Latest news with #Severson
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fired park ranger to be Sen. Tina Smith's guest at President Trump's address
Sen. Tina Smith said an "unjustly fired" northern Minnesota park ranger will be her guest at President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. Kate Severson, a federal park ranger at Voyageurs National Park, was among thousands of federal workers to be fired abruptly last month as billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) drive the Trump Administration's widespread push to dramatically shrink the federal government. In a statement Monday, Smith said park rangers like Severson keep visitors safe in some of Minnesota's "most wild and extreme areas." "The story that Kate and Voyageurs National Park represent is one of absolute chaos for Americans since Donald Trump has taken office – he unilaterally appointed Elon Musk to one of the most powerful positions in the government without oversight," Smith stated. "I'm glad she has the opportunity to share her story and I'm grateful to have her by my side at this Address to Congress.' In an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, Severson said she will appeal her firing. "The awful thing is our termination letters say it was because of performance [and] not meeting performance needs. This obviously isn't the reason," Severson told the newspaper. In a statement provided by Smith's office, Severson called the recent firings a "betrayal" of the newest cohort of Park Service employees that weakens America's ability to protect parks. "I do not for one second believe these cuts were made to save the taxpayers money," Severson stated. "Parks have well-documented benefits to the economy. Instead, these cuts were designed to make government agencies vulnerable, strip away the protections and services in place for the public good, and open the way for those looking to exploit our resources.'
CBS News
25-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Former Minnesota national park worker speaks out amid government layoffs
President Donald Trump's plan to slash the federal budget is having an unexpected impact hundreds of miles away from the White House. National parks around the country are cutting hours and services. Kate Severson, who was fired from Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota, says the staffing cuts mean the park won't be as clean, and possibly less safe. Severson was abruptly terminated this month from her job as a program manager of education and visitor services. She had to tell one of her employees he was being let go as well. "Both of us uprooted our lives within this past year, moved across the country and had settled down, had taken that risk," Severson said. "He had a family he's trying to support. He had a mortgage." Severson was in her job just seven months, but she's far from inexperienced. She was a park ranger for years in Texas and Colorado. Since she was still probationary though at Voyageurs, she got the axe as part of President Trump's cuts to the federal workforce. "I'm negotiating for the people of the United States and we're doing a great job of it," Trump said Monday. "It'll be hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud and abuse." About 1,000 employees with the National Park Service have been fired, which is roughly 5% of the agency. 10% of the U.S. Forest Service was wiped out. "It has nothing to do with performance, which is a common thing I keep hearing," Severson said. Protesters hung an upside-down American flag this weekend at Yosemite National Park, which is reportedly halting reservations for nearly 600 camper spots this summer. "No one's going to be there to pick up the trash," said Olek Chmura, who was laid off as a custodian at Yosemite. "You'd be amazed with how many diapers I pick up off the side of the road, beer bottles, toilet paper." Severson says visitors will see fewer clean bathrooms and campsites, and trails will get overgrown. She will also not be around for training the new seasonal workers, whose job it is to keep guests safe. "Completely getting rid of first-year employees is a waste of taxpayer money," Severson said. "There was no thought to it. It was just, 'Let's get rid of these people.'" In response to backlash, Trump's administration says it plans to restore at least 50 jobs and hire more seasonal workers. WCCO reached out to the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service with questions but didn't immediately hear back.
