A citizen’s group fighting a proposed Google data center in the small northeastern Minnesota city of Hermantown has filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging it has violated state law in its pursuit of the data center.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in St. Louis County District Court by Stop the Hermantown Data Center. The group claims the city of Hermantown improperly changed its 2045 comprehensive plan and rezoned the neighborhood where the data center is proposed to be built to allow the controversial project to move forward.

The lawsuit also alleges the city violated Minnesota’s open meeting law by closing three meetings to the public while Hermantown officials secretly worked with the developer to make changes to its development plan.

City officials met with representatives of Google for more than a year before the project was made public last year. Several city and county officials signed non-disclosure agreements forbidding them from discussing the proposal, which was dubbed “Project Loon” in documents.

The group filed the lawsuit “to appeal the city’s actions and lack of transparency,” said Hermantown resident Emma Richtman. “We found it necessary to try and get a seat at the table to have a say in the plans for the development of a hyperscale data center in our community.”

Hermantown officials say they don’t comment on pending litigation.

The Hermantown city council voted last October to approve a zoning change to make way for the proposed data center on about 200 acres in a rural corner of the city, about eight miles west of Duluth.

It’s one of about a dozen large-scale data centers proposed around the state. Only one is under construction: a Meta facility in Rosemount.

Data centers are huge buildings that house rows of computer servers. Those servers contain the raw computing power that undergirds cloud computing and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. The complex in Hermantown would include up to four buildings. Each one would be up to 50 feet tall and would cover an area about the size of five football fields.

The more than $1 billion project would create around 100 permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs. The city is weighing a proposal to grant Google significant tax incentives. In return, the tech giant would contribute tens of millions of dollars toward infrastructure upgrades, as well as payments to the city and school district.

Opponents argue the massive project would fundamentally change the character of a rural neighborhood, depress property values, increase traffic and create noise and light pollution.

Community residents say they were kept in the dark as the city negotiated with Google. Jonathan Thornton, who lives about a mile from the proposed data center, was part of an advisory committee helping develop the city’s 2045 comprehensive plan.

Thornton said those committee meetings abruptly stopped in the summer of 2024. Shortly thereafter, city officials changed the comprehensive plan to allow for a data center at its proposed location.

“This complaint is the direct result of what happens when government officials sign non-disclosure agreements and circumvent the public process,” Thornton said at a rally announcing the lawsuit outside Hermantown city hall.

The Hermantown citizens group is also involved in another lawsuit that alleges the project’s environmental review was inadequate. The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy is representing the group in that lawsuit. The MCEA also has filed lawsuits against proposed data center projects in Faribault, Lakeville, Monticello and Pine Island.

Thick, gray clouds drift over Tina Huynh-Chandee's home in Brooklyn Park on April 23, 89 days and a new season since her husband was arrested by ICE agents this winter.

“I still feel like I'm dreaming,” she said.

At “Ricky” Chandee entered ICE detention during the peak of the surge of federal agents to Minnesota. He’s one of many Hmong and Lao refugees facing deportation due to previous criminal convictions and policy shifts in the U.S. and Lao governments.

Hours after his arrest on Jan. 24, Chandee was flown to Texas and detained at the El Paso Processing Center. From there, he was transferred a few miles down the road to Camp East Montana, a large tent facility on the Fort Bliss military base. In late February, ICE moved him back to the El Paso Processing Center during a measles outbreak in Camp East Montana.

Through all of this, Chandee and Huynh-Chandee have kept in contact when possible. Huynh-Chandee said her husband calls about four times a day, sometimes briefly. They both try to stay busy to cope with the anxiety of the situation. For her, nights are more difficult.

“I don’t sleep much,” she said. “I go to bed at like 3 in the morning, and then I wake up around 7:30.” That’s when Chandee usually makes his first call of the day, to let her know he was not deported overnight.

Huynh-Chandee also keeps in touch with six other families in Minnesota who have had loved ones in detention. She is in a group chat with other wives of detainees. Together they field rumors about when flights are leaving El Paso for Laos, but they never know for sure until it happens.

“My husband will call me, saying, ‘Okay, call so-and-so's wife, let her know that her husband just got deported,’ or, ‘Some handful of people just left, because they just got put on a plane to Laos,’” she said.

After two of the husbands were deported, the group chat grew quieter. “But we still try to check in, like once a week or once every two weeks, to see how everybody's doing and how their husbands are adjusting,” Huynh-Chandee said.

Between Dec. 1 and mid-March, about 90 people who were born in Laos and arrested in Minnesota were detained by ICE, according to detention statistics the Deportation Data Project obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. As MPR News has reported, the data is likely incomplete. Of those 90 individuals in the data:

• All but one were men.

• Seventy-one people had orders for final removal, or deportation.

• Fifty-nine had criminal convictions that were more than 20 years old.

• At least 11 were released from detention before March 10, the last date for which data is available.

The data also shows 10 people were deported to Laos in October and November 2025, though Huynh-Chandee heard of two deportation flights to Laos taking off in March. Prior to 2025, deportations to the country were relatively rare, but they have increased as the Trump Administration has sought to remove more immigrants and the Laotian government has agreed to accept more returnees.

Challenges in deportation

Those who return to Laos do so with precarious legal status, according to Chanida Phaengdara Potter, managing director of ROOTS Laos, a group helping people rebuild their lives after deportation. She said, until they get permanent status, they cannot own property, vehicles or land. Those with health problems may struggle to access medical care, and those without language skills may struggle to find jobs.

“The other thing that we're seeing is severe mental health crisis with the returning community, because they arrive under such dire and traumatizing experiences,” she said. “It's really hard for a lot of them who go into isolation or deep depression.”

The organization is working with volunteers and networks in Laos to support deportees, whom it refers to as returnees, with sponsorships, language classes and social activities.

“It really, truly takes a village to make that possible, and it's been beautiful to see,” she said. “It's very similar, in many ways, to the mutual aid communities that we've seen across Minnesota.”

Chandee’s lawyer, Linus Chan, said it's not clear why Chandee has not yet been deported.

“Very likely there was a situation where the Lao government wasn't issuing him travel documents,” he said. “But things can change extremely fast and the Lao government can issue travel documents or give permission to issue travel documents very quickly.”

Chan said the process by which Laos grants documents that will allow people facing deportation back into the country is opaque and plays out between the Laos and U.S. governments. “We just don't know, and it's very frustrating not to know,” he said.

Chan has asked a federal district court in Texas to order Chandee’s release. The judge rejected an emergency motion seeking to block Chandee’s deportation but has not made a ruling on his detention. The case has been unchanged since February.

The 90-day review

As of April 24, Chandee has been detained for three months, or 90 days, an interval that in some immigration cases is an opportunity to review a detention. If an individual with a final deportation order is still in detention after 90 days, and it seems unlikely the government will deport them soon, Chan says they could be released on supervision.

“Ninety days is really about a question of whether or not a person is has a significant likelihood of removal in the foreseeable future,” Chan said. “The challenge with that is that the government will argue they might have a chance to do so, depending on what happens with the next flight.”

The federal government has also sent some immigrants to countries other than those they are from. This practice also makes it more difficult to make a case for release after 90-day reviews, which Chan said, anecdotally, are happening less frequently than in the past.

MPR News asked ICE for comment on 90-day reviews but has not received a response.

Huynh-Chandee said the 90-day review was a source of hope for her husband and others around him — until ICE said they would not receive one.

“They said they're not going to give anybody their review, because they're supposedly having everybody get deported within next month or so,” she said. “But they have said that before and then people didn't end up getting deported, so we don't know.”

Huynh-Chandee said the news caused morale to drop inside the detention center.

“Everybody right now is panicking,” she said. “Some people want to get deported because they signed the form, to say, ‘Just take me back.’ And there are some people who are still out here fighting, like my husband.”

On Friday, Chandee has a hearing before the state Clemency Review Commission, which could recommend he receive a pardon in the criminal conviction that led to his deportation order. That process, which they started before he was detained, will likely take several months.

As their legal options play out, Chandee and his wife are not making plans for living a world apart. They stay focused on keeping Chandee in the U.S.

Aleesa Kuznetsov contributed reporting to this story.

Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis are asking a judge to prohibit convicted fraudster Aimee Bock from speaking with her two adult sons from jail after she allegedly directed the men to send sensitive evidence from her case to elected officials and the news media ahead of her May 21 sentencing.

In March 2025, a jury found Bock and restaurateur Salim Said guilty of charges including wire fraud and bribery for their roles in a scheme to steal around $250 million from taxpayer-funded child nutrition programs during the COVID-19 pandemic by submitting false reimbursement claims for meals.

Because of the scale of the theft, Bock could face life in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. Bock is among 79 defendants charged in the wider case since September 2022, which prosecutors say was the nation’s largest pandemic-era fraud scheme.

The investigation has since led to fraud charges in connection with several Medicaid programs in Minnesota. Bock is white, but most of her co-defendants in the Feeding Our Future case are Somali-American. National attention to the case in late 2025 prompted racist comments from President Donald Trump along with increased immigration enforcement targeting the community, though the vast majority are naturalized U.S. citizens.

The government has secured 65 convictions, largely through guilty pleas. Of the 13 people sentenced, Abdiaziz Farah, another key player, received 28 years, the longest prison term handed down so far. Farah could face additional time when he’s sentenced separately for his role in an attempt to bribe a juror during his 2024 trial.

In a document filed on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Murphy and Rebecca Kline allege that Bock, 45, the founder of the defunct nonprofit Feeding Our Future, violated a 2022 protective order from U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel that requires all parties to the case to hold most evidence in the case “in strict confidentiality.”

Murphy and Kline say that on April 2, an unnamed Minnesota state representative received two emails from a Proton Mail address. The sender, “Daisy Hill” claimed that “Tim Walz, Keith Ellison and the Minnesota Department of Education intentionally set Feeding Our Future and Aimee Bock up as a scapegoat.”

A March 17 email to MPR News from a sender with the same name includes identical language. In a subsequent message, the sender promised to send “examples of fraud in MN that were identified and stopped by Aimee Bock and Feeding Our Future.”

The emailer later sent files including screenshots of text messages, other communications, and audio recordings that Bock apparently made of conversations with operators of meal sites. MPR News did not verify the authenticity of the documents shared in the anonymous emails until the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office leveled the fresh allegations against Bock in the Tuesday court filing.

MPR News replied to the “Daisy Hill” address on Tuesday to request comment about the government’s new allegations.

Kenneth Udoibok, Bock’s defense attorney, said in an email reply to MPR News that his client’s sons “in an inartful way” are “hoping that the media and the legislative branch see their mom’s plight. Aimee is not trying to harm or intimidate anyone; rather, she wants the whole truth out before the legislature and the president. She’s crying for help!!!”

In their motion, the prosecutors also recount that on April 21, they learned that a Minnesota Star Tribune reporter contacted an attorney for a cooperating witness in the case and said that “they had obtained copies of reports of two of the witnesses’ law enforcement interviews” and intended to quote from them in an article about “the conduct of certain uncharged individuals.”

Murphy and Kline write that they learned through another attorney that the reporter “had claimed to have over one hundred law enforcement interview reports” and that given their nature “they could only have come from the government’s discovery disclosures,” in violation of the protective order.

Bock has been held in the Sherburne County Jail for more than a year as she awaits sentencing. Citing recorded jail calls, prosecutors say Bock directed her son, Camden Bock, 20, to download documents from her case from a Dropbox account and send them to elected officials and news reporters.

