Forum Communications Co. • 7 December 2024

Ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in 'Wizard of Oz' sell for record-shattering $28 million

DALLAS — Judy Garland's iconic ruby slippers from the 1939 movie classic "The Wizard of Oz" sold for $28 million at auction on Saturday, Dec. 7, shattering the record for a piece of movie memorabilia. The final sales price, which rises to $32.5 million after taxes and fees, broke the record set in 2011 when Marilyn Monroe's subway dress sold for $5.52 million.

Diplomatic Courier • 3 December 2024

Hollywood’s growing interest in the Middle East, North Africa

Under The Radar is a special series and newsletter offering from Diplomatic Courier bringing you compelling, under–the–radar stories from around the world over the past month. This month across MENA: Hollywood’s growing interest in the region, Morocco’s growing cybersecurity profile, and a grim milestone set in Saudi Arabia.

Diplomatic Courier • 2 December 2024

The chaotic legal battle for the ‘holy grail of shipwrecks’

Far below the surface of the Caribbean Sea at an undisclosed location off the coast of Colombia lies the San José, a shipwreck full of fabulous wealth that is becoming the center–point of a massive international legal battle, one testing the limits of undersea law.

Forum Communications Co. • 21 November 2024

The mystery of the Roseau Runestone, solved

ROSEAU, Minn. — A mysterious rock with curious markings unearthed in northern Minnesota in the early 20th century is a mystery no more — unless you really want it to be. What became known as the "Roseau Runestone" is a small, smooth, golf ball-sized stone with a strip of markings wrapped around it that looks a bit like Viking runic writing. It has fascinated Minnesotans for decades, even as it lay in the archives of the University of Minnesota.

Forum Communications Co. • 14 November 2024

In a shocking small-town vigilante murder, a difficult story to tell

GRAND MARAIS, Minn. — John Rosengren is no stranger to a grim, complicated story. He's an experienced writer and journalist, having written about everything from the tragedy of hockey hero Mark Pavelich to Lois Riess, dubbed the "Killer Grandma" to, most recently, the controversial execution of Marcellus Williams.

Diplomatic Courier • 6 November 2024

NATO’s turn toward the Arctic

Under The Radar is a special series and newsletter offering from Diplomatic Courier bringing you compelling, under–the–radar stories from around the world over the past month. This month across the Hinterlands: NATO launches satellite buildout plan for the Arctic, new designer spacesuits for NASA, and easing export controls on certain tech intended to support the U.S. space tech industry.

Forum Communications Co. • 24 October 2024

Judy Garland's famed ruby slippers were stolen here in 2005. Now you can tour the crime scene

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. — John Kelsch gestures at a waist-high pedestal with a black top. It's empty, and that's the point. This was the scene of a crime.

"This is where they were stolen, right there. They were on this pedestal," he said. "It had a Plexiglas top, just eighth-inch Plexiglas glued at the seams and screwed to the base."

Not many people would want to revisit the worst moment of their life. Fewer would want to do it twice a week, with complete strangers.

InForum • 17 October 2024

Calling all Bigfoot stories: Where people share encounters with the cryptid giant

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. — At first, nobody wants to raise their hand.It's the first hour of the annual Minnesota Bigfoot Conference. It's a Saturday morning, and there are about 150 people inside a brightly lit ballroom at a hotel in Grand Rapids on Oct. 5.

This is what's labeled "Town Hall" on the one-day event's schedule. It could just as well be labeled "Safe Place." It's a term used almost right away by event organizers from the

Minnesota Bigfoot Research Team...

InForum • 3 October 2024

Ann Bilansky’s questionable murder trial in 1859 captivated the nation

ST. PAUL — Stanislaus Bilanksy was sick. Again.He was bedridden, complaining of stomach pains and a fever. It was March 11, 1859, in St. Paul, and the shopkeeper in his early 50s had barely recovered from falling ill just one month before. This should have been a happy time for Bilansky, after all — he had just married for the third time, to Mary Ann Evards Wright in September 1958.

But this time — this time was different.Bilansky would soon be dead, and after a dramatic trial, his ne...

InForum • 26 September 2024

A 'horrible murder' followed by 'the laws outraged'

LEXINGTON, Minn. — Minnesota had just become a state five months prior when John B. Bodell arrived, looking for a place to settle down — one of many Easterners moving west to seek their fortune and future. It was October 1858.Bodell was 36, a carpenter from Massachusetts who had headed west to St. Louis before heading up the Mississippi River to Minnesota. That's where he met Charles J. Rinehart.

It would prove to be a fateful meeting. Before the year was out, both men would be dead...

InForum • 16 August 2024

As a Minnesota high school teacher, Walz left legacy of energy, care and loyalty

MANKATO, Minn. — Twenty eight years before Vice President Kamala Harris interviewed Minnesota Gov. Walz, the last step before deciding whether to pick him as her running mate in the 2024 race for the White House, Bob Ihrig had his own job interview with the man.It was spring 1996. Walz turned 32 that April, and he was competing for a social studies teaching position at Mankato West High School in Mankato, Minnesota.

The hiring committee was intrigued. Walz had six years of teaching o...

InForum • 8 August 2024

Walz response to 2020 unrest sparks renewed national scrutiny, criticism

MINNEAPOLIS —

Tim Walz

's decision-making in the days immediately following the murder of

George Floyd

in May 2020 is drawing renewed scrutiny after Vice President Kamala Harris

selected the Minnesota governor

on Tuesday, Aug. 6, as her running mate in the 2024 presidential contest.Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis Police officers on May 25, 2020, was captured in graphic viral videos and sparked local protests that we...