New York Times
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
When Food Is Only a Portion of the Story
Every story has a food angle, Kim Severson likes to say. This thinking allows Ms. Severson, who covers the country's food culture for The New York Times, to write about themes and topics that are larger than the portions on our plates. With that lens in mind, she reported that our pandemic-era isolation was driving America's renewed love for the drive-through. After attending an organic farming conference in Georgia, she wrote about a farm's history of slavery. Last week, The Times published an article by Ms. Severson about a dispute between a vegetarian restaurant in New York City and a small farm in the Texas Hill Country that shared the same name: Dirt Candy. Inside a trademark fight between the Cutler family, who own the farm, and Amanda Cohen, who runs the restaurant, Ms. Severson found threads of what she calls 'America's crisis of mistrust,' the country's reordered political spectrum and the developing ideology around organic food. In an interview with Times Insider, Ms. Severson discussed the article, her role at The Times and the rapidly evolving culture surrounding food in the United States. The following conversation has been edited and condensed. Your job is to examine food. How does your profession influence your eating habits? I see eating as part of my work. Any time I have a chance to eat something that I haven't tried before, I do that. If I come across something at a farmers' market, or maybe I'm out in the country and somebody is making a dish I haven't seen before, I'll ask how they make it. Sometimes in the grocery store, if I see a person with something interesting in their cart, I stop them and ask how they're going to use it. I understand and appreciate the artistry that goes into a four-star restaurant, but day to day, I'm with my teenager. We enjoy McDonald's French fries. I cook dinner regularly. I review cookbooks and I test recipes. It's all one big information stream. When in your career did you come up with the philosophy that food could be a window into larger social issues? I started writing about food when I was a reporter at The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska. I was the restaurant critic there. Food allowed me to get out on the Iditarod Trail, and to find out how people get groceries to the bush. Then I went to The San Francisco Chronicle, and the idea was to cover news around food. San Francisco is a great food town, and I had good editors who believed that you could tell any story through food. That really cemented it for me. In your most recent article, you wrote that a dispute between a restaurant in New York and a farm in Texas was 'rooted in America's current crisis of mistrust.' When in your reporting did you recognize the opportunity to write about something bigger? I was in Texas and met the Cutlers around the time when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was getting closer to being approved for Trump's cabinet. Kennedy, and many of who we used to consider 'hippie farmers,' are all about farm-to-table and clean food — as are some of the very best restaurateurs. It's like a Venn diagram that you never would have imagined, with R.F.K. Jr. and Alice Waters in the same section. When I talked to the Cutlers, they were part of the Make America Healthy Again world. They weren't necessarily supportive of Trump, but they certainly had a suspicion of government, of medical studies, of Covid. The Cutlers and Amanda Cohen both believe in small farms and in not using pesticides, and how important the Earth is for our health. But they were completely on opposite sides. I think that's where we are now. Everything's scrambled, and you can't categorize people as 'left' or 'right' anymore. But there is this distrust for the government, for one another, for the political process. That's what really came through. You mentioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Make America Healthy Again movement. He was recently approved by the Senate to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Are you gearing up to report on his campaign to change America's health and eating habits? Along with my colleagues at the Well and Science sections, I'm going to dig into a lot of this. I imagine that he's going to push against big agriculture a little more than anyone from the president's cabinet has before. Will Make America Healthy Again mean we're going to have more organic farming and more local food? At the same time, he's against more traditional science and health theories. It's going to be really interesting. You previously covered the South for the National desk. How have Atlanta and the South's food culture influenced your work? I knew nothing about Southern food until I moved here. I had some broad thoughts about it, like Southern cooking and where soul food and agriculture fits into that. Now I talk about the American South as being sort of the Italy of America, in that each little region is so different from the next. It's very agriculture-based here, with a lot of vegetable-based food, but how you make your collards in Mississippi could not be more different from how you would make them in Appalachia. There are a lot of old, old food ways here. The story of race in America began in the South. From the kitchens where Black hands made the food came traditions that exist today. There are many stories to learn about food here.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Yahoo
