A Minneapolis homeowner and his wife endured persistent harassment and dangerous actions from their next-door neighbor for over a year, according to a lawsuit filed by the property owner.

In Oct. 2024, the neighbor is alleged to have followed up on his threats and shot the homeowner, Davis Moturi, in the neck outside of his home.

Lawyers for Moturi, 36, and his wife, Caroline Moturi, also named as a plaintiff, have filed suit against his home's previous owners, former Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, the City of Minneapolis and the shooter, John Sawchak.

The lawsuit claims that Sawchak also harassed and threatened the previous owners, Erik and Jessica Hane.

According to the lawsuit, “on or about May 31, 2023, the Hanes called 9-1-1 to report they were concerned for their safety because Mr. Sawchak stated he should have shot Mr. Hane … They heard Mr. Sawchak yell, ‘I’m gonna kill you outside our window.’”

Sometime after June 4, 2023, the Hanes placed the property on Grand Avenue near 36th Street on the market.

The suit alleges the Hanes “made intentional and material omissions and misrepresentations during the sale process.”

Had the information about Sawchak been clearly stated, the suit says, the Moturis would not have bought the house.

The lawsuit claims Minneapolis Police Department officers failed to perform their duty to execute arrest warrants and take Sawchak into custody.

The Moturis closed on the house on Sept. 8, 2023.

Shortly after, the Moturis began to get harassed. In October, Sawchak called Davis Moturi a racial slur and soaked the Moturis’ property with his sprinklers, according to the suit. Police were called.

In December, Davis Moturi called police to say Sawchak was “blaring an airhorn outside his bedroom window in the middle of the night,” the lawsuit states.

Based on Sawchak’s conduct toward the plaintiffs, arrest warrants had been issued for the defendant, the suit said. MPD officers had a ministerial duty to execute the warrants and take Sawchak into custody, but they didn’t, according to the lawsuit.

“These failures occurred because MPD failed to properly supervise its officers, including regarding the scope of their lawful authority to arrest Mr. Sawchak,” the lawsuit said.

The court filing said the October 2024 shooting caused “severe and permanent injury” to Moturi.

The couple seeks payment for past and future wage loss and medical bills.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — In the first FIFA World Cup match to be held on U.S. soil in more than three decades, the U.S. men's national soccer team delivered a commanding 4-1 win in their opener against Paraguay.

Four goals — two from striker Folarin Balogun plus an own goal by Paraguayan defender Damian Bobadilla and a late strike by American Gio Reyna — electrified the packed and partisan crowd at Los Angeles Stadium. The final tally was a record for the U.S. men, who had never scored more than three goals in a single World Cup game.

A confident and unrelenting attack from the U.S. had Paraguay on its heels much of the first half. The Americans' pressure in Paraguay's zone paid off quickly, when a pass from midfielder Weston McKennie deflected off Bobadilla for an own goal in the seventh minute.

Then, the U.S. striker Balogun took over. First, in the 31st minute, a cross from forward Christian Pulisic found the foot of Balogun, then the back of the net. Then, in the stoppage time of the first half, the Monaco striker shed two defenders to find a window, then placed a perfect strike to the upper corner of the goal, where Orlando Gill, the beleaguered Paraguayan goalkeeper, had no chance to save it.

Photos: U.S. World Cup watch party in Minneapolis

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The Americans were more subdued in a quieter second half. Pulisic was pulled at halftime for midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, who became just the second son in a father-son pair to represent the U.S. in a World Cup game (his father, the former USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter, who played in the 2002 tournament).

After the match, Pulisic told reporters that his calf got a "bit of a kick in the first half." He said he's "hoping it's nothing. I'm taking a little bit of precaution today, but I'm hoping I'll be fine in the next few days." Coach Mauricio Pochettino said he believes Pulisic will be available for the next U.S. match.

Paraguay midfielder Mauricio scored his team's lone goal in the 73rd minute. Late in second-half stoppage time, midfielder Reyna (a late sub) knocked in a goal to extend the U.S. lead 4-1.

Balogun's World Cup brace is the first by a U.S. player since the inaugural tournament in 1930.

He is one of 13 players representing the U.S. at the World Cup for the first time. Born in New York City to Nigerian parents and raised in London, Balogun was eligible for all three national teams but chose to join the U.S. in 2023.

Balogun's family was watching from the stands, and he called the win a statement. "A real dream. It was a dreamy night."

Friday's game was evidence of just how far the U.S. attack has come since the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when the U.S. managed only three goals across all four games it played in.

Next up for the U.S. is Australia on Friday, June 19 in Seattle, and then the Americans will wrap up the group stage with a June 25 game against Turkey back in Los Angeles.

The expansion of the tournament to 48 teams means it will be easier than ever to emerge from the group stage. With Friday's win, plus either a second win against Australia or Turkey or a draw against both teams, would likely be enough for the U.S. to advance to the knockout round — though the U.S. could earn a more advantageous path if it finishes the group stage in first place.

Copyright 2026, NPR

The United States and Iran appear close to a deal to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Saturday that a deal aimed at ending the war in the Middle East is closer than “ever before” and expected to be finalized within 24 hours. Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the agreement, followed immediately by technical-level talks next week.

Previous declarations of an imminent breakthrough failed to materialize.

The apparent breakthrough in negotiations comes after Iran exchanged fire with the U.S. and Israel over three days this week, threatening to push the region into a full-scale war. U.S. Central Command late Friday said in a social media post that it intercepted several Iranian attack drones that were targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The war launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28 has rattled the Middle East and virtually shut down oil and natural gas shipments from the Persian Gulf. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since April 7.

Here's what to know:

Iran's nuclear program terms to be finalized within 60 days of the agreement.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday the terms of dealing with Iran’s nuclear program would be finalized in the 60 days after the initial agreement is signed and that the parties could decide to extend that period.

Iran’s nuclear program has been a key point of division. The U.S. and Israel fear it could lead to an atomic weapon — a main reason their leaders cited for going to war. Tehran has insisted its nuclear efforts are for peaceful purposes.

A senior U.S. administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House, said Friday that the emerging agreement would begin the process of destroying or removing Tehran’s highly enriched uranium.

The official said the 60-day period after both sides sign the deal would be used to work out technical details for removing Iran’s enriched uranium. The official did not detail who the U.S. envisions taking charge of removing the uranium, believed to be entombed under three nuclear sites that were battered by American strikes last year.

The deal will include conditions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, official says

The U.S. official said the emerging agreement includes provisions for reopening the strait.

Araghchi said Iran wants a deal that allows Tehran to charge ships “for services rendered” when they transit the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has imposed a toll system during the war, which the U.S. and other nations say violates international law.

Transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for oil and natural gas, has been disrupted and crimped global energy supplies, driven up fuel prices and made food and other basics more expensive well beyond the region.

The agreement is set to include Iranian sanctions relief

Three regional officials said the emerging deal is also expected to include the phased lifting of sanctions on Iran and the release of frozen Iranian assets. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

They said they expect a signing ceremony for the agreement in the coming days after officials in Washington and Tehran approve it.

What will happen to Lebanon remains unclear

Iran has insisted throughout that any deal must also include a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy militia.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Friday that Israel could still act independently toward Iran and that the country would not pull out of the zones it is occupying in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, nor would it withdraw from the northern refugee camps of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Fighting continued in southern Lebanon on Saturday.

Making fertilizer can be quite a dirty business.

Nitrogen fertilizers used by Minnesota farmers are typically produced abroad and rely on fossil fuels. Globally, this type of fertilizer production makes up about 2 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, said Minnesota Department of Agriculture Energy and Environment section leader, Megan Lennon.

“So the state of Minnesota Green Fertilizer Grant Program is trying to help develop a new industry in Minnesota where nitrogen fertilizer can be made from renewable energy and not use fossil fuels as a source,” said Lennon.

Green fertilizers are nitrogen-based fertilizers produced using renewable energy, such as wind and solar, which could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

For the past two years, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture has offered grants to ag co-ops interested in investing in green fertilizer manufacturing. But so far, they haven’t been able to find competitive applicants.

“This is our third time releasing a request for proposals,” said Lennon.

The agency is offering $3.8 million in grants to shovel-ready agricultural and rural electric cooperatives. Lennon said that if they can find qualified applicants, it could mark the beginning of domestic fertilizer production in the state outside of manure.

Starting up a domestic fertilizer industry in Minnesota could help provide farmers with local, price-stable fertilizer options. That’s especially important, Lennon adds, as market consolidation and international price shocks often drive up fertilizer prices.

“Minnesota farmers spend millions of dollars every year on fertilizer, and that money is going to other states or even other countries,” said Lennon. “[Fertilizer] is a highly consolidated business, so we're able to provide rural economic opportunities as well, not just in the jobs that could come out of this, but keeping money in the state and circulating locally.”

Applicants may request between $250,000 and the full $3.8 million. Applications are due by 4 p.m. on July 15.

Minneapolis-based Sleep Number announced Friday that it has filed for bankruptcy and plans to merge with a Canadian mattress retailer.

Sleep Number announced in May that it recorded a $50 million net loss in the first quarter of the year, driven by decreased sales. On Friday, the company said that its efforts to change course — including its largest product redesign in a decade — have not been enough.

“While we have made meaningful progress advancing our turnaround efforts and strengthening our operations, our capital structure remains unsustainable,” Linda Findley, Sleep Number’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Following a comprehensive review of our strategic options and a robust sale process, we are confident that moving forward with the Sleep Country Canada agreement and this court-supervised sale process will enable us to address our financial constraints.”

Sleep Number employs about 3,000 people and has more than 570 stores across the U.S.

For now, Sleep Number’s stores and website remain open for business, and the company is honoring its gift cards and warranties. The company said it expects that to continue through the bankruptcy and merger process.

The proposed merger “is subject to higher and better offers, Court approval and other closing conditions,” the company said.

For its part, Sleep Country Canada sees the merger as both a chance to grow its product offerings at home, and reach new markets in the U.S.

“We see a tremendous opportunity to build on our complementary strengths and accelerate growth across the United States while introducing Sleep Number’s innovative sleep solutions to consumers in Canada and other markets,” Stewart Schaefer, Sleep Country Canada’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We are excited about what we can accomplish together.”

Teamsters Local 320 members who work for Chisago County have been on strike since May 1. On Saturday, that means workers have been striking for 43 days.

Some county employees have quit their jobs since negotiations began.

“They just said, ‘you know, what, I don’t want to work for an employer that’s treating people like this, and they just quit,’” said Amy Perusse, the local’s business agent.

The county’s striking employees are divided into two groups: health and human services workers and government center professionals, Chisago County administrator Chase Burnham said. Another unit represented by the Teamsters, Highway Engineering Techs, are not on strike, Burnham said.

The county employs about 415 people, and about 70 percent continue to work and are not part of the strike, Burnham said. About 170 people are striking from the two units.

Negotiations began in October 2025, Burnham said. The union called for mediation before the strike in March. The state’s Bureau of Mediation Services is involved in the process, he added.

Sticking points

Wages were originally the main focus.

“Then it became healthcare, then it became wages, then it became working conditions,” Burnham said. “The ball feels moving a little bit, so the county continues to be engaged and involved repeatedly with the process.”

For Local 320, health insurance contributions are a priority, Perusse said.

Language in the current contract allows Chisago County officials to contribute those funds to the less costly Teamster Health Plan.

“We want that difference to go into an individual HRA, health reimbursement account, for each of our members and the county wants to save that money for themselves,” Perusse said.

Burnham said that the county also contributes to an HSA.

“Their proposed health care plan is lower in deductible but has higher out-of-pockets because it has two deductibles, a drug deductible and a health care deductible,” he said.

County services continue

Burnham said Chisago County has hired remote contract workers to help with health and human services work.

“We prioritize life and safety needs above all else,” Burnham said. “We still have approximately about 40 staff that are working in health and human services, so Teamsters represents 170 but not all 170 are striking, so there is still active services every day that are happening.”

There are also county employees such as supervisors who “can’t take on the workload,” Perusse said.

“Our folks are getting calls from people from other communities that they regularly interact with, saying that work is not getting done,” she said.

Members who are social workers “have had clients come find them on the strike line and say, ‘Hey, can I get you back to work because I need help?’” Perusse said.

“It’s going to hurt the community. So we need to get people back to work,” she said.

Negotiations stall

Some members have attended the last two county board meetings and addressed officials by telling them who they are and what work they do for the county, Perusse said. They’ve also said they want to get back to work.

“The county board responded by scrutinizing and chastising our members,” she said. “They were met with some very harsh words from the county.”

