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GOOD WATCH: Duke Skorich's Personal Meeting Room, talking regional politics.
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BREAKING SPORTS: St. Scholastica athletics director Jessica Cherry announced Kyle Yost as the Saints’ next women’s basketball coach. Yost takes over as CSS prepares for the 2026-27 season after earning the program’s first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff appearance.
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Motorists should prepare for an overnight closure of Interstate 35 in Duluth as the Minnesota Department of Transportation places beams for the new pedestrian bridge just south of Mesaba Avenue. Both directions of I-35 will close at 10 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17, and reopen by 5 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18. Traffic will be detoured along Interstate 535, Garfield Avenue, Railroad Street and Fifth Avenue West.
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FOX21.com reports that Zack Filipovich won the DFL nomination for Minnesota state auditor Tuesday, becoming the first Northland candidate since 2010 to earn a place on a statewide general-election ballot.
Filipovich, a lifelong Northland resident who served eight years on the Duluth City Council, earned an MBA from the University of Minnesota Duluth and is a certified management accountant — the only accountant in the state auditor’s race.
“I am ecstatic,” Filipovich told FOX 21. “I am so, so grateful that 592,088 people across Minnesota have placed their trust and confidence in me to help lead the state auditor’s office and make sure that local communities have what they need to be successful in the years ahead.”
Filipovich will advance to the November general election.
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BusinessNorth.com first reported that Louisiana-Pacific Corp., which operates regional plants in Two Harbors, Hayward and Tomahawk, posted lower second-quarter sales and earnings but expects its siding business to return to growth during the third quarter. LP reported siding sales of $441 million, down $19 million, or 4%, from a year earlier, while oriented strand board sales fell $68 million to $182 million. Net income declined $27 million to $26 million, or 38 cents per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA dropped $63 million to $79 million, although operating activities generated $140 million in cash. “We executed our strategy, and Siding delivered revenue within our guided range despite margin pressure from raw material inflation,” CEO Jason Ringblom said. “We anticipate Siding returning to volume and revenue growth in the third quarter.” LP projects third-quarter siding sales of $460 million to $470 million, approximately 5% year-over-year growth, and reaffirmed its full-year siding guidance. The company invested $59 million in capital projects, paid $21 million in quarterly dividends and reported approximately $1 billion in liquidity as of June 30.
