Hope you were able to enjoy the nice weather yesterday, get outside a bit. Maybe you were one of the several people I heard driving around with their windows down and music blasting. For me, it is a bit nostalgic, but also a sign of the weather actually being nice. But, maybe that’s just me. Let’s get to the news.

We bring you news about the U.S. Senate’s vote to lift a mining ban in the Boundary Waters. A local clinic provides people safe sex supplies, items often forgotten about during Operation Metro Surge. Podcast reporter Grace Aigner interviews one of our city desk reporters about her first year at the Daily. AND maybe there is a new Gold Standard episode and TWO new opinion columns, but feel free to fact check me.

Stay golden,

Alexis Letang | Editor-in-Chief | [email protected]

Top Story

U.S. Senate votes to lift mining ban near Boundary Waters, rolling back wilderness protections

by Hannah Reynolds | Multimedia Editor | Published April 16, 2026

Republican senators voted Thursday to allow new mining projects near the Minnesota Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness, one of the most visited and expansive stretches of wilderness in the United States.

The resolution, which passed in a narrow 50 to 49 vote, would repeal a Biden-era 20-year moratorium on mining across roughly 350 square miles of Superior National Forest, which includes the Boundary Waters.

This vote is victory for Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of the Chilean mining conglomerate Antofagasta, which has proposed plans to build a copper and nickel mine five miles from the wilderness area and within the watershed of the Boundary Waters.

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