MINNEAPOLIS — At a time of heightened uncertainty across Minnesota, the Minnesota Star Tribune announced new steps to broaden access to its fact-based, independent local journalism. The Star Tribune has made its live breaking-news blog available outside the paywall, allowing all readers to follow a continuously updated stream of verified reporting
For Hermantown, the impact is already unmistakable. A high school program in northern Minnesota placed three of its own among the nation’s best college hockey players — simultaneously, on the sport’s biggest individual stage — reinforcing a legacy that now stretches far beyond state lines.
The Bellville and Baumgarten hires reflect a newsroom making deliberate bets: on audience intelligence, on subject-matter authority, and on leadership that understands journalism doesn’t succeed just because it’s good — it succeeds because it reaches people where they actually live now.
“The Northland is home to me, from my hometown of International Falls to the Iron Range and rural areas of northwestern Wisconsin." -- Maria Vollom
I’m not handing Hermantown a boys hockey state trophy in January. I’ve been around too long for that. But when the Section 7A tournament begins and the pressure turns real, I know who I’m riding with. I’ve seen this movie before. It usually ends with everyone else wondering how they missed it.
Tryon oversees America’s longest-running indoor football league, and that detail matters. Longevity in this sport is not accidental. It is earned. The IFL’s continued stability under his watch has come from a narrow but demanding focus: franchise health, controllable growth and revenue.
Under the agreement, select league games — including playoff contests and the championship — will be carried on FanDuel Sports Network, while a broader slate of regular-season and postseason games will stream nationally on Yahoo Sports Network.
The IFL has also benefited from institutional memory. Arena football has lived through enough boom-and-bust cycles to fill a bookshelf. Many leagues fail not because they’re poorly run, but because they convince themselves they’ve outgrown the fundamentals.
Barbara Jeanne Kennedy, age 91 of Mahtowa, died on January 16, 2026 at the Cloquet Memorial Hospital with her family by her side. She was born in Minneapolis on May 6, 1934 to parents, Harry and Mabel Pearson. She was raised in Northeast Minneapolis where she graduated from Edison High
As the Minnesota Monsters prepare for their Arena Football One debut, our goal is simple: deliver elite football, unforgettable live entertainment and a welcoming environment where fans of all ages feel connected to the team on the field.
The loudest voices warning that artificial intelligence will “destroy journalism” are almost never talking about journalism. They’re talking about control. Newsrooms are entering a period they’ve avoided for two decades: a genuine reckoning with what readers actually value. And the uncomfortable truth is this — readers do not care
Hermantown boys hockey team has once again chosen the hard road. The Hawks entered the season playing one of the most demanding regular-season schedules in Minnesota high school hockey, with the clear intent of being at their best when the Section 7A tournament begins. With seven games remaining in the
Minnesota’s strength, historically, has been its preference for problem-solving over posturing. That tradition is being tested now. This is not the moment for reflexive outrage or performative reassurance. It is the moment for clarity.
Minnesota does not need more outrage. It needs clearer accounting. It needs fewer slogans and more follow-through. It needs to revisit old assumptions with open eyes and accept that a reputation earned decades ago does not guarantee results today.
Something significant is being examined, something consequential has gone wrong inside the process, and the people most familiar with that process decided they could not continue as if nothing had changed. In federal law enforcement, that is as close to an alarm bell as it gets.
My first-ever book, Stop Managing Media Decline: How Legacy Media Gave Up Its Communities, is now available for purchase on Amazon. The book – available in paperback or Kindle, is a clear-eyed, deeply reported look at what happens when local journalism fades — and what it takes to build something honest in