The last time both sides met was May 23, Burnham and Perusse said. The meeting started at 9 a.m. on May 22 and ended at 3:30 a.m., Perusse said. She said the county team walked out.

“They got up and left when we thought we were making progress,” Perusse said. “Makes it difficult to deal with any(one) who gets up and leaves the table and then publicly says ‘we’re willing to meet any time. You just told us you were done.’”

Burnham said the county has sent the Teamsters two proposals since then that “were outright rejected.”

The length of the strike is long for public sector strikes in Minnesota.

The strike will soon surpass one of the longer strikes in recent history was 45 days in 2023, when Hastings Public Schools food service workers were on strike.

The longest public sector strike ended in 1977, when city workers in Park Rapids went on strike for 240 days, according to a spokesman for the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services.

Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee homered in the eighth inning — two of three home runs surrendered by St. Louis reliever Ryne Stanek — and the Minnesota Twins outlasted the Cardinals 9-8 on Friday night.

Kody Clemens hit his 10th home run on the third pitch from Stanek to tie it at 7 after the right-hander entered with two on and two out in the seventh.

Stanek (2-1) returned for the eighth, and Lewis hit his fifth homer on his first pitch to tie it at 8. Lee followed one out later with his 11th.

Anthony Banda (2-0) worked out of a one-out bases-loaded jam in the eighth to get the win. Andrew Morris pitched a perfect ninth for his second career save.

Alec Burleson homered for a fourth straight game to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the first off Joe Ryan. The 419-foot shot was his 12th of the season and extended his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games.

Byron Buxton hit his 21st homer — and fourth in six games — off Kyle Leahy to tie it 1-1 heading to the second. The center fielder added two doubles and walked, scoring three runs.

Blaze Jordan had an RBI single in his first big league at-bat to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead in the second and finished 2 for 4. He is the 11th Cardinal to single in a run his first time up. JJ Wetherholt added an RBI single and the Cardinals led 3-1 after two innings.

Lewis singled in the fifth before scoring on Tristan Gray's one-out single to cut it to 3-2, and Josh Bell doubled in a run in the fifth to tie it 3-all.

Lewis had a sacrifice fly off George Soriano to give Minnesota a 4-3 lead in the sixth.

Jordan Walker extended his hitting streak to nine games when he drove in three runs with a two-out double — after a bases-loaded walk to Burleson — to give St. Louis a 7-4 lead in the seventh.

Ryan struck out eight in six innings, allowing three runs on six hits.

Leahy gave up four runs on eight hits in five innings.

WASHINGTON - Workers have taken down President Donald Trump's name from the Kennedy Center, hours after a court-ordered Friday deadline to remove it from the building, and less than six months after it was first affixed to the iconic performing arts venue. The removal of the more than a dozen bronze letters followed a judge's ruling that the Center could not be renamed without Congressional approval.

In a court filing, Kennedy Center Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Charles Matthew Floca confirmed that President Trump's name has been removed from the building façade, despite what Floca said were weather-related delays. References to Trump on the center's website are also gone.

Just a month into his second term, Trump ousted the Kennedy Center's president, board chair and board members, then replaced them with a group of trustees that soon named Trump as chairman. Soon after, the president's name was added to the building, so that it became, "The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."

The administration had on Friday asked a higher court to stay the ruling as it argued that Trump's name on the building had helped attract donors and was crucial to raising funds for the Kennedy Center's renovation.

"Without the name, "Trump" on the Building, our fundraising will not only come to a halt," the administration wrote in a court filing, "but any and all monies raised or committed would be obligated to be returned, refunded or terminated."

An appeals court denied that request Friday night. Workers erected scaffolding on Friday around the section of the building where Trump's name had been added in December 2025. Then, in a pre-dawn operation, the laborers draped the scaffolding in tarpaulin, before removing the giant metallic letters. The Kennedy Center had asked a judge to briefly extend the deadline for this removal —because of Friday night thunderstorms forecast for Washington D.C.

Finally, with the scaffolding up, and tarpaulin covering their efforts, workers began to remove Trump's name. Hundreds of people braved the rain and thunderstorms overnight to document the take-down. Some heckled those involved for hiding the removal using tarpaulin – with shouts of "Cover up!" and "Cowards!"

Among the onlookers watching proceedings was Krystal Brewer, 40, who works for a social justice advocacy group. She said removing Trump's name was a way to enforce accountability, maintain government checks and balances, and reclaim a piece of Washington from a president who she said has tried to impose his stamp on the nation's capital. "It's about just not being able to do something just because you think you're the most powerful person and you can defy the courts," Brewer said.

Trump has recently overseen the controversial demolition of the White House's East Wing in favor of a giant ballroom, and ordered large banners of his face to hang from several federal buildings during his second term. "I wanted to see us get a part of our city back," said Brewer. "With all the things that he's trying to destroy and corrupt and taint and alter, it's nice to see a piece of it being restored."

Also among those gathered on the Center's plaza Friday was Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who initiated the lawsuit to remove Trump's name from the building. She wrote on social media that she had stood outside to watch, writing "No more stalling. It's time for Trump to obey the law."

Watching the tarps go up a little before 2 a.m., Saturday, another onlooker, 60-year-old nurse Mary Foltz, said it was a metaphor for the Trump administration.

"I think there's a lack of transparency — and that's just the epitome of it," Foltz said. "This is a meme."

Copyright 2026, NPR

A crowd of people gathered in the Minnesota Capitol rotunda in February, calling on lawmakers to slow the state’s building boom of hyperscale data centers, which are huge warehouses filled with computer servers that power cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

State Sen. Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth, told the crowd about her proposal to pause new data center development for two years.

"That moratorium would be in place while a thorough analysis is done on their impacts on our communities, on our utilities, on our infrastructure and our environment,” McEwen said.

Opponents hoped the Minnesota Legislature would approve new oversight of large data centers this year, but those bills never gained momentum. Lawmakers adjourned last month without passing any new restrictions.

This week, McEwen expressed frustration.

"I think that this is a great example of just how out of touch the powers that be at the Minnesota state Capitol can be with what the demands are and what the asks are coming overwhelmingly from the people of our state,” she said.

Tech companies are eyeing Minnesota for data centers because of its relatively cool climate and available land, water and electricity.

Meta is already building a facility in Rosemount. More than a dozen other projects have been proposed around the state.

Supporters see those developments as economic opportunities that could generate property tax revenue, help pay for infrastructure improvements and create well-paying construction jobs.

Workers on the Meta project in Rosemount have raved about the good treatment and working conditions, said Tom Dicklich, executive director of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council.

“They're going to build them somewhere,” he said. “If we can do them in Minnesota, where we have labor standards and we can build these more efficiently than anywhere else in the country, we should be bringing them here."

But critics say the state should more carefully weigh the economic benefits of data centers with the potential downsides, including water and energy demands and potential noise and light pollution.

Sarah Mooradian, government relations and policy director with the advocacy group CURE, supported the data center moratorium and other restrictions. She said Minnesota should adopt some statewide guidelines for data centers so the decisions aren't left entirely to local officials.

"If there's no sort of guideline at all, we've seen that it encourages and pits local governments against each other to offer the best deal,” Mooradian said. “And it's not the best deal for the community."

There was one proposal that did have bipartisan support this past legislative session. It would have prohibited local government officials from signing non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from sharing details about proposed projects.

"The NDA ban is the most basic that everybody on both sides of the aisle seems to agree on, and yet, even that they couldn’t come to an agreement on,” said Cathy Johnson, who lives near a planned hyperscale data center in Farmington and leads the Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development.

“I think that’s really sad,” Johnson said. “That’s definitely not leadership.”

But the bill faced strong opposition at the Capitol from business and industry groups. They argued that non-disclosure agreements are a standard tool during early project negotiations.

Other proposals would have required hyperscale data centers and other large industries to apply for a separate permit to use water, rather than piggybacking on a city’s water permit.

What passed last year

Some supporters of data centers say before legislators pass any additional restrictions, they should give recently adopted regulations time to work.

Legislators passed a compromise measure in 2025 that extended a lucrative sales tax credit for data centers, and added some new requirements.

Among them: Large data centers must pay the full cost of the electricity they use to protect other customers from higher electric rates. They’re also required to pay into an account to help low-income Minnesotans conserve energy.

“There was a lot of effort that went into that, and that really hasn't even kicked in,” Dicklich said. “So we want to see where that takes us and how it works out, and how it makes Minnesota attractive or less attractive to these developers.”

At the time, supporters called the regulations “nation leading,” but opponents say the changes didn't go far enough.

For example, large data centers must consider using water-saving technology to cool their equipment, such as closed-loop systems that recycle water for cooling. But those measures are not required, Mooradian said.

Opponents say they'll be back at the state Capitol again next year, pushing for tougher rules for the supersized projects.

In the meantime, proposals for several hyperscale data centers in Minnesota continue to move forward. Others have been stalled by legal challenges.

McEwen said she plans to bring back the proposed data center moratorium next year.

“There's just so much to think about in terms of the potential pros and cons of these centers for our communities,” she said. “I think that we need to do our due diligence before we let these companies come into these small communities in Minnesota and run roughshod.”

Summer means unwinding outside with a book in one hand and a cool drink in the other. Or, if you’re on the North Shore, it may include a slice of Betty’s Pie and an affogato from Superior Creamery.

On Thursday, host of Ask a Bookseller Emily Bright spoke with local bookstores and libraries about their recommended summer reads.

Amazing Alonzo Bookstore, Duluth

• "It Wasn't Mean To Be Perfect" by Gaelynn Lea

• "Skinny Dip" by Carl Hiaasen

• "The Summer Book" by Tove Jansson

Though it’s a breezy read, it’s full of twisty mystery and rich in characters from corrupt government agents, greedy and murderous crime bosses, bumbling criminals and a micro-dosing, ex-military, fringe governor character that maybe — maybe not, but probably was —inspired by one of Minnesota’s own former governors. This is the book I most often recommend for a vacation/beach read. — Eric Plumb, owner of Amazing Alonzo Bookstore on “Skinny Dip.”

Back Forty Books, Two Harbors

• "The Verdant Cage" by Jess Lourey

• "This Story Might Save Your Life" by Tiffany Crum

• "Dolly All the Time" by Annabel Monaghan

• "The Book Witch" by Meg Shaffer

A fast-paced book that is part dark thriller, part romcom, and wholly excellent. I can attest for audiobook readers that the vocal cast knocked it out of the park. You want to give this a read/listen ASAP! — Randy and Katie Lancaster, owners of Back Forty Books on “This Story Might Save Your Life.”

Drury Lane Books, Grand Marais

• "Ink Blood Sister Scribe" by Emma Törzs

• "The Road to Tender Hearts" by Annie Hartnett

• "Lady Tremaine" by Rachel Hochhauser

• "God’s Country" by William Kent Krueger

A totally fresh retelling of Cinderella told from the perspective of the stepmother, wonderfully upending all the tropes of the fairytale. All of the characters are fully realized, neither all saint nor all villain. Responsible for her own two daughters as well as her stepdaughter, Lady Tremaine struggles to maintain respectability, looking for future security for herself and the girls, while also keeping actual food on the table in their crumbling mansion. I sympathized with her and shook my head at some of the decisions she made while recognizing her challenging situation. The book races on towards a satisfying conclusion. — Kelly Kager and Kevin Kager, owners of Drury Lane Books on “Lady Tremaine.”

Bookstore at Fitger's, Duluth

• "Liar's Creek" by Matt Goldman

• "The Jilted Countess" by Loretta Ellsworth

• "Beneath a Broken Sky" by Joshua Moehling

• "The Shortest History of the United States" by Don Watson

• "Happy Ending" by Chloe Liese

A captivating historical fiction novel that takes place in the aftermath of WWII in Minnesota. — Jennifer Jubenville, store manager of Bookstore at Fitger’s on “The Jilted Countess.”

Foxes and Fireflies Booksellers, Superior

• "Empire of Shadows" by Jacquelyn Benson

• "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells

• "Immoral" by Brian Freeman

• "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder" by David Grann

The intersection of The Mummy and Jungle Cruise, this historical whirlwind had me hooked within 50 pages. A breath of delightfully feminist air, Ellie and Adam are the kind of protagonists you can’t help but root for. Hints of magic woven with real history made this series not only enjoyable, but educational. — Maria Lockwood, owner of Foxes and Fireflies Booksellers on “Empire of Shadows.”

