Before Michele Tafoya can win a U.S. Senate seat, she has to win over her own party first. A look at how Tafoya's is pitching Minnesota Republicans and how the GOP is reacting: www.startribune.com/michele-tafo...

Michele Tafoya courts wary GOP activists in Senate run

Star power is meeting skepticism as the ex-sportscaster works to win over the Republicans who will decide the endorsement.

startribune.com

NEW: Google will build a data center in Pine Island, near Rochester. The tech giant will also pay for a significant amount of new wind, solar & battery power. Google has been eyeing the state for at least a year, but had been quiet about its plans: www.startribune.com/google-annou...

Google announces Minnesota data center in Pine Island, near Rochester

An agreement with Xcel Energy includes an investment in clean energy the utility provider says will help the state meet carbon-free goals.

startribune.com

Minnesota Power says it won't use energy from the Nemadji Trail Energy Center, a setback for the $1 billion gas plant proposed in Superior, Wi. MP said litigation and permitting has gone on too long, and it needs energy quick: www.startribune.com/northern-min...

Northern Minnesota utility drops plan to use energy from controversial Wisconsin gas plant

Minnesota Power said the Nemadji Trail Energy Center in Superior, Wis., has been delayed too long by litigation and permitting.

startribune.com

NEW: We asked every city and county with a known data center proposal if they signed an NDA related to the project. Here's how Minnesota officials use NDAs, code names and shell companies to support data center secrecy: www.startribune.com/ndas-code-na...

How Minnesota officials support data center secrecy

Governments are signing non-disclosure agreements and concealing basic information about potential data centers.

startribune.com

The secrecy behind data centers in Minnesota. From @walkerorenstein.bsky.social and me. www.startribune.com/ndas-code-na...

How Minnesota officials support data center secrecy

Governments are signing non-disclosure agreements and concealing basic information about potential data centers.

startribune.com

NEW: Among farm fields and tiny towns in SW Minnesota, a power developer is planning a $4b data center that could grow to $10b. The project would be remarkable for its rural location, size and an idea to bundle clean power with a data center. www.startribune.com/in-minnesota...

In Minnesota farm country, a plan for a $4 billion data center takes root with vast wind, solar and battery projects

The plan reflects breathtaking change in the energy sector, but it’s a long way from fruition.

startribune.com

Xcel Energy has asked state regulators to increase rates for gas heating customers by 8.2%, a typical bill increase of $85.32 annually. Here's a short explanation from Xcel about why:

Otter Tail Power is asking state regulators to approve a 17.7% rate increase for its customers, which would cost the average household nearly $218 per year. Below is the company press release with the reasons for the hike, such as ending electricity supply from a coal plant:

An update on the Isle Royale saga. But still no info from federal investigators. www.startribune.com/son-killed-f...

Son killed father in Isle Royale murder-suicide, newly released records show

Michigan officials offered the first new information about a case that drew national interest since June, when the bodies were found by park rangers.

startribune.com

North Dakota, Montana and three southern states are trying to block a $22b plan for power lines across the Midwest that will reshape the grid as coal plants retire and demand surges. Our regulators call it an 'economic attack.' www.startribune.com/attempt-by-n...

Minnesota clashes with North Dakota over power lines

The fight is the latest example of how the switch to clean energy has made basic grid infrastructure a partisan battleground.

startribune.com

RIP to my great aunt Miriam, who survived the Holocaust, fleeing the Nazis after Kristallnacht. She was a brilliant writer and person with an incandescent spirit and a magnetic personality. stljewishlight.org/obituaries/m...

Miriam Spiegel Raskin - St. Louis Jewish Light

Miriam Spiegel Raskin, a writer and Holocaust refugee whose life reflected courage, honesty, and intellectual curiosity, passed away in St. Louis on October 13, 2025. Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1930,...

stljewishlight.org

Serious crime is down on Metro Transit, but riders continue to report “quality of life” crime that makes some feel unsafe on light rail.

What a week’s worth of rider text messages reveals about Metro Transit’s problems

Serious crime is down on Metro Transit, but riders continue to report “quality of life” crime that makes some feel unsafe on light rail.

bit.ly

GIP, buyers of Allete, making another splash in the utility market: www.ft.com/content/009d...

BlackRock’s GIP nears $38bn takeover of utility AES

Global Infrastructure Partners in talks to acquire energy group that supplies power to data centres

ft.com

How the Minnesota Star Tribune used AI to bolster its traditional reporting to cover a mass shooter www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...

How the Minnesota Star Tribune used AI to bolster its shoe-leather reporting to background a mass shooter - Poynter

A team of journalists relentlessly tracked the shooter’s digital and paper trail. But AI provided deeper insight into her thoughts before the shooting.

poynter.org

A massive development proposal that Hermantown is describing only as a “communication services facility” was identified as a data center in a January letter sent to city officials. Story w/ @janahollingsworth.bsky.social : www.startribune.com/northern-min...

Northern Minnesota mystery project identified as data center

Mystery has been swirling around the project for months amid zoning changes and offers to buy homes.

startribune.com

I've struggled to put into words how I feel about Cascade PBS cutting its entire newsroom today. That newsroom (formerly Crosscut) gave me space to do the most in-depth, informative public policy journalism of my career -- work other journalists continued after I left. The region is now worse off.

