of St. Thomas O’Shaughnessy Education Center, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul, in partnership with St. Paul’s Red Balloon Bookshop.“Big Tree” (Scholastic), began as a planned collaboration between Selznick and producer/director Steven Spielberg for a film project that never got off the ground. But both men agreed it would make a terrific book, and it lives up to that prediction with starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal and The Horn Book. It is enlivened with nearly 300...

How was the Heidi Firkus case closed after more than a decade? Meet the trio who pushed for justice.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

For the first time since Heidi Firkus was killed 13 years ago in St. Paul, some of her parents’ sadness this year was replaced by a sense of relief on the recent anniversary of her killing.Less than two weeks earlier, Firkus’ husband had been sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of premeditated murder in February. After years of waiting for answers and justice, Linda and John Erickson said they “are filled with gratitude for the many people who worked and prayed for truth and justice on behalf of Heidi and everyone who loved her.”At the center of the case is a trio of women who investigated and prosecuted Nicholas Firkus — St. Paul police Sgt. Niki Sipes, and prosecutors Elizabeth Lamin and Rachel Kraker. It was the most high-profile case of their careers, and the two prosecutors said they’ve never brought a homicide to trial so long after it happened.Though it was unusual in those regards, Lamin and Kraker said there are less...

‘Love, kindness and giving back’ inspires sock design competition, Woodbury elementary students — and a former ‘Bachelorette’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

Students from Woodbury to Los Angeles designed their own socks for a competition focused on paying it forward. Led by a local sock company, the competition was judged by a former “Bachelorette.”More than 100 students from across the country submitted their sock designs in March in an effort to help youth who are experiencing homelessness, said Michael Mader, founder and CEO of Minneapolis-based Hippy Feet, which donates half its proceeds.Michelle Young, a former Twin Cities elementary teacher and star of ABC’s “The Bachelorette” with the three winning designs for the sock competition in May 2023. Half of the proceeds from the sock sales will be donated to help youth experiencing homelessness. (Courtesy of Michelle Young)The idea for the competition came about when Mader reached out to a former classmate of his, Michelle Young, who graduated from Woodbury High School and taught elementary school in the metro area before starring as “The Bachelorette” on ...

Ask Amy: “Big C” survivor struggles with new identity

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

Dear Amy: Six years ago, I developed a difficult cancer with a life expectancy of three to six months.After many months of chemo, I received a donor bone marrow transplant from a specialty hospital where I was for several more months.The transplant was “successful” and the probability of reoccurrence is low.I worked very hard at recovery. Now I am trying to accept a new normal.I have post-transplant complications including fatigue, graft versus host disease, organ damage, emotional trauma, food constraints, and am immune compromised.I try to present myself well, but it’s hard to keep up the act, and sooner or later something comes up that highlights my inabilities.I get tired of blaming “the Big C” but often it comes out; for example, I get extremely fatigued and have to leave after a few hours, or people resent the fact that I am still careful and masking, so I mumble something to explain myself.I have not been able to come up with a way to present myself that works well (I make jo...

Violations of rule of law grow in Moldova

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:59 GMT

The situation in Moldova is getting into strong tension. The persecution of the Shor Party and its members by the authorities led by President Maia Sandou, Under different accusations without concrete proof, is taking leads that violate the rule of law.Following the imprisonment of a member of Parliament, Marina Tauber, the Shor Party sees the current persecution as a way to impeach the electoral campaign currently in place in ATU Gaugazia., being hold today, Sunday, May 14. Therefore, they have been addressing the Council of Europe, the International observers for the elections of the Council of Europe, the Congress of local public authorities and the OCDE/ODHIR in order to have these international organisations discussing the issue urgently.The Republic of Moldova has been condemned and criticised by International organisations for the violation of the rule of law. Despite the situation being extremely tense, it is clear that for democracy the rule is imperative and its violation ...