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USA Today
07-07-2025
- Business
- USA Today
St. Cloud Quarterly Business Report finds local growth despite tariff worries
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — area business owners are seeing success despite concerns surrounding economic conditions like tariffs, a new St. Cloud-area business report found. The newest edition of the St. Cloud Area Quarterly Business Report, released June 26, found signs of healthy business activity for local companies, though business owners are still worried about impacts of national economic conditions at home. Employment, wages and prices received for products all picked up this past quarter, the report found, which suggest some slight economic growth in the area. However, business owners' concerns about national economic conditions, namely tariffs, cast a shadow over the majority of survey responses. King Banaian, a St. Cloud State University economics professor and director of the university's Center for Policy Research and Community Engagement, discussed the report's findings at Granite Innovations. His presentation was titled "Negotiating the Wall of Worry." It addressed the theme of worry across much of the report. "In terms of future conditions, I would say people are feeling good, but they're not super optimistic, but they feel like they're managing through whatever issues they see in the national environment," Banaian said. Many business owners who participated in the survey used in the report were especially nervous about the impacts of tariffs, with 32% saying they did not know how tariffs would impact their business. "Most of what we sell is imported directly or indirectly, and the constantly changing policies are making it very difficult for us and our clients to plan and navigate," a respondent cited in the report's review said. New medical school: Construction almost complete at St. Cloud's new medical school The Trump administration's new tariff rates are scheduled to restart July 8 after a 90-day pause, though there is a chance that the trade deal deadline could be extended, according to USA Today. The majority of local business owners also plan to pass the costs of increased tariffs onto consumers, the report found, with 56% of respondents planning to pass most tariff costs onto consumers and another 22% planning to pass on all additional costs. The report also found mixed responses on how tariffs may impact local businesses, with 37% of respondents expecting to be impacted negatively and 26% anticipating no impact at all. However, another 5% expect positive impacts, which Banaian said points to the diversity of companies in town, and this could be from business-to-business producers. "When we talk to local businesses, they're aware of (tariffs), they're incorporating it into their plans, and they're not panicked about it," Banaian said. "They seem like they're in a place where they're willing to... muddle through." The Quarterly Business Report also explored the anticipated impacts of a new Minnesota paid family and medical leave law that will take effect in January 2026. This law allows most workers to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave for the birth of a child, recovering from injuries or taking care of a parent in hospice. Several lawmakers and business groups opposed the law due to concerns it could place stress on small business owners. A third of survey respondents said they've reached out to the government for guidance on the new policy and another third said they have reached out to state officials for relief. Benton Solar: New solar facility could bring major investments, hundreds of jobs to St. Cloud area Despite concerns about national economic conditions and policy changes, the report found signs of local economic success in its review of local economic indicators. The Leading Economic Indicators, six measurements that are part of each quarterly report, hinted at slight growth over the past quarter and a growth of 1.1% in local private employment over the next four to six months. Professional employment, the St. Cloud Stock Price Index and current economic conditions all improved, though initial claims for unemployment insurance increased and there was no change in new business incorporations. As a result, Banaian said current conditions hint at a slight downturn in the future. He also believes a recession is less likely than he thought at the time of the last Quarterly Business Report, but he is not ruling out the possibility. Despite the mixed signals, Banaian commended the optimism of local business owners and said it is understandable to be worried about tariffs and other economic conditions. "I'm not telling people not to worry; I don't mean that," he said. "I mean that the economy can continue to grow even while worrying because markets are really efficient processors of information... there's a base of optimism in our local leaders that recognizes those concerns and says, 'I'm going to be okay.'" Teagan King covers business and development for the St. Cloud Times. She can be reached at teking@
Vancouver Sun
23-06-2025
- Sport
- Vancouver Sun
PWHL's Vancouver team names Brian Idalski as its first head coach
The Professional Women's Hockey League's new team in Vancouver has named Brian Idalski as its first head coach. Idalski joins the expansion side following three seasons at St. Cloud State University, where he led the women's hockey team to a program-record 36 conference points and tied its record of 18 wins. The 54-year-old from Warren, Mich., joins the PWHL after 18 seasons as a collegiate coach, including time at the University of North Dakota and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and appearances in five NCAA tournament appearances. Idalski previously coached overseas for the KRS Vanke Rays in Shenzhen, China, where he won two Zhenskaya Hockey League titles in three years, and worked with recent PWHL Vancouver acquisitions Michela Cava and Hannah Miller. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. He was also head coach of the China's women's hockey team at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, a team that also included Miller. Idalski said working with so many familiar players in Vancouver is a unique opportunity. 'The PWHL has had a huge impact on the global game, and to be a part of that — with expansion helping push it even further forward — is an unbelievable feeling,' he said in a statement. 'I've been associated with a lot of players across the PWHL, either coaching them personally or against them over the years, so this role brings me full circle with an eagerness to work with the league's world-class talent.' Idalski is a 'proven winner who knows our sport, the players, and has coached at the highest levels,' said Vancouver general manager Cara Gardner Morey. 'What stands out in Brian's experience is his ability to build and transform the programs he is a part of, from his work in professional leagues, at the Olympics, and turning collegiate teams into nationally ranked contenders,' she said in a news release. 'I'm excited that he will lead our incredible group in Vancouver and can't wait to see his vision and influence shape our foundation.'
