It is that time again. It is Friday, the end of the week. And here I am gracing your screen with news of polar bears in love, the St. Paul City Council discussing ICE agents and a column on why virtual learning is important right now.

Take a look, you won’t regret it.

Stay golden,

A new romance is unfolding in Como Park Zoo & Conservatory’s polar bear habitat — and zookeepers say it could help shape the future of polar bears in North American zoos.

Astra, a 5-year-old female polar bear who arrived in October, has quickly bonded with Kulu, the zoo’s younger male. Staff members have been watching the pair closely leading up to peak breeding season, which typically runs from mid-February through the end of April. 

“We’ll see them snuggling together in the same bedroom,” Allison Jungheim, Como’s senior keeper for the zoo’s aquatic animals and Polar Bear Odyssey area, said. “They pursue each other all the time, playing together, eating together. All of those things are really good signs that they’re getting along really well.”