Wildflower Bookshop, Grand Rapids

• "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke

• "The Quarry Girls" by Jess Lourey

• "Our Perfect Storm" by Carley Fortune

• "Whistler" by Ann Patchett

A gentle tale about childhood friendship blooming into more that is sure to charm readers. Gorgeous vacation setting with lovable side characters, and witty banter, this is sure to be an amazing summer read. — Abby Daigle, owner of Wildflower Bookshop on “Our Perfect Storm.”

Zenith Bookstore, Duluth

• "Upward Bound" by Woody Brown

• "Honey" by Imani Thompson

• "Look What You Made Me Do" by John Lanchester

• "The Listeners" by Maggie Stiefvater

• "Astronaut!" by Oana Aristide

A female grad student accidentally kills her problematic professor, and instead of panicking... she likes it! Soon she is seeking out other male chauvinist pigs to keep her high going — but how long can it last? How long until her own family secrets come to light? — Sarah Brown, owner of Zenith Bookstore on “Honey.”

Cloquet Public Library

• "It Wasn’t Meant To Be Perfect" by Gaelynn Lea

• "The Dungeon Crawler Carl" series

• "One Summer: America, 1927" by Bill Bryson

This wildly inventive series begins with an outrageous premise: a Coast Guard veteran and his ex-girlfriend’s prize-winning cat are thrust into a deadly alien game show set inside an 18-floor dungeon. As Carl battles to survive, he discovers the importance of community while seeking revenge against the creators of the galactic “World Dungeon” television spectacle. With the eighth of a planned ten books recently released, the series offers action, humor, and a welcome escape from the constant churn of real-world headlines. — Keiko, adult services on “The Dungeon Crawler Carl” series

Duluth Public Library

• "I’m Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom" by Jason Pargin

• "Sky Daddy" by Kate Folk

• "The City of Belgium" by Brecht Evens

• "The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case" by Chuck Hogan

• "The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" by Stuart Turton

• "Mexican Gothic" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• "The Library at Mount Char" by Scott Hawkins

• "Wizard’s First Rule" by Terry Goodkind

• "What No One Tells You About Money: The Real Key of Getting Unstuck from Someone Who’s Been there" by Jade Warshaw

• "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski

• "Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky

• "Hide" by Kiersten White

• "Murder by Memory & Nobody’s Baby" by Olivia Waite

• "Becoming Ghost" by Cathy Linh Che

A locked-room mystery where our narrator reincarnates into a different body within our cast of characters and relieves the day of Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder in order to figure out who’s responsible. This genre-bending science fiction mystery is mind boggling in the best way and the reveal will leave you thinking about it long after you’ve finished. Perfect for a day when it’s too hot to do anything else. — Emily, fiction librarian on “The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.”

Duluth MPR office picks

• "Emperor of Gladness" by Ocean Vuong

• "Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere" by by Maria Bamford

• "Crux" by Gabriel Tallent

• "When We Were Vikings" by David MacDonald

“Emperor of Gladness” is one of those novels whose characters and story remain vividly alive long after the final page. It was easy to visualize the characters, and I was deeply moved by the empathy and tenderness shown toward ordinary people simply living their lives. Long after finishing the book, I continue to think about these characters and what they represent — the resilience, struggles, and quiet grace found in everyday life. — Maria, MPR regional director

By Josiah Bates for The Trace

[This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.]

The call came in on a cold January night. Someone had been shot in North Minneapolis. As they often do after shootings in their area, Connie Rhodes and her team of violence interrupters went to the scene to calm tensions, connect with residents, and prevent retaliation.

As she drove with one of her colleagues to the scene on the Northside, Rhodes began getting messages that federal agents might be involved; the city was in the midst of a large-scale deployment of federal immigration agents that had already led to the shooting death of Renee Good seven days earlier. Alex Pretti would be killed by federal agents within the month. As they got closer, Rhodes could hear residents’ whistles of warning. They parked about a block from the scene, where a crowd had started to gather, and waited for the rest of their violence interruption team.

Then, boom.

Explosions erupted in the distance. Rhodes saw flashes of light out of the window of her car, debris, flames, and smoke in the air. “It looked like a war zone,” she later told The Trace. Rhodes and her Restoration Inc. colleague, Lenise Holliman, climbed out of the car and moved toward the sidewalk. They noticed a federal agent standing nearby, holding a tear gas canister. He wore military fatigues and boots.

“Please don’t hurt us,” Rhodes said to him. They said the agent then pulled the pin on the canister and threw it at them. They dropped to the ground and as tear gas filled the air, Holliman was hit by debris and Rhodes struggled to breathe.

“We stayed down there, and I just prayed, looked at her face-to-face, and said ‘We’re gonna make it,’” Rhodes recalled. They were trapped in place for several minutes, as flash bangs continued around them. Eventually, community members wearing gas masks helped them escape the area, and Rhodes later went to the hospital to have her breathing checked.

Rhodes and Holliman would later learn that they had originally been responding to the January 14 shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan man who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who had been chasing a different man. ICE officials initially said Sosa-Celis assaulted the agents, but surveillance video contradicted the claim. Late last month, the agent was arrested and charged with assault and falsely reporting a crime.

In the days right after the incident, Rhodes recorded elevated blood pressure, took time off, and sought therapy. Months later, she still carries her fear. “I was scared,” she said, “and I’m not a person that gets scared easily. I work with gangs and people pulling guns.”

Minneapolis violence interrupters

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The Sosa-Celis shooting and the federal action leading to it quickly became a defining moment for violence interrupters working in that area. Word of what had happened to Rhodes and Holliman got passed around within the city’s violence intervention networks, and soon a chilling effect took hold, as outreach workers wrestled with what the deployment meant for their role in the same neighborhoods where they work to prevent shootings and build trust.

King, a violence interrupter with the group who has survived multiple shooting incidents, called the deployment “the most terrifying thing I've ever seen in my life.” King requested partial anonymity to protect his sources in violence interruption.

Rashad Ahmed is the executive director of Metro Youth Diversion, a violence intervention group based on the South Side of Minneapolis. His team primarily works in the Cedar-Riverside area, where much of the local Somali community lives. “It definitely created a setback for the CVI work we were doing, especially with some of the youth that we were working with that were showing a lot of progress,” he said, referring to the presence of ICE agents in their neighborhood.

While the large-scale enforcement has concluded, agents are still present throughout the city, and some residents remain on edge. “Some of the community members still feel like we’re still in the surge,” Ahmed said. “It’s just not as broadcast as it was before.”

When federal agents flooded the Twin Cities, Ahmed said fear spread quickly throughout the community. Residents were scared to leave their homes, while others stopped seeking services. The young people they spent years cultivating relationships with were becoming harder to reach because his group couldn’t be in certain areas while agents swarmed the streets. Some of his staff were tear-gassed the night Sosa-Celis was shot.

On most days, violence interrupters respond to shootings, check on victims and families, intervene in disputes, and maintain relationships in neighborhoods where trust can take years to build. Their work often depends on being a consistent presence — showing up regularly before a crisis happens and remaining there long after the police and emergency responders have left. But for months, the federal action disrupted those efforts, and outreach workers describe how they’re still trying to regain their footing months later. Some described becoming more cautious about where they go and how they respond to calls.

Across Minneapolis through the first week of June, homicides are down 14 percent compared to the same period last year, while the number of nonfatal shootings is down 18 percent, according to police data. But as Minneapolis heads into the heat of summer, which Ahmed refers to as “trauma season,” frontline workers expect shootings to rise. That’s when violence interruption teams would normally start ramping up their outreach. This year, however, they’re scrambling to regain their momentum after Operation Metro Surge.

“We changed the way we did everything,” Rhodes said, pointing to their reluctance to approach perimeters that ICE set up. Fearing further confrontations with federal agents, some members of her Restoration Inc. team took time away from the job altogether. “I told my team if [ICE is] there, we’re not going.”

Muhammad Abdul-Ahad, who runs TOUCH Outreach, said two interruptors left his organization out of fear that they too would be targeted by ICE agents. The group has also become more focused on community fears and questions surrounding the law enforcement presence, he said, as some residents were hesitant to engage with his team after the federal action because they associated any organized public safety presence with federal enforcement. “People were afraid to even address us at some point because they thought we were ICE,” he said. “That’s something that stays with us.”

Even as the activists continue to deal with residual fear from the operation, many say the relationship with the local government is stronger than it was a year ago. Last summer, tensions between violence intervention groups and the city’s Neighborhood Safety Department spilled into public view as some of the groups delayed signing contracts and raised concerns about funding, communication, and oversight. Since then, “The work is being done. We have made a lot of improvements,” Abdul-Ahad said.

Amanda Harrington, who took over as the director of the Neighborhood Safety Department last year, said she’s been focused on building better trust with the CVI groups with city contracts. “We’ve been listening to their concerns and tried to be more collaborative in our efforts,” she said, pointing out that they initially put a full-time requirement into the contracts but have now allowed groups to hire part-time workers. “We also learned that the geographic areas we had them working in were too restrictive, so we increased the areas, and we’ve clarified that they can go outside these areas if there’s spillage.”

But concerns about sustainability, and whether the city is committed to investing in the CVI groups long-term, remain. Currently, they are funded on a year-to-year basis, making planning difficult, and the groups are bracing for the possibility of a less collaborative relationship with law enforcement as a new police chief takes the helm.

At George Floyd Square, on the South Side, Bridgette Stewart is preparing for summer. Stewart is a spokesperson for Agape, a violence prevention group that has operated without city funding for years, relying instead on private support and volunteers. It doesn’t matter who leads the Police Department, Steward said, or how much funding is available, or what public safety strategy the city or the federal government embraces next. “We’re going to be out there regardless,” Stewart said. “We have to keep showing up.”

Defender Lee Stecklein and forward Grace Zumwinkle are staying put in Minnesota after the PWHL's Frost re-signed both players on Friday.

Zumwinkle signed a three-year contract and Stecklein a two-year deal, with both added to Minnesota’s protected list in the third phase of the PWHL’s expansion process.

Each of the existing PWHL teams are allowed to protect three additional players in this phase after initially being allowed to protect three.

The 32-year-old Stecklein is a four-time U.S. Olympian and regarded as one of women’s hockey’s top shutdown defenders. From Roseville, Minnesota, she is a two-time Walter Cup champion and returns for a fourth season with the Frost.

The 27-year-old Zumwinkle is a two-time U.S. Olympian and has also spent three seasons in Minnesota, and was the PWHL’s 2024 rookie of the year in league’s inaugural season.

Last season, Zumwinkle finished tied for fifth in the league with a career-best 13 goals, and tied for fifth with a career-best 23 points.

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents, along with the board of directors for M Physicians, unanimously approved a 10-year agreement on Friday to fund the University’s medical school and support physician training and research programs. The agreement is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Tuesday that, after a tumultuous negotiation process and an epic multiyear journey, the new agreement includes a $1 billion investment from Fairview in its medical facilities on the University of Minnesota campus.

Fairview will also provide $50 million in annual funding for the medical school, which is less guaranteed funding compared to previous years.

Under the agreement, M Physicians will serve as the sole faculty practice group at the University’s medical school. Additionally, the three parties will explore a new program to support physicians practicing in greater Minnesota.

The U’s Academic Health Committee met on Thursday to discuss the deal. Dr. Greg Beilman, CEO of M Physicians, expressed his appreciation for the successful outcome.

“We brought this process to a productive conclusion for those that we are all here to serve: our patients, our communities, our physician faculty, the advanced practice providers, and many, many others,” Beilman said.

Fairview and the university operate a health system under a collaborative agreement, and they have engaged in ongoing negotiations for several years. Last fall, Fairview and M Physicians announced a deal to support physician training, academic health programs, and to fund the medical school for the next 10 years. But university officials criticized the proposal, arguing that they were excluded from negotiations while Attorney General Ellison and representatives from Fairview and M Physicians worked on the agreement without involving the university’s Board of Regents.

Mediated negotiations held earlier this year aimed to reunite the parties and reach an agreement before the partnership between Fairview and the U expires at the end of 2026.

Ellison released a statement Tuesday noting that the three organizations, which have partnered for 30 years, recognized that failing to reach an agreement would have significant repercussions for patients, physicians, researchers, medical education, and Minnesota’s economy.

Fairview’s CEO, James Hereford, also attended the Academic Health Committee meeting and commented on the future of healthcare delivery in Minnesota.

“Today’s agreements allow us to move forward with great clarity and stability in support of what has always mattered most, caring for patients,” Hereford said.

Together, the U, Fairview and M Physicians provide care for 1.2 million people each year and train 70 percent of Minnesota's physicians.

It might go down as one of the iconic moments of the 2026 World Cup.