Ottawa Citizen
23-06-2025
- Sport
- Ottawa Citizen
PWHL's Vancouver team names Brian Idalski as its first head coach
Article content The Professional Women's Hockey League's new team in Vancouver has named Brian Idalski as its first head coach. Article content Idalski joins the expansion side following three seasons at St. Cloud State University, where he led the women's hockey team to a program-record 36 conference points and tied its record of 18 wins. Article content Article content The 54-year-old from Warren, Mich., joins the PWHL after 18 seasons as a collegiate coach, including time at the University of North Dakota and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and appearances in five NCAA tournament appearances. Article content Article content Idalski previously coached overseas for the KRS Vanke Rays in Shenzhen, China, where he won two Zhenskaya Hockey League titles in three years, and worked with recent PWHL Vancouver acquisitions Michela Cava and Hannah Miller. Article content Article content He was also head coach of the China's women's hockey team at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, a team that also included Miller. Article content Idalski said working with so many familiar players in Vancouver is a unique opportunity. Article content 'The PWHL has had a huge impact on the global game, and to be a part of that — with expansion helping push it even further forward — is an unbelievable feeling,' he said in a statement. 'I've been associated with a lot of players across the PWHL, either coaching them personally or against them over the years, so this role brings me full circle with an eagerness to work with the league's world-class talent.' Article content Article content Idalski is a 'proven winner who knows our sport, the players, and has coached at the highest levels,' said Vancouver general manager Cara Gardner Morey. Article content Article content
Calgary Herald
23-06-2025
- Sport
- Calgary Herald
PWHL's Vancouver team names Brian Idalski as its first head coach
Article content The Professional Women's Hockey League's new team in Vancouver has named Brian Idalski as its first head coach. Article content Idalski joins the expansion side following three seasons at St. Cloud State University, where he led the women's hockey team to a program-record 36 conference points and tied its record of 18 wins. Article content Article content The 54-year-old from Warren, Mich., joins the PWHL after 18 seasons as a collegiate coach, including time at the University of North Dakota and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and appearances in five NCAA tournament appearances. Article content Article content Idalski previously coached overseas for the KRS Vanke Rays in Shenzhen, China, where he won two Zhenskaya Hockey League titles in three years, and worked with recent PWHL Vancouver acquisitions Michela Cava and Hannah Miller. Article content Article content He was also head coach of the China's women's hockey team at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, a team that also included Miller. Article content Idalski said working with so many familiar players in Vancouver is a unique opportunity. Article content 'The PWHL has had a huge impact on the global game, and to be a part of that — with expansion helping push it even further forward — is an unbelievable feeling,' he said in a statement. 'I've been associated with a lot of players across the PWHL, either coaching them personally or against them over the years, so this role brings me full circle with an eagerness to work with the league's world-class talent.' Article content Article content Idalski is a 'proven winner who knows our sport, the players, and has coached at the highest levels,' said Vancouver general manager Cara Gardner Morey. Article content Article content 'What stands out in Brian's experience is his ability to build and transform the programs he is a part of, from his work in professional leagues, at the Olympics, and turning collegiate teams into nationally ranked contenders,' she said in a news release. Article content
Boston Globe
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Minnesota shooting suspect went from youthful evangelizer to far-right zealot
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Friends and neighbors of the 57-year-old say they are struggling to understand what drove him to allegedly masquerade as a police officer and shoot two state legislators and their spouses in the predawn hours of Saturday - leaving state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband dead and the other couple seriously injured. Some point to his teenage conversion and the startling change that followed, one that became very public in Sleepy Eye, a burg of about 3,500 about two hours southwest of Minneapolis. Advertisement Through much of high school, Boelter was like every other teen, according to lifelong friend David Carlson. But after Boelter declared himself a born-again Christian, he began preaching in the local park - even living there in a tent, Carlson said. Advertisement 'Everything in his life - he just changed,' Carlson said Sunday. 