Minnesota
Timberwolves waxed by Pacers for third loss in four games
That eight-game winning streak now feels like decades ago.
The team Minnesota has been over the past week looks nothing like a crew that could reel off so many wins in succession, or contend for anything of consequence in the playoffs, should it even get there.
No, the panic meter needle shouldn’t tilt that far to the right at this point, but Minnesota’s 119-103 loss to the Pacers in Indiana raised some major red flags.
The Timberwolves’ typically potent defense was rendered irrelevant by Indiana’s pace. The Pacers played with a pace and rhythm in the transition and halfcourt that didn’t allow Minnesota to sink its teeth in physically and bother Indiana in any way. The Pacers shot 48% from the field, with 30 assists on their 46 buckets.
Frankly, it was Indiana’s defensive physicality — something for which the Pacers are not traditionally known — that bothered Minnesota.
The Wolves committed 17 turnovers while shooting 27% from distance.
“It was kind of a funky, off performance all around,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch told reporters.
Anthony Edwards was a gametime decision with a hand laceration. He played, but not well. The guard, who was piping hot from beyond the arc for the first half of the season, has not been since the calendar flipped to February. That trend continued Monday, as the guard went 1 for 11 from 3-point range.
Minnesota was outscored by 24 points in Edwards’ 34 minutes. The next worst plus-minus on the team belonged to Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who was a minus-13.
Edwards settled for threes on a night where he was successful inside the arc, going 6 for 8 on two-point attempts. That was the story of the game for Minnesota, who settled for a number of bad shot attempts against a defense that it traditionally could pick its attempt against.
“I thought we could’ve gone to the hoop a lot more than we did. They were pretty physical on the ball and we needed to with the ball and at the point of attack offensively, and we were never able to do that,” Finch said. “We didn’t have any composure. We were wild tonight offensively, whether that was wild with the ball or wild with our shot selection. Every time we had a chance to tighten up the game, or did tighten up the game, we’d get a stop, come down, take kind of a rushed three in transition.”
Minnesota fell to Indiana’s skeleton squad last week in overtime at Target Center, a night in which Obi Toppin had 34 points while shooting 7 for 10 from distance. Indiana was near full strength Monday, but it was still the same Toppin. The forward buried six triples in the win. But he had more help this time around. Indiana star guard Tyrese Haliburton had 24 points and 11 assists.
Whatever Indiana wanted to do, it did with relative ease.
“I think our offense is bothering our defense a little bit too much,” Finch said. “That’s something that’s reared it’s head at times for us. We’ve got to get back to guarding at a high level like we were doing.”
The Wolves have now lost three of four games. And while the fight for a top-six seed to avoid the play-in tournament rages on — Minnesota, currently in eighth in the West, is a full game back of Golden State for the No. 6 seed, and two back in the loss column — the Wolves are torpedoing their chances with their current run of poor play.
KSTP/SurveyUSA poll results: Trump, Walz both below 50% approval in Minnesota
The political feud between President Donald Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is frequently documented.
While both try to score political points with their criticism of each other, neither has much in the way of bragging rights when it comes to approval ratings in Minnesota.
According to our exclusive KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, the president has a 42% approval rating in Minnesota with 55% disapproval. That 13-point difference is six points worse than our last survey three months ago.
Trump retains the approval of 89% of Republicans but just 35% of independents.
“Trump is always running a bit below the national average in job approval in Minnesota and that is the case here,” says Carleton College political analyst Steven Schier. However, the newest Associated Press/Reuters poll showed the president with a 39% approval rating and 59% disapproval, slightly better than his Minnesota results.
The president’s approval is bogged down by a 43% approval of his handling of the economy.
Gov. Walz doesn’t fare much better in our survey. For the second survey in a row, Walz is at 48% approval and 48% disapproval. Those ratings are his lowest in the 20 times we’ve surveyed his approval in the past four years. He’s seeking an unprecedented third four-year term as governor of Minnesota.
“Gov. Walz’s approval puts him in sort of a flashing yellow light zone,” says Schier. “There’s some danger ahead. He’s below 50% approval.”
The Walz approval numbers are weighed down by just 14% who say he’s done enough to stop state government fraud.
Our survey included 35% Democrats, 31% Republicans and 29% independents.
SurveyUSA interviewed 650 adults from the state of Minnesota 12/09/25 through 12/12/25. Of the adults, 578 were identified as being registered to vote and were asked the questions which follow. This research was conducted online, using nonprobability sample of online adult panelists chosen randomly by Cint USA. The combined pool of survey respondents was weighted to US Census ACS targets for gender, age, race, education, and home ownership.