“Her purpose for doing so can best be described as a public relations campaign — to seek to minimize her starring role in pilfering the Federal Child Nutrition Program while casting the ‘real’ blame for the rampant fraud on the Walz administration, state administrators and uncharged individuals,” Murphy and Kline write in their filing.

On March 16, the day before MPR News received the first email from “Daisy Hill,” Bock allegedly directed her son to download documents that she believed would show that she tried to combat fraud in the nonprofit she once led.

“She told Camden to remove the trial exhibit stickers, and other markings indicating the documents came from her federal criminal case, before emailing them from a newly created Proton Mail account to ‘all republicans [sic] and the media,’” the prosecutors write.

In late March, “Bock told Camden to send the files to ‘Republicans in DC,’ especially the ‘guy who told [Minnesota Attorney General Keith] Ellison he should be in jail’ and the ‘right wing people that [President] Trump follows.’”

On April 1, Bock allegedly told her son Cale Bock, 19, that a Star Tribune reporter had been planning a “whole story on [an uncharged individual] and why she never got indicted,” and explained that Camden used an email account with a “fake name.”

In a later conversation, when Camden voiced concerns that speaking to the media might result in a longer sentence, Bock allegedly replied “they want to sentence me to life anyway.”

In an April 19 call with an unidentified person, according to prosecutors, Bock said that “someone had given the Star Tribune reporter “every interview the FBI did with people.”

Murphy and Kline write that they can’t say “with absolute certainty whether Bock is the person directly responsible” for leaking cooperating witness statements to the newspaper, “it is clear that she was leaking other protected documents” to the media and is endangering “the safety of those witnesses who have chosen to come forward and speak to law enforcement.”

The prosecutors are asking Judge Brasel to prohibit Bock from accessing her Dropbox account and surrender all copies of any protected files in her control, including Camden Bock’s computer. The government is also seeking to prohibit Bock from “any form of contact” with her sons prior to her sentencing hearing.

Brasel ordered Bock’s attorney to respond to the government’s request by 5 p.m. Wednesday. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Starting next fall, Ely Public School students will have a long weekend every weekend.

The school board approved a switch to four-day weeks this month amid budget shortfalls.

Anne Oelke, superintendent and principal, told MPR News it’s the third year of reductions for the district.

“The first year, we tried to keep those reductions as far away from students as possible. Second year, we had to dip in a little bit closer to students. And now we're in the third year, and the four-day week has been on the list because we need to cut $600,000,” Oelke said.

Savings come from reduced busing costs; the district runs its own buses, so money comes from reduced wear and tear and wages. Support staff and cafeteria wages are also going down, she said.

“We came to about $200,000 of annual operating cost savings,” Oelke summarized.

As other nearby districts have made the switch, Oelke said, anecdotally, student and staff attendance have both risen. She’s planning on pre- and post-school year surveys to gather student and staff feedback.

Retracing his time at Minnesota’s helm for “pivotal moments in our state’s history,” Gov. Tim Walz proudly touted initiatives that will outlast him but didn’t gloss over the difficulties that also shaped the state and will endure when he leaves office.

“It has been a complicated seven years to say the least,” Walz said in his final State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature.

His speech Tuesday night was part reflective and part call to action for lawmakers – his immediate audience in the House chamber — as the session heads toward a required finish a few weeks from now.

“I’m hopeful that this chapter will be as productive as the previous seven,” he told assembled lawmakers in a chamber that was not quite full. “In fact, I’m insistent that it will.”

Reaction inside the chamber underscored the intense partisan divide at the Capitol. Democrats sprang to their feet and cheered loudly as Walz listed off a battery of progressive law changes he helped usher in; Republicans remained in their seats, groaned or, at times, made quiet retorts to Walz remarks.

Walz made light of differing reception, inviting Republicans to clap as he talked about the wind down of his final term. Then he mischievously added a parting shot when he said, “the things we implemented will be here for decades.” That line elicited huge cheers from Democrats in the chamber and cold glances from GOP lawmakers.

Walz also touched on the persistent fraud problem that contributed to his decision to step away from a reelection race. A series of raids earlier Tuesday by federal agents looking into irregularities in government-sponsored childcare programs pushed that issue back to the political front-burner.

“I know some of you will take that as an open invitation to play politics with every incident of fraud that takes place here in Minnesota, even though far more is happening in red states across the country,” Walz said. “So be it. But taking responsibility doesn’t just mean taking the blame. It means taking it upon yourself to fix the problem.”

Republicans were quick to lay blame at Walz’s feet anyway.

House GOP Leader Harry Niska said Walz downplayed fraud by waiting too long to mention “the biggest national story about Minnesota, the shocking multi-billion dollar fraud that struck our state.”

He added, “It would have been good to hear some accountability on the record of fraud.”

The 40-minute Walz speech included tributes to Minnesotans who died in tragedy over the prior year.

He mentioned former House Speaker Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated along with her husband, Mark; Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski, both children killed in a mass shooting inside their Catholic school; and Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were fatally shot by immigration agents during this winter’s enforcement surge.

Walz called all of them “tragic, transformative losses. And yet, the state of our state remains strong.”

That strength, Walz said, “comes not from our politics, but from our people.”

As he and lawmakers lurch toward their final negotiations, Walz described what he sees as priorities: an expansion of a dependent care tax credit, a major infrastructure finance bill, preparations for the spread of artificial intelligence that could displace workers and additional restrictions on guns and ammunition.

Several of those will face difficulty in the narrowly divided Legislature, where Republicans have joint control of the House.

One area of possible consensus is fraud controls. Walz and key lawmakers are rallying behind new oversight, criminal penalties and payment suspension measures. The Legislature could create an independent Office of the Inspector General that would operate outside of the governor’s chain of command.

He invited action on all of it.

“If you take fraud seriously, take your responsibility to help me stop it seriously,” Walz said. “If you talk about oversight, vote for oversight. Act on these measures immediately.”

As Walz gets closer to departing after eight years, he said he wants fellow state leaders to keep work at the Capitol “a place worthy of the incredible people who live here” in Minnesota.

He has started to discuss his post-governor plans: writing a book, starting a political operation and maybe going back to his teaching roots.

As for the next State of the State address, Walz noted, “next year, someone else will be giving this speech.”

For that, Republicans applauded.

Richfield police say one person is dead and a police officer injured after an exchange of gunfire early Wednesday.

It happened just before 3:30 a.m. in a neighborhood near West 76th Street and Penn Avenue.

According to an initial account from Richfield police:

A resident on the 7500 block of Morgan Avenue called police to report someone trying to break into or rifle through vehicles. Responding officers located a possible suspect in the area.

“The suspect fled from officers and a foot pursuit ensued,” Richfield police reported in a news release early Wednesday. “The suspect subsequently brandished a firearm and gunfire was exchanged. The suspect and an officer were both shot.”

The person being pursued by police died at the scene. The officer suffered a gunshot wound to a hand, and was taken to a hospital.

The names of those involved have not been released.

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The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is handling the investigation. The agency confirmed that agents were responding to the scene Wednesday morning.

Law enforcement officials remained at the scene, not far from Richfield Middle School and the Best Buy corporate headquarters, several hours after the shooting. Crime scene tape blocked off parking areas near several small apartment buildings as of 7:20 a.m.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty issued a statement saying her office was in contact with the BCA “and will evaluate the case when their investigation is complete.”

“We’re grateful the injured officer is being treated and is expected to be released. We also want to send our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased individual. This is a tragic and traumatic situation for all involved,” Moriarty said.

Richfield Mayor Mary Supple issued a statement saying that “we understand that the Richfield police officer who was shot is being treated for injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening. We extend wishes for his healing and recovery. My condolences to the family of the deceased individual. These tragedies impact our entire community; please be kind to your neighbors and make sure those around you are doing OK.”

A tech industry group filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging a Minnesota law that requires social media companies to start showing users health warning labels on their sites.

• “Warning: The app may repeatedly show similar or upsetting content, which may negatively affect your mental health. Use tools (mute, unfollow, “not interested”) to change what you see. Support is available: Call/text 988 or visit 988Lifeline.org”

• “Warning: Infinite scrolling and videos that play automatically may make it difficult to stop. Extended use may affect sleep, school, work, and mood. Call/text 988 or visit 988Lifeline.org”

• “Comparing yourself to “perfect” posts? Call/Text 988 or visit 988Lifeline.org. Warning: Many images are edited and may affect self-esteem and mood.”

These are just a few examples of the type of pop-up warnings designed by the Minnesota Department of Health that users of social media in Minnesota will see starting July 1 if the law passed in the 2025 legislative session goes into effect.

NetChoice — an industry group representing social media and tech companies like Amazon, Google and Meta — is suing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Brooke Cunningham in federal court. NetChoice argues in the complaint filed Wednesday that part of the law violates the First Amendment by requiring social media platforms to express “the government’s preferred message.”

The health warnings are “designed to block, burden, and browbeat” social media users, the complaint reads.

The Minnesota-based national suicide prevention nonprofit SAVE, Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, supports Minnesota’s warning label law and condemned the lawsuit Wednesday.

“NetChoice can try to frame this lawsuit as a fight about free speech, but at its core it is really about Big Tech using millions of dollars, lawyers, and lobbyists to defeat measures intended to protect children and families online,” said Erich Mische, CEO of SAVE, in a statement.

A spokesperson told MPR News on Wednesday the attorney general’s office is reviewing the lawsuit.

Advocates of health warnings for social media say the platforms carry health risks — especially for children — that justify health warnings, just like physical products like tobacco and alcohol. In 2024, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to require warning labels.

“The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” Murthy wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times. He cited research that has connected increased social media usage with increased mental health problems in young people.

Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, led the effort in 2025 to get Minnesota’s law passed.

“If you had expected big tobacco to make cigarettes less addictive in the ‘50s and ‘60s, you would have been sorely mistaken. They would never have done that. Addiction was their business model. And the same thing is true for big tech,” Stephenson said last year.

Stephenson told MPR News on Wednesday that he's "entirely unsurprised" that the tech industry is challenging the law.

"There's a very clear public health interest here, and I don't think that there's any First Amendment or other reason why the law is unconstitutional. I just think that big tech is going to fight every single thing that anyone ever does to try to hold them accountable for their actions," Stephenson said.

Minnesota isn’t alone in requiring health labels for social media. California, New York and Colorado have passed social media warning legislation, though a federal court paused Colorado’s law after NetChoice filed a similar lawsuit.

NetChoice also filed a lawsuit against Ellison last year over another Minnesota law that requires social media companies to explain their algorithms to users. A judge has yet to rule in that case.

MPR News correspondent Dana Ferguson contributed to this reporting.

A new analysis of health inequities shows that racial and ethnic disparities are widespread and persist in all 50 states, including Minnesota.

The 2026 State Health Disparities Report released Wednesday by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit private foundation that supports independent research on health policy and health systems, analyzed 24 indicators to measure healthcare access, quality of care and health outcomes for five racial and ethnic groups from 2022 to 2024.

Authors of the report note that recent federal policy changes, such as cuts to Medicaid funding and the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies, are not reflected in the data; but these changes are likely to have worsened existing disparities and are expected to widen them even further.

Minnesota is one of the top states for overall healthcare system performance, surpassing 38 other states, according to the report. White people in the state experience the best healthcare outcomes, scoring in the 91st percentile among all population groups nationwide. In contrast, American Indian and Alaska Native people face the poorest healthcare outcomes in the state, scoring only in the 13th percentile. Additionally, when compared to other states, Minnesota's healthcare system performs below average for Black residents.

“As a primary care physician, I’ve seen how racial and ethnic disparities not only harm the people experiencing them but also weaken the entire system. Our report shows even high-performing states are not immune,” Dr. Joseph Betancourt, president of the Commonwealth Fund, said in a statement.

