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REDISTRICTING: Census prompts boundary changes PAGE 15A
Mahtomedi students push for Minnesota state flag redesign BY CORINNE STREMMEL STAFF WRITER
LEANN MICHAEL | CONTRIBUTED
Honor veterans who paid the ultimate sacrifice this Memorial Day, which will be observed Monday, May 30. Find more information about the holiday and a local calendar of events inside on page 9A.
An effort by Mahtomedi High School graduates Jack Kalkman and Thomas Atkins to change the Minnesota state flag may become a reality after the Minnesota House approved legislation to move forward with a new flag design. The legislation, authored by Rep. Peter Fischer (DFL-Maplewood), would establish a commission to develop, design and recommend to the Legislature a new official state flag and seal, retiring the existing one. Kalkman and Atkins approached Rep. Fischer in 2017 with concerns about the current flag, spurring Fischer to begin a joint effort with Rep. Mike Freiberg to propose a new flag. The current flag depicts a white settler tilling soil in the foreground while an Indigenous person is shown on a horse in the background. According to Kevin Jensvold, tribal chairman of the Yellow Medicine Dakota of the Upper Sioux Community, the seal fails to come to terms with Minnesota’s long history of violence against Indigenous people. Jensvold told the Associated Press, “You see a very distinct line that is created by the plowed field right in the middle showing that there is division between the European at that time and the Indigenous person, and
SUBITTED
Thomas Atkins (middle) and Jack Kalkman (right) joined Rep. Peter Fischer at a 2019 committee meeting about redesigning Minnesota’s state flag.
basically pushing them off into the sunset. That way of life, that genocidal attempt to destroy our culture, is depicted on that flag.” Lawmakers, members of the public, members of the state ethnic and Indigenous councils as well as one member each from the Dakota and Ojibwe communities would form a 14-member commission to formulate the redesign if the bill passes and becomes law. When Kalkman and Atkins came to Fischer about a redesign, the two said that the flag includes too many similarities to 19 other blue state flags with seals on them. Some of the students ' inspirations came from a TED Talk with Roman Mars, who discusses general rules of thumb when it comes to flag design. “It listed five principles of good flag
SEE FLAG DESIGN, PAGE 8
National champ: local gymnast earns gold medal BY BRUCE STRAND SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR
When Lily Pederson captured the state all-around championship in her age group March 19, she was just getting started. The White Bear Lake sophomore won a seven-state
regional a week later, and last weekend emerged as one of 12 age-group national champions at the USA Gymnastics meet held May 10-15 in Mesa, Arizona. “It feels like a dream, like I'm walking on clouds,” Pederson said. “It just feels amazing. It feels like all of my hard work has finally paid off.” At nationals, there are
12 sessions, each with 56 gymnasts (seven from each of the eight regions), with age groups from Junior A, the youngest, to Senior F, the oldest. Pederson won the Junior E with a score of 39.175, which was third-highest overall in the meet, behind the top two in Senior F. A member of the Flips
Gymnastics club in White Bear Lake, she placed third at nationals a year ago with a 38.3 score. This year, she beat out Avery Neff of Utah, who was second with 39.0, and Lily Bruce of Texas, third with 38.775. That’s the same top three as 2021 when Neff and Bruce were one and two. SEE NATIONAL CHAMP, PAGE 8
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Lily Pederson with her USA Gymnastics gold medal.
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