ST. PAUL – The Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management and
Gov. Tim Walz
recently announced the signing of a cannabis cooperative agreement with
Red Lake Nation.
According to a release, the agreement outlines how the state of Minnesota and Red Lake Nation will protect the public health, safety and well-being of all Minnesotans regarding adult-use cannabis and supports Red Lake Nation’s tribal sovereignty, cultural identity and heritage.
“This partnership opens a new outlet for state-licensed cannabis businesses to access and sell legal cannabis and honors the independence of the members of the Red Lake Band,” OCM Executive Director Eric Taubel said in the release. “We look forward to their cooperation in bringing more cannabis supply to the state and seeing their cannabis operations develop and thrive while respecting the Red Lake Band’s autonomy.”
In Minnesota’s cannabis law, the legislature directed Walz to negotiate intergovernmental agreements with tribal nations sharing territory with Minnesota to strengthen public health and safety, secure an equitable and well-regulated cannabis market, and provide financial benefits to both the state and tribal nations.
Red Lake’s NativeCare dispensary
was the first in the state to sell legal, adult-use cannabis after the law legalizing cannabis took effect in August 2023. With this agreement in place, Red Lake is able to collaborate with state-licensed cannabis businesses and create partnerships.
“Our goal from the beginning has been to produce the highest quality cannabis products that are free of all toxins and impurities. Consistent testing has verified that we have reached our goal,” Red Lake Nation Chair Darrell Seki Sr. said in the release. “Now that our cooperative agreement with the state has been finalized, we are looking forward to sharing our top-shelf products with the Minnesota market.”
Compact negotiations continue between the state and tribal nations sharing territory with the state of Minnesota. To date, the state has signed compacts with White Earth Nation, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Prairie Island Indian Community, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.
The state expects to announce additional tribal-state cannabis agreements soon.
Copies of signed, executed tribal-state cannabis compacts and cooperative agreements can be found on
OCM’s website.
The former NFL sideline reporter has met with top Republican committees as she weighs a 2026 bid and a rare GOP pickup attempt in Minnesota.
Michele Tafoya, the former NFL sideline reporter turned political analyst, is considering a run for the United States Senate in her current home state of Minnesota, OutKick has learned. Sources familiar with the situation say she is expected to make a final decision in early 2026.
Tafoya met with the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Senate Leadership Fund, and other stakeholders in Washington, D.C. last week. The NRSC has been recruiting her to run for the Senate race in Minnesota, where the Democratic primary has pitted progressive favorite Peggy Flanagan against Chuck Schumer-backed Angie Craig.
Tafoya gave up her NBC career so she could speak more openly about her conservative political beliefs. The breaking point for Tafoya at the media giant came in December 2021 when she appeared on “The View” and served as the conservative panelist. The rest of the cast on the show supported Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest, and his assertion that the NFL resembled the slave trade, while Tafoya raised some important counterpoints.
“I’ve been covering the NFL for 25 years,” Tafoya said at the time. “Nobody forces these guys to play. I thought comparing it to the slave trade was a little rough. These guys enter willingly, they are the most well cared for people. Yes, they play a hard sport. And every one of them — black, white, Latino, whoever’s playing the sport — will tell you how much they love it, and they’re willing to do it, and they make a damn good living.”
Former NFL reporter Michele Tafoya is weighing a Minnesota U.S. Senate bid after meetings with GOP groups, with a final decision expected early next year.
(Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports via Imagn Images)
Tafoya nnounced in February 2022 that she wanted to pursue other career opportunities. Shortly after, she became the co-chair for Republican Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Kendall Qualls when he ran against Tim Walz in 2022.
Tafoya’s Rise in Minnesota Politics
Since then, Tafoya has become more active politically, particularly in Minnesota. Tafoya has taken Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar to task many times over their policies and rhetoric. Most recently, Tafoya has railed against a $1 billion fraud scheme in Minnesota that she linked to Walz and Omar.
Tafoya grew up in California and attended UC Berkeley for her undergraduate degree and USC for her master’s degree. She moved to Minnesota after graduation to pursue a career in sports broadcasting and has lived in the state since.
According to sources familiar with the situation, Tafoya has been receiving calls from supporters in Minnesota encouraging her to run, and she’s had ongoing conversations with South Carolina Sen. and NRSC Chairman, Tim Scott.
Minnesota hasn’t had a Republican senator since Norm Coleman, who left office in January 2009. Should Tafoya choose to run, she’d look to reverse a trend that has continued for over 15 years.
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