In Minnesota, 24 percent of Hispanic adults are uninsured compared to 13 percent of uninsured Black adults and 7 percent of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults.

Data from every state indicate that premature deaths and avoidable deaths — defined as those occurring before the age of 75 from preventable causes or treatable conditions like diabetes and certain cancers — are more prevalent among Black individuals than among other racial and ethnic groups. However, the highest rates of premature deaths are found among the American Indian and Alaska Native population in Minnesota.

The authors of the report noted that racial disparities in the U.S. healthcare system are among the most persistent and well-documented issues. They referenced landmark studies showing that these disparities continue to exist, even when accounting for factors such as insurance coverage, income level and access to care.

The root causes of these disparities are complex and multifaceted, they said, including the enduring effects of structural racism, the impact of social determinants of health, variations in health coverage and unequal treatment within the healthcare system.

In order to address these issues, researchers suggest implementing policies that ensure affordable, comprehensive and equitable health insurance coverage for all, strengthening primary care services and protecting access to preventative care.

Laurie Zephyrin, senior vice president of achieving equitable outcomes at the Commonwealth Fund, said in a statement that examining state-level healthcare reveals significant disparities in the quality of care received by different populations.

“Those differences are not random,” Zephyrin said. “They track along racial and ethnic lines in every state, and the federal policy changes now underway will make it harder to improve health for everyone. But this report also shows that state policy choices matter: when states invest in coverage and care, people benefit.”

Jordanne Le Fae reserved a spot near her bicep for a tattoo of what has become a new Minnesota symbol: the Rebel Loon.

The round graphic of the state bird with wings outstretched above has become synonymous with Minnesotan's resilience during the immigration enforcement surge. It didn’t take long for the arts world to adapt it into anything imaginable, including tattoos.

As a tattoo artist herself and the owner of St. Paul's Weird Ink Society tattoo shop, Le Fae had an artist in mind.

“Our artist, Erin, she actually has merch on our website from long ago that says ‘loons are goth ducks,’” Le Fae said. “She's always liked loons, so when I said I wanted to get one, she was like, ‘You better let me do your loon.’ I was like, ‘Who else would I have do it?’”

For months, Weird Ink had at least one Rebel Loon tattoo scheduled every day, with weekends sometimes having a half-dozen bookings. It has slowed down since, but orders have continued months after they first went viral.

Le Fae's shop adapted the design in just about every way. They made the original, a knitted-pattern, a watercolor, a Pokémon and a pride loon, just to name a few.

The loon has also taken the form of murals. Artist and bartender Natalie Reynolds-Wolff designed a sprawling Rebel Loon for Insight Brewing.

“I think this is just a symbol of unity, a symbol that you're welcome here, that you're safe here, and that we will protect our neighbors,” said Insight marketing manager Joey Steinbach.

Founded on uniting people

The Rebel Loon has come a long way since January when Bernardo Anderson of Moorhead shared the design inspired by the Star Wars “Rebel Alliance” logo.

After seeing Minnesotans come together for their community, Anderson said it only seemed right to adapt the symbol to feature the state bird as a new logo of resistance.

“I wanted a symbol for uniting people and not dividing people,” Anderson said. “I wanted the symbol to be for something, not against something.”

When Anderson, a web developer, conceived the idea, he figured someone had already made a version. To his surprise, he found nothing after as comprehensive a search as possible.

He deliberately used only three colors —black, blue and red — to make the logo easily replicable.

Originally, he wanted to be anonymous. That did not last long as people quickly connected him to the design, which he made publicly available.

"It's everyone's logo, because it symbolizes an idea, and I can't copyright an idea," Anderson said.

Now, the logo is on everything from onesies to beer mugs, stickers to neon signs. And, to Anderson’s initial surprise, people.

“It got really serious when I first saw somebody saying they're going to get a tattoo of it,” Anderson said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, that is serious.’”

The story of Minnesotans’ resistance through tattoo

Mitchell Plisek was one of the first artists to replicate the design. His first Rebel Loon was posted by his client on Twin Cities Geek, a Facebook page that is now saturated with different tattoos marking Minnesotans' resistance through art.

Angela Caldwell, 54, had just one tattoo prior to sitting down with Plisek. She sees getting the tattoo as a way to support her community she has called home for 10 years.

The two-day endeavor resulted in a Rebel Loon surrounded by the Northern Lights spanning a portion of her forearm.

“It's kind of cool that this hits so many marks for you, for your time in Minnesota,” Plisek told her. “It’s kind of like your own Minnesota badge of honor.”

Le Fae of Weird Ink has long lost count of how many loon tattoos her shop has done. Some of her favorite clients had no tattoos, are over 50 and are “so passionate” that they walk in needing the design, she said.

“We've seen people from all walks of life. People that you know are obviously very upset with what's happening in our world right now,” Le Fae said. “This feels like a tangible way to put a mark on their body saying, ‘No, I officially am putting this so seriously that I'm against what's happening right now, that I'm willing to mark my body and become part of a movement.’”

Le Fae and other artists are discussing ways to archive the resistance art trend.

Alongside the Rebel Loon Archive, an organization cataloging the many artworks and materials created since the onset of the enforcement surge, started archiving Minnesota resistance tattoos for what will turn into a book coming out next year.

The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that it executed search warrants in the Twin Cities as part of an ongoing criminal investigation related to fraud.

The state Department of Children, Youth, and Families confirmed the operation — and said state and county officials were involved.

“Today’s law enforcement actions are a result of state, county and federal agencies working together to root out fraud and hold bad actors accountable,” the state agency said in a statement Tuesday morning, without providing further details on the fraud allegations.

“We are pleased to see the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and our federal partners taking strong action based on information we have shared with them,” the statement continued. “We will continue sharing information with law enforcement to ensure they are able to conduct thorough criminal investigations.”

Search warrants can yield information in an investigation but don't always lead to criminal charges. Authorities had not charged or arrested anyone as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.

State and federal agencies have long worked together on criminal investigations — but the apparent cooperation in Tuesday’s operation was notable, given the tensions and conflict between state and federal officials during the federal immigration enforcement surge earlier this year.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — who is set to give his final State of the State address on Tuesday night — issued a statement saying that “if you commit fraud in Minnesota you’re going to get caught — and that’s exactly what we saw today.”

“We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it,” Walz said.

In a statement posted to social media on Tuesday morning, DHS said the criminal investigation related to “the rampant fraud of U.S. taxpayers dollars.”

“The American people deserve answers in how their taxpayer money was abused,” DHS said in a social media post.

The agency said it carried out the warrants “in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area” in cooperation with local and state law enforcement agencies. It did not release further details about the location and nature of the search warrants, citing the safety of law enforcement officers.

MPR News journalists observed federal and state law enforcement officials outside two childcare centers in south Minneapolis — including one where officials eventually hauled boxes of materials out of the building.

Sources told KARE 11 that authorities carried out more than 20 search warrants on Tuesday, focused on childcare and daycare providers. Several centers that work with people with autism also were part of the operation.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office said its Medicare Fraud Control Unit participated in serving warrants Tuesday at five sites that serve people younger than 21 who have autism spectrum disorder. Those five sites are located in Mendota Heights, Savage, Fridley and Minneapolis.

Ellison’s office said it was not involved in search warrants at childcare facilities, because those sites do not involve Medicaid.

The city of Minneapolis issued a statement saying it was not involved in the operation — and that as of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Minneapolis police hadn’t been asked to assist in the execution of the warrants.

“We understand that any federal actions in our neighborhoods may spark fear among residents, and we will continue to marshal city resources to help the community in the aftermath of Operation Metro Surge,” the city statement read.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday that it has a task force officer assigned to the FBI’s Evidence Response Team, which was part of the operation. The sheriff’s office also said it had “two marked squad cars on two scenes to secure the perimeter as part of this criminal investigation. Perimeters help ensure the safety of both the community and the law enforcement officers who are executing the criminal warrants.”

“Our office works with local, state, and federal agencies on criminal investigations,” the sheriff’s office said.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension confirmed that it was partnering with federal investigators to execute search warrants Tuesday, but declined further comment.

In a statement Tuesday morning, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota applauded the law enforcement operation.

“President Trump and his administration have made it crystal clear — our country will not tolerate waste, fraud, and abuse, and we are not going to allow people to take advantage of Americans’ generosity,” Emmer wrote.

Tuesday’s law enforcement activity took place less than four months after the White House escalated what it called Operation Metro Surge, sending thousands of federal agents into the Twin Cities in January to conduct immigration enforcement.

Two Minneapolis residents were fatally shot by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge — and state officials sharply criticized a lack of cooperation from federal agencies in the investigations into those shootings.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing questioning Wednesday from lawmakers for the first time since President Donald Trump’s administration launched the war against Iran, which Democrats have contested as a costly conflict of choice waged without congressional approval.

The chief financial official for the Pentagon told lawmakers that the estimated cost of the war with Iran is $25 billion so far. During the hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, Jules Hurst III, the acting undersecretary of war for finances, said that most of the expense has been on munitions, but the military has also spent money on running the operations and equipment replacement.

Until now, Hegseth has avoided public questioning from lawmakers about the war, although he and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine have held televised Pentagon briefings. Hegseth has mostly taken questions from conservative journalists, while citing Bible passages to castigate mainstream outlets.

Democrats quickly pivoted to the ballooning costs of the Iran war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions and the bombing of an elementary school that killed children. Some lawmakers have also questioned how prepared the military was to shoot down swarms of Iranian drones, some of which penetrated U.S. defenses and killed or injured American troops.

Republicans have said they will keep faith in Trump’s wartime leadership, for now, citing Iran’s nuclear program, the potential for talks to resume and the high stakes of withdrawal. Still, GOP lawmakers are eager for the conflict to end, and some are eyeing future votes that could become an important test for the president if the war drags on.

Mats Zuccarello and the Minnesota Wild are now in the position that they try to be in every season in the NHL playoffs.

Things feel a bit different now, with the Wild going home for Game 6 on Thursday night with a chance to eliminate the Dallas Stars and advance to the second round for the first time since 2015.

“I think it’s important just to stay calm. You know, don’t overthink it,” said Zuccarello, the 16-year NHL veteran in his seventh season with the Wild. “Don’t read whatever you guys (media) say about we haven’t gotten out of the first round in a couple of years. Just calm and collected.”

Zuccarello scored the first goal less than four minutes into Game 5 on Tuesday night in Dallas, which was the 38-year-old top-line forward’s return from a three-game absence with an upper-body injury. The Wild, in their 12th playoff appearance over 14 seasons, went on to a 4-2 win for a 3-2 series lead.

The only other time Minnesota has ever had a 3-2 series lead was that first round in 2015, when they beat St. Louis in six games. The Wild have since lost nine consecutive playoff series, including to Dallas in 2016 and 2023.

“We’ve got to just look to control our emotions in Game 6 and in front of our home crowd, a place where we had a good feeling leaving last time,” said forward Marcus Foligno said, who is in his ninth season. “I think it's a little bit different. I think we have a lot of leadership and guys that are experienced. ... It’s a close group but a really hard working group and a confident one right now.”

Wild captain Jared Spurgeon and fellow defenseman Jonas Brodin are the only two current players who have taken part in a postseason series victory in Minnesota. Spurgeon was then a 25-year-old in his fifth of his 16 NHL seasons — all with the same team. Brodin's status is uncertain for the potential clincher at home after leaving Game 5 with a lower-body injury.

If Minnesota can't wrap up the powerhouse first-round series at home, where it won Game 4 in overtime, a deciding Game 7 would be Saturday in Dallas.