It will certainly take something special to eclipse it as the goal of the tournament, even only three days in.

Deep into added time at Los Angeles Stadium and with virtually the last kick of the game, Gio Reyna capped a spectacular 4-1 win for the United States against Paraguay on Friday with an exquisite finish to a wonderful team move.

This was Pochettino-ball at its finest.

“This might be one of the best back-to-front team goals this country and this team has ever put together," Fox TV analyst Stu Holden said.

It might've been even better than that.

Done in 70 seconds

With the clock on 96 minutes and 10 seconds, the U.S. just had to see out time and ensure a Paraguay team that had already pulled one goal back in the second half didn't spark a late rally.

Over the course of the next 70 seconds, Mauricio Pochettino's team put together a 26-pass move from left to right, through defense and attack and left Paraguay's players chasing shadows. Not one Paraguayan got a foot on the ball. Then it was over to Reyna, who went on for a cameo as an 82nd-minute substitute for the outstanding Malik Tillman.

Receiving a pass from Alexander Freeman outside the box, Reyna took one touch to control the ball and another to carry it into the area. Then, with the outside of his right boot and with a touch of curl, he swept the shot past Paraguay goalkeeper Orlando Gill into the far corner to send the U.S. supporters wild one last time.

And they weren't the only ones going crazy. As Reyna wheeled away in celebration, hands covering his ears, he was mobbed by teammates, substitutes and even Pochettino, who raced across the field to join in the moment.

“There’s not a whole lot of words to describe the feeling,” U.S. captain Tim Ream said after the team's biggest ever World Cup win.

Just like watching Brazil

Such was the U.S. control of the ball that it brought back memories of what many believe to be the greatest ever team goal in the World Cup when Brazil's Carlos Alberto finished off a multi-pass move against Italy in the 1970 final.

That game also finished 4-1 and Carlos Alberto's strike, like Reyna's, came late, in the 86th minute.

A nine-pass move ended with Pele laying the ball off to Carlos Alberto, who drove a low shot into the corner.

The stakes were much higher for Brazil, but for the U.S. it was an opening statement performance against a Paraguay team that had one of the best defensive records among the South American teams during qualification. Pochettino's team already has more goals than the U.S. managed in the entire 2022 tournament where it scored just three and was eliminated at the round of 16.

“Congratulations to Team USA on their Big Win, 4-1, over a very good Paraguay team,” President Donald Trump wrote Saturday on his social media site. “Keep it going!”

A taste of what's to come

The U.S. Men's National Team went big when it hired Pochettino, the former Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Tottenham coach in 2024.

There was a run to the Gold Cup final last year and he has not been shy about his ambitions at the World Cup.

“Why not us?” has become something of a motto going into the tournament.

With extended time to work with the players ahead of the opening game, Pochettino believes the full potential of the team will be seen.

“When you only have few days, you know, to reunite and to play, you only select players, but you cannot coach players,” he said Friday. “Only in this type of tournament like the Gold Cup or now the World Cup, because you have preparation, two, three, four weeks, I think that is the only moment that we can coach.”

Reyna's goal was a perfect example of Pochettino's insistence of concentrating on the team over individuals.

“One thing we need to praise is the collective effort,” the coach added.

Reyna erases pain of 2022

It was a triumphant return for Reyna after controversy in Qatar four years ago for alleged lack of hustle, which nearly got him sent home from that World Cup by then-coach Gregg Berhalter.

Pochettino made the bold call to include Reyna in his squad even though he made just four league starts last season for Borussia Mönchengladbach and none after Dec. 19.

Reyna also took the opportunity to announce that his wife was pregnant by putting the ball under his shirt and sucking his thumb.

“Celebration was for the little one on the way," he later posted on Instagram.

The US has had great goals in the past

Fans will debate whether this was the greatest goal by the USMNT.

In 1989 Paul Caligiuri struck a long-range volley against Trinidad and Tobago that qualified the U.S. for the World Cup for the first time since 1950.

In 1994, the last time America hosted the tournament, Eric Wynalda's free kick against Switzerland earned the U.S. its first point in the World Cup since 1950.

There was also Benny Feilhaber's volley that won the Gold Cup in 2007.

SpaceX's newly listed stock leapt on its first day of trading on Friday, after an initial public offering that shattered records and likely made CEO Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire.

Shares in SpaceX, listed on the Nasdaq under the SPCX ticker, opened trading at $150 apiece, 11 percent above the IPO price of $135. The stock rose further during the dayto $169, up 25 percent from its IPO price.

The company raised some $75 billion selling more than 555 million shares at its offer price of $135, making it the biggest IPO in history.

As excitement built, Musk was in Starbase, Texas, behind what looked like a Nasdaq-branded podium, while a couple of SpaceX executives, including its President Gwynne Shotwell and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen rang the opening bell in New York's Nasdaq Stock Market.

"Whoever you are watching this, SpaceX wants to be able to take you to the moon, take you to mars, and ultimately beyond," Musk said, noting it was hard to believe the company had just pulled off the biggest IPO ever.

"I gave SpaceX less than a 10 percent chance of succeeding at all, to be clear," he said of the company's early days. "In fact I told people this, I said 'look, we're probably going to fail, but you know we should give it a try because if we don't, if there's not a new company that enters space, we will never be a truly space-faring civilization."

To punctuate the big day, SpaceX conducted a rocket launch in Florida about an hour before the stock market opened. It was the 650th flight of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, according to Spaceflight Now, delivering Starlink broadband satellites into orbit.

SpaceX is not short of ambition for how it will use the money it raised through the IPO. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it wants to expand its flagship rocket and satellite communications businesses, and is doubling down on a pivot toward artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, it acquired Musk's AI startup xAI. SpaceX has plans to expand its data centers on Earth, develop AI microchips and launch what it calls "orbital AI compute infrastructure" — data centers in space.

At the center of it all is Musk, who has an iron grip on the company as chairman of the board and chief executive officer. Musk also holds roughly 85 percent of shareholder voting power.

The IPO price of $135 a share put SpaceX's value around $1.77 trillion, making it instantly one of the world's biggest listed companies on its first day on the market. The share price pop on Friday lifted the company's value above $2 trillion.

The company is not profitable, though. Its IPO prospectus reported a net loss of $4.3 billion in the first quarter of this year, and critics have questioned its stratospheric valuation. Morningstar valued it at just $780 billion based on a discounted cash flow model, a widely used approach to assessing the value of companies.

Morningstar analysts Nicolas Owens and Suryansh Sharma wrote that uncertainty is "very high" when it comes to SpaceX's business, and its governance profile under Musk, who also runs Tesla and other companies, is complicated. "The company faces substantial risks related to strategic execution, technological evolution, market dynamics, regulations, AI buildout, and key-person dependency," they wrote earlier this month.

First of 3 massive IPOs expected this year

The SpaceX IPO is the first of three big tests of investor appetite for AI-related technology companies. OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, and Anthropic, creator of the Claude AI models, have both filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission signaling intent to list shares. Analysts say that could happen this fall.

All three companies are huge, and AI is taking the world by storm, but big question marks hang over future profitability. To date, they have been burning cash to develop artificial intelligence and subsidize usership.

Songyee Yoon, managing partner at Principal Venture Partners, a fund that focuses on AI, cautions that this is still a novel technology, and it's not clear yet which companies will turn out the most commercial and useful models.

The introduction of such a new technology, she says, "comes with a lot of kind of frothy valuation and hype."

Copyright 2026, NPR

Four years in the making. The U.S. Men's National Team is finally ready to play its first game of the 2026 World Cup with a match on Friday against Paraguay in Los Angeles. For the 26 Americans on the squad, just making it to soccer's most prestigious tournament and the world's biggest sporting event is a culmination (or continuation) of a lifetime of soccer highs and lows.

Here's what to know about each of the players on the team.

⭐⭐⭐ = main star

⭐⭐ = starter or featured substitute

⭐ = contributor off the bench

Forwards

Name: Christian Pulisic ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: Hershey, Pa.

Club team: AC Milan (Serie A)

The hot spotlight of American soccer has followed Christian Pulisic for years now, and, to his credit, he's largely lived up to the hype. He's a key starter on one of Europe's top clubs. He's the top active goalscorer for the USMNT, with 33 goals in 86 career appearances with the senior team. And though a goal-scoring drought had haunted him in the first half of this year, he broke through with a goal against Senegal late last month and is heading into this World Cup free and aggressive as ever.

Name: Folarin Balogun ⭐⭐

Age: 24

Hometown: London, England

Club team: AS Monaco (Ligue 1)

Born in Brooklyn to Nigerian parents and raised in London, Balogun was eligible for all three national teams. He made the switch to represent the U.S. in 2023, when the Americans were in dire need of a striker. Since then, Balogun has been heralded as the long-term solution up front. He scored at least two goals in each of his first three games with the national team and added his first of 2026 against Senegal. And he's headed into the World Cup in top form: At Monaco this season, he bagged 19 goals in 43 total appearances.

Name: Ricardo Pepi ⭐⭐

Age: 23

Hometown: El Paso, Texas

Club team: PSV Eindhoven (Eredivisie)

One of two Mexican-American dual-national players on the USMNT, Pepi was devastated when he was left off the 2022 World Cup squad. But the El Paso native played the best soccer of his career with PSV this season, with 19 goals in 34 appearances — and in the May match against Senegal, he showed a dangerous chemistry with Pulisic in helping to set up the first two goals of the game. "He's grown a lot. He probably deserved to be on that last roster," Pulisic said in May. "His time is now. He absolutely deserves to be here."

Name: Timothy Weah ⭐

Age: 26

Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Club team: Olympique de Marseille (Ligue 1)

Soccer runs in Tim Weah's family; he is the son of George Weah, the star footballer-turned politician who won the prestigious Ballon d'Or award in 1995, then got involved in politics in his home country of Liberia after his retirement from soccer. The younger Weah was mostly raised in New York, his mother's home. Weah has had some high highs and low lows with the USMNT — from scoring a World Cup goal vs. Wales in 2022 to tanking the USMNT's chances in the '24 Copa America with a red card — and in this World Cup, he may not be a starter but is expected to play an active role, most likely off the bench on the right side.

Name: Alejandro Zendejas ⭐

Age: 28

Hometown: El Paso, Texas

Club team: Club América (Liga MX)

Zendejas is the second Mexican-American player on this squad. He was born in Ciudad Juarez and raised in El Paso. He was a regular in USMNT youth camps when he was young but moved to Mexico for a club career with Chivas de Guadalajara followed by Club America, two of Liga MX's biggest clubs. He had his choice of national teams but committed to the U.S. in 2023. His role on the World Cup team is a bit of a wild card; he's a talented attacker but likely won't start a match.

Name: Haji Wright

Age: 28

Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif.

Club team: Coventry City (Premier League* just promoted)

Haji Wright scored one of the only three USMNT goals in the 2022 World Cup when he came off the bench against the Netherlands in the Round of 16. This past season, he was instrumental in getting Coventry City promoted to the top tier of English football. Able to play on the wings or as a striker, Wright could be a useful substitute for the U.S., but the USMNT has more quality at the position than it did in 2022, and he may struggle to see the field behind Balogun and Pepi.

Name: Brenden Aaronson

Age: 25

Hometown: Medford, N.J.

Club team: Leeds United (Premier League)

The "Medford Messi" hero of suburban New Jersey youth soccer is having a big summer: He's on the U.S. World Cup roster and got married barely two weeks ago (dipping out of training camp for a single night before rejoining the team in time for its two tune-up friendlies). He had a career year in the 2024-25 season with Leeds before taking a modest step back this year; it's likely he'll be in a spark plug bench role at the World Cup.

Midfielders

Name: Tyler Adams ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: Wappingers Falls, N.Y.

Club team: AFC Bournemouth (Premier League)

Alongside Pulisic and fellow midfielder Weston McKennie, Adams is a main character of this generation of the USMNT. Raised by a single mom in upstate New York, Adams had to rely on sheer determination to overcome plenty of obstacles — like his small stature and lack of goalscoring touch — on his path to professional soccer. At 23, the midfielder was named the captain of the 2022 World Cup team, and his toughness sets the tone for the whole team. "I see guys get kicked, I want to kick anyone," he said after last weekend's (less than) friendly match against Germany.

