The Vikings wrote the book on heartbreak, but today’s stomach-turner didn’t even come with heartbreak. There was no drama. No tension. No what-if. Just a full-scale tap-out from a team that decided the fight wasn’t worth the bruises.
Awal was among the councilors who supported restoring annual funding for Duluth’s mental-health crisis response team after Mayor Roger Reinert proposed eliminating the city’s share of the program’s budget.
Reinert enters 2026 with two failed endorsements hanging around his neck, a lost council majority, a newly emboldened progressive bloc, a budget minefield, and a downtown recovery that needs more than slogans and cheerleading.