The series winner will advance to play well-rested top-seeded Central Division foe Colorado, which finished off a sweep of its first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings last Sunday.

Kirill Kaprizov had two assists on Tuesday night, two days after his 29th birthday, before an empty-net goal with two minutes left. His second goal in this series was the 17th playoff goal of his career, breaking a tie with Zach Parise for the most in franchise history. His ninth career multipoint playoff game also surpassed Parise.

Matt Boldy, the 25-year-old budding standout, had the tiebreaking power-play goal in the final minute of the second period after having one taken away because of a goalie interference challenge at the end of the first.

Jesper Wallstedt, their 23-year-old rookie who has started every game in net over Filip Gustavsson in this series, had 20 saves in Game 5. He has allowed only three goals against the Stars in five-on-five situations, with neither coming that way.

“We’re very confident of where we’re at. ... Now we get to bring the series home,” Wallstedt said. “I’ve never played in a game of that type of magnitude. I’m very excited. I’m looking forward to it so much.”

Inver Grove Heights is the latest city in Minnesota to switch back to flying the old state flag.

The City Council voted 3-2 to make the change during a Monday night meeting, after a lengthy public hearing and debate.

Council member Sue Gliva said the old flag, based on an 1892 design and updated in 1983, is a nod to the state’s past.

“I think it's very important, even symbolically, to represent the flag that I feel represents our history,” Gliva said.

That history sparked debate over the flag. The old flag was retired in 2024 after a state process selected a new one, based on input and design suggestions from the public. The old flag bore the state’s former seal: an image of a farmer, and a Native man on horseback riding into the distance. Historians said that represented the incoming white settlers and the ousting of Native peoples. Critics and civil rights advocates have long called for a change to that imagery on the state’s emblems.

That led state legislators to vote for a redesign. But some residents at the city council meeting said they didn’t feel represented in the design process, which unfolded under a Democratic trifecta at the state level.

Inver Grove Heights resident Patti Mikulski said she doesn’t feel the new flag adequately represents Minnesota.

“Every time somebody like me sees it who did not appreciate the manner in which it came about, I'm reminded that my voice was silenced during the process,” Mikulski said.

Some residents argued that there were plenty of chances for the public to weigh in on the lengthy process. A flag selection panel considered thousands of submissions and public comments before settling on a final flag based on the designs submitted.

Resident Eric Holberg told the council that the flag debate is a partisan issue, and urged the council not to fly the old flag.

“You'll be broadcasting to everyone who drives by that Inver Grove Heights is a wonderful place to live, as long as your politics swing one way,” Holberg said. “It will be a pox on you all. It will be a pox on the mayor. It will be a pox on the city.”

Some city council members questioned whether revisiting the flag was a good use of city time and resources. Council member Tony Scales said the issue should be left to the state.

“This issue falls outside the scope of our responsibilities, no matter how we each might feel about the flag and as a member of the City Council. Our mandate is to serve the needs of our community,” Scales said.

He voted against switching back to the old flag, along with council member Mary T’Kach. Mayor Brenda Dietrich, and council members John Murphy and Gliva, supported the switch.

Mayor Dietrich said it will cost the city between $500 and $600 to replace the flags.

Inver Grove Heights joins several cities in reverting to the old flag, including Elk River, Champlin, Zumbrota, North Branch, Detroit Lakes, Pine Island, Wadena, Crosslake and Babbit.

Several Minnesota House Democrats have introduced a bill that would withhold some state funding to counties and cities that adopt a flag other than the official state flag. It’s been referred to the House committee on taxes and has not yet seen a vote.

Megan Horsager is not looking forward to buying more fuel for her farm.

She’s got a large, white, cylindrical fuel tank that sits in the middle of her family’s row-crop farm in Montevideo. While she buys her fertilizer and other planting needs in the fall, ahead of planting season, she opts to buy fuel whenever her tank needs a top-up.

That next refill will happen in June, Horsager said.

"I'm just kicking myself that I didn't price more ahead of time,” Horsager said. “Usually, June hasn't been a bad time to buy fuel, but you don't plan on the global events."

The prices of key agricultural necessities such as diesel and nitrogen fertilizer have soared since the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade passageway, has largely been choked off amid the war in Iran.

While Horsager didn’t book enough diesel in advance, she is set with fertilizer. However, not everyone is. In fact, a recent American Farm Bureau Federation survey found that about 70 percent of respondents nationwide report they are unable to afford all the fertilizer they need.

And Horsager still worries about what fertilizer costs might be in the fall. Those worries may not be without cause.

What it’ll take for prices to come back

The Agricultural Risk Policy Center at North Dakota State University ran fertilizer price projections under different scenarios, including the Strait of Hormuz opening soon or remaining closed throughout the year.

“We have seen that even in the most optimistic scenario, we're going to see elevated prices on the nitrogen as well as phosphate side that continues on through the fall and moving into 2027,” Agricultural Risk Policy Center Associate Director Shawn Arita said.

Arita added that those prices will be higher than the ones farmers worked with this year and last year. Part of that is because it’ll take time to repair Middle Eastern fertilizer production infrastructure that’s been damaged in the war.

The center’s report shows that the price of urea, a nitrogen fertilizer, will remain 13 percent higher than its pre‐crisis price, even if the strait were to open soon.

It could also take some time before barge companies feel safe to pass through the Strait, Arita said. There are leftover underwater mines through the waterway that the U.S. is working to clear, according to President Donald Trump. The Associated Press reports that Pentagon officials told lawmakers it would likely take six months to clear the mines.

Vessels and insurance companies would likely also want some stability between the U.S. and Iran, Arita said.

“Many of these ships, as well as the insurance companies, are very, very risk-averse,” Arita said. “It's going to take time for them to see how the situation is, to feel comfortable and to have assurances that they'll be willing to re-enter the strait to pick up cargo.”

There is also a growing backlog of vessels that are stuck in the strait. There are about 2,000 vessels stranded in the Persian Gulf, according to the International Maritime Organization. Though some experts say that estimate is high, there is nevertheless a backlog.

“You're not going to see a return to normal for several months, even if the Strait of Hormuz was opened relatively quickly, because you've got to get all those ships out of there,” Michigan State University ag economist Bill Knudson said.

Once the strait opens and oil tankers pass through, there could be some immediate relief for oil prices, Knudson said. However, he adds that relief is contingent on the extent of energy infrastructure destroyed during the war.

“That'll tell us how quickly prices will return to where they were before the war started,” Knudson said. “If, say, a refinery has been destroyed, it's going to take months for it to get back online and start processing oil again.”

The longer the war goes on, the greater the risk of further damage to energy infrastructure, he added, which could further set back oil prices.

On top of that, if nitrogen fertilizer remains expensive next year, Knudson figures some farmers would likely switch from growing corn, which needs a lot of nitrogen fertilizer, to soybeans, which draw most of their fertilizer from the atmosphere. Regardless, if the war extends into the summer, farmers could continue to see higher operational costs eating into their profits next year.

“The crunch on profitability would continue if there's no solution in the next seven or eight months,” Knudson said.

‘It's not panic mode, but it's getting closer’

Megan Horsager, the farmer in Montevideo, grew up on her family’s land but wasn’t a huge fan of farm work as a kid. She went into the corporate world and took a job that, as it turned out, she didn’t like much, either. Horsager missed farm life, so she earned an agribusiness degree, got married in the process and returned to the farm five years ago.

“Every day I feel like I don't know what I'm doing,” Horsager said. “Dad said it would be five years before I felt like I had a handle on anything. It's been about five years, and I have a handle on maybe half of the different aspects of the farm.”

She’s a member of her local sugarbeet co-op, with which she signed a five-year contract. That means growing sugarbeets at a time when the crop’s prices have been rocky.

“I'm required to plant a crop that I'm fairly confident that I will lose money on, maybe at best break even,” Horsager said. “I’m trying to be optimistic, but it definitely puts a damper on the mood.”

Despite the challenges, Horsager and her family remain optimistic. They still feel the joy of planting seeds in the ground and watching them grow. Farming is what Horsager loves, which means it’s “impossible” not to feel optimistic.

For now, she says her family takes each year as it comes and “trusts the Lord for the rest.”

In the meantime, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins recently told lawmakers that the Trump Administration is poised to draw tens of billions of dollars from tariffs and trade deals to invest in domestic fertilizer supplies. Secretary Rollins added she’s hopeful the Trump Administration will release a detailed plan soon.

It’s likely farmers will again struggle to turn a profit despite several rounds of government assistance, and experts say it wouldn’t be surprising if the government offered yet more aid.

So much for the complaints raised last summer about the PWHL's expansion process favoring the league’s newest franchises in Seattle and Vancouver.

After a five-month, 120-game regular season featuring record crowds, women’s hockey enjoying a significant post-Olympic boost and with more expansion on the horizon, the Walter Cup playoff semifinalists are made up exclusively of the league’s old guard.

The four-team field is led by the Minnesota Frost seeking to three-peat. They open their best-of-five series at Montreal on Saturday against the Marie Philip-Poulin-led Victoire, who have failed to carry over regular-season success into the playoffs in each of the league’s first two seasons.

The Boston Fleet return following a one-year absence, with a new coach, Kris Sparre, and following Hilary Knight’s offseason departure to Seattle. Boston opens its series at home on Thursday facing the Ottawa Charge — the PWHL’s two other teams to reach the final, before losing to Minnesota.

“The experience absolutely helps,” captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said of the Frost, who still feature a veteran core despite the offseason departures of key defenders Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson to Vancouver.

“We have a handful of players in the room who have won. And if they haven’t won in the PWHL, they’ve won before coming to the PWHL,” Coyne Schofield said. “And those who haven’t played in a best-of-five series yet, I think they’ll figure it out quickly.”

Lower seeds have had the edge

If the past means anything, records and standings don’t matter. The lower-seeded team has won each of six playoff series, with Minnesota winning the Cup twice after finishing fourth.

This year, the Frost finished third only to be selected by the two-time regular-season champion Victoire as their semifinal opponent. In doing so, Montreal avoided a rematch of its four-game semifinal series loss to Ottawa last year.

“There’s no team in this league that is easy to beat,” coach Kori Cheverie said, without providing insight into Montreal's decision to choose Minnesota. “We landed on Minnesota, and we’re looking forward to that opportunity.”

Montreal swept its four-game regular-season series against Minnesota — with two wins in overtime.

Though the Victoire and Fleet each finished with 62 points, Montreal had the tiebreaking edge in having one more win. Boston struggled in going 0-0-4 against Ottawa this season.

Victoire (22-6-2, including 6 OT wins) vs. Frost (16-9-5, 3 OT wins)

Montreal closed the season on a 15-1-2 run, and went 11-1-1 at home (not including neutral site games). The Victoire allowed a league-low 41 goals and feature Canadian national team goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens, who led the PWHL in most every category, while finishing second with seven shutouts.

Overshadowing Montreal’s regular-season dominance through three seasons is the Victoire having yet to win a playoff series. Aside from losing to Ottawa last year, they were swept by Boston in 2024, with all three games decided in overtime.

“Obviously, coming into the playoffs, we’ve struggled,” said Poulin, who returned for the regular-season finale after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury. “But every year is a new year, it’s a new team, and we’re truly excited.”

The Frost scored a league-leading 91 goals. Led by MVP candidate Kelly Pannek and her PWHL-leading 16 goals and 33 points, Minnesota had the league's top-three point producers rounded out by Taylor Heise (30) and Britta Curl-Salemme (29).

Minnesota features the veteran goalie tandem of Maddie Rooney (9-5-2) and Nicole Hensley (7-4-2).