Name: Weston McKennie ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: Little Elm, Texas

Club team: Juventus (Serie A)

McKennie might be the beating heart of this team. An all-American: Born on an Army base in Washington, raised in Texas, and spent some formative years at an air base in Germany where he caught the soccer bug before moving back to the U.S. He dyed a streak of hair red, white and blue for the '22 World Cup, and he's a lock to start — the only question is, where? Coach Mauricio Pochettino has played him in a variety of outfield positions over the past year and a half. He scored the opening goal in a March friendly against Belgium

Name: Malik Tillman ⭐⭐

Age: 24

Hometown: Furth, Germany

Club team: Bayer Leverkusen (Bundesliga)

Off the field, the soft-spoken Tillman (whose dad is American and mom is German) may be the quietest member of this team. But on the pitch, it's a different story altogether. Tillman is an attacking midfielder whose game has matured and improved so much that former U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart recently called him "one of the most amazing players I've ever seen." As he grows more comfortable, his reserved nature disappears, Stewart added: "He's a character that once he feels part of a group, he can show amazing special things. And he can actually control things as no one other that I know."

Name: Sebastian Berhalter ⭐⭐

Age: 25

Hometown: Columbus, Ohio

Club team: Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS)

The compact, confident Berhalter has a big last name in U.S. Soccer: His dad, Gregg, featured prominently as a player in the U.S. quarterfinal run at the 2002 World Cup, then became USMNT coach in 2018. He never called up his son to the senior national team — the younger Berhalter's debut came in 2025, after new coach Pochettino had taken over. "I know if I got a call from my dad, I would have to earn it double as any other player," he said recently. "He would never call me in just to call me in. I had to earn it." He's known for his quality set-piece deliveries, like corner kicks, so look for him on the field in those moments.

Name: Gio Reyna ⭐⭐

Age: 23

Hometown: Bedford, N.Y.

Club team: Borussia Mönchengladbach (Bundesliga)

To say Reyna is mercurial is putting it mildly: As a 17-year-old, he broke Pulisic's record as the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga and quickly made a name for himself as a gifted attacking creator — but then he dramatically fell off in form after a series of injuries. Reyna was also a breakout figure for the USMNT in 2022, but not for his performance in the World Cup; Instead, the long story involves complaints over his lack of playing time and criticism by then-coach Gregg Berhalter, whose long relationship with Reyna's parents (former teammates and college friends) became fodder for a leaked story that prompted a swirl of drama and Berhalter's eventual firing after the World Cup. Still only 23, Reyna has tried to move past all that, but his inconsistency on the field makes it hard to know what to expect from him this summer.

Name: Cristian Roldan

Age: 31

Hometown: Pico Rivera, Calif.

Club team: Seattle Sounders (MLS)

Roldan is another modern American story, born in California to a Guatemalan dad and Salvadoran mother who immigrated after their home countries were gripped by violence in the 1980s. Roldan grew up with two brothers in an eastside Los Angeles suburb, kicking the ball into a goal their dad had made of PVC pipe. Now, Roldan and his brother Alex are teammates on the Seattle Sounders. Roldan is a mature, calming locker-room presence and will likely play only a small role on the field, if he plays at all.

Defenders

Name: Chris Richards ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 26

Hometown: Birmingham, Ala.

Club team: Crystal Palace (Premier League)

As an athletic kid growing up in Alabama, Chris Richards could easily have ended up with a career in a different sport altogether — at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, he shares a frame with plenty of point guards and wide receivers. But the young Richards caught the soccer bug early on and pushed through culture shock as a teenager on a professional contract in Germany to blossom into a talented defender. He's the best defender on the USMNT, but he hurt his ankle in a game with his club Crystal Palace in May and hasn't played since. The U.S. defense has looked porous without him, but on Wednesday he said he was "ready." (He may also have the best game-day fits)

Name: Antonee "Jedi" Robinson ⭐⭐⭐

Age: 28

Hometown: Liverpool, England

Club team: Fulham FC (Premier League)

Robinson grew up in England and developed as a player through the youth system at Everton. But the English national team never called him up — so when the U.S. offered him an opportunity, because his dad had grown up in the U.S. (and played soccer at Duke), Robinson seized the opportunity. Since then, the left-back has developed into one of the USMNT's most talented players. But a major injury set him back for more than a year, and he only just returned to the field for the U.S. in March. "There was no certainty on my end that I was going to be fit and available and make it, because it just seemed like there was no light at the end of the tunnel," he said earlier this year. A few weeks ago, he bleached his hair for the World Cup, then scored an absolute rocket of a goal in the friendly against Germany. Auspicious!

Name: Tim Ream ⭐⭐

Age: 38

Hometown: St. Louis, Mo.

Club team: Charlotte FC (MLS)

Ream is the oldest player on this squad, and his steady leadership has earned him the team captain armband. At 38 years old, he's no longer the fastest guy on the pitch, but those decades of experience — one of them spent in England at the Premier League club Fulham — mean he rarely finds himself out of position, and his passes are still well-placed. He wasn't chosen for the World Cup squad in 2014 and then the U.S. failed to qualify in 2018. But he played every minute of the U.S. run in 2022. "Tim is an amazing American story of perseverance," '22 USMNT coach Berhalter said last week. Expect to see Ream start at least some of these games, if not all of them.

Name: Sergiño Dest ⭐⭐

Age: 25

Hometown: Almere, Netherlands

Club team: PSV Eindhoven (Eredivisie)

Dest grew up in the Netherlands, but his father immigrated to the U.S. from Suriname, then a Dutch colony, when he was a child. Eventually, the elder Dest played college soccer in New York, served in the Vietnam War and became a U.S. citizen, retiring from the Army just a few years before having a son, Sergiño. The youngest Dest came up through the Ajax academy system in the Netherlands, and the U.S. began recruiting him a decade ago. He started all four games at the 2022 World Cup and is likely to be a starter once again.

Name: Alex Freeman ⭐⭐

Age: 21

Hometown: Plantation, Fla.

Club team: Villarreal CF (La Liga)

The Baltimore-born son of the Green Bay Packers wide receiver Antonio Freeman, Alex has quickly established himself as one of the USMNT's more versatile players. His ability to attack and defend as a wingback shone while playing for MLS side Orlando City SC, for whom he scored six goals while playing as a defender last year. That performance earned him a move to the Spanish club Villarreal and call-ups to the USMNT earlier this year. His athleticism and rapidly growing understanding of the game have allowed him to quickly earn a starting spot on the back line, most likely on the right side next to Richards.

Name: Mark McKenzie ⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: New York, N.Y.

Club team: Toulouse FC (Ligue 1)

McKenzie has been around the USMNT for years now but he's finally found his footing with Pochettino at the helm, making 15 of his 29 career appearances since Pochettino took over. There's been a battle for playing time at center back since Richards has been out with his ankle injury, and McKenzie may be Pochettino's favored backup option. Expect to see him as a substitute, especially as Pochettino manages Richards' playing time coming out of his injury.

Name: Miles Robinson ⭐

Age: 29

Hometown: Arlington, Mass.

Club team: FC Cincinnati (MLS)

Robinson is savoring this World Cup. He'd scored the game-winning goal in extra time against Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2021. He was a lock to make the 2022 squad as a top defender prospect, but he ruptured his Achilles tendon and had to watch the tournament on television at home. Robinson was drafted #2 into the MLS by Atlanta United in 2017. He starred collegiately at Syracuse and found a passion for soccer watching his older sister play the game. Robinson, who has 40 appearances with the senior national team, is sure to make an impact in this World Cup, even if he comes off the bench.

Name: Auston Trusty

Age: 27

Hometown: Media, Penn.

Club team: Celtic FC (Scottish Premiership)

Trusty has gotten this far betting on himself, he says — his tryout for the Philadelphia Union Academy, his choice to forgo college for a professional career, his decision to make the jump to Europe after earning an extension with the Colorado Rapids. That's all paid off for Trusty. He attributes that belief in himself to being the youngest of six kids, the rest of whom all eventually played collegiate soccer. "If I wanted to have a relationship with them, if I wanted to help myself in the games I played with them, I had to be confident," he said. Trusty has shown some promise in his limited minutes in 2026, but it's unclear how big a role he'll play this summer.

Name: Joe Scally

Age: 23

Hometown: Lake Grove, N.Y.

Club team: Borussia Mönchengladbach (Bundesliga)

Despite only being 23, Scally's a veteran of the USMNT setup. He made his debut for the national team in 2022 and went to that year's World Cup in Qatar. He's an attack-minded fullback who's been a mainstay for Gladbach since moving there in 2021, and he'll look to be an outlet for build-up play. Scally never appeared in a game in the '22 Cup, and this year could be the same.

Name: Max Arfsten

Age: 25

Hometown: Fresno, Calif.

Club team: Columbus Crew (MLS)

The 6-foot-1 winger made his USMNT debut in January 2025, playing in 16 of 18 matches that year. He was drafted by the Columbus Crew in 2023 after playing collegiately at UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton. At UC Davis, he attended as a walk-on, earning a scholarship and being named to the Big West All-Freshman team. The Fresno native returns home to train, saying, "his Fresno upbringing fuels his motor and competitiveness on the pitch." Equally comfortable playing with his right and left foot, he's been featured in many USMNT matches in the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup and is expected to see playing time.

Goaltenders

Name: Matt Freese ⭐⭐

Age: 27

Hometown: Wayne, Pa.

Club team: New York City FC (MLS)

There are big shoes for any USMNT goaltender to fill. The position has long been a strength for the U.S., from Kasey Keller to Brad Friedel to Tim Howard. Now, it's a question mark — a choice that's come down to two guys, Matt Freese and Matt Turner, both MLS starters who haven't been able to find a regular job in Europe. Last year, Freese, who played college ball at Harvard before finding a spot with the Philadelphia Union, surpassed Turner as the most frequent starter in goal for the national team. In last year's Gold Cup, he recorded two clean sheets and three penalty saves over six games. But that doesn't mean his spot is a lock.

Name: Matt Turner ⭐

Age: 31

Hometown: Park Ridge, N.J.

Club team: New England Revolution (MLS)

Turner's story is another scrappy prove-yourself saga. He came to goaltending relatively late in life, donning the gloves for the first time as a teenager to stay in shape for other sports. No colleges offered him a scholarship at first, so he walked on at Fairfield University in Connecticut, where he eventually earned conference honors. But even that couldn't find him a foothold in the pros, and it took some serious luck to eventually find regular playing time with the New England Revolution. His skills continued to grow, and eventually he earned a call-up to the USMNT and became the regular starter in 2021 through the 2022 World Cup, where he recorded a pair of clean sheets. "There's a healthy mutual respect between us," Turner said in May about Freese. "We both want to play, we both have played, we both will respect whatever the final decision is from the coaches. And then from there, our roles will change to be supportive of each other."

Name: Chris Brady

Age: 22

Hometown: Naperville, Ill.

Club team: Chicago Fire FC (MLS)

Brady, the Chicagoland native who plays now for his hometown club, has arguably been the best MLS goalkeeper over the past couple years, but he's still a firm No. 3 behind Freese and Turner when it comes to the national team. Brady earned his first senior team call-up last year, then made his debut in May in the second half against Senegal. "Whenever you get included in a camp or any type of squad, you got to be ready to play," he said. "If you're not playing, your goal then is to push the other guys who are."

Copyright 2026, NPR

The federal government will pay North Dakota nearly $28 million to settle a lawsuit over the costs of policing massive protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline nearly a decade ago, the state’s attorney general announced Thursday.

The final settlement agreement's sum is the same amount a federal judge determined last year after trial. The government also agreed to dismiss all of its appeals and to issue a statement that recognizes "that the people of North Dakota, including, centrally, our law enforcement officers, endured repeated acts of intimidation, violence, property destruction, unlawful conduct associated with encampments established on federal land without authorization," Republican Attorney General Drew Wrigley told reporters.

“We deeply appreciate those acknowledgments. They’re a long time coming," he said, joined by attorneys and investigators from his office.

North Dakota is now “made financially whole,” Wrigley said. The settlement money will finalize the debts of loans taken from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota, he said.

Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong welcomed the settlement as “long overdue” and thanked Wrigley's office and others who worked on the case and reached the settlement "that removes the financial burden from North Dakota taxpayers and places it on the shoulders of the federal government where it belongs.”

In a statement, the U.S. Justice Department said it disputes the court's legal analysis, “but acknowledges in hindsight that, under the Obama Administration, the federal government could have done more to reduce the impacts to the people of North Dakota” from the protests, which included “unlawfulness and confrontational violence" at times.

“To avoid further escalation of unlawful behaviors, the federal government at the time chose not to forcibly remove the protestors from the encampment on federal property. The United States recognizes that this difficult choice had painful consequences for North Dakota and many of its residents,” the department said.

The settlement comes more than a year after U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor found the federal government liable on all claims, including negligence, gross negligence, civil trespass and public nuisance, and determined it owed the state about $27.8 million.