Charges: St. Paul motorist was drunk, driving in wrong lanes when he caused head-on crash that killed 18-year-old Wisconsin man
A December head-on collision in St. Paul that killed an 18-year-old Wisconsin man was caused by a motorist traveling the wrong way on Shepard Road while nearly three times the legal limit to drive, according to charges. Sanjit Singh, 54, of St. Paul, is charged in Ramsey County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the Dec. 29 crash that killed Dylan James Severson of Fountain City, Wis. Singh was charged by warrant and had yet to be booked into jail on the charge as of Tuesday. A woman with Severson was hospitalized with 'moderate injuries.' Singh also sustained serious injuries in the crash, police said. The criminal complaint, filed Friday, gives the following account: St. Paul police officers were called to the crash in the area of Shepard Road and Randolph Avenue around 2:35 a.m. Dec. 29. A 2007 Chevrolet Impala and a 1998 GMC Sierra pickup truck were both facing east on Shepard Road with badly damaged front ends. Severson was in the driver's seat of the Impala, not moving or breathing. The woman was conscious and in the front passenger seat and had to be extracted from the car. She had injuries to her hands, face, neck and legs and complained of back and leg pain. She said she and Severson were headed to River Falls, Wis., and that they both smoked marijuana before the crash, the complaint says. Singh was lying across the passenger seat of the pickup truck with his legs near the driver's floor area. He was unconscious, but had shallow breaths. St. Paul Fire Department medics rushed him and the woman to Regions Hospital. Medics pronounced Severson dead at the scene at 3:10 a.m. A sample of Singh's blood was taken by a Regions nurse at 6:06 a.m. Singh's son spoke to police at the crash scene. He said Singh had told him earlier he was going out for the night and that he woke up in the middle of the night and was worried because Singh had not returned home. He went to the crash scene after checking Singh's location on his cellphone. The registered owner of the Impala told police he loaned the car to Severson, who was his best friend. An officer noted in a limited crash reconstruction report the weather was foggy with temperatures near freezing, but the roadway was dry and clear of snow and ice. Streetlights in the area of the crash were not working. Front-end damage to both vehicles was consistent with an 'off-set' head-on crash, the complaint says. The reconstruction report concluded Severson was traveling northeast in the northeast-bound lanes of Shepard Road, while Singh was headed southwest in the northeast lanes. Crime & Public Safety | Statue of young F. Scott Fitzgerald stolen from outside St. Paul building where he attended school Crime & Public Safety | Embattled Sen. Nicole Mitchell hit with second felony charge in burglary case Crime & Public Safety | Trial for alleged ringleader in $250M Feeding Our Future fraud scheme begins Crime & Public Safety | Opening statements to begin Monday in trial of alleged ringleader of Feeding our Future fraud case Crime & Public Safety | St. Paul officers justified in Belle Plaine shooting of murder suspect Singh's blood sample was analyzed by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and showed his blood-alcohol concentration was 0.23, the complaint says. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is 0.08 BAC. Minnesota court records show Singh has no convictions or driving-related offenses. According to his online obituary, Severson grew up in Fountain City, a small Mississippi River town just north of Winona, Minn., and graduated from Cochrane-Fountain City High School. He made friends 'everywhere he went thanks, in part, to his infectious smile and big heart,' the obituary says. 'He had so many plans and dreams that he didn't get a chance to make come true.' Survivors include his parents and three sisters.
New York Times
07-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Damon Severson's scrap, Ivan Provorov's short-handed goal help Blue Jackets steal a point