Fleet (21-5-4, 5 OT wins) vs. Ottawa (17-12-1, 8 OT wins)

Boston features a mix of experience and youth and is led by goalie Aerin Frankel, who backstopped the U.S. to a gold medal at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

Frankel set a PWHL record with eight shutouts and finished mere percentage points behind Desbiens with a 1.17 goals-against average and .953 save percentage.

Megan Keller, who scored the U.S. gold medal-clinching goal in overtime against Canada, led PWHL defenders with 22 points. Defender Haley Winn finished second in the rookie scoring race with 19 points, and led all rookies in averaging 26:45 of ice time per outing.

The mid-season addition of forward Jessie Eldridge in a trade with Seattle provided the Fleet scoring depth to complement Alina Muller and Susanna Tapani.

The Charge closed 4-0 and clinched their playoff berth with a season-ending 3-0 win over Toronto. And they get a boost in welcoming back coach Carla MacLeod, who returns after taking a five-game leave to focus on her breast cancer treatments.

Ottawa is led by captain Brianne Jenner and a blueline group that includes Emily Clark and Jocelyn Larocque.

In net is Gwyneth Philips, Frankel’s Team USA backup.

Philips was the PWHL’s playoff MVP last year after allowing 13 goals in eight outings, and finished this season third with 16 wins, fourth with a .931 save percentage and fifth with a 2.12 goals-against average.

Ryan Riggs died alone by a chain link fence in the backyard of the group home that was paid to take care of him.

Disabled by a traumatic brain injury after crashing his motorcycle in 2024, the 44-year-old needed more help than his family could handle. His wife, Julie, moved him to a site run by Fortunate Homes in Brooklyn Center, believing it was the best place for him.

About six months later, Ryan Riggs went missing from Fortunate Homes. As the temperature dropped to 45 degrees on a September night last year, the group home’s staff and police couldn’t find him. Twenty-nine hours after he disappeared, his body was discovered behind the facility’s detached garage. Rigor mortis had set in.

A state investigator concluded Fortunate Homes neglected Ryan Riggs’ needs. The Department of Health determined the vulnerable man should never have been allowed to leave the house unsupervised and that staffers did not review their own surveillance video until the day after he disappeared.

Ryan Riggs’ death and the facility’s neglect devastated his family. For the state’s fast-growing group home industry, it was part of a troubling pattern.

MPR News and its investigative unit APM Reports found at least 50 residents in Minnesota group homes have died since late 2022 under circumstances serious enough to trigger state maltreatment investigations. In 19 of those cases, state investigators concluded the homes had neglected those vulnerable people.

Yet the group homes faced only minimal consequences. State law caps fines on the homes at $5,000 for each case of substantiated maltreatment. In Ryan Riggs’ case, Fortunate Homes was initially fined $1,000 — less than two days’ worth of the more than $20,000 the business received monthly to take care of him, according to his medical records.

In other instances, MPR News and APM Reports found the state issued a $5,000 fine for neglect when staff at group homes let a resident drink himself to death, didn’t administer a resident’s life-saving medication for 15 days, and didn’t stop a resident from overdosing twice in a single day.

“That’s a lot of deaths. I’m frankly in shock that this isn’t known,” said Sue Abderholden, a longtime advocate for Minnesotans with mental health struggles. “There needs to be more happening, including shutting down a facility if they really can’t make adjustments in order to keep people safe. Slapping on a fine is not going to make sure people are safe in the future.”

In March, MPR News and APM Reports asked the Minnesota Department of Health about Ryan Riggs' case and the $1,000 fine. Days later, the Health Department sent a letter to Fortunate Homes, calling the original fine an “error” and raising it to $5,000. The letter did not elaborate on the reason for the change, and the department did not answer questions from reporters about the sudden increase.

Health Department officials declined an interview. In a statement, a spokesperson said the department issues fines and other enforcement actions in accordance with state law and that “MDH’s goal is always that Minnesota have zero deaths from maltreatment or neglect, especially in trusted spaces like health care settings.”

Since 2021, the department has ordered the revocation of two group homes’ licenses following maltreatment investigations into the deaths of residents. In one of those cases, it later backed down after the group home appealed.

An attorney for Fortunate Homes said owner Susan Obwaya would not comment for this story. The company is appealing the state’s maltreatment determination in the Ryan Riggs case.

The medical examiner determined Ryan Riggs likely died of a fentanyl overdose, but state investigators said they couldn’t rule out hypothermia as a contributing factor. Julie Riggs, 48, said she’d never known her husband to use opioids and didn’t understand how he could have had access to fentanyl if he were receiving around-the-clock supervision.

“He was going to be well taken care of,” she said, describing her expectations for the group home. “They would help him with his memory. They would get him to all his appointments. It's the worst feeling knowing that I agreed to put him there, because I was told that was the best place for him.”

Julie Riggs said she couldn’t believe Fortunate Homes was still operating. She didn’t know of the $1,000 initial fine against the group home until a reporter told her.

“Ryan was only worth a thousand dollars?” she asked. “It’s like a slap on the wrist. That’s nothing.”

‘Lack of accountability’

Minnesota’s group homes are funded largely with taxpayer money. They typically operate out of former single-family houses with staff members on site to supervise the residents. Licenses are issued by the state Health Department as assisted living facilities or the state Human Services Department as community residential settings.

While advocates say the homes allow people with disabilities to live as independently as possible, the industry’s rapid growth in the northwestern suburbs of Minneapolis has led to problems that have put vulnerable people in danger.

State records reveal troubling cases where group home residents died following neglect by the facilities.

• At Miles Vents Inc. in Brooklyn Center, a resident who had been missing for 20 days was found dead of a suspected overdose in her bedroom. Police said she had been dead “for a significant amount of time.” The staff told state investigators they had not been trained on how to identify suspected drug use. The Health Department tried to revoke the group home’s license in 2025. But the facility appealed, and the state eventually backed down after concluding Miles Vents Inc. had come into compliance with all regulations.

• At Unique Homes in Robbinsdale, an employee told state investigators the night staff was asleep on the couch when a resident was found unresponsive after an overdose. The deceased resident had provided first aid to another overdosing resident hours before their own death.

• At Arms Home Health Care in Minneapolis, staff caring for a resident who required one-on-one supervision told state investigators they were unable to prevent the resident from acquiring and using drugs on and off the premises. The resident died after their fourth overdose at the group home.

None of those three group homes responded to a request for comment.

MPR News and APM Reports downloaded thousands of publicly available maltreatment investigation documents and then used an artificial intelligence application to identify cases of alleged neglect in which a group home resident died. Reporters then reviewed each report for accuracy and created a database to analyze them.

In three substantiated cases of neglect, residents choked to death after staff members failed to cut their food into smaller pieces or left food out unattended.

In at least six instances, the state fined group homes only $1,000 for neglect after a death. That includes when a resident’s health slowly declined until she died of sepsis. The public documents detailing each case do not explain the variation in the fines.

In a statement, a Human Services Department spokesperson said the agency takes every reported death “seriously,” recognizing it’s “especially painful” when it’s caused by maltreatment. But he added that a finding of neglect didn’t necessarily mean the group home caused the death or needed to be shut down.

“Each incident is complex, so there is not a straight line between when a death occurs and a licensing action being issued,” the statement read.

When the licensing agencies become aware of alleged maltreatment, they triage the cases based on credibility and decide which ones to review. Investigators review the history of the facility and people involved and make phone calls to determine if further investigation is warranted.

Very few cases make it past that initial assessment. In the past year, only 7 percent of allegations reported across all programs licensed by the Human Services Department received a full investigation. The Health Department does not publish data on how many of its maltreatment reports receive a full investigation.

And even when a case is flagged for an on-site investigation, investigators don’t always interview key witnesses, including the alleged victims. In one maltreatment case that did not involve a death, an assisted living facility called 24 Seven Home Care refused to allow a Health Department investigator to interview other residents without guardian approval and took them all on a field trip during the investigator's three-hour on-site visit.

The company challenged the results of the investigation and accused the investigator of bias. In response, the state amended its findings to find fault only with the staff member and not the company.

In at least 16 group home deaths, state investigators couldn’t determine whether neglect had occurred.

“This set of resources that we have in the state, the lack of accountability, the under-investment in our mental health continuum, is really not serving Minnesotans well,” said Marcus Schmit, executive director of NAMI Minnesota, the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“The complexity of these programs and how the fragmentation of funding works is creating a lot of opportunity for bad actors who are much more focused on profits than people,” he added.

‘Ryan deserved better’

Susan Obwaya, 46, a nurse who previously worked at a state-run psychiatric hospital, founded Fortunate Homes a decade ago. Her company now operates four state-licensed group homes in the northwestern suburbs of the Twin Cities, as well as two apartments for short-term, recuperative care in Minneapolis.

In total, the state has paid Obwaya’s company more than $13 million, according to Minnesota Open Checkbook, a state website that provides transparency in government spending.

When Brooklyn Center police interviewed her and asked if it was normal for Ryan Riggs to be lying in the backyard, she said, “Not that I know of, but he goes out for walks. So I don't know if he likes to lay down on the grass. That I wouldn't know.”

Down the block from where Ryan Riggs died, Fortunate Homes operates another group home licensed for five residents. In 2023, a mentally ill resident went missing within 18 hours of being dropped off from the hospital.

A week later, police called to see if he’d turned up. Obwaya said no one had seen him and that a second resident had gone missing, too. The first resident was located a year later when he was arrested by Metro Transit police.

In 2024, a staffer at the same group home took over a resident’s finances and, after she quit working for the company, stole $15,000 from his account. A subsequent state investigation blamed the employee alone for the financial exploitation, not Fortunate Homes.

Health Department investigators forwarded that maltreatment report to law enforcement. But since it was the public version of the report, all identifying details on the victim and perpetrator were removed, and it was of little use to build a case.

A Brooklyn Park police detective called to ask for the full report, and a state employee said they would email it over. Three weeks later, it still hadn’t arrived. The detective called again and was told someone else would follow up. Three months later, still without the full report, the detective closed the case.

There was a short-lived effort at the Minnesota Capitol this year to give the Health Department the power to impose larger fines for “egregious” incidents in which residents of group homes and other assisted living facilities die or are seriously injured as a result of neglect.

Rep. Ginny Klevorn, DFL-Plymouth, said she quickly learned her bill wouldn’t have enough support to pass if she increased fines for providers. So she removed that language in hopes that other provisions of the bill could survive.

“Is it the right thing to do? I don’t think so,” Klevorn said of removing the proposal for harsher fines. “But if I can get training, if I can get procedures, if I can get an emergency medical responder on site, that’s a huge win. And then I’ll come back for the fine.”

Pass or not, Julie Riggs knows the bill won’t bring her husband back. The couple had big dreams, and Ryan had become a role model to Julie’s two adult children. They planned to build a house near her family’s pheasant hunting preserve, west of St. Cloud.

The motorcycle crash three years after their wedding changed everything. The damage to his brain was so extensive he couldn’t recognize his wife.

“All I ever wanted in my life was a happy ending,” she said. “I’m not gonna get it. There’s no replacing him.”

Julie Riggs is still paying off Ryan’s medical bills and funeral expenses. To pay the debts, she had to sell Ryan’s beloved palomino quarter horse he’d taught her daughter, Mikayla Mills, to ride.

More than a year later, she still struggled to understand how Fortunate Homes was unable to locate her husband on its small suburban lot.

“Ryan deserved better than what he got,” she said.

APM Reports journalist Kate Martin contributed to the reporting of this story.