For months in 2016 and 2017, thousands of people camped and protested on and around federally managed land near the pipeline's Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline's risk to its water supply.

The protesters included people from around the U.S. and even the world; supporters of the tribe, Native rights and the environment; and opponents of fossil fuels. Figures such as actors Shailene Woodley and Mark Ruffalo and the Rev. Jesse Jackson traveled to North Dakota to support the tribe.

The protests resulted in sometimes-violent clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement officers. An attorney for the state said the protests prompted a response that stretched over seven months and involved 178 agencies, resulted in 761 arrests, and required four days of cleanup of the camp to remove millions of pounds of trash.

The state sued in 2019, seeking $38 million. In 2017, the pipeline company Energy Transfer donated $15 million to help cover the response costs. That same year, the Justice Department gave a $10 million grant to the state for reimbursing the response.

The judge found that Energy Transfer’s contribution was a gift and subtracted the $10 million already paid by the federal government when calculating the nearly $28 million award.

Last month, he vacated several previous orders, including his 2025 ruling, at the request of both sides as they negotiated the settlement.

“The Court does not believe it should stand in the way of a satisfactory settlement between the Parties but should encourage litigants to pursue settlements even when federal government conduct is at its worst,” Traynor wrote.

The pipeline has been operating since mid-2017. It transports about 4 percent of U.S. daily oil production, or approximately 540,000 barrels a day.

In May, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave final approval for the pipeline's Missouri River crossing near the reservation, six years after a federal judge had ordered a more rigorous environmental review. Tribal Chairman Steve Sitting Bear said Standing Rock will consider its options to uphold its treaty rights, ensure safe water, and hold the government and corporations accountable.

The challenge for Kyler Murray as a newcomer to the Minnesota Vikings learning a complex offense has an extra dimension.

He has to take turns.

Committed to staging a legitimate competition for their starting quarterback position, at least during this less-urgent part of the offseason, the Vikings have divided the time in drills with the first team between Murray and incumbent J.J. McCarthy. That's the way they'll start training camp next month, too.

“You’ve got to put it together in a way that challenges those guys and see who responds, see who handles adversity well, and ultimately see who elevates the offense,” coach Kevin O'Connell said after the last practice of minicamp on Thursday. “It’s an open competition, and I want to see these guys in very unique and in many ways difficult circumstances elevate themselves and their games to help the Minnesota Vikings.”

There's no deadline for the decision, O'Connell said, though for the Vikings to be at their best for the Sept. 13 regular-season opener against the Green Bay Packers they'll likely declare their starter at least a couple of weeks in advance of that. The frequency and quality of repetitions during open-to-the-public practices in training camp will undoubtedly stoke the embers of speculation that fuel the popularity of this sport, but the coaching staff has a plan for putting both quarterbacks in as many meaningful situations as they can once the pads come on in camp.

“I wouldn’t read much into who gets what on which days,” O'Connell said, well aware of the intense scrutiny on this team's quarterback depth chart for a third straight year since McCarthy was drafted 10th overall in 2024. “I know me saying that was the waste of the time that it took to say it, but we’re going to put together a way where we can put them in the different aspects of situational football that they need to get.”

Murray, the first overall pick in the 2019 draft who was cut by the Arizona Cardinals and signed with the Vikings for the veteran minimum salary for this year so he can try to cash in as a free agent for 2027, has been the presumptive favorite for the job even if he’s newer to the system.

“Now having to split reps, me already being behind, not getting the amount of reps you would typically want a guy to get learning an offense, that’s probably the toughest part,” Murray said this week.

Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said McCarthy's offseason has “been a continuous upward arrow or him.” From O'Connell to wide receiver Justin Jefferson, all of the Vikings who've been publicly asked about McCarthy's progress from his mostly rough 2025 debut have remarked about sharpened skills and fundamentals. But at some point if Murray becomes the team's long-term choice, McCarthy might well find himself playing elsewhere.

“I think I’ve made it very clear I wanted to be here, before I got here. I love this organization. I love the coaching staff. I absolutely love these players to death," McCarthy said. "This is where I want to be. I feel like I can thrive in this system.”

The Vikings clearly still believe that to some degree, at least if patience were not part of the equation.

“It’s probably going to end up being a difficult decision,” O'Connell said, “just based on where I know those guys are going to go.”

David Hockney believed painting could change the world; in the midst of all our miseries, he said, art lets us see the world as beautiful, thrilling, mysterious. Hockney, one of the best-known contemporary artists, has died at home, age 88, his publicist said Friday.

The artist, who died on Thursday, was one month short of his 89th birthday, publicist Erica Bolton said in a statement. He is survived by his long-time partner and companion Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima.

"David Hockney's enduring legacy reflects his underlying enthusiasm for life, his outstanding sense of humor, his immense generosity, and his investigative curiosity encapsulated by his signature phrase," she said. "Love life."

British, he spent decades working in Los Angeles, making images that captured the wealth and sunshine of Southern California. Hockney created art on canvas, paper, photographic film, videos, iPhones and iPads. His bright, cheerful paintings sold for millions.

"I enjoy looking ..." he explained to me when he was 79. "I can look at a little puddle on a road in Yorkshire and just of the rain falling on it and think it's marvelous. I see the world as very beautiful."

With electric colors — blues, greens, yellows, fuchsia — he made merry beauties all his life. Pictures of tree-lined roads, flowers, snow-covered trees, the Grand Canyon. The world became new in his hands. Hockney also made portraits of friends and helpers.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Stephanie Barron remembers posing for him. She figured she'd go to work after a sitting. "What I found instead is that I was so exhausted from the intensity of the scrutiny, I went home and took a nap," she said. (You can hear from many more of Hockney's models in this story from 2018.)

Happily and luckily, I interviewed Hockney over the years. Our first encounter was in Paris in 2010 — an exhibit of little pictures he was making on his recently-discovered iPhone. He was charming, lively, open and engaged — and crazy for technology. An app called Brushes gave him a virtual paint box. Dipping his fingers into various colors, he touched the small iPhone screen and drew with his thumb. Then he got an iPad.

"The moment I got to the iPad, I found myself using every finger," he said.

He was engrossed, his friend Charlie Scheips, said. "He said he sometimes gets so obsessed that when he's going at it, he rubs his finger on his clothes to like, clean the finger as if he was using real paint." (You can see artworks Hockney created on the iPhone and iPad here.)

Raised by supportive parents in a simple English town, Hockney struggled with his sexuality. In the early '60s he came out. Films show him then with dyed blond hair and flamboyant outfits — a pink plaid suit, wide black and white striped tie, a red sock on one foot, green on the other. His lovers were young and beautiful. In the LA paintings they loll around at swimming pools, displaying divine derrieres. Pools were an obsession.

"Water offers an interesting graphic problem, it seems to me," he explained. "Say, a swimming pool, the water is transparent. How do you paint transparency? It has reflections and things."

A Bigger Splash, his best-known painting from 1967, shows a California swimming pool, tan diving board angling in from the bottom right, and rising from the aquamarine water, a lively, white splash. Someone just dove in.

"I spent longer on the splash than on any other thing in the painting," Hockney says. "I spent about a week painting it because it's painted with small brushes. I mean, I didn't want to just take a brush and splash it like that. I wanted to paint it slowly. And I thought then it contradicts the splash really."

An actual splash lasts a few seconds. Painting it took a week.

As his 80th birthday approached in 2017 museums were flooded with Hockneys. He was getting ready to go to London for one opening. I saw him then, for the last time, at his LA studio, surrounded by some comfy chairs, five easels, and clouds of cigarette smoke. The floor had dark brown smears from the smokes he chain-puffed, then stubbed out with his foot. Knowing he'd be fussed over in London, he said he didn't like parties anymore. "Too deaf for them," he said. They made him sad.

"I just have to leave and go home, have a sit in a quiet bedroom," he said. "And that's what I do. And then I read. ... That's my life now. I mean, that's what it's going to be."

But his eyes twinkled when he said that. And friends sitting near smiled indulgently.

He went on painting after I left, and made art the next day, the day after that, the day after that.

David Hockney: Always looking, and giving us the world as he wanted us to see it. Through joyous, vibrant pictures. That 80th birthday year, in Paris, there was a huge retrospective. The last piece in the show was graffitied on a white museum wall. In blue, on the white, Hockney had painted: Love Life D.H.

Copyright 2026, NPR

The Mille Lacs Indian Museum, located off Highway 169 in Onamia, reopened its doors to the public with a new building 30 years ago. Inside, exhibits guide visitors through the story of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe with historical and contemporary displays.

The museum was formed through a partnership between the Minnesota Historical Society and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. A historic trading post is located only a few hundred feet from the museum’s doors.

The Trading Post sells Native American art, books and clothing.

Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post

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On Saturday, the Minnesota Historical Society and Mille Lacs Band will hold a celebration commemorating the building’s 30th anniversary.

Long-time site manager Travis Zimmerman said the new building followed the suggestions of a Native American advisory council. The building was designed to flow in circular motions through its exhibits and architecture, a symbol of unity and connection.

“Everything was very purposeful in the way it was structured and put together,” said Zimmerman.

He estimated roughly 10,000 guests visit the museum every year.

Historical site

While the museum opened its current building in 1996, efforts to highlight the tribal community began decades before.

Before the Minnesota Historical Society became involved in the site, there was a history of trade. The Trading Post was founded by settlers Harry and Jeannette Ayer as a general goods store. Zimmerman said the Ayers eventually began purchasing art from the local Native American community and would eventually branch out and buy art from across the United States to sell at their trading post.

The Ayers built a collection of Native American art and artifacts, which eventually went into the hands of the Minnesota Historical Society in 1959.

In 1960, the Minnesota Historical Society opened an exhibition featuring artifacts from the Mille Lacs Band. Zimmerman said both the museum and trading post are currently the longest-running sites in the Minnesota Historical Society system.

One of the museum’s exhibits, the Four Seasons Room, is an immersive experience. The room features a life-size diorama, walking visitors through seasonal changes and traditional activities.

The room was installed in the old museum building in 1964, with the life-sized mannequins added in 1972. It was added to the current building during construction. Mannequins are modeled after Mille Lacs Band members.

“These people aren't just mannequins; they are people from the community that people remember,” Zimmerman said.

Mille Lacs Band member Benji Sam will hold a birch bark art demonstration at Saturday’s event. He said he recognizes one of those faces featured in the Four Seasons Room—his grandfather.

“That's something that is pretty brilliant, to be able to step in and celebrate and see somebody that was a figure and was engaged in some of your earliest core memories,” Sam said. “How cool is that to be able to go somewhere and have a figurine-- to go visit Grandpa again.”

Sam said his grandmothers are also featured in the museum, in an exhibit highlighting women from the Mille Lacs Band who were renowned artists in their medium.

“There's a really — a big sense of belonging for me,” he said when thinking about visiting the museum. Sam added that he frequented the museum as a child, helping his grandmother with birch bark art demonstrations.

For him, it feels like he has come “full circle” while doing his own demonstrations and visiting the museum with his own children.

“I get to show them ‘That's your great-grandmother, or that's your great-great-grandmother, that's your great-grandpa — that figure in this Four Seasons Room,’” he said.

‘Celebration of here and now’

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe calls itself “non-removable.”

Zimmerman said it’s a reoccurring theme reflected in the museum through its various exhibitions, highlighting both history and contemporary collections.

“The museum's still here, the trading post is still here, the Mille Lacs Band is still here,” said Zimmerman. “It's a thriving community.”

The museum plans to expand its offerings with a new program that will feature an artist each month. Celebrations will continue throughout the remainder of the year commemorating the 30th anniversary.

Sam said the museum is “a celebration of here and now,” which tells the story of how the tribal nation has evolved to where it is today.

“It would be incredible for the museum to continue being a leading life force in preservation of cultural knowledge and traditional crafting and art,” he said.

A 30th Anniversary celebration will take place at the Mille Lacs Museum and Trading Post on Saturday. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will feature walking tours, art demonstrations and behind-the-scenes collection tours.

Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.

“Spamalot” at the Ordway in St. Paul — Through June 14.

Through their films and sketch comedy show “Flying Circus,” British comedy troupe Monty Python’s absurdist humor and endlessly quotable jokes have developed a cult following across the world. So the question of adapting their best known work, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” into a Broadway musical was less of an “if” and more of a “when.”