Xcel Energy disconnected 52,549 Minnesota households from electricity or gas last year. That is more than triple the number from 2019, the year before the pandemic moratorium began. It’s far more than any year in at least a decade: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...

NEW: Minnesota utilities are shutting off power to customers in record numbers in the years after a temporary ban on the practice during COVID-19. For Xcel, the ability to disconnect remotely with 'smart' meters is playing a role in the enormous spike: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...

Xcel is shutting off power in record numbers

Economic conditions after the COVID-19 pandemic, and new smart meters that allow Xcel to remotely disconnect homes, are behind a spike that has drawn criticism from consumer advocates.

startribune.com

Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk dies after being shot at Utah college event

Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.

bit.ly

Perhaps more than any other Minnesota city, Becker’s fate is linked to the changes transforming Minnesota’s energy sector. That now includes the convulsive data center industry. Amazon's retreat from Becker is the latest 'gut punch' in a volatile era: www.startribune.com/amazon-retre...

Amazon's data center retreat is latest 'gut punch' to Becker

Becker's future is intertwined with a changing energy system, and depends on the whims of an AI gold rush by the nation’s largest tech companies.

startribune.com

I spent a horrifying amount of time reading and translating the Annunciation shooter manifesto to report on it, and this rang true to me: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The Mass Shooters Are Performing for One Another

The goal of these attacks is to join a lineage of infamous killers.

theatlantic.com

In the debate over the future of northern MN's largest power company, the rhetoric has turned nasty. The $6.2 billion sale of Allete/Minnesota Power has exposed tensions over funding clean energy and whether private equity will hurt customers: www.startribune.com/as-state-wei...

Minnesota Power sale brings fight over clean energy, private equity

Allete says its buyers would provide the cash to comply with Minnesota’s carbon-free law. Skeptics say BlackRock would hurt utility customers.

startribune.com

“Do they think that they can wave a magic wand and put the fires out? People have lost their homes and livelihoods. It’s not like we’ve gone around and started these fires just for the hell of it.” www.startribune.com/north-of-min...

Northern wildfires have smoked out Minnesota’s summer, but in Canada it’s been devastating

The smoke that has drifted south is evidence of Manitoba’s worst wildfire season in three decades.

startribune.com

Walker Orenstein@walkerorenstein.bsky.social · last yr.

The impact of wildfire smoke on health & happiness in Minnesota is real. So is the political tension. For our neighbors in Manitoba, the fires have devastated communities. Thanks to Kristoffer Tigue & Carlos Gonzalez for this illuminating work: www.startribune.com/north-of-min...

The impact of wildfire smoke on health & happiness in Minnesota is real. So is the political tension. For our neighbors in Manitoba, the fires have devastated communities. Thanks to Kristoffer Tigue & Carlos Gonzalez for this illuminating work: www.startribune.com/north-of-min...

Northern wildfires have smoked out Minnesota’s summer, but in Canada it’s been devastating

The smoke that has drifted south is evidence of Manitoba’s worst wildfire season in three decades.

startribune.com

🚨EXCLUSIVE: Joe Pohlad tells Phil Miller why the Twins are no longer for sale and the Pohlad family will remain principal owners of the team. The Pohlad family is adding two new groups of minority partners in their ownership structure. Story: www.startribune.com/minnesota-tw... @startribune.com

@jigarshahdc.bsky.social endorses the sale of Minnesota Power in Duluth. Shah ran a huge clean energy loan program for Biden. "Public markets are increasingly volatile and swayed by global forces like tariffs, inflation and even speculative trends like AI" www.utilitydive.com/news/allete-...

Allete sale would help fund clean energy investment for Minnesota

The proposed sale would inject a massive infusion of private capital into Minnesota Power, capital guided by a long-term perspective rather than short-term market pressures.

utilitydive.com

NEW: Slayton, Minnesota, wants to kick Xcel Energy out and form its own government-run electric provider. It's an extraordinary step and one driven by frustration with Xcel's service and emergency response. A city of 2,000 is squaring off with a $43b company: www.startribune.com/this-tiny-to...

This tiny town wants to be the first in Minnesota to evict Xcel Energy and start its own utility

A four-hour wait to shut off power to a burning utility pole was one of the last straws for Slayton.

startribune.com

The MN Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling by the state Public Utilities Commission to shrink bill credits for subscribers of 700+ community solar gardens. Ruling below: mncourts.gov/_media/migra...

Here is background on how we got here. Upper Sioux built solar for its casino. Now its electric supplier vows to cut off power: www.startribune.com/a-minnesota-...

A tribe built solar for its casino. Their utility says it will cut power

The unusual conflict has pitted assertions of tribal sovereignty against claims that the solar array flouts state utility laws.

startribune.com

Walker Orenstein@walkerorenstein.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW: Minnesota utility regulators excoriated an electric co-op for its threat to cut power from the Upper Sioux casino because of the tribe's large new solar array. "I think you have lost your tether to the purpose of an electric utility." www.startribune.com/minnesota-re...

NEW: Minnesota utility regulators excoriated an electric co-op for its threat to cut power from the Upper Sioux casino because of the tribe's large new solar array. "I think you have lost your tether to the purpose of an electric utility." www.startribune.com/minnesota-re...

Minnesota regulators bash electric co-op for threatening to shut off tribe’s power

The state Public Utilities Commission said it would investigate and possibly punish a rural electric cooperative after it opposed the Upper Sioux Community’s solar project.

startribune.com