Julio Rodriguez hit three doubles, scored twice and drove in two runs, and Josh Naylor had a homer and four RBIs on Tuesday night as the Seattle Mariners beat the Minnesota Twins 7-1.

Four Seattle relievers combined to retire the last 12 Twins hitters. Eduard Bazardo (2-1) pitched a scoreless sixth inning.

Minnesota starter Joe Ryan (2-3) gave up two runs in six-plus innings. Byron Buxton homered and singled for the Twins, who have lost 10 of 12.

Mariners starter Logan Gilbert gave up one run in five innings in his first start since a line drive got caught in his jersey last Wednesday, leaving him with a bruised stomach and a cut on his left hand.

Seattle led 2-1 in the eighth when J.P. Crawford drew a leadoff walk, Rodriguez hit a one-out double and Naylor hit a no-doubt homer to right field off Cole Sands.

Rodriguez added a two-run double in the ninth.

Buxton led off the fifth by hitting Gilbert's first pitch to deep left for his seventh homer of the season and second in as many nights. Trevor Larnach just missed a home run on the next pitch, driving it high off the wall in right-center for a double. But Gilbert stranded him at second, one of six runners in scoring position the Twins left on base between the third and sixth innings.

Seattle tied it with a two-out rally in the sixth, when Rodriguez laced a double down the left-field line and scored on Naylor's single.

Cole Young's two-out RBI single in the seventh made it 2-1.

The Mariners will send RHP George Kirby (4-2, 2.97 ERA) to the mound against Twins RHP Taj Bradley (3-1, 2.91) in Wednesday's series finale.

The suspect remained at large as of early Tuesday.

The initial call was to a home on 78th Avenue North, north of Brookdale Drive, at about 9:40 p.m. Monday. There were no reports of injuries. Police said the suspect left the home on foot.

“Officers responded to the area and attempted to locate the suspect. Due to the nature of the incident area (residents) were requested to remain in their homes,” police said in an update early Tuesday.

Several armored vehicles, SWAT teams and a State Patrol helicopter took part in the search over several hours. Authorities said early Tuesday that they were unable to locate the suspect. The investigation continues.

Police have not released further details about the suspect, or the incident that prompted the search.

The Monticello City Council voted 4-1 Monday night to adopt an ordinance that could open the door to developers building massive data centers in the community 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

The ordinance also includes new restrictions for data centers that city officials say are aimed at reducing negative impacts on people living nearby and ensuring Monticello residents don’t bear any financial costs.

After the vote, council member Tracy Hinz called it “one of the best, most well-framed ordinances in our state, if not broader.”

“I feel disappointed that I've let down some people with my vote, but I also have really, I think, balanced that disappointment out with my duty as a public servant,” she said. “It’s not about pleasing everyone. It’s about doing what’s in the best interest of the community and not closing any doors for future development.”

The vote came after more than two hours of debate. About a dozen people spoke, nearly all opposed to data centers being built in Monticello.

Many expressed deep worry that the massive facilities could lower their property values, drain resources like water and electricity and create constant noise from equipment, affecting people and wildlife.

“I am very much against the data center, because to me, it’s experimental, and I don’t think Monticello should have to be the guinea pigs for this,” said Joan Bondhus, who has lived in the city since 1964.

Monticello is one of several Minnesota cities wrestling with whether to permit hyperscale data centers, which are huge warehouses filled with computer servers that help power cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

The plans have sparked strong opposition from some residents who are concerned about their massive size, water and energy consumption and possible noise and light pollution.

But some cities, including Monticello, see potential benefits they could bring, including property tax revenue, construction jobs and investment in roads and utilities.

“We need to diversify our tax base,” Hinz said before the vote. “We need to think about opportunities. And I cannot possibly deny an ordinance that allows for future applications and consideration of opportunities."

Monticello is considered a prime location for a data center because of available land, water and electricity. No developers have submitted formal applications to build a data center yet. But at least two have expressed interest in building facilities on land the city plans to annex.

That includes Monticello Tech, which has proposed building a data center campus covering about 3 million square feet — about 50 football fields — on about 550 acres east of Highway 25.

Another developer, Scannell Properties, wants to build a 1.3 million-square-foot data center on about 100 acres near the Bertram Chain of Lakes Regional Park.

Monticello’s ordinance creates a zoning designation specifically for data centers. Developers who want to build a data center would first have to get the property rezoned, then apply for a conditional use permit.

The ordinance requires data centers to demonstrate that there’s adequate water and energy to meet their needs. It also tries to reduce impacts to people living nearby by setting standards for landscape buffers, screening, noise and lighting.

After a debate, the council increased the distance that data centers will be required to be located from residential areas to at least 300 feet. Opponents of data centers wanted to require a much greater distance.

David Thorsen, who lives in a neighborhood near one of the proposed sites, said he’s worried about potential health impacts if he has to live next to a data center, and not being able to sell his house if he wants to move.

“I don’t want to sit on my patio for six years and listen to construction,” he said. “And fine, great, it brings temporary jobs to the community to build it, but it doesn’t bring long-term jobs.”

Several residents asked the city to consider pausing new data center development, as some other Minnesota cities have done.

Monticello officials say the ordinance does not mean that the city will automatically approve a proposal to build a data center. They say each application will be considered individually.

The ordinance also makes clear that the city will not extend tax incentives to lure a data center to Monticello, and the project’s developers would have to pay for any new infrastructure that’s needed.

Mayor Lloyd Hilgart said he thinks that the city has done “everything within our power” to create an ordinance that is the best for the city of Monticello” and addresses residents’ concerns.

“I believe that everything but the kitchen sink is in that ordinance,” he said.

After the meeting, some residents voiced disappointment, but said the ordinance was better than originally proposed because of public input. They vowed to closely watch any applications to build a data center to make sure they follow the rules and aren’t granted any exceptions.

Jenna Van Den Boom, who helped organize a group called Stop the Monticello Data Centers, called the council’s vote “a kick in the gut.”

“I think we kind of expected that it was going to happen,” she said. “But also, I think there's always that hope that Monticello is family-first city, and that we would pick our families and our community. And it was just really disappointing that we didn't see that.”

The Denver Nuggets rediscovered both their offensive identity and their defensive intensity just in time to save their season.

Nikola Jokic snapped out of his prolonged funk with a triple-double, Spencer Jones provided a spark while subbing for injured Aaron Gordon, and the Nuggets staved off elimination with a chippy 125-113 win over the injury-riddled Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of their playoff series Monday night.

“I think we're a multidimensional team that can win a variety of ways,” said Jones, who scored 20 points and keyed a third-quarter spurt that gave Denver its big cushion.

The Timberwolves, who trailed by 27, were without their starting backcourt of Anthony Edwards (hyperextended knee) and Donte DiVincenzo (ruptured Achilles), both of whom got hurt in Game 4, and they briefly lost center Naz Reid to a rolled right ankle late in the third quarter Monday night.

DiVincenzo underwent surgery Sunday, and Edwards is out indefinitely — but an MRI confirmed the absence of structural damage, meaning he could return to action if the Timberwolves advance.

Game 4 star Ayo Dosunmu added 18 points for Minnesota, but Rudy Gobert was finally neutralized. He scored his only bucket with 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter with the Wolves trailing by 25.

Jokic had 27 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds for Denver, which trimmed its deficit to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Jamal Murray scored 24 points as the Nuggets, who led the NBA in scoring, enjoyed a breakout after being held under 100 points twice in Minneapolis.

Jokic posted his 23rd playoff triple-double, third on the career list, as the Nuggets stopped a three-game skid and played the way they did most of the regular season in securing the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.

Game 6 is Thursday night in Minneapolis.

“They’re a championship team. They have championship DNA," said Julius Randle, who led Minnesota with 27 points. "They’re going to come out and have a sense of pride on their home court. They did that tonight. So, credit to them. We get to go back to Minnesota and have a chance to close it out.”

The Nuggets need to win the next two games to become just the 14th of 299 teams facing a 3-1 deficit to come back to win an NBA playoff series. Denver was the last team to accomplish the feat, doing it twice in the bubble in 2020, against the Jazz and Lakers.

The Wolves started out sloppy with nine first-quarter turnovers and finished with 25. Jokic swished a 29-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Denver a 60-51 halftime lead.

“It’s just a good win and then you move on,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “Tomorrow we’ll sit down and talk with the guys, get them right, give us a chance to go through things on Wednesday and try to win on Thursday.”

Jones, who scored 11 points in the first four games of the series, had 11 in a six-minute stretch in the fourth quarter when the Nuggets pulled away. He sank a trio of 3-pointers and added a breakaway dunk after learning just before tipoff that he'd start in place of Gordon (calf).

Jaden McDaniels, whose layup in the final seconds of Game 4 drew the wrath of Jokic and led to a dustup that resulted in ejections and fines and only added more fuel to an already-heated playoff rivalry, got into early foul trouble and scored 13 points. He was razzed by the Ball Arena crowd every time he touched the ball.

“We just ended up losing the day,” McDaniels said, “but we’re going to win the next one.”

McDaniels embraces the villain role after Game 5 brings boos

McDaniels got more pushback from the Denver Nuggets and their fans as he heard constant boos from the crowd all evening.

All it did was embolden McDaniels, the Timberwolves forward who's worked his way under the skin of Nuggets Nation through his words and his actions.

Following a 125-113 loss to Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series on Monday night, McDaniels insisted he wouldn’t be back in Denver anytime soon.

“We just ended up losing the day, but we’re going to win the next one,” said McDaniels, whose team leads the best-of-seven series 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Thursday night in Minnesota.

McDaniels labeled the Nuggets “all bad defenders” after Minnesota won Game 2. Denver didn't have much of a response in the lead-up to Game 3 — or during the game itself.

On Saturday, McDaniels again drew the ire of the Nuggets — more specifically, Jokic — after scoring on a layup in the final seconds of the game. Jokic raced down the court and confronted him as players gathered around. The dustup resulted in e jections and fines but no suspensions.

This time, the Nuggets had a response. So did the Ball Arena crowd, which booed McDaniels each time he touched the ball.

"I love this environment, everyone hating me,” McDaniels said. “I feed into it. It just brings the best out of me.”

McDaniels finished with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting in just more than 27 minutes of action. He also had four of the Timberwolves' 25 turnovers. The miscues may be understandable, though, as the team works on playing without Donte DiVincenzo (ruptured right Achilles tendon) and Anthony Edwards (knee).

“It’s really just the gravity they carry,” McDaniels said. “I feel like we still did a good job.”

At times, the game got a little chippy — and he was sometimes at the center of it. Such as in the fourth quarter with some pushing and words with Jonas Valanciunas.

There was also Christian Braun hanging on the rim after a dunk and pointing in the direction of McDaniels. That drew Braun a technical and revved up the crowd.

“It's all fun to me. I don’t really care. I feed into it,” McDaniels said. “We've just got to get the job done next game, and then there’s no more talking.”

Gov. Tim Walz reflected Tuesday night during his eighth and final State of the State address on the accomplishments — as well as the vast challenges — Minnesotans faced together.

The DFLer paid homage to people killed in high-profile incidents in the last year, including House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, two children at Annunciation Catholic Church and School and two Minnesotans fatally shot by federal immigration enforcement officers.

“We gather tonight in the long shadow of all these tragic, transformative losses. And yet, the state of our state remains strong,” Walz said. “Indeed, over the last several months, the world has seen our strength — a strength that comes not from our politics, but from our people.”

He called on lawmakers to use the final three weeks of the legislative session to pass new gun restrictions, a public construction projects bill and additional fraud-prevention measures. The speech came hours after federal agents executed search warrants on dozens of childcare and autism centers in the Twin Cities as part of an investigation related to fraud.