COLUMBUS, Ohio — It wasn't Damon Severson's intent to send a jolt up and down the Columbus Blue Jackets' bench. He didn't mean to bring life to an above-capacity crowd in Nationwide Arena, which had spent most of its energy to that point booing NHL referees. But when Severson, a veteran defenseman, stepped in for a fight after watching teammate Mikael Pyyhtiä get blasted along the wall, it delivered all of that and more. Advertisement It feels like the Blue Jackets are just holding on as they play their way to a much-needed two-week break for the NHL's 4 Nations Face-Off. Riddled by injuries, they need every player in the lineup to empty their tanks and take on new roles just to stay afloat. Thursday's 3-2 overtime loss to the Utah Hockey Club was a clear example. No, the Blue Jackets weren't happy getting one point instead of two. But with all things considered, it's a pretty good point. Justin Danforth and Ivan Provorov scored goals for the Blue Jackets, while goaltender Elvis Merzlikins had 30 saves before allowing a goal with just 33 seconds left in overtime to Utah's Dylan Guenther, who finished a breakaway by scoring off his own rebound. 'The players aren't stupid,' Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. 'They understand where they're at, and whatever role we've asked a player to play, whether it's elevated or not, they're just competing and they're playing hard every night. 'That's why we're in these games. Even the ones like tonight when we lose, we're battling. It's a credit to all the guys stepping on the ice.' The Blue Jackets, just back from a four-game, four-time-zone road trip, could not get going for most of two periods. Part of that was fatigue, surely, but they're also trying to get by without two-thirds of their top forward line and half of their top defensive pair, among other injuries. Defenseman Zach Werenski, who missed Tuesday's game in Buffalo, returned, but he's not playing at 100 percent. He did, however, have a second-period assist to become only the fourth defenseman in NHL history to score at least a point in 20 straight home games. The Blue Jackets trailed 2-1 well into the second, but that's when Severson helped turn things around. At 17:26 of the second, Utah's Michael Kesselring blasted Blue Jackets forward Mikael Pyyhtiä as he battled for a puck along the wall in the Columbus zone. Severson, standing nearby, skated a straight path toward Kesselring to challenge him. Advertisement 'I'm not a huge believer in there having to be a fight after every hit, by any means,' Severson said. 'I just felt like that was one of those plays … I don't want to say it was a blindside, but (Pyyhtiä) wasn't expecting it, just the way he was turned. He was in a vulnerable spot for sure. 'I had a chance to step up for a teammate there. We didn't have our best in the early going, so obviously that's going to help out. You make a split decision on the ice.' Severson handled himself well against Kesselring, glancing Kesselring's chin with a wild right before his momentum carried him to the ice. The Blue Jackets were irate that Severson — not Kesselring — was given an additional roughing penalty in addition to the offsetting fighting majors, putting Columbus on the penalty kill. 'I don't know why we killed,' Evason said. 'That's what you want a guy to do, go over and grab the guy and see if the guy wants to fight, and then they fight. I don't know why the roughing was called.' It worked out OK. Actually, quite well. PROVY TIES IT ON THE PK!💥@FanaticsBook | #CBJ — Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 7, 2025 Near the end of the kill, Provorov skated the puck out of the zone and, finding no resistance, carried the puck the length of the ice. As he entered the right circle, he let loose a wrister that beat Utah goaltender Connor Ingram to the near post, tying the game at two. 'We didn't really agree with the call,' Provorov said. 'It should have just been even strength. But anytime you get a penalty when somebody is defending a teammate, we're going to kill that one and we're going to battle extra hard. I saw an opportunity to jump up and make a play.' In Provorov's 669-game NHL career, that was his first short-handed goal. 'I'll take em' any way I can,' he said. Advertisement For most of the third period, the Blue Jackets seemed intent on simply playing for OT and the standings point it would provide. They dragged it there, thanks to a penalty kill for the final 1:22 of regulation after Werenski went off for tripping. It's quite something to see the line combos and situational player usage Evason and his staff have turned to with center Sean Monahan, right winger Kirill Marchenko and defenseman Dante Fabbro out of the lineup. Those are just the recent losses. Luca Del Bel Belluz, who spent the first three months of the season with AHL Cleveland, is the second-line center. Del Bel Belluz and Mathieu Olivier, already playing higher in an NHL lineup than ever (third line), are on the second power-play unit. When Guenther scored the overtime winner, the Blue Jackets had third- and fourth-line grinders Justin Danforth and Sean Kuraly on the ice with Provorov. 'It's easy to go, 'Ah, well, we're missing these guys and we don't have the depth and we're elevating' … and all this stuff,' Evason said. 'But it's exciting, too, right? Guys are stepping up in different roles and thriving in it, and that's exciting for us as an organization and exciting for us as coaches. 'To kill a penalty like that at the end, and the adversity we went through … we can put this in our memory bank. Maybe we don't have our best stuff. Maybe we don't have some people. But we know how to play in a way where we give ourselves a chance.' (Photo of Damon Severson and Michael Kesselring: Russell LaBounty / Imagn Images)
