Kelly Clarkson will return to host the ‘Christmas In Rockefeller Center’ special on NBC. This year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is a Norway Spruce from West Stockbridge, Mass., the first tree to hail from the state since 1959. The tree is lit daily from 5 a.m. to midnight and will be lit for 24 hours on Christmas Eve, and will remain on view through mid-January.
The 42-year-old singer and talk-show host announced that she will host the two-hour special featuring musical performances, “star-studded surprises” and the annual tree-lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Clarkson shared: “Let’s talk about this incredible time of year. The city is so magical. I love the holidays in New York. Living here during Christmas is like you’re in a movie; there’s nothing like it in the world. Especially the tree-lighting ceremony. I’m especially excited though, because for the second year in a row, I’m actually going to host Christmas in Rockefeller Center again. I’m very excited.”
An all-star lineup of musical guests includes performance from Backstreet Boys, Dan + Shay, Megan Hilty, Jennifer Hudson, Coco Jones, Little Big Town, RAYE, and Thalia. The Radio City Rockettes, stars of the annual “Christmas Spectacular” at Radio City Music Hall, will also perform during the special broadcast.
Christmas at Rockefeller Center will air live Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. EST on NBC and also stream on Peacock.
The Crookston Pirate Girls Basketball team will begin the 2024-25 season tonight as they host the Lake Park-Audubon Raiders at the Crookston High School gymnasium.The varsity game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., we will have the pre-game show about 7:00 p.m. You can watch the game below.
The Crookston Pirate Boys Hockey team opens up the 2024-25 season hosting the Kittson County Central Bearcats in a Section 8A matchup at 6:00 p.m. at the Crookston Sports Center. The game will be on KROX Radio and the KROX Youtube channel.
Early Childhood Family Education’s (ECFE) Grandparents Night was held on Monday, November 25th, at Washington School. Being a grandparent allows them to rediscover the wonder of the world through the eyes of their grandchild and support their early learning through everyday moments. Over 130 people attended the event, and it was a joy to have so many exploring learning materials in classrooms, meeting their grandchild’s teacher, and playing in the gym. These important interactions strengthen the bond between grandparents and grandchildren and help build strong brain connections that prepare children for school and life. The evening ended with a group story, What Grandpas/Grandmas Do Best, by Laura Numeroff, and each family was given a game to take home and play together!
Rapidly falling air temperatures, dangerously cold water, and the likelihood of skim ice on some ponds across Minnesota means it’s imperative for parents and guardians to talk with their kids about the importance of safety ahead of the Thanksgiving break.
Whether through thin ice or into open water, falls into the water this time of year can turn tragic quickly. An unexpected fall can incapacitate even the strongest swimmers in short order. It’s up to parents and guardians to teach their kids about the dangers of cold water and ensure they’re properly supervised anytime they’re around it.
“Many kids have an innate curiosity about the water, but they likely don’t understand the dangers,” said Capt. Adam Block, boating law administrator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “All water this time of year is dangerous, from the small neighborhood pond to the state’s biggest lakes and rivers.”
The best way to stay safe around cold water or survive an unexpected fall is to wear a life jacket. Foam life jackets are better than inflatable life jackets this time of year since cold water means the latter might not fully inflate. In addition, Block recommends people carry a phone in case they need to call for help, let others know where they’re going and when they plan to return and plan for how they’ll deal with an unforeseen incident.
Two Crookston High School seniors, Kambelle Freije and Addie Fee, signed to play college athletics next year at a ceremony held at the Crookston High School.Freije will play hockey at Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Fee will play hockey and tennis at Wisconson-Superior.
