Photos of the year 2018

After a 14-year hiatus, an ice palace was once again part of January’s St. Paul Winter Carnival. At 70 feet tall and nearly 4 million pounds, the ceremonial lighting in Rice Park captured the attention — and phones — of carnivalgoers.

Brian Peterson

People are still talking about Stefon Diggs’ 61-yard touchdown as time ran out in the NFC divisional playoff game. That gave the Vikings the win (and fans hope) over New Orleans. Then it was on to the NFC Championship but, alas, no Super Bowl. Again.

Carlos Gonzalez

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo members celebrate Palm Sunday in Minneapolis. An overflow crowd gathered in their finest garbs for this most holy of holidays.

Richard Tsong-Taatarii

In classic Minnesota fashion, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had a hard time getting rid of the last sambusa, a fried Somali food with a savory filling from the restaurant Afro Deli, as he passed them out to Philadelphia Eagles fans during a Super Bowl rally in February.

Anthony Soufflé

A rainy day and the Great Big Wheel made for an artsy combination at the Great Minnesota Get-Together as fairgoers are reflected in a puddle. The traveling Ferris wheel was new this year.

Richard Tsong-Taatarii

The Deer family is among the homeless people who have moved to the American Indian encampment in south Minneapolis. Here, Koda, 4, looks out the window of the family tent.

David Joles

The St. Clair was met with some of the coldest temperatures of the year as it drifted into the harbor at Canal Park in Duluth on New Year’s Eve. (The low that day was a brisk 20 below.) At 770 feet long, the self-unloading ship was quite a sight, as several people braved the frigid temps to watch the icy scene.

David Joles

Hundreds gathered in Memphis on April 4 to re-create the famous 1968 photo taken of the city’s striking sanitation workers and to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his assassination. It was one of many events honoring King, who had been in town to support the workers.

Jerry Holt

Trump supporters watched President Donald Trump's speech in the plaza outside the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester in October.

Aaron Lavinsky

DFL Sen. Charles Wiger, far right, held court in the Capitol rotunda earlier this year as he talked to students from Edgerton Elementary School in Maplewood, his legislative district. An extensive renovation of the Capitol was completed last year.

Glen Stubbe

After more than 7 inches of rain fell near Mora, Minn., in July, Parker Mitchell and his friends took advantage of the rare opportunity to kayak down Hwy. 65. And they had plenty of company. There were no injuries or catastrophic damage from the storm, which the National Weather Service called a “500-year event.”

Alex Kormann

Yury Martinez and Vianey Rivera tried to stay cool during a Mexican Independence Day celebration in Minneapolis. The girls were wearing their quinceanera dresses.

Richard Tsong-Taatarii

Rachel Geiser grabbed her dog Link's silks as he broke early from the starting gate during the Corgi Dog Races Championship at Canterbury Park. Link's eagerness was rewarded when he went on to win the race.

Anthony Soufflé

As part of a multiweek effort to remove carp from the lakes that drain to Lake Minnetonka, Aaron Claus of Carp Solutions hurled one of the destructive fish from a boat to the back of a pickup truck. On this September day, crews were working at Victoria’s Steiger Lake, where they hoped to remove about 1,000 carp.

Mark Vancleave

Thanks to Make-A-Wish, Hadley Sass of Eagan was a princess for a day in February before attending Disney On Ice: Frozen. (She met Anna and Elsa, too.) Hadley had suffered from cancer, but is healthy after a 2016 liver transplant.

Aaron Lavinsky

Slackliner Michael Nichols walks the line 300 feet above the water at Palisade Head on the North Shore. The line — it’s only an inch or two thick — was suspended above chilly Lake Superior with a distance of 580 feet between the cliffs.

Brian Peterson

In April, Betania Gomez walked on what was once the second story of her house in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. “I can’t take it anymore,” she told the Star Tribune. “I’m desperate.” It was months after hurricanes Irma and Maria tore through the area, and Gomez said she had been given very little money to help rebuild.

Elizabeth Flores

When Star Tribune reporters looked into why the state's criminal justice system often fails victims of rape and sexual assault, these women -- Melody Walton, Sarah Ortega, Florkime Payne, Brooke Morath, and Andrea Gram -- came forward to tell their stories.

Renée Jones Schneider

A little cold and blowing snow didn’t phase Mel Peterson on this January day as he delivered mail along his Minneapolis route. “I’m comfortable as long as I keep moving,” he said. Does this happen often? It does. “At work, it’s like, ‘it must be really cold out there if Mel’s wearing pants.’” The high temp for that day? 10 degrees.

Jeff Wheeler

South African National Youth Orchestra members continued to play outside the hall after their concert with the Minnesota Orchestra, which toured South Africa in August.

Leila Navidi

Delta Airlines flight attendant Victoria Flees trudged through the snow with her bags in downtown Minneapolis after her flight to Paris was grounded along with all other planes at MSP because of the April snowstorm.

Anthony Soufflé

In October, a community mourned the drowning deaths of cousins Bushra Abdi and Zeynab “Hapsa” Abdalla. Abdullahi Abdi, center, Bushra’s brother, was comforted during his sister’s burial at Garden of Eden Cemetery in Burnsville. The two cousins died after driving into a Chaska pond.

Leila Navidi

John Shuster, skip of the U.S. curling team, reacted after throwing the last stone in the gold-medal match against Sweden at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. That gave them the lead — and, eventually, the win.

Carlos Gonzalez

Holding hands with her husband, Archie, U.S. Senator Tina Smith walked toward the U.S. Capitol building for her swearing in ceremony in January.

Glen Stubbe

Pearl Sandquist, 3, of Chanhassen kissed a relic of St. Francis of Assisi. The "Treasures of the Church" relic tour visited St. John the Baptist Catholic Parish in Excelsior.

Leila Navidi

Hometown favorite Joe Mauer put on his catching gear for the first time in years — for a single, ninth-inning pitch against the White Sox during the team’s final game of the season. The emotional moment fueled rumors of his retirement, which he announced in November.

Jerry Holt

2018 yearin photos

2018 year
in photos