Walz and state officials said the state assisted in the actions and were working to “hold bad actors accountable.” Republicans said the scale of the raids shows how pervasive fraud has become and they blamed lax state oversight for it.

The governor, meanwhile, said lawmakers can take additional steps this year to prevent fraud.

“People who have ripped us off are getting caught. And they are going to jail. I’ve said the buck stops with me,” Walz said, urging lawmakers to pass legislation creating new guardrails instead of just taking the issue to the campaign trail.

“My ask for you tonight is simple: If you take fraud seriously, take your responsibility to help me stop it seriously,” he continued.

It’s clear that legislators, who are all up for election, and Walz, who is not, are both looking ahead to what’s next. Walz did get a dig in at Vice President JD Vance, who is seen as a top 2028 GOP contender for president, tying him to big-tech companies making many Americans uneasy.

Republicans applauded when Walz noted he’s not running for a third term. And he went off script to note that a vast slate of policy priorities passed under full Democratic control in St. Paul would outlast him, bringing Democrats in the chamber to their feet.

Walz, a second-term governor and former vice presidential candidate, is planning for life after political office when his term comes to a close next year. In some ways, Walz’s lame-duck status has lawmakers plowing ahead without him with just three weeks left in the legislative session, although his signature is needed for anything to happen this year.

Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, has experienced dozens of these formal addresses over three-plus decades.

“It probably will have less of an impact, because so many things are already done,” Davids said. “But I think it's important. It’s tradition, and I’m a traditionalist.”

In the first Walz speech to a joint session in 2019, Walz urged an also-divided Legislature to come together and move Minnesota forward.

House DFL Leader Zack Stephenson said he hopes Walz can encourage lawmakers to find agreement again.

“That setting where we're all in the same room, that should be the tone: that a legislative session is a terrible thing to waste,” Stephenson, of Coon Rapids, said. “There's a lot of work we can get done in the last three, four weeks of session, and let's put our heads down and get to work.”

In his Tuesday speech, Walz outlined what he hopes comes next for Minnesota — even after his departure. The Legislature will ultimately decide whether his draft of Minnesota’s future is ready for print or should be revised.

Cascading challenges marked the Walz tenure: a pandemic, civil unrest and the assassination of his steadfast legislative ally, Hortman.

Some past State of the State addresses by Walz were built around the crisis of the moment.

Public frustration over fraud and constant clashes with Republican President Donald Trump left Walz in a wobbly position.

On Tuesday, the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee took testimony about alleged fraud in Minnesota childcare centers. Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, criticized the governor for not taking part in the hearing given the search warrants served in Twin Cities daycare locations.

“This should be addressed by the governor before our committee, and I know he's available today. He's probably in the basement or somewhere in this building, because tonight is the State of the State address,” said Robbins, a Republican candidate for governor. “He is somewhere here in the building, declining to join us, and that is incredibly frustrating.”

Walz cut short a reelection campaign this January.

“I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all,” Walz said as he ended his third-term bid. "Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can't spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who want to prey on our differences.”

Walz is now charting his next chapter. He's writing a book, formed a political action committee to recruit Democratic candidates and is on the national speaking circuit.

He’s said he doesn’t plan to run for office again.

On a Minneapolis street, architectural historian Jane King Hession stands between a red-brick house and a boxy white one perched above Interstate 94.

Each is a Minnesota architectural landmark. The brick Malcolm Willey House was designed in the 1930s by a giant of 20th century architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright, and was a link between his early Prairie School-style of architecture and his later Usonian style.

Across the street is a white minimalist two-story house with a periwinkle blue driveway. The Faulkner House was built in 1938 and was the first home in Minneapolis designed in the International Style, a Modern architecture movement from Western Europe that prized function over form, clean lines over ornamentation and new industrial technologies and materials (glass, steel, concrete) over old ones.

The Faulkner House was designed by a lesser known but quietly influential architect, Elizabeth “Lisl” Scheu Close, who has been a muse for Hession for decades.

“What I would like people to know about Elizabeth Close is that she was a trailblazing Modern architect,” Hession said.

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At the time, the Faulkner House would have been a “shock in the neighborhood,” Hession said, surrounded by century houses in Tudor and Colonial styles, ornamented with gables, shutters, window boxes and other decorative flourishes.

“Elizabeth Close was a very practical architect, and she was interested in designing a functional house,” Hession said. “She felt many houses had problems designed into them from the beginning, and she wanted to get rid of those when she designed her homes.”

Even the more Modern Wright-designed home was constructed in familiar red brick, while Close chose redwood siding and resin-bonded plywood.

“I like it simple and unpretentious and easy to take care of,” Close told MPR in a 2000 interview. “Maintenance is such a chore.”

Hession has been studying the work of Close, Minnesota’s first Modern architect, for decades, even conducting an oral history with the architect in 2000 for the Minnesota Historical Society. Close passed away at the age of 99 in 2011.

“When I first met her, and I would say after my first session, it became really clear to me that this woman had an incredible life, an incredible career. Why didn't I know more about her?” Hession said. “I went to architecture school at the University of Minnesota. I don't recall her name ever being mentioned. So it became clear to me that her story needed to be told, and I wanted to be the one to tell it.”

This month, the University of Minnesota Press published Hession’s book “Elizabeth Scheu Close: A Life in Modern Architecture,” which features many of the more than 250 houses Close designed in Minnesota, as well as projects including hospitals, community centers, churches and Ferguson Hall, home to the music school at the University of Minnesota. In 2002, Close became the first woman in Minnesota history to win the Gold Medal from the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects, one of the highest honors in the field.

“There were no other architects like her,” Hession said. “She was not the first female architect in Minneapolis or Minnesota, but they were very, very few, and she quickly became one the most prominent female architects in the state.”

The book came out in hardcover in March 2020, but the events surrounding the release, including an exhibit and lecture, were canceled because of COVID. With the release of the paperback, Hession is reviving a moment to celebrate and reflect on the legacy of Close, known to friends and family as “Lisl.”

Hession will give a free book talk at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29, at the Elmer L. Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota. Hession also curated the exhibit on Close at the library, which is on view through May 22. (Hession also co-curated the 2025 exhibition “Making Room: Women’s Histories from the Northwest Architectural Archives” at the University of Minnesota)

“My mother would have been very pleased,” Roy Close, Close’s son, said of the book. “She was never doing it for the glory. It was that she wanted to be an architect, having seen the kind of impact that architecture could have on the people who lived in the homes.” He adds, “It meant a lot to her.”

The book is a deep dive into the life and career of Close, who was born in 1912 in Vienna, Austria, to a prominent Social Democratic family and grew up in a house designed by leading Modernist architect Adolf Loos, a residence similar to the Faulkner House with its geometric lines and stripped-down exterior. It was here that Close developed a passion for Modern architecture.

“Lisl’s upbringing in Vienna was very interesting, because she was born into a very politically active family,” Hession said. “Among the things that her father, who was a lawyer, did was he was involved with providing housing for people in need after World War I, and there was great need for housing in Vienna and other parts of Europe at the time. So, she had this example of someone who saw architecture as a way to serve social needs and help people.”

Close began architecture studies in Vienna, but, at age 20, emigrated to the U.S. to study architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she met her husband and fellow architect, Minnesotan Winston Close. In both Austria and the U.S., Close faced misogyny in the male-dominated field, with many firms refusing to hire her, but she persisted.

“She didn't let anything stop her. She didn't get angry, she didn't get even,” Hession said. “She just kept moving, and she just kept achieving her personal goals, and those goals were to design efficient architecture that serves the needs of the people living in it.”

“She took the attitude that she was an architect first and a woman second,” Roy Close said. “She expected to be treated professionally, and I think insisted on it.”

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In 1936, Elizabeth and Winston Close moved to Minneapolis and by 1938, they had opened Close and Scheu, the first Minnesota architecture firm dedicated to Modern design. While Winston was also an advisory architect to the University of Minnesota, Close became the dominant force at the firm, designing more than 250 houses that reshaped how Minnesotans think about private residences.

Hession explains that Close’s legacy was working closely with clients to understand how to design a home that could work best for them, instead of imposing her design on them, which was a common practice for architects in the 20th century.

“When you design a house for someone, you get to know them really well, and inevitably you get to be friends,” Close said in the MPR interview.

“It wasn't really about style for her, it was about solving an architectural problem, and I think middle class Americans became more interested in living more freely in a house,” Hession said. “She wanted her architecture not to be a palace for someone to live in, but a functional space tailored to that person's needs that would support a well-lived life.”

Hession’s work on Close continues. She and Kimberly Long Loken, an associate professor at University of Wisconsin-Stout’s School of Art and Design, are working on a documentary about the architect that is set to come out in 2027.

The widow of Renee Good is asking a judge to force the federal government to return the vehicle that Good was driving when an ICE agent fatally shot her.

In a Friday court filing, Becca Good argued the Honda Pilot belongs to her, and she needs it to pursue a potential lawsuit.

Renee and Becca Good were returning home on Jan. 7 from dropping their 6-year-old son at school. They stopped along Portland Avenue in south Minneapolis to observe and protest ICE activity.

Becca got out of their Honda Pilot and recorded video while taunting the masked men. Renee remained in the driver’s seat and confronted Agent Jonathan Ross as he held up a phone and recorded his own video that captured what would be Good’s final words.

“That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you.”

Video that witnesses recorded shows Good steering the SUV away from Ross, but he opens fire, killing her.

The Department of Homeland Security soon called Good, 37, a “violent rioter.” At a news conference later that day, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem continued to press the Trump administration’s contention that the agent fired in self defense.

“Our officer followed his training, did exactly what he’s been taught to do in that situation and took action to defend himself,” Noem said on Jan. 7.

The next week, then-Deputy and now Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said there is no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation into Good’s killing.

The federal government is also refusing to cooperate with a state-level Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigation or share any evidence.

In a filing in which Becca Good seeks the return of her vehicle, Minneapolis attorney Kevin Riach wrote the federal government has no business keeping the 2014 Honda Pilot, which Renee and Becca Good bought jointly in February 2024 with more than 135,000 miles on the odometer.

Riach wrote that 10 days after the shooting, an investigator working with family attorneys asked the FBI’s Minneapolis office about getting the vehicle back. They received no response.

Good’s attorneys wrote another letter on Feb. 3, this time to the FBI and also the Justice Department, Minnesota U.S Attorney’s Office, Homeland Security and ICE. Again, they received no response.

Attorneys’ phone calls and emails in mid-March were also met with silence.

Becca Good has not filed a wrongful death suit, but soon after her wife was killed, she retained Romanucci & Blandin, the same Chicago law firm that represented George Floyd’s family after his 2020 murder by Minneapolis police and secured a record $27 million settlement with the city.

"The valuable evidence that could be contained in Renee and Becca Good’s Honda Pilot needs to be released to those who are working to get to the bottom of what happened on January 7,” family attorney Antonio Romanucci said in a Monday statement to MPR News. “The federal government cannot at once declare that it will not investigate the shooting death of Renee Good by a federal agent and at the same time withhold key evidence from those seeking the truth.”

Riach, who’s working with Romanucci, said in the court petition federal authorities have had the Honda for more than three months but have declined the opportunity to examine it for evidence. He added that Becca Good and the BCA should have an opportunity to “ensure that there is a complete and accurate public accounting of Renee’s killing.”

Homeland Security referred a request for comment from MPR News to the FBI.

A spokesperson for the FBI Minneapolis field office said in an email the bureau is not commenting on Good’s request out of respect to the BCA’s investigation.