KAMBELLE FREIJE Kambelle Freije signed to play hockey at Wisconsin Eau Claire, an NCAA Division III school. According to Official Pirate Girls Hockey statistician Greg Boetcher, Kambelle played in 42.26 games before this year and has a 26-13-3 record. She had faced 973 shots and made 891 saves for a .915 save percentage (second all-time). She has faced 23.02 shots per game and has made 21.08 saves per game while giving up 1.94 goals per game while posting 12 shutouts, which is second all-time and one behind the Pirate career mark of 13 set by Amy Burke. “Kambelle is a leader, and she is also a stud between the pipes. She has made my life, and the other coaches’ lives a lot easier as she has taken the reigns and made life a lot easier, and I can’t say enough good things about her,” said Pirate Girls Hockey Coach Reed Olson, who explained what makes Freije so good. “Her attention to detail. She knows everything about the players she is facing. Her attention to detail is what separates her from other goalies in the section.” Kambelle also plays softball for the Pirates, playing multiple positions in the infield and being one of the team’s top players. “It was my second visit for hockey, and I just loved it there,” said Freije. “I love the coach. I did some research, and they have a competitive program. The campus is unreal, and I saw some of the girls work; they were all jacked so that they have a good weight program, the coaches are great, and the town is great. It is so exciting and glad to make it official.”
ADDIE FEE Addie Fee has signed a letter of intent to play hockey and tennis at the NCAA Division III University of Wisconsin-Superior next year. HOCKEY – According to official Pirate Girls Hockey statistician Greg Boetcher, Fee had 98 career points coming into the season with 46 goals and 52 assists in 88 career games, which is ninth all-time scoring in program history. “Her leadership qualities are amazing. She is the first on the ice and the last to leave,” said Pirate Girls Hockey Coach Reed Olson. “She takes criticism from the coaches well, she is always lifting up her teammates and you can tell on the ice how good of a leader she is and how good her work ethic is.” TENNIS – Fee had a 95-22 career record with a mix of doubles and singles and played doubles with Kaylie Clauson at the 2024 state doubles tennis tournament, where they finished sixth place, and she was a member of the 2023 and 2024 Pirate Tennis teams that made it to state and finished sixth place and fourth place respectively. “Addie is a competitor, a hard worker, and has a lot of great qualities,” said Pirate Girls Tennis Coach Gina Gunderson. “She is going to do a lot of great things in college, and she wasn’t ready to be done yet, and this is a good opportunity for her. I am really excited for her.” Fee said she fell in love with Superior when she made the visit. “I met with the coaches and really like them. It was a small campus, and that is what I was looking for. It is right on Lake Superior, which is really pretty. When I made the visit, I just fell in love with it,” said Fee. “It will be different, but it will be a lot of fun and playing both sports played a huge part.”
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) today announced that 100% of the state’s community water systems have completed an inventory of their service lines as part of a national effort to identify where lead pipes need to be replaced.
MDH has been working with community water systems across the state to eliminate exposure to lead from drinking water. MDH estimates that of the 1.5 million service lines in Minnesota, just under 90,000 are made of lead. That total may increase as approximately 280,000 service lines will require additional verification.
In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature initiated a lead service line replacement project and set a goal of replacing all of the state’s lead service lines by 2033. This meant work had already started in Minnesota ahead of the federal push announced on Oct. 8 to have all lead service lines in the country replaced within 10 years. Several water systems – including Duluth, St. Paul, and Minneapolis – have already started replacing their lead service lines.
“There is no safe level of lead exposure, so getting lead out of drinking water is a public health imperative,” said Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Brooke Cunningham. “The efforts to identify and remove lead service lines represent a significant step forward in our commitment to safeguarding the health and wellbeing of all in Minnesota.”
Service lines connect the water main to the interior plumbing in a building. When service lines are made of lead, they can be a source of lead in drinking water. Lead is a poisonous metal that can cause serious health problems, especially in children and pregnant people.
The completed inventories cover approximately 4.5 million Minnesotans. Minnesota residents who get their drinking water from a community water system can find out if they have a lead service line. Do you have a lead service line?, an online mapping application developed by the University of Minnesota and MDH.
Residents will be notified by their water system if they have a service line made of lead or that may contain lead and about the next steps the system will take to replace those lines or identify the material. These notifications are not an indication that there is an immediate problem with their drinking water. Water systems routinely test drinking water for lead and notify residents separately if there’s an issue. For residents with service lines of unknown material, future assistance will be available to water systems to complete the service line identification.