Spoofing the name of the golden-age musical “Camelot,” Monty Python’s “Spamalot” debuted in 2005 and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Now on a revival tour, the show includes glitzy dance numbers, and a mix of original music and songs from previous Monty Python projects, yet it still maintains the manic energy and cutting humor people come to expect from giants of British comedy. (Jacob Aloi)

“Ole and Lena’s Wedding” at Boat Club Productions in Duluth — Through June 20

If you’ve lived in Minnesota for any amount of time, you’re likely aware of “Ole and Lena” jokes. They often poke fun at Midwestern and Scandinavian traditions, and usually end with a punchline at the expense of the titular husband and wife. Due to their ubiquity, they pop up everywhere from restaurant names to merchandise –and even theater.

Boat Club Productions, a dinner theater in Duluth, is producing “Ole and Lena’s Wedding.” Rather than a usual play, however, the show is immersive, with audience members treated to a reception meal after “attending” the wedding of Minnesota’s favorite couple—as the producers told FOX 21 in a recent interview. While the run of “Ole and Lena’s Wedding” is only a couple of weeks, Boat Club Productions is gearing up for two more productions later this year: “Church Basement Ladies” in the fall—another play that leans heavily into Midwestern culture—and the musical “Come From Away” in the winter. (Jacob Aloi)

“The Wizard of Oz” on 35mm at the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights — June 13 & 15

Minnesota has a few favorite sons: Bob Dylan, Prince, Paul Bunyan. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a more beloved daughter of the north woods than Judy Garland. After all, there’s a whole museum dedicated to her in her birthplace of Grand Rapids—which was central to a national true crime story involving the ruby slippers she wore in her most iconic role. For two special screenings, Minnesota audiences will have the opportunity to soak up Garland’s turn in Technicolor, as a certain Kansas farm girl, in glorious 35mm—the way God intended one of the greatest musical movies to be seen. (Jacob Aloi)

Mohanad Elshieky at Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis — June 12

If your social media algorithm is anything like mine, you’ve been seeing quite a bit of Mohanad Elshieky as of late, and it’s a delight. Story goes that the Libyan comedian, who is based in Brooklyn, got his start doing comedy as the host of a twice-weekly political call-in radio show in Benghazi during the Libyan Revolution in 2011, that is, until someone burned down the radio station. In 2014, Elshieky moved to Portland, Ore., and the U.S. granted him asylum in 2018. Since then, Elshieky has worked for “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and appeared on “Conan” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (RIP to all three shows).

Elshieky performs a deceptively laid-back style of comedy, with a mellow demeanor commenting on everything from growing up Muslim (“I read the Bible sometimes just to see what the competition is up to”), being kidnapped in his home country (“I love drama”) to Tesla-driving Lyft drivers (“I will never understand because like, do you have money or not?!”). Elsheiky performs 7 p.m. Friday, June 12, at Cedar Cultural Center. Cedar Cultural Center will also host a June 13 screening of the documentary “Dinkytown: A Tale of a Legendary Village,” which looks at 150 years of the university neighborhood. (Alex V. Cipolle)

“Prairie Dreams: A Trail of Quilts” at Frontenac State Park — June 13

The bluffs are alive with … the color of quilts! For this unique, one-day only event, more than 120 artist-made quilts will line a trail from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 13, at Frontenac State Park along the Mississippi River just southeast of Red Wing. The Frontenac State Park Association put out a call to regional artists to submit quilts that “present prairie-inspired dreams,” from “a story passed down through generations, a dream of regeneration for future generations or simply the day dreams of looking at clouds scudding across the sky while listening to the sound of meadowlarks as one walks a trail.” Visitors can come talk to quilters along the trail and vote on their favorite quilt. (Alex V. Cipolle)

“Pearl Fantasy Festival” Interact’s 30th Anniversary in St. Paul — June 13

The campus for Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts celebrates 30 years supporting contemporary artists living with disabilities, including artists such as Janice Essick, Lucy Picasso, Michael Engebretson and Victor Van, who this spring became the first Interact artist to have work purchased by the Walker Art Center. The Pearl Fantasy Festival, which runs 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, will feature live music, performances, a puppet parade and two new exhibitions highlighting the work of all 70 Interact visual artists. (Alex V. Cipolle)

Spencer Torkelson hit one of Detroit's six homers and the Tigers rolled to an 11-0 win over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday.

Colt Keith, Gleyber Torres, Riley Greene, Zach McKinstry and Wenceel Pérez also went deep for Detroit.

Leading 2-0, Torkelson hit a two-run shot in the fourth inning for his 10th of the season.

Torres made it 5-0 in the fifth before Keith hit a two-run shot for his first of the year in the sixth.

Greene in the seventh and McKinstry added solo shots before Pérez capped the surge with a two-run shot to left-center in the eighth.

Kevin McGonigle hit a leadoff double in the first and scored on Greene's sacrifice fly.

Tigers starting Keider Montero (3-4) allowed four hits, struck out four and walked one in 6 1/3 innings.

Zebby Matthews (2-4) gave up nine hits, including three homers, and seven runs. He struck out four and walked one.

Up next

RHP Jack Flaherty (1-7, 5.31 ERA) will start for the Tigers against Cleveland on Friday against Tanner Bibee (1-7, 4.09).

RHP Joe Ryan (4-3, 3.07) will start for the Twins against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday. RHP Kyle Leahy (5-3, 4.42) will start for the Cardinals.

Inside Helping Paws in Eden Prairie, golden retriever puppies are chasing each other in a playroom that has enrichment every puppy dreams of (or so we think). The trampoline and ball pit are part of their training to eventually become assistance dogs for people with physical disabilities, veterans and first responders living with PTSD.

Helping Paws is where Gilbert spent his days before becoming part of the Hortman family. He was ultimately deemed a little too friendly for the job and the Hortmans adopted him as their own.

Alyssa Golob, executive director of Helping Paws, said that even though Gilbert did not become a professional service dog, he was an unofficial service dog to the Hortman family as they navigated demanding professional lives of public service.

“It wasn't his journey to be a service dog, and we respect that. In my head now, I kind of feel like that Gilbert was where he was supposed to be with Melissa and Mark. He helped them through the stress of their lives.“ Golob said.

One year after Melissa, Mark and Gilbert were killed in an attack, Helping Paws is helping keep the entire family’s legacy alive.

In the months following their deaths, thousands of people donated to Helping Paws in their memory. That support helped create the Hortman Heroes Fund, which will train future service dogs.

During the most recent legislative session, lawmakers also funded an entire litter of puppies to go on to become service dogs in the Hortman’s honor. They are called the "Guided by Gilbert” litter. The nine puppies each have names that start with the letter G.

The puppies left for their volunteer trainer placements on May 31, and will train for more than two years to become professional service dogs for veterans and first responders with PTSD.

Golob calls the outpouring of support the “Melissa, Mark and Gilbert effect,” and said that their story is now a part of the soul of Helping Paws.

“Donations came our way, and that's wonderful, but it was really about people wanting to walk in Melissa and Mark's footsteps,” Golob said. “Now we have a wait list of people who want to take on a puppy.”

Training a service dog is hard work. In order to graduate, puppies must learn more than 70 commands from sitting all the way up to turning on lights and opening doors. But when they are still young like the “Guided by Gilbert” litter, they are mostly working on socializing with each other and people.

“Every time I watch the puppies play, it kind of gets me teared up a little bit,” Golob said. “These puppies, two years from now, are going to change somebody's life. You have no idea who they are going to, but somebody's life is going to be changed because of this cute, silly puppy.”

For now, though, they are still just puppies — tumbling over one another, exploring the world and growing into the dogs that Helping Paws hopes will one day transform someone's life.

“When the guided by Gilbert litter went home, there was a lot of love and pride in the room,” Golob said. “They have a lot to live up to, those puppies, and we were certain that we're going to watch them grow, and they're going to change lives. Melissa, Mark and Gilbert will continue to be proud of us.”

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

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The 2026 FIFA World Cup is finally here, which means Twin Cities bars and breweries are gearing up for a month of matches.

The World Cup begins Thursday and will continue through the final matches on July 19. This year, 48 countries are playing in the tournament over a total of 104 matches in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Team USA will be playing its first match on Friday at 8 p.m. against Paraguay. From packed sports bars to brewery watch parties and community viewing events, there will be plenty of places fans can watch the games.

Here’s a roundup of some of the top places to watch the World Cup around the Twin Cities.

Places airing every single World Cup game

A handful of bars and restaurants have committed to opening at odd hours to air every single World Cup game.

Brit’s Pub in downtown Minneapolis will be broadcasting every game on multiple screens inside the pub. It’s also partnering with Minnesota United to show select games outdoors at Peavey Plaza, right across from the pub.

Black Hart of Saint Paul is a self-identified “queer soccer bar” that will be open for every World Cup game. If the game is outside business hours, the bar will be open 20 minutes before kickoff. It’s offering its passport program where fans can buy a “passport” for $15 and get $1 off select drinks plus free entry on nights where there’s a cover for shows. The bar will give a stamp in the passport for every match attended, which equals an entry into a prize drawing.

Tom’s Watch Bar in downtown Minneapolis is playing each World Cup game and plans to give away prizes in between matches every day. Soccer fans can play small games like a soccer dart board and a mini foosball table for a chance to win Tom’s Watch Bar merch, free drinks or coupons for the restaurant.

Alary’s Kitchen & Bar in St. Paul will have all of the games on the TVs. They’ll also be running beer specials for World Cup fans.

721 Sports Bar & Lounge in Eagan will have the TVs rolling for all World Cup games and offer game-day drink specials to soccer fans.

Asher’s Bar and Grill in Minneapolis will be showing every game during the World Cup.

Merlins Rest Pub in Minneapolis is broadcasting each World Cup game on their TVs. It will have game-day specials on beers and drinks for people watching the matches.

Tiffany Sports Lounge in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood is also playing all of the matches and has a special wings menu with flavors from around the world for the World Cup.

Places airing most World Cup games

Here are some of the most popular places that plan to air most games during business hours. Some are opening early or closing late for select games.

Utepils Brewing Co in Minneapolis plans to stream every match during business hours and host watch parties at its taproom. More information can be found here.

La Doña Cervecería Brewery in Minneapolis has added two TVs in its taproom for the World Cup this year. It will have live viewings of some of the matches in the next month. The brewery is doing a special on El Súper Clássico at $5 a pint or $12 with a shot of El Jimador tequila during games.

Full Tilt Tavern in Bloomington plans to stream most games and welcomes fans to watch for the World Cup.

Community watch parties and events

Minnesota United Soccer Celebration is a fan experience in downtown Minneapolis that includes live viewings of select World Cup matches outdoors spanning Peavey Plaza and Nicollet Mall. There will also be a live DJ, guest appearances, local food carts and a giant screen where fans can watch select games starting Thursday through June 27. The event is free but tickets have to be reserved in advance.

Latinos in Comunidad, a Twin Cities Latino social group, is organizing several World Cup-themed events throughout the tournament that include watch parties and soccer-inspired fitness gatherings. The group's first watch party is on Thursday at El Burrito Mercado, following Mexico’s opening match. Additional events include Pilates and Zumba classes designed to bring soccer fans together throughout the World Cup. Check out their Instagram page for more details.

El Nuevo Campo park at 2709 E Lake Street will have a giant screen and beer tent for fans who want to watch World Cup games from June 23 to June 27. The Lake Street Council encourages people to come bring a blanket and chair, and also support local Lake Street businesses.

North Loop Green in Minneapolis is a one-acre park that’s hosting a free watch party for some games. The matches will be broadcasted on an outdoor screen. Here’s a schedule for their watch parties.

Utility crews continued chainsawing their way through downed trees and branches Thursday to restore power to several thousand homes and businesses in central Minnesota, well over a day after severe storms brought winds of more than 70 miles per hour.

Alexandria-based Runestone Electric Association said Thursday morning that an estimated 3,000 members remained without power. That number dropped to about 2,000 as of midday.

In addition to its own workers, Runestone said line crews from other utilities around Minnesota were helping with repairs.

The utility said the scope of the damage — spread across nearly its entire service area — was a particular challenge.

The complexity of the damage was also causing delays in restoring power.

“Every outage is its own puzzle. Before repairs can begin, crews must assess the damage, develop a plan and safely make repairs. Many outage locations involve multiple issues, including broken equipment, trees on power lines, downed wire and broken poles,” the utility reported Thursday. “To put things into perspective, replacing a single broken pole can take two hours or more.”

Runestone also noted that “with restoration efforts ongoing, a line that appears de-energized may become energized at any time. Our rule of thumb is simple: if a line is down, it is dangerous.”

Wednesday saw two rounds of severe weather across Minnesota. The first, arriving early in the morning, produced strong winds that caused the widespread downed trees and power lines in central Minnesota.

