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National Blue Ribbon Schools of 2023 named: Did yours make the list?

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

ROELAND PARK, Kan. (WDAF/NEXSTAR) — More than 350 schools in the U.S. have been named National Blue Ribbon Schools by the Department of Education. The annual recognition is given to schools based on academic performance, or progress toward closing achievement gaps among student groups on tests, the Education Department explains. Created in 1982, the National Blue Ribbon School Program recognizes public, parochial and private learning facilities from across the country.Schools can be recognized for a Blue Ribbon School Award in one of two performance categories: high achievement as measured “by state assessments or nationally normed tests,” and greatest advancements in closing achievement gaps. US News releases latest college rankings after formula change "The leaders, educators and staff at our National Blue Ribbon Schools continually inspire me with their dedication to fostering academic excellence and building positive school cultures that support students of all backgrounds to ...

Celebrating Polish American Businesses

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

The Polish Community here in Chicago is robust, partly thanks to the Polish Chamber of Commerce - one of the oldest existing Polish organizations- and it's celebrating its 150th anniversary this year! Its relationship with local businesses is what helps some of your favorite Polish restaurants and businesses thrive. Joining Spotlight Chicago today is Agnieszka Bastrzyk, Polish American Chamber of Commerce Treasurer and Phillipe Sobon, co-owner of Polombia. polishamericanchamber.orgInstagram & Facebook: @PACC_ChicagoPolumbiachi.comInstagram: @PolumbiachiPauloGelateria.comInstagram: @PauloGelatoChocolateSpotlight Chicago airs weekdays on WGN from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Discover Stillwater announces annual photo contest

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In Stillwater, a photo could be worth $300 – or a prize package worth more than $1,300.Discover Stillwater is holding its annual photo contest in which the grand prize is a getaway package that includes an overnight stay at a hotel and gift certificates to Just for Me Spa, The Lumberjack, Lift Bridge Brewing and other Stillwater businesses.Carol Seefeldt, a professional photographer who lives in Scandia, won the 2015 annual Discover Stillwater Photography contest with her shot of a paddleboat on the St. Croix River at sunset. (Courtesy of Carol Seefeldt)The contest runs through Oct. 20.Photos must have been taken in Stillwater, and contest organizers said they hope to receive entries from all four seasons. Photographers are encouraged to “show off the beauty and fun they discovered on their trip to one of the most picturesque towns in America,” organizers say. Each photographer may enter up to five images.First- through third-place winne...

Washington County Historical Society to host rural-school reunion

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

Anyone who attended or taught at a rural school in Washington County is invited to attend the second-annual Washington County Rural School Reunion on Saturday at the Hay Lake School Museum in Scandia.The reunion, which will be from noon to 4 p.m., “is for anyone who attended a one-room/two-room school anywhere in the county,” said Brent Peterson, executive director of the Washington County Historical Society, which is hosting the reunion. More than 60 people, including two former students who were 96, attended last year’s reunion, he said.John Johnson, 77, of Milaca, Minn., and Roger Lindell, 77, of Scandia, visit outside the Hay Lake School Museum in Scandia on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022, during the Rural School Reunion sponsored by the Washington County Historical Society. The two men attended the school in the 1950s. (Mary Divine / Pioneer Press)Washington County had 79 rural school districts and one joint district with Chisago County that were slowly consolidated during the ...

Liam Denning: Striking UAW can’t bring back the 1950s or wish EVs away

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

Last Thursday at midnight, Detroit’s strike clock transitioned from countdown to stopwatch. The United Auto Workers’ strike will ultimately end, as all do. Larger forces behind it, however, will grind on through this decade, presenting an existential challenge to the union.There’s a short-term element to the UAW’s dispute with Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV that is both justified and relatively easy to resolve. The last contract was sideswiped by the post-pandemic burst of inflation, which also happened to boost the automakers’ North American profits, and workers want higher wages to compensate.The backdrop, however, is the biggest disruption to the U.S., and global, vehicle market in a generation. First, Detroit is in the process of turning over to electric vehicles. Second, globalization is in retreat, battered by economic populism and geopolitical tensions. President Joe Biden’s climate-related policy, embedded largely in ...

