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How the Minnesota Star Tribune used AI to bolster its shoe-leather reporting to background a mass shooter - Poynter

Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · 9d

How the Minnesota Star Tribune used AI to bolster its traditional reporting to cover a mass shooter

www.poynter.org/reporting-ed...

A team of journalists relentlessly tracked the shooter’s digital and paper trail. But AI provided deeper insight into her thoughts before the shooting.

www.poynter.org

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · 14d

The city of Hermantown won't say Mortenson has proposed a data center but said zoning planned for the land calls for places that house or operate computers, data and transaction processing, along with digital storage.... www.startribune.com/northern-min...

Northern Minnesota mystery project identified as data center

Mystery has been swirling around the project for months amid zoning changes and offers to buy homes.

Northern Minnesota mystery project identified as data center

Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · 14d

A massive development proposal that Hermantown is describing only as a “communication services facility” was identified as a data center in a January letter sent to city officials. Story w/
@janahollingsworth.bsky.social : www.startribune.com/northern-min...

Mystery has been swirling around the project for months amid zoning changes and offers to buy homes.

Xcel is shutting off power in record numbers

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Reposted by Walker Orenstein

Melissa Santos @melissajsantos.bsky.social · 15d

I've struggled to put into words how I feel about Cascade PBS cutting its entire newsroom today. That newsroom (formerly Crosscut) gave me space to do the most in-depth, informative public policy journalism of my career -- work other journalists continued after I left. The region is now worse off.

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · 20d

At the same time, the average Xcel customer past due on their bill owed $270 in 2019. That figure was nearly double between 2021 and 2024.

www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · 20d

Xcel Energy disconnected 52,549 Minnesota households from electricity or gas last year.

That is more than triple the number from 2019, the year before the pandemic moratorium began. It’s far more than any year in at least a decade: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · 20d

NEW: Minnesota utilities are shutting off power to customers in record numbers in the years after a temporary ban on the practice during COVID-19.

For Xcel, the ability to disconnect remotely with 'smart' meters is playing a role in the enormous spike: www.startribune.com/xcel-is-cutt...

Economic conditions after the COVID-19 pandemic, and new smart meters that allow Xcel to remotely disconnect homes, are behind a spike that has drawn criticism from consumer advocates.

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk dies after being shot at Utah college event

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Reposted by Walker Orenstein

Minnesota Star Tribune @startribune.com · 27d

Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.

Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a college event, Trump said.

bit.ly

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · 29d

Perhaps more than any other Minnesota city, Becker’s fate is linked to the changes transforming Minnesota’s energy sector. That now includes the convulsive data center industry.

Amazon's retreat from Becker is the latest 'gut punch' in a volatile era: www.startribune.com/amazon-retre...

Amazon's data center retreat is latest 'gut punch' to Becker

Becker's future is intertwined with a changing energy system, and depends on the whims of an AI gold rush by the nation’s largest tech companies.

The Mass Shooters Are Performing for One Another

Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Sep 4

"Taken together, the messages are incoherent. This is irony-poisoned nihilism, tactical gear as shitposting—the only cause this person seems to have is to troll the viewer." www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The goal of these attacks is to join a lineage of infamous killers.

www.theatlantic.com

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Sep 4

I spent a horrifying amount of time reading and translating the Annunciation shooter manifesto to report on it, and this rang true to me: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The Mass Shooters Are Performing for One Another

The goal of these attacks is to join a lineage of infamous killers.

www.theatlantic.com

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 26

Comments like these are a small window into the struggle this summer for an upper hand in a deal that would take Duluth’s only publicly traded company private under an ownership group led by a subsidiary of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager: www.startribune.com/as-state-wei...

Minnesota Power sale brings fight over clean energy, private equity

Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 26

In the debate over the future of northern MN's largest power company, the rhetoric has turned nasty.

The $6.2 billion sale of Allete/Minnesota Power has exposed tensions over funding clean energy and whether private equity will hurt customers: www.startribune.com/as-state-wei...

Allete says its buyers would provide the cash to comply with Minnesota’s carbon-free law. Skeptics say BlackRock would hurt utility customers.

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 22

“Do they think that they can wave a magic wand and put the fires out? People have lost their homes and livelihoods. It’s not like we’ve gone around and started these fires just for the hell of it.”

www.startribune.com/north-of-min...

Northern wildfires have smoked out Minnesota’s summer, but in Canada it’s been devastating

Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 22

The impact of wildfire smoke on health & happiness in Minnesota is real. So is the political tension. For our neighbors in Manitoba, the fires have devastated communities.

Thanks to Kristoffer Tigue & Carlos Gonzalez for this illuminating work: www.startribune.com/north-of-min...

The smoke that has drifted south is evidence of Manitoba’s worst wildfire season in three decades.

Twins chairman Joe Pohlad: ‘I don’t think we could have imagined a better outcome’

Reposted by Walker Orenstein

Bobby Nightengale @nightengalejr.bsky.social · Aug 13

🚨EXCLUSIVE: Joe Pohlad tells Phil Miller why the Twins are no longer for sale and the Pohlad family will remain principal owners of the team.

The Pohlad family is adding two new groups of minority partners in their ownership structure.

Story: www.startribune.com/minnesota-tw...
@startribune.com

Joe Pohlad, in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, declined to reveal two groups of new minority partners. He said recent moves to trade away a large group of players were not an ownership d...

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 12

The deal remains opposed by others, such as CURE, Sierra Club, Minnesota Power's large industrial customers and the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota.

Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 12

Allete/Minnesota Power has drawn some other notable support lately, including from the trade groups Clean Energy Economy Minnesota, and Clean Grid Alliance, as well as nonprofits Center for Energy and Environment, and Fresh Energy.

Allete sale would help fund clean energy investment for Minnesota

Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 12

@jigarshahdc.bsky.social endorses the sale of Minnesota Power in Duluth. Shah ran a huge clean energy loan program for Biden.

"Public markets are increasingly volatile and swayed by global forces like tariffs, inflation and even speculative trends like AI" www.utilitydive.com/news/allete-...

The proposed sale would inject a massive infusion of private capital into Minnesota Power, capital guided by a long-term perspective rather than short-term market pressures.

www.utilitydive.com

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 11

NEW: Slayton, Minnesota, wants to kick Xcel Energy out and form its own government-run electric provider. It's an extraordinary step and one driven by frustration with Xcel's service and emergency response.

A city of 2,000 is squaring off with a $43b company: www.startribune.com/this-tiny-to...

This tiny town wants to be the first in Minnesota to evict Xcel Energy and start its own utility

A four-hour wait to shut off power to a burning utility pole was one of the last straws for Slayton.

A community solar plan would save Xcel customers money — but cost some cities and schools millions

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Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 4

Here's a more expansive story on the how the ruling would save Xcel customers money, but cost some cities and schools millions: www.startribune.com/minnesota-co...

Minnesota regulators are considering the plan that would reduce the amount of credits subscribers to these solar arrays receive.

Minnesota regulators cut community solar bill credits to save Xcel customers money

Walker Orenstein @walkerorenstein.bsky.social · Aug 4

The PUC's aim was to reduce costs for Xcel customers, to the tune of roughly $40m a year.

The ruling slashed expected savings for CSG subscribers and was fiercely opposed by solar developers & customers like school districts.

Background on the ruling: www.startribune.com/minnesota-pu...

The decision is estimated to save roughly $40 million a year for ratepayers, but was fiercely contested by solar garden operators and subscribers, including many local governments and schools who will...