'People were saying, 'Yeah, Vance is in the park preaching.' He was just trying to spread the word about Jesus.' Boelter grew up one of five siblings in a family that was locally famous for baseball - his father, Donald, was the high school coach and later selected for the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. They lived in a turreted, two-story house on a corner lot in a neighborhood where American flags fly from porches and flagpoles. In his senior year, Boelter was named 'Most Courteous' and 'Most Friendly,' according to images from his high school yearbook shared by a former classmate. It listed him as captain of the basketball team and a member of the baseball team, football team and chorus. 'Vance was a normal kid who came from a middle-class background,' said Wendel Lamason, who was friends with Boelter until Lamason moved to another town for eighth grade. The family was part of mainstream Lutheran churches, some more center-right, some more center-left, and the elder Boelter was active in church leadership. Ron Freimark, who pastored a different Lutheran congregation in Sleepy Eye, remembers the boy participating in church youth groups. 'He wasn't rebellious. He was polite and all that,' Freimark said Monday afternoon. 'He was just a good kid.' According to his LinkedIn profile, Boelter went on to attend St. Cloud State University and graduated with a degree in international relations. On a now-defunct website for Revoformation, a nonprofit he founded several years later, Boelter laid out a basic biography and said he had been 'ordained' in 1993. He said he had gone to a small Catholic college near Milwaukee - Cardinal Stritch, which is now closed - as well as Christ for the Nations Institute, a Dallas school that is part of the broad, nondenominational world of charismatic Christianity. Advertisement And, the bio claimed, he had made trips overseas to seek out 'militant Islamists' to 'tell them violence wasn't the answer.' Christ for the Nations was founded in 1970 by Gordon Lindsay, a prominent preacher in independent, charismatic Christianity. The focus of the movement initially was on evangelizing, faith healing and experiential worship such as speaking in tongues. In the last quarter-century, however, a segment of it turned to politics and changing policies, especially around abortion. A Lindsay quote long posted in the school's lobby reads: 'Everyone ought to pray at least one violent prayer each day.' The exhortation, the school said Monday, described prayer that should be 'intense, fervent and passionate.' In a statement, it confirmed Boelter had graduated in 1990 with a degree in practical theology in leadership and pastoral and said it was 'aghast and horrified' at the news that the alum was a suspect in the weekend shootings. 'This is not who we are,' the statement said. 'We have been training Christian servant leaders for 55 years and they have been agents of good, not evil.' Based on his recent online presence, Boelter's views now appear to align with the political 'far right' of Christianity in the United States, said Matthew Taylor, a senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies. The followers of this kind of charismatic Christianity believe in a need 'to fight back' against demons and satanic evil in the world, Taylor said. Its core disseminates 'very extreme' rhetoric about abortion, he added, with some leaders portraying it as a form of child sacrifice that empowers demons. Advertisement Boelter 'seems very much to embrace some of the violent rhetoric and ideas that circulate through those spaces,' Taylor said. Indeed, in another sermon posted online, Boelter said God was sending people to America for a specific purpose. 'They don't know abortion is wrong, many churches,' he said. 'When the body starts moving in the wrong direction … God will raise an apostle or prophet to correct their course.' In and around Minneapolis, Boelter spent most of his career in the food industry while, as Carlson put it, dreaming of launching a security business. A former neighbor in Sleepy Eye said Boelter, his wife and their children - four girls and a boy - moved back there around 2008 when he took a job as a production coordinator for the local Del Monte plant. The family bought a three-bedroom fixer-upper on Maple Street and spent their time at the public pool or hosting Bible studies, said the neighbor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. Boelter's wife, Jenny, was a stay-at-home mom who always had a smile on her face and brought apple pies over around the holidays, the neighbor said. 'They were friendly, almost too friendly,' he said. 'It was almost like there was never anything wrong.' Flags for the fallen lawmakers were at half-staff Monday in Sleepy Eye, a town named for a famous Native American Dakota chief from the 1800s. The business stretch of Main Street goes about five blocks, with several historical buildings and a repurposed movie theater marquee promoting a coffee shop and brewing company. Drive just a bit farther and the flat Midwestern landscape is dotted with farms and silver grain bins. Advertisement