Latest accomplishment has only made former Gophers hockey star Taylor Heise hungrier

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

Monday was a long, whirlwind day for Taylor Heise. At about 1:30 p.m. ET, she was selected by her hometown team with the first overall pick in the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League draft in Toronto.Before the draft was even completed, she was in a car headed for the airport and by 7, she was on a plane headed back to Minnesota.Asked if she took the day off on Tuesday, the former Gophers center said she was on the ice at Ridder Arena by 10 a.m.“It’s what I love to do,” she said. “If I want to kick (butt) for the pro team in my home state, I’ve got to get to it.”The 24-game PWHL season is scheduled to start sometime in early January, and training camp doesn’t start until Nov. 13. But Heise has plenty to do in the meantime, from working out with Gophers trainer Cal Dietz at her alma mater to skating with the U.S. program at the Super Rink in Blaine.The alacrity with which Heise prepares is surely part of the reason she was chosen first overall by Minnesota general manager Na...

Man who punched and bit St. Paul police officer during arrest given probation

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

A Virginia man will not serve additional jail time for a violent assault on a St. Paul police officer in 2021.Cuyler Mason Howard, 22, had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in connection with attacking and repeatedly punching officer Michael Ganzel during an arrest in the city’s Summit Hill neighborhood.Ramsey County District Judge Kelly Olmstead on Monday followed a plea agreement that Howard reached with the prosecution in June, staying an 86-day jail sentence for one year and dismissing two felony charges — fourth-degree assault of a peace officer and attempting to disarm a peace officer. Howard had served four days in jail after his arrest.Bruises are seen on the face of St. Paul Police Officer Michael Ganzel after an alleged attack by a man he was trying to arrest Sept. 24, 2021. (Courtesy of the St. Paul Police Department)Ganzel, who was in the courtroom with his wife and her father, experiences headaches, vision issues, ringing in his ears and PTSD as a result of th...

Public urged to watch for guns stolen from Potosi store

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

POTOSI, Mo. - Federal and local authorities are asking the public to look out for several guns stolen from a Potosi store.Police say at least 13 firearms were stolen from the Dickey Bub Farm & Home store in Potosi between Sept. 19-20, 2021. Nearly two years later, only one of those firearms has been recovered. New York company moving headquarters to St. Louis Prosecutors have charged Gregory Snyder, 44, of Bismarck, Missouri, with theft of multiple weapons and possessing body armor after previous felonies. An indictment accuses Snyder of hiding in a store until closing time, then suddenly taking off with a variety of shotguns and rifles. The encounter was reportedly captured on surveillance video. Last June, police learned that one stolen firearm had been sold at a pawn shop in Caledonia, Missouri. Authorities also recovered one from a traffic stop in St. Louis County. The incidents led to the arrest of Snyder in July. Close Thanks for signing up! W...

Bear captured in Sierra Madre

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

A bear was captured in a Sierra Madre neighborhood Tuesday afternoon. Due to a recent increase in bear activity in the area, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife had been frequently calling the Sierra Madre Police Department to check on them and authorities happened to get a report of a bear sighting in a front yard, CDFW spokesman Tim Daly said. The bear was spotted and darted and was able to run into a different yard before falling asleep.Officials were then able to put the young adult female bear in a cage in the back of a trailer. Crews are taking the bear to the “nearest suitable habitat” in the Angeles National Forest, Daly said.The bear is not currently tagged, but she will get an ear tag and collar.She is one of at least three bears that are believed to be active in the area.One of the residents who saw the bear Tuesday thinks she had tried to get into a house, but it is unclear she if is the one garnering recent media attention, Daly said.CDFW was assisted at Tues...

Dumb Money is a Smart Take on the Gamestop Scandal

Published Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:00:26 GMT

GameStop lives, and is probably open late at a location near you. The fate of the often troubled videogame retailer is at the core of Dumb Money, a fast-paced and funny movie about the 2021 amateur stock trading craze on which the retail chain’s fortunes rose, fell, and then rose again. And if the filmmakers neglect to cap their tale with news of the store’s unexpected survival (the chain just posted a quarterly profit), well, the GameStop saga was never really about the store, was it?Keith Gill (Paul Dano), a 32-year-old Massachusetts financial broker must have been a loyal customer because in the fall of 2019, he began singing the praises of GameStop in online videos recorded in his basement. To the astonishment of the few people paying attention to his initial posts, Gill reported buying 53 grand in stock, an idea that struck most as laughable. Everyone knew the hedge fund guys (“smart money”) were going to cash out big when GameStop crashed and burned. That’s how the world works...