Diplomatic Courier • 2 July 2024

Facing threats, democracies must first look inward

This short report was compiled from a collective intelligence gathering of World in 2050’s (W2050) Senior Fellows (Institutions Committee). The meeting took place under the Chatham House Rule, so specific ideas will not be directly attributed to any specific Fellow. W2050 Senior Fellows attending the committee meeting were: Thomas Garrett, Joshua Huminski, Christopher Karwacki, Bernhard Kowatsch, and Ian Ralby.

InForum • 3 May 2024

Adella Shores shipwreck discovered in Lake Superior, after steamer vanished in 1909 with 14 aboard

WHITEFISH POINT, Mich. — A large wooden steamship that was last seen plowing into a icy Lake Superior gale in 1909 on its way to Duluth has been discovered, more than a century after it went down with 14 souls aboard.The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society

announced the find

on Wednesday, May 1.

The Adella Shores, a 195-foot, 735-ton steamer, was hauling a load of salt to Duluth on April 29, 1909, following behind the steel steamship Daniel J. Morrell as i...

InForum • 26 April 2024

After watery discovery, Minnesota sheriff tells true crime fans to chill: 'It's just a car in a pond'

BURNSVILLE, Minn. — Someone with a drone spotted it first. It appeared to be a car, submerged in a pond in Burnsville. After hearing about the discovery, the Dakota County Sheriff's Office decided to go get the car. They pulled it out of the tree-fringed pond, located in Neill Park between a baseball diamond and Burnsville Parkway, last week.

Likely considering this was an interesting tidbit to report to the public, the sheriff's office posted a photo of the recovery to Facebook on Mo...

Diplomatic Courier • 17 April 2024

Translating climate rhetoric into meaningful climate action

This short report was compiled from a collective intelligence gathering of World in 2050’s (W2050) Senior Fellows (Climate Change & Energy Transition Committee). The meeting took place under the Chatham House Rule, so specific ideas will not be directly attributed to any specific Fellow.  W2050 Senior Fellows attending the committee meeting were: Ambassador M. Ashraf Haidari, Erin Billeri, Duane Dickson, Kristen Nuttal, and Charlie Ursell.

InForum • 28 March 2024

How a North Dakota clue solved a mysterious code found hidden in a vintage dress

BISMARCK — Sara Rivers Cofield loved the dress at first sight. It was a beautiful brown silk bustle dress with original buttons from the 1880s, on sale at an antique mall in Maine. Rivers Cofield, an archaeologist who also collects antique dresses, bought it for $100, then looked it over.

She noticed the name "Bennett" handwritten on a paper tag sewn inside the dress. And there was a pocket, hidden, hard to get to. And it contained something: a clump of balled-up paper.What she found...

Diplomatic Courier • 27 March 2024

Artists on the Global Front Line

It should come as no surprise that artists are under threat, globally. At its core, making art is about telling the truth, to become an agent for change. This often makes artists’ work and their very existence a threat to those in power—and power does not like to be questioned. So it seemed fitting for a program exploring the risks and challenges artists face to pay tribute to one who could not attend: Afghan Dari poet Nadia Anjuman, killed in 2005 at age 25, after spending her teen years honing...

Diplomatic Courier • 24 February 2024

What we learned in the Ukraine war's second year

War anniversaries are painful observations, and the sentiments as we observe the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine feel more glum than at this time last year. Yet the outcome remains far from clear. In thinking about where the war will go, it can be beneficial to think back on what we’ve learned over the war’s second year.

Diplomatic Courier • 7 April 2023

For Global Policymakers, a Crucial Moment in Defense of Free Expression

A historic hotel in Salzburg, Austria, played host recently to an extraordinary group of artists and activists. During a nearly week-long program, each one of them had a story to tell, and there were many similarities—stories of repression, threat, and exile. They told their stories in large groups and small, in quiet conversations and loud.

Diplomatic Courier • 29 March 2023

For Artists and Activists, a Crucial Moment in AI and Video Games

The video snapped to life, a blue spark flashed across the screen, underscored by epic words echoing underneath the rendered images. The spark alights on a stone pillar, then lifts off again before touching down and transforming into luminous humanoid figures, who arise and stride forward. Forget Candy Crush. Behold, Biskaabiiyaang.

Diplomatic Courier • 7 November 2022

A New Toolkit for Communicating Climate Action

In an environment where people find it increasingly uncomfortable to discuss anything they view as political with someone who disagrees—and where the presentation of facts is often felt as an attack—we need a new approach to communicating climate action that invites people in.

InForum • 24 June 2022

A cemetery fight was roiling this Midwest country church. Then came the armed guards

Attendees to a recent meeting at a small country church on the border of Minnesota and South Dakota found armed guards at the church entrance. Then someone saw an AR-15, prompting a visit by the sheriff. It's the latest development in a battle for the soul of Singsaas Church near Astoria, South Dakota. The conflict pits a divisive new pastor and his growing nondenominational congregation, who revived the old church, and many descendants of the church's old families, worried about the future of a pioneer legacy.

InForum • 22 April 2022

A mother and 2 sons shot dead in their beds: South Dakota's gruesome Mathis killings examined in new book

It was a blood-soaked night that rocked South Dakota and reverberated around the nation: A mother and two of her children shot dead in their beds on a farmstead near Mount Vernon, South Dakota, in the early morning hours of Sept. 8, 1981.

Her husband, shot through the arm but alive, called law enforcement to the scene. He reported that a masked intruder, who must have killed his wife and boys, had also surprised and shot him, then left, leaving him unconscious.

"Someone has shot my family," Ma