Those winds are also believed to have knocked about 20 rail cars, carrying new vehicles, off the tracks in the city of Hoffman.

Parkers Prairie was also among the communities hit hard, and the storms also downed trees in the Twin Cities. More than 70,000 homes and businesses across Minnesota lost power in the immediate wake of the storms.

More storms developed on Wednesday afternoon, and some of those produced large hail. Hailstones larger than golf balls caused damage in Wadena.

Officials with the ACLU announced Thursday that they are dismissing a lawsuit alleging that ICE agents racially profiled people of color during Operation Metro Surge. However, they say plaintiffs — many of whom are U.S. citizens or legal residents — will file administrative actions against the Department of Homeland Security and refile lawsuits after the process is complete.

One of the plaintiffs in the suit is Jonathan Aguilar Garcia, who was born in the United States. He was working at a Target store in Richfield in January when agents detained him.

"I kept yelling that I was a US citizen, but the agents ignored me,” he said. “The agent who grabbed my shoulders tried to push me into an SUV, but I slipped and slammed my head on the SUV."

Garcia says the agents drove him to a parking lot of another store, where they let him go.

In March of this year, as the surge subsided, a judge found evidence to support claims of racial profiling. However, he denied a request to order ICE to stop using those practices, saying the plaintiffs failed to show they faced future harm, largely due to the reduction in ICE agents’ presence in the state.

“We were disappointed in the court's decision not to issue an injunction against the unlawful policies,” said ACLU staff attorney Catherine Ahlin-Halverson. “Courts in other jurisdictions have halted unconstitutional policies like this because they target a specific group of people who could not avoid repeated encounters with immigration agents.”

She said agents stopped people who were out doing daily tasks such as making trips to the grocery store or dropping off their kids at school.

Officials with the Superior National Forest are ending the temporary campfire ban in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, after recent rainfall eased fire danger across northern Minnesota.

The order took effect last weekend as a prolonged dry spell raised the risk of wildfires. It was initially set to run through the end of the month.

But the fire danger is now low enough for the Forest Service to end the campfire ban, starting Friday.

Officials are still asking wilderness visitors to follow standard precautions with campfires and cook stoves.

Similar bans were put in place in the Boundary Waters in 2023, and again in 2024.

The Forest Service also announced this week that two small wildfires in the wilderness sparked by lightning last weekend have now been contained.

The Loon Fire burned about 16 acres near Loon Lake, east of Crane Lake. And the Tiger Fire burned about an acre between Tiger and Boulder bays on Lac La Croix.

A third lightning-caused fire — the Buck Fire — has burned about a quarter-acre about 15 miles northwest of Ely.

“Weather conditions have prevented another flight over the fire, however rain has fallen in the area over the past couple of days and we anticipate that this has prevented fire spread,” the Forest Service reported Wednesday. “Access to the fire’s location is very difficult and the risk to firefighters high, compared to the observed fire activity.”

“When conditions allow, fire managers will take a flight over this fire to make sure that it hasn’t grown or become active again. If fire activity changes, firefighters may be transported to the fire to take direct suppression actions.”

A little girl sat in an office chair with her knees folded beneath her in a small courtroom of the Fort Snelling Immigration Court. She wore a sparkling purple dress with a matching bow, and rested her elbows on the table across the room from a federal government attorney arguing for her family’s deportation. She listened quietly as an immigration judge set a date to consider her family’s asylum claim and then told her family, “Thank you very much, you’re free to go.” That is, until her family’s next scheduled hearing on Sept. 2, which could decide whether they'll be allowed to stay in the country.

The girl’s family was the subject of just one of 118 hearings scheduled at the state’s immigration court on Wednesday. The majority of the cases involve immigrants presented with orders for removal by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement may not be as present on Minnesota streets as it was this winter. But inside the Whipple Federal Building on most weekdays, the immigration court is quietly enacting President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

Amy Lange has been running the Immigration Court Observation Project at the Advocates for Human Rights since 2019. She and other court observers wait outside the building for it to open at 8 a.m. each weekday. They pass through security and make their way to the courthouse lobby, the only place where the day’s court hearings are posted.

Once there, the volunteers start scrawling down basic info for each hearing: Who is appearing, what country they’re from and any other biographical details they can glean from the coded schedule to help them follow along in court. Observers in each courtroom take notes as the rapid-fire hearings progress.

Courtroom doors used to always be open when observers arrived. But these days, Lange said, sometimes judges start hearings before observers can get into the courtroom. Some judges even require observers to sit in the front row.

“There's just a general mistrust and a general sense by several judges that they don't want to be under scrutiny,” Lange said.

Judges face higher workloads as administration pushes deportation goals

Immigration courts are different from other court systems in the United States. Judges are employees of the federal government’s executive branch, and the Trump administration has fired more than 100 judges, almost 15 percent of the total, since he retook the office.

According to NPR News, the Trump administration has said judges under the Biden administration were too lenient with granting asylum or other statuses to those seeking to stay in the U.S.

Advocates suspect these judges didn’t show enough deference to the administration’s immigration goals.

“We have a lot of empathy for the fact that they've really lost the role of neutral adjudicator,” Lange said of immigration judges. “It's a pretty horrible job right now, but the public has to be able to see what is happening — we are the people that they are serving.”

There is legislation in Congress right now to make immigration courts more independent of the executive branch, but it faces obstacles to pass both houses of Congress.

Advocates say immigration judges, including those in Minnesota, are being saddled with higher workloads and that immigrants seeking asylum are facing bigger obstacles as the executive branch, which controls the immigration court system, seeks to meet their stated goals of deporting a million people a year and attempting to address the backlog of more than 3 million cases in the country’s immigration courts.

Around the country, advocates are reporting that the federal government has been engaging in what attorneys call “mega masters” hearings. That’s defined loosely as a hearing where more than 100 people are called in the same time slot.

Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), said the packed dockets can make it more challenging for immigrants to challenge their deportations. If, for instance, someone misses a proceeding because they didn’t receive the mail notification, a judge can automatically order them removed, expediting the process and helping the government more quickly meet its goal of removal. It can also be challenging to find an attorney under the shorter timelines judges are often setting.

“Many people are in removal proceedings that will decide their whole lives. It will decide whether they're deported to a country that might not be safe for them. It will decide whether they are allowed to stay in the United States with family,” Dojaquez-Torres said. “The stakes are very high.”

The high caseloads in immigration courts brings with it more possibility for errors and less due process for immigrants, Dojaquez-Torres said.

Many of those in immigration court have been put into removal proceedings from the Department of Homeland Security. The courts exist for people to explore their options for relief, Dojaquez-Torres said, often through asylum claims, although people can also apply for green cards or petition to cancel the removal if they meet certain requirements.

‘Deck is stacked against our clients’

Under the current Trump administration, rules have been tightened that make it more challenging for immigrants to be granted their asylum cases. At the Minnesota immigration court, federal data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse shows that just about 2 percent of asylum cases have been granted so far this year, whereas the rate for 2023 was about 13 percent.

Brian Aust has worked as an immigration attorney for the last quarter century. He said he’s been alarmed by how difficult it can be to win cases that seemed like sure bets just a few years ago.

“It feels like the deck is stacked against our clients who are seeking relief in the immigration courts,” Aust said. “Let's be honest, the immigration court is now advertising itself as an instrument in what I not so affectionately refer to as ‘the deportation machine.’”

The Trump administration has regularly used its rulemaking abilities to issue decisions that can complicate asylum claims. Even when courts have pushed back on administration policies after long legal battles, the administration has quickly released new decisions that immigrants and their attorneys then have to adapt to.

“Attorneys, I think, are creatures of routine and predictability,” Aust said. “Things are just constantly changing and shifting and moving, and as far as policies and guidance and whatnot, we just don't know whether we're coming or going on some days.”

Free legal help available, but immigrants aren’t entitled to legal representation

On Wednesday, Judge Sarah Mazzie at Fort Snelling Immigration Court quickly moved through her morning hearings, correcting home addresses and informing immigrants from mostly Spanish-speaking countries like Ecuador and Mexico of their legal options. People had come from as far away as New Jersey to attend the hearings, most of which lasted just a handful of minutes.

Like other judges in the court, Mazzie gives people a list of possible free legal services. But some judges also warn people in their courts that the attorneys on that list are swamped, and that they’ll likely need to hire outside representation.

The country’s immigration court system also differs from criminal courts because people aren’t entitled to legal representation. Data from recent years shows that people who are able to obtain legal counsel are successful in immigration court almost three times as often as those who represent themselves.

A French citizen named Ching who asked to be identified only by his first name to avoid endangering his immigration case, said he’s built a life for himself in St. Paul since 2017, but discovered that his legal status was under threat after a divorce.

Like many people in court, he balked at the cost of a private lawyer, which can reach about $10,000. He is planning to take his chances representing himself, despite the odds. His hearing is set for the end of October.

Content warning: This updated story contains new, graphic details of how Vance Boelter killed Melissa Hortman.

Vance Boelter pleaded guilty Thursday to murder, stalking and firearms crimes in connection with the killings of former Minnesota DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well an attack on DFL state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and their daughter, Hope, a year ago Sunday.

Boelter’s plea agreement calls for him to serve two consecutive life sentences in prison plus 40 years in exchange for prosecutors pledging not to seek the death penalty.

“Political violence is a scourge plaguing America,” Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen told reporters following the court hearing. Rosen called the attacks “among the worst political violence crimes” the nation has seen.

According to court documents, Boelter disguised himself as a police officer and killed the Hortmans at their Brooklyn Park home early in the morning on June 14, 2025, about 90 minutes after attacking the Hoffmans at their home in Champlin. He also admitted driving to the homes of two other DFL lawmakers.

During Thursday's court hearing, Boelter admitted to a detail not previously known. In prior accounts, prosecutors said Boelter shot Melissa Hortman as she tried to flee up the stairs of her house. In court Thursday, Boelter admitted shooting Melissa Hortman at point-blank range.

“When murdering Melissa did you press the gun to her head and fire?” Boelter defense attorney Manny Atwal asked his client. “Yes,” Boelter responded. A person in the gallery gasped and cried at the admission.

Boelter pleaded guilty to all six counts in the indictment including stalking, two counts of murder and two firearms offenses. That includes the shooting of John and Yvette Hoffman and the attempted shooting of Hope Hoffman.

Atwal went through the facts of the case line by line with Boelter, who admitted planning the attacks for months, using people-finder websites to find the home addresses of the lawmakers, and disguising himself as a police officer to get the victims to open the door.

Rosen said his prosecutors were confident they could have made a death penalty case against Boelter but that a plea deal that ensured Boelter “never sees freedom again” was “an opportunity we could just not pass up.”

Boelter also faces state charges of first-degree premeditated murder, which carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release.

In a statement following the hearing, the Hoffman family said in part, “There is no justice for Mark and Melissa Hortman, and there is not justice when our family and our state will never truly heal.”

The Hoffmans called on Americans to "treat people with respect, to stop de-humanizing each other, and to stop dividing our country with hate and rhetoric.”

Somber hearing

The killings of the Hortmans and the attack on Hoffman and his family shocked the Twin Cities and the nation last June. Thursday’s hearing was a sober reminder of the aftermath of that trauma.

Prior to the hearing, John and Yvette Hoffman were escorted in. Hope Hoffman, who witnessed the attack but was not struck by gunfire, did not attend.

Minutes later, the Hortmans’ adult children, Sophie and Colin, arrived and took their seats.

U.S. marshals brought Boelter into the courtroom through a side door. He was wearing ankle chains and a orange uniform from the Sherburne County Jail, where he’s been held since his capture last June 15 following a 43-hour manhunt.

Boelter sat at the defense table with his attorneys just before Judge John Tunheim called the case.

Boelter last year pleaded not guilty to the attacks. In a rambling, handwritten letter he allegedly wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel, Boelter said he was trained by the U.S. military “off the books” and that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “wanted me to kill [Democratic U.S. Senators] Amy Klobushar [sic]” and Tina Smith, so that Walz could run for Senate.

In messages to The New York Times through his jail’s electronic messaging service, Boelter suggested his actions were partly rooted in the Christian commandment to love one’s neighbor.

Asked about Boelter’s past writings in the wake of the plea deal, Rosen said he couldn’t speak to “what drives the criminal to want to commit this sort of brutal murder and to do it as coldly as it was done. I wonder if any of us who live law-abiding lives will ever really be able to understand that sort of motivation.”

Watch: Minnesota U.S. attorney speaks to reporters following Boelter guilty plea