“Nationally, Minnesota has one of the highest rates of completion for the service line inventories,” said Sandeep Burman, manager of MDH’s Drinking Water Protection Section. “The work to replace lead service lines has begun, and we’re well on our way to eliminating this source of lead exposure.”
Millions of dollars in state and federal funding are available for water systems to replace lead service lines in Minnesota, including $240 million appropriated by the 2023 Minnesota Legislature. In May 2024, MDH received funding applications for 129 lead service line replacement projects across 78 different municipalities. Funding for replacement is funneled through the public water system, not individual property owners. By state law, water systems need to prioritize their replacements based on efficient use of funds and certain health equity criteria, including low-income neighborhoods and children’s health.
More information about lead and health is available on the MDH website, Lead.
Iconic retailer Macy’s announced Monday that it would delay its full third-quarter earnings report because of an employee hiding up to $154 million in expenses, which sent its stock plummeting in early trading. At midday Monday, Macy’s stock was trading at $15.68 a share, down 3.8% — it had traded as high as $22.10 within the last year.
The department store chain was expected to report quarterly results on Tuesday; however, the retailer said that it had identified an issue related to delivery expenses in one of its accrual accounts earlier this month. The did release preliminary third-quarter results, adding that the full report, along with the fourth quarter and full-year guidance, will be unveiled by Dec. 11.
An independent investigation and forensic analysis found that a single unnamed employee, with responsibility for small package delivery expense accounting, intentionally made erroneous accounting accrual entries to hide roughly $132 million to $154 million of expenses from the fourth quarter of 2021 through the fiscal quarter ended November 2. Macy’s did not to explain why the employee, who is no longer with the company, hid the expenses.
Tony Spring, chair and CEO of Macy’s, said in a statement: “We delivered third-quarter sales in line with expectations as we continued to make traction on our Bold New Chapter strategy initiatives. Our Macy’s First 50 locations achieved their third consecutive quarter of comparable sales growth. At the same time … Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, reported positive comparable sales. Importantly, November comparable sales are trending ahead of third-quarter levels across nameplates.”
Macy’s said it its preliminary report of its first 50 locations, comparable sales growth was up 1.9%. It said asset sale gains of $66 million were ahead of expectations, and that luxury brand Bluemercury reported comparable sales growth of 3.3%.
Special counsel Jack Smith has filed motions to drop all federal charges against President-elect Donald Trump regarding his mishandling of classified documents and his effort to overturn his 2020 presidential election, leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S Capitol.
Trump was first indicted in June 2023 in a federal court in Miami on 37 felony counts related to mishandling classified documents that he took from the White House to his Florida home. A Florida judge dismissed the case, but Smith’s office had sought an appeal. Trump was separately indicted on four felonies in August 2023 for his attempt to reverse the 2020 election results: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights.
In newly filed court documents, Smith asked a federal district court in Washington on Monday to dismiss the charges against Trump. Federal prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that they are seeking to close Trump’s case because Justice Department policy forbids the prosecution of a sitting president. The special counsel is seeking to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could decide to charge Trump again after he leaves office in January 2029.
Smith wrote: “After careful consideration, the department has determined that [the Office of Legal Counsel’s] prior opinions concerning the Constitution’s prohibition on federal indictment and prosecution of a sitting president apply to this situation and that as a result this prosecution must be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated. That prohibition is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the government stands fully behind.”
The special counsel noted the historic nature of Trump’s prosecution and subsequent election to the presidency, writing that the “department and the country have never faced the circumstance here, where a federal indictment against a private citizen has been returned by a grand jury and a criminal prosecution is already underway when the defendant is elected president.” After consultation with the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Smith said “the department’s position is that the Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated.”
In his six-page motion, Smith said that he conferred with Trump’s lawyers, and they do not object to the request to drop the case. Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesman, said in a statement: “The American people re-elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate to make America great again. Today’s decision by the DOJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump and is a major victory for the rule of law. The American people and President Trump want an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and we look forward to uniting our country.”