Good’s court filing comes a month after Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued the federal government in an effort to pry loose evidence in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and a third shooting in which an ICE agent shot and wounded Julio Sosa-Celis.

In a separate case, a federal judge in St. Paul has given the Justice Department until Friday to hand over evidence in the Good shooting. The decision earlier this month from Judge Jeffrey Bryan isn’t part of any civil suit.

It stems from the criminal case of Roberto Muñoz-Guatemala, an immigrant living in the country without authorization convicted of using his vehicle to drag and seriously injure Ross last summer.

The court isn’t expected to make the evidence public. But Bryan wrote in a court order that a magistrate judge will sift through the files to determine if anything Ross said or did on Jan. 7 could have a bearing on Muñoz-Guatemala’s defense at sentencing or form the basis for a new trial.

The end of the mining ban near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area is now official.

President Donald Trump has signed a Congressional resolution that passed the Senate earlier this month on a 50-49 vote, reversing a moratorium on mining on federal land that includes about 350 square miles of the Superior National Forest.

The mining ban spanned an area encompassing the watershed of the Boundary Waters, meaning any water pollution from potential mines in the area could potentially flow into the wilderness area.

When the Biden administration put the ban in place three years ago, it cited concerns that mining could cause irreparable harm to the fragile wilderness of interconnected rivers and lakes that draws canoeists from around the country.

Trump’s signature ends a “reckless policy that sidelined Minnesota’s miners and undermined our nation’s ability to source our own materials,” said Northeast Minnesota Republican Congressman Pete Stauber, who introduced the resolution to overturn the ban.

It relied on the a law called the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn executive branch actions with simple majority votes in the U.S. House and Senate, preventing Democrats from using the filibuster to block the legislation.

“Now, proposed mining projects aimed at unlocking trillions of dollars’ worth of critical minerals can move forward through the proper state and federal environmental review and permitting process,” Stauber added.

The move is expected to provide a huge boost to Twin Metals, which is seeking to build an underground mine for copper and nickel near Ely, just outside the Boundary Waters. Twin Metals’ proposed mine is located along the shore of Birch Lake, part of the Kawishiwi River, which flows into the wilderness.

“This decision dismisses outright years of rigorous scientific evidence, the voices of hundreds of thousands of Americans and the clear will of Minnesotans—70 percent of whom support permanent protection of the Boundary Waters,” said Ingrid Lyons, executive director of Save the Boundary Waters.

Attention now shifts to Minnesota. Any mining project in the state would need to undergo environmental review and secure permits from state and federal agencies. That process could take several years, if not decades.

Extra support staff are on hand at Shakopee High School this week after a teacher died in a crash along a Twin Cities freeway over the weekend.

The Shakopee school district said Monday that Ryan Eiler had been a health and physical education teacher at the high school since 2021. He was also an assistant track coach for the past year.

State Patrol said Eiler, 32, of Champlin, drove an SUV north on U.S. Highway 169 near Highway 62 in Edina just after noon Sunday when it collided with a cement barrier in the median.

Road conditions were dry at the time and Eiler was wearing a seat belt. State Patrol said it does not believe alcohol was a factor.

The patrol said no other vehicles were involved and no one else was injured.

In addition to serving as a teacher and coach, the Shakopee school district said Eiler was also a member of the Army National Guard. He was a graduate of the University of Saint Thomas and the University of Minnesota.

“Support staff and members of the District Crisis and Safety Committee will be on-site at the high school throughout the week,” the district said Monday. “Resources will be available for students and families in addition to support provided by school counselors, school psychologists and administration.”

Investigators are offering a $10,000 reward for information in a burglary of nearly 50 firearms in western Wisconsin.

According to the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office, a person broke into Russell’s Sport N’Bike in Star Prairie, Wis. early in the morning on Feb. 12. Investigators believe the person came in through a window and stole weapons and ammunition.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is now offering the reward in exchange for any information that leads to the successful prosecution of the burglar or to the recovery of the guns.

ATF spokesperson Ashlee Sherrill said the agency occasionally offers rewards in an attempt to speed up investigations.

“When firearms are stolen, they more often than not find their way into the hands of people who are prohibited from possessing firearms,” Sherrill said.

The agency says anyone with information should email or call the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office, which is continuing its investigation of the incident with the ATF.

The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives was charged Monday with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump and will remain at least temporarily behind bars as the case moves forward.

Cole Tomas Allen appeared in court Monday to face federal charges in a chaotic encounter that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being rushed off the stage and guests ducking for cover underneath their tables. He was taken into custody after the shooting on Saturday night and sat beside his lawyers in a brief appearance Monday in Washington's federal court.

Besides being charged with attempting to assassinate the Republican president, Allen also faces two firearms charges. He did not enter a plea.

A judge granted a prosecutor's request Monday to keep Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, detained pending additional hearings. One of Allen's lawyers, Tezira Abe, asked for a detention hearing and noted Allen has no criminal record.

“He also is presumed innocent at this time," she said.

The Associated Press called multiple phone numbers listed for Allen and relatives in public records, and there was no answer when a reporter knocked on the door of his home.

Prosecutors have not revealed a motive, but in a message reviewed by the AP that authorities say was sent by Allen to family members minutes before the attack, Allen referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” made repeated references to the Republican president without naming him and alluded to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.

Investigators are treating the writings, along with a trail of social media posts and interviews with family members, as some of the clearest evidence of the suspect’s mindset and possible motives.

Allen is believed to have traveled by train from California to Chicago and then onto Washington, where he checked himself in as a guest at the hotel where the gala dinner was held with its typically tight security, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Video posted by Trump shows a man, who authorities say was armed with guns and knives, running past a security barricade as Secret Service agents run toward him. Authorities say an officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest but is expected to recover.

Records show Allen is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer. A social media profile for a man with the same name and a photo that appears to match that of the suspect show he worked part-time for the last six years at a company that offers admissions counseling and test preparation services to aspiring college students.

Minnesota Wild rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt was a little surprised when told he was starting the postseason opener.

“Obviously I was hoping to play. I wanted to play and I felt like I’d been going good,” Wallstedt said. “A little surprised, but I was very excited as soon as I got the news, and just made sure I was going to be ready.”

Wallstedt certainly was, making 27 saves in his NHL playoffs debut as the Wild beat the Dallas Stars 6-1 in Game 1 of the Western Conference playoffs Saturday.

The Wild went with the 23-year-old Wallstedt in net over playoff-experienced Filip Gustavsson, who in his playoff debut three years ago had 51 saves in a 3-2 double-overtime win at Dallas in a Game 1 then.

Minnesota still led only 1-0 with Dallas on the power play midway through the first period when Wallstedt, shielded and looking to the right of traffic in front of the net, reached back to his left to make a glove save on a shot by Jason Robertson.

“He’s a very confident kid. He’s very confident goaltender,” coach John Hynes said. “And I think the way that he’s playing, and the way he was playing coming in to tonight, he’s made those types of saves and I think it was a big moment. There’s going to be times obviously throughout this series where there’s going to be breakdown. There’s going to be a mistake or there’s going be a great play made by a great player on their team where you’re going need a big-time save at a key time. And we got that tonight.”

Right after Robertson made a back-hander on a power play with 4:50 left in the second period to get the Stars within 4-1, Wallstedt stopped a breakaway shot by their captain Jamie Benn. There was also a 2-on-1 break where the young Swede deflected Wyatt Johnston's shot, then he withstood a flurry of activity when Dallas again had a man advantage early in the third period.

“He looked solid, certainly," Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “We need to be better early to test him a little bit more when the heat of the game’s there.”

Wallstedt went 4-1 with a 1.82 goals-against average and 0.936 save percentage his last five starts of the regular season, and earlier had four shutouts in a six-game span. He had 33 regular-season starts, with a 0.916 save percentage while setting franchise rookie records with 18 wins and those four shutouts.

He has certainly come a long way since his first NHL game, 7-2 loss at Dallas in January 2024 that was one of only five starts for the Wild until this season, maintaining his rookie status.

“Yeah, that feels like years ago now, which it is,” Wallstedt said. “But I think it shows a lot of growth, and the work that I’ve put in has started to get rewarded from that. I’m very happy of where I am, but there’s still a lot of hockey left.”

North Dakota state representative Liz Conmy and her partner Joe Cass, a retired surgeon, began dating more than a year ago.

She called it the happiest she’s ever been.

“She was just beaming all the time when I saw her,” her son, Tommy Conmy, said.

On Saturday, the couple died in a plane crash in Brooklyn Park while Cass was flying the plane. Since then, lawmakers, close friends and family throughout North Dakota have been mourning the Fargo legislator.

Tommy Conmy, a student at North Dakota State University, said his mom was a renaissance woman. She grew up on a farm in Langdon, N.D. and taught communications at Minnesota State University Moorhead before retirement.

“She was not one to sit around, so retirement was more of a placeholder label than than anything, and that was when she decided to get into the legislature,” he said.

Conmy, a Democrat, was in her first term in the Republican-led North Dakota House of Representatives and was running for a second term.

Fellow Democrat and House Minority Leader Zach Ista said Conmy regularly reached across the aisle.

“Liz had a real passion for the environment, for good stewardship of our state's resources [and] our state's land,” said Ista.

Conmy brought a seriousness to her job, he said, but it was rare not to see her smiling.

“Liz Conmy was one of my absolute favorite human beings in the entire state legislature,” he said. “Just really a delight to work with, a delight to be around, and somebody that's going to be greatly missed by elected leaders of both parties.”

“She was a real champion for public education, serving on our Education Committee and making sure that our students and our teachers and our families were taken care of in public education,” he added.

Her activism and work also spread outside of the legislature, too. She was a member of the Audubon Society and a board member of CATCH, a group that helps immigrants settle in rural North Dakota.

State Senator Tim Mathern helped start that group and represents the same district Conmy represented in the House. He says Conmy had a zest for life and used her background to be a better legislator.

“Just a really well-rounded person,” he said. “It's fascinating, she had this experience all the way from growing up and operating a farm to being a college professor. She was well-rounded in her relationships with people and in her education and as a lawmaker.”

Jack Sunday, a radio announcer in Fargo, has been friends with Conmy for more than 15 years and is also mourning her loss.

“I admired her so, and I will miss her,” he said. “After I heard that she had passed … I thought that we have lost a real gem, a treasure for the future of North Dakota and perhaps the country. She could have become governor. She was able to touch everybody. She was a common soul, but she wasn't common. She was an amazing person.”

Conmy asked Sunday to nominate her for a second term at the District 11 North Dakota’s Democratic-Non Partisan League Party convention.

“We have to have another one on the ballot, another name, but none will be like her,” he said, “but should all strive to be like her.”

Anastassiya Andrianova, a neighbor of many years, said Conmy encouraged her to run for a seat in the North Dakota House of Representatives. When Andrianova moved to Fargo eight years ago, Conmy was the first person she got to know in her neighborhood. And ever since, they’ve played an active role in each other’s lives.

“She was really the closest we ever had to family in the Midwest,” she said. “She was kind of an auntie to our daughter, and just a really, really great mentor.”

North Dakota sends two members from each district to its House of Representatives. When the other District 11 incumbent announced she wasn’t seeking reelection, Andrianova decided to go for it.

“That is one of the reasons why I wanted to run for office … because I saw Liz thrive and come back from Bismarck, saying, ‘You know, this is a lot of work, but it is so much fun making those connections, helping folks.’”

She was hoping she and Conmy would be travelling to the state capitol together. Now she hopes to continue her legacy.

Use the audio player at the top of this story to listen to a conversation between Andrianova and Minnesota